[Stream Courtesy of PhishTracks.com - http://www.phishtracks.com/shows/1998-08-15]

Download this show (link sourced from The Spreadsheet)

Set 1: Mike's Song > Simple > Beauty of My Dreams, Roggae, Split Open and Melt,Poor Heart, The Moma Dance, Divided Sky, Water in the Sky > Funky Bitch >Cities > Weekapaug Groove

For those who came from Vernon Downs got hit with repeats - Mike's -> Simple (of course Weekapaug later) and Roggae. But when it comes to these festivals you have to go in knowing that the band hits the refresh button. Besides, it's Mike's -> Simple and in 98 this was a classic paring that always led to good times. This particular version stays within boundaries as both the Mike's and Simple jams remain true to form. 

Beauty Of My Dreams is the first of many bluegrass covers for this here summer festival.

Roggae is a good choice for an early set chill out jam. At this point the band seemed to be starting to settle into their surroundings.

Thanks to a "tiny little boy named Sam" we have a very nice Split Open and Melt to liven up the set. SOAmelt is a song that always feels on the fringe of falling apart. The jam that follows the verse is often noted as menacing and heavy. The Lemonwheel versoin doesn't get quite as menacing as some but there's a fluidity to the jam that lets you know the four guys on stage were very much locked in on this opening day of the festival. 

With Poor Heart and Moma Dance following SOAM it makes this sectoin a nice trifecta of dance heavy vibes. Love this version of Moma as well, especially in today's day and age where it rarely steps outside the 5 minute mark. Here Moma stretches to almost 13 minutes so lots of funk to go around. 

Perhaps the highlight of the entire set is Divided Sky. Sure, this song doesn't necessarily go outside the box much but when played right and also played during one of their outside festivals when the sun is just about to set and the air is crisp and cool, it's about as sublime as it gets. While the jam doesn't explore outside the normal Divided theme, they certrainly gave it some extra mustard and pushed it to its limits. 

Water In The Sy is an approrporiate follow up to Divided Sky given the similar song title themes. The song had been going through a transition during this time period where the speed was increased. The bouncy rhythm moved it away from it's original bluegrassy vibe when it was debuted in 97. 

Moving the tempo up another notch, Funky Bitch starts the final turn of the set and from here on out it would be a pure jam session. While Cities that follows is by no means as spectacular as the Great Went version, it has some fun parts where Trey tries to make the folks on the ferris wheel sick by implementing a digital delay loop for a few seconds. They also play around with the lyrics in order to recognize some of the man-made sections of the Lemonwheel grounds such as the Garden of Infinite Pleasantries.

Coming out of this delay loop they move into a heavy rock jam that doesn't last too long as Fishman segues the band right into Weekapaug. This 'Paug has it's moments but nothing to write home about. They re-enter the main Paug riff after several minutes of rocking out. They do their standard choppy / funky layers on top of the main riff as Trey tells everyone they will take a break and that everyone should enjoy the grounds and how magical it is to have everyone here, etc. etc. He gives Fishman a little shout out as Bob Weaver and then they move into the final stretch to close the set. 

A fun first set but compared to Clifford Ball or Went's opening sets, this was probably not the first set that many die hard fans were hoping for. But hard to beat some of the exceptional playing going on, especially in the Divided Sky. 

Set 2: The Wedge, Reba, Gumbo -> Sanity > Tweezer > The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Chalk Dust Torture, Slave to the Traffic Light

The bass and drum beats of The Wedge washed over the excited crowd as they opened up the second of three sets. As with Merriweather, where I first heard The Wedge open a show, this song just holds a special place at the opening slot of a set. In fact, I might petition that when played it always start a set. 

Ah Reba. Like Divided Sky, there is an added sense of bliss when this jam is played during an outside festival. One of the main reasons songs like Reba excel in these settings, besides it being a f'ing great song, is the room it gets to breathe. Knowing they have all the time in the world at their own curated festival let alone being far up in no man's land that is Limestone, Maine, the essence of patience is on full display in this Reba. 

When Gumbo reaches the 5 minute mark, it's always a do or die situation. Often these days it's a die situation where the song simply peters out with a Page solo. But when they decide to take this song into dark spaces, there's nothing better. Herald as one of the all time greats (top 5 according to Mr. Miner), this Gumbo jam immediately comes out with a thick groove. This grows slowly as Trey picks his notes wisely by moving gracefully around Gordon's bass lines and Fishman's syncopated rhythms. Page providing a nice soft background with his electric piano. As we reach the 10 minute mark, the jam starts to intesify as Trey climbs the band out of the darkness and towards a blissful peak. Fishman joins with some symbal crashes and an increased urgency to his drumming. It's around the 12 minute mark where Trey's licks start to take shape and I remember at first thinkig they may go into Walk Away, or at least that was my hope. But it turned out to be the shape of Sanity. 

