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From: Scott Bernstein 
Subject: Santana/Phish GSAC review
Reply-To: bernstei@remus.rutgers.edu
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1992 07:31:45 GMT


Went to see Phish and Santana tonight at the Garden State arts
center in Holmdel, NJ.....

When I got to my seat, I saw John Fishman standing right to
my left talking to a woman (I guess she's his girlfriend??).  I
(I guess rudely) interrupted them to tell him I was a fan and
to thank him for trying to help me out at the HORDE last week
when I was having trouble getting my taping stuff in.....

I told him that I eventually did get in, and that I had the 
stuff in tonight....He said that since tonight wasn't their

careful....

My big problem is that those people at ticketmaster stuck me
in the worst place to be for not being seen taping in the 
GSAC -- on the aisle, all the way on the left side....Guards
swarming everywhere.....Eventually, before Phish came on,
I tried to explain my situation to others sitting in the 
rows behind, in front of, and with me....Nobody had any
appreciation for my taping, and would not switch tickets
with me, even with the offer to send them free copies.......
So, I just found an empty seat towards the center of my 
row, and sat in it......It lasted all through Phish....

Phish only played a total of 30 minutes!!!  What a let down!

The set was:
Poor Heart
(A song I didn't know -- it went something like "We'd better get out of
here.....")
Runaway Jim
David Bowie
Sweet Adilade

5 songs -- pretty skimpy.......

No trampolines, vacuums, songs running into each other or anything...


Santana played for about 135 minutes; 

Since my recorder was in the shop, my unfamiliarity with a borrowed
recorder, and the disappearance of an extra battery from my pocket
led to some bad cuts/flips in the tape, but it's mostely there....

The definite HIGHLIGHT was when Trey was invited out on stage
by Carlos; (In fact I don't think he even remembered Trey's name --

He said something like "I'd like to invite one of my friends from
Phish out to join me", and out came Trey...

Their jam really kicked some ass....It started out really groovin'..
Santana laid down some licks, Trey followed, and then santana backed
off and stopped playing.  Now Trey was leading Santana's band ....
Then Santana came back on and the two were trading licks on and
off for a little while....Next Santana slowed it down, and the jam
became blusey...No problem for Trey....Then Santana kept looking
up at Trey, and pointing at him to play some lead, but he never did...
He just kept playing backup for Santana....Then the two traded on
and off some blues licks....Then Santana put out his arm, shook
Trey's hand, and Trey went off......HOT!!!!

You could see how impressed Santana was with Trey's playing by the 
looks of admiration he kept giving him....
You know, there are some times when you can tell how excellent a
musician is when they play with someone of a higher stature; this
was one of those times....

At the GSAC horde, when Warren Haynes came up and played with Blues
Traveler, all it did was show how deficient Chan is as a guitar
player when up against a veteran musician...Not so with Trey -- he
can definitely hold his weight with the best of them -- and
Santana is certainly one of the best of them....

Enjoy!

Scott Bernstein

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From: "Nicholas M. Katz" 
Subject: Garden State
Reply-To: nmkatz@phoenix.princeton.edu
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1992 13:17:46 GMT


Wow, pathetically short show. Did anyone else hear the signal during
Bowie?
This was the first time though that I saw Phish playing on a TV screen as
big
as a house.

                              Jordan

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From: MH1406@student.law.duke.edu
Subject: GSAC HORDE
Reply-To: MH1406@student.law.duke.edu
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1992 14:51:06 GMT

I know this is real late, but I just had to comment:
    Except for one person, who mentioned that the first four songs
were rough, all the Phish reviews of this show were positively
glowing.  I couldn't disagree more.
    I don't want to start that old r.m.gdead flame of "I'm an
old-timer and you young whippersnappers would applaud at Jerry's
farts," so I will clarify.
  First, I've been to 10-15 shows in the past two years, have about
25 tapes from all time periods.  Not tremendous, but knowledgeable.
And from the sound of the GSAC show, this was far and away the
sloppiest Phish has ever sounded to me.  For a band that relies on
precision and timing, as well as group energy, this show was
definitely several notches down from what I normally expect.
Fishman's playing was tentative as all hell, he never seemed to take
that dominant drummer role that he so often does (cf. Shelley's
recently posted interview).  Page as well seemed subdued.  And Trey's
soloing/song structure definitely seemed primed for uncontrolled
anarcy instead of the tight cacophony that Phish normally dances
around.
    It seemed to me, however, that this was more of a sound problem
than an actual "bad night."  I had "good" seats in the pavillion, and
could barely hear Page and lost Trey's guitar during most of the
show. A good explanation for the problems that I heard would be if
the monitors were not working up to snuff.
    Just so you don't think that this is only my opinion, some
anecdotal support.  My housemate/tourmate (OK, not exactly objective,
but. . .) shared my feelings about the show in its entirety (in fact
he may post to that effect soon enough).  And a friend of ours who was
with us who had never heard Phish before came out of GSAC saying,
"Well, they're pretty good and all, but . . ."  We all went to the
Jones Beach show the next day, and after THAT performance, she
commented, "NOW I understand why you love that band so much."
    Was there anyone else who thought GSAC was subpar?  Am I really
becoming like some of those anal r.m.gdead people?  I really don't
think so, so please don't flame.  Just one man's opinion.  BTW, both
Jones Beach and Charlottesville were absolutely amazing.  That one
bad GSAC experience certainly didn't dampen my enthusiasm for Phish.
    Another thread for people to respond to:  what do you think about
doing the vaccuum solo as a total solo, not integrated into any
music?  I must say I was less than impressed with it, although the
set ups for it (Caverns freeze at ?GSAC?, All fall down in C'ville)_
are truly classic.  It just seems that it worked better for me in
some sort of context.  Again, just my thoughts - what do you think?
Hope this message didn't sound too negative - Phish's still
superamazing for me.  Later.
Matt Heller
mh1406@student.law.duke.edu

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From: Chip 
Subject: GSAC show w/ Santana (7/19)
Reply-To: P3TJ@cornella.cit.cornell.edu
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1992 20:06:14 GMT

    I went to the Garden State Arts Center Show of Santana w/ Phish
 last night.....Phish played for27 minutes..a very short set indeed.

   Here's what they played ( from memory);

          Poor Heart
          Maze
          Runaway Jim
          David Bowie
          Sweet Adeline (a capella)

     I think that was all that they played, I could be wrong..
     Trey jammed with Carlos for one song...He was sitting in front
     of me during the show and when he came back to his seatr
     after jamming with Santana , he was wearing the biggest smile
     The entire show was incredible, I only wish that Phish played
     a lot longer.........
                                Chip Rollinson

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