Product Pitch - by Rob Mitchum
SET 1: Makisupa Policeman -> Maze, Water in the Sky, Guyute, Guelah Papyrus, Limb By Limb, Horn, Run Like an Antelope
SET 2: Timber (Jerry the Mule) > Piper, Vultures > My Soul, You Enjoy Myself, Character Zero
ENCORE: The Squirming Coil
The second half of Marc Allan’s infamous quote, “Phish could urinate in its fans’ ears and tell them it’s music,” is perhaps even more wounding: “The fans, in turn, will be there with tape recorders to capture the moment.” But sadly for Deer Creek ‘97, the microphones attached to those tape recorders were not top of the line. Despite Deer Creek’s solid acoustics, the streaming tapes of both 8/10 and 8/11 are subpar, a factor that likely holds back the first night from being Phish canon. For night two, a less memorable show with an even more frustrating recording, the tape quality practically erases this show from existence, unless you have a thing for chompers singing along to Horn.
So I’ll take this opportunity to make a pitch for my dream Phish archival release: a Deer Creek ‘90s box set. I’m not the only person with this idea; it comes up from multiple accounts every time someone drops a “what show should they release next?” prompt on Twitter. But since Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro has pulled a couple photos/stubs from this newsletter (always with attribution, thanks Kev!), I might as well shoot my shot.
My proposal is simple: release the two-night runs from 1997, 1998, and 1999. We already have 1995 and the better of the two 1996 shows, and I’m tempted to toss in the 2000 run for the Moby Dick madness of 7/11 alone, but six shows is already a hefty stack of discs, and it’s in the wrong decade thematically. Shapiro has done a good job of sprinkling some of the must-hears from this trio of runs on to LivePhish: the 8/10/97 Melt is on Vol. 12, 8/2/98 Ghost is on #19, 8/3/98 Gumbo is on #7, and the exquisite 7/25/99 MFMF > My Left Toe > Whipping Post sequence was on the Curveball From The Archives. But the full shows are all worth hearing, and provide a vivid cross-section of Phish’s late-90s development.
That’s a bit of an accident. Deer Creek is a fine venue, though nothing spectacular – as I said, it’s got good sound for a shed, you could camp nearby, and it’s centrally located for Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, and Ohio fans to gather, but the scenery and architecture is pretty generic. Its main edge in the late 90s was a matter of scheduling, as it tended to appear late in the summer calendar while Phish worked their way back to the northeast. In 1996 and 1997, Noblesville was one of the last stops before the big festival, in 1998 it kicked off the back half of the summer run, and in 1999 it hosted the final U.S. shows of the summer.
So by the time Phish hit the stage at Deer Creek, they were warmed up and the sound of each summer was well defined. In 1997, it was the darkening funk and loop collages that would explode in the fall. The 1998 shows are textbook examples of that summer’s gooey sound and playful attitude. And 1999 fully pushed into the kind of Siket Disc soundscapes and Trey special-effects fantasias that have proven to benefit immensely from soundboard upgrades.
Across the six shows, you get a full range of emotions. There will be chills – not just the moments described yesterday, but also the howling Ghost on 8/2/98 and a noisy Disease/2001 fakeout on 7/26/99. There will be unique thrills – one of their all-time best one-off covers in Smashing Pumpkins’ “Rhinoceros” in ‘98 and the abridged performance of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” in ‘99. And there will be laughs – Fishman’s rasta birthday salute to Chris Kuroda and lyric amnesia performance of Purple Rain on 7/25/99, Mike’s debut of “I Get A Kick Out of You” (with kicks) on 8/2/98.
8/11/97 might have the most to benefit from this hypothetical release, as it’s likely the least-heard show of these six. I suspect that cleaning up the audio will reveal hidden depths in the set openers Makisupa > Maze and Timber, highlight the spooky dynamics of Guyute and Vultures, and preserve Piper’s slow build and the relaxed funk of the YEM without the “Sweater Song” bro chatter.
Still, 8/11/97 would probably rank 6 out of 6 shows in my proposed box set – the discs would stay shiny and unscratched relative to the others. It’s sort of a hangover show from the crazy night previous and a return to the choppy flow and short sets that have held back much of August 97. But that’s the value of a comprehensive box set, which doesn’t just cherry-pick the flawless performances but provides a range of highs and lows, a more honest and deep portrayal of the era in question. And Kevin, if you need someone to write the liner notes, I’m available.
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