A nice bust out (140 shows), Sanity has a classic line about "stars really sucking tonight" and indeed I believe the stars did suck this very night so this line got a nice reaction from the crowd. Sanity is a fun song but it's rathy gimicky and often I see it as a stepping stone to something great. Greatness in this case would be Tweezer. The end of Sanity extends for about a minute before Tweezer gets cranking. 

In this Tweezer it's Gordon that leads the band out into the jam with some serious bass plucking, not slapping, but plucking. This puts Trey into funk mode as he goes to work on his wah wah peddle. Page adds color with his grand piano and Fishman holds down the typical dark beat that accompanies Tweezer jams. Trey climbs out of his funk grooves around the 8 minute mark and in to his noodling all while Fishman keeps the dark beat rolling. Things begin to peak around 11 minutes in as Trey punches through with some rapid fire licks. This leads into a bluesy type of break down where once again they could have easily gone in to Walk Away. Instead this dark bluesy groove oozes slowly but surely into The Horse. And there you have it. One of the better sections of music we will hear all night, if not all festival. 

If you're going to throw in a cool down section, there's no better paring then The Horse / Silent In The Morning. Not much more to say here other then just like all other music played so far, this is played perfectly without a single bad note. 

The cool down doesn't last long as they fire up Chalk Dust Torture. A standard yet rocking Chalk Dust leads into one hell of a Slave. When a set has this much fluidity to it, ending on a high note is easy to accomplish and when it comes to ending on high notes, Slave To The Traffic Light is about as high as you get. In the audience recording found via The Spreadsheet, you can hear perfectly how pumped up everyone in the crowd was leading to the finish line of the song. You get goosebumps listening back and it just goes to show how awesome they were sounding up till this point let alone an amazing set that included one of the best jam sequences of the night if not the entire Summer tour. You don't get much better then this set. 

Set 3: NICU > David Bowie, Strange Design, Limb By Limb > Brian and Robert,Loving Cup

Encore: Halley's Comet > Cavern > Tweezer Reprise

NICU, like The Wedge, sets up a "let's have some fun" vibe to open a set. Usually it's selected as a first set opener but we'll take it. While NICU may evoke a fun, light hearted vibe, the Bowie that follows is anythig but light hearted. 

The opening to this Bowie is spacy and heavily drawn out. We're talking almost 9 minutes of space and ambient meandering. Basically a third of the song when all is said and done is the opening. Perhaps they were just prepping for what was to come later on with the 45 minute long Ambient Jam set. 

As for where this Bowie stacks up amongst the 400+ that have been played since it's debut in 1986? So so. It's pretty standard DB fare despite the exceptionally long opening. The jam is patient and the trill build up at the end is excuted nicley. But I wouldn't say that this had anything on the Bowie I saw back in Philly on 12/3/97. 

Strange Design is a nice cool down song for the band but I think the fans could have used more energy at what ever time of the night it was at this point. 

Limb by Limb at least revives the energy a bit and adds some hope to the set. Unfortunately nothing crazy to report here. A strong finish but the jam stays within boundries. 

Again, I like Brian and Robert as a cool down jam but come on, right now? Clearly they were feeling some sort of spacey, ambient, chill vibe this set. 

To rev up Loving Cup after such an up and down energy set is a bit too little too late kind of feeling. Although they definitely do their best to try and make it up with one firey Cup jam. 

In the encore you had Halley's where once again the band played around with the lyrics by swapping in the man-made attractions found throughout the Lemonwheel grounds to the end of the "We're going down to the...Garden of Infinite Pleasentries". Like Cities earlier, this version comes no where close to the Great Went version. But the jam remains energitic all the way to the end where it segues nicely into Cavern. Good energy at this point in the encore for sure.

And of course Tweezer Reprise to cap the night off.  

The Verditct - 7/10 

If it were all up to just the first two sets and more importantly the second, I'd throw this show rating up much higher. But unfortunately the 3rd set left a lot to be desired. When you are up at your own festival and knee deep into the first night, you expect a bit more craziness then what we got to end the show. 

[Ambient Jam set will have it's own review]