April 6, 1994 Concert Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Etree Source

Spreadsheet Source

Miner's Archive Source

Last Show: April 5, Metropolis, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Distance from last show: 340 miles, roughly 6 hours.

Show highlights: Stash, Mike's Song, Squirming Coil

Set 1: Llama, Guelah Papyrus, Poor Heart, Stash, Lizards, Sample In A Jar, Scent Of A Mule, Fee, Run Like An Antelope

Set 2: The Curtain, Down With Disease, Wolfman's Brother, Sparkle, Mike's Song, Lifeboy, Weekapaug Groove, Squirming Coil, Cavern

Encore: Ginseng Sullivan, Nellie Cane, Sweet Adeline

For this show, I listened to the source from Mr. Miner's archive.  His site is fantastic both for his great writing and reviews, but also for his easy to use and access archive of many, many shows.  This source is a Panasonic SV-3700 into a Tascam PCI-822. 

That beating drum can only mean a Llama opener.  Great, pumping way to start the show.  Page is all over the organ to get it started.  Page is definitely on it to start this show.  Great solo with Trey adding some discordant strumming behind him.  Trey comes in high and then just starts rocking.  A little low jam to build tension almost sounds like a chalkdust jam for a moment.  Really nice jam overall.  A great way to start a show.

Guelah Papyrus follows.  I wish that recordings showed you the Guelah dance, because I absolutely love the dance.  A nice little breakdown before the first verse.  The Asse Festival part is just played flawlessly.  One of Phish's many 5 minute jamless pieces.  Well crafted and well played.

They still haven't really gotten jamming yet, and Poor Heart isn't the place for that to start.  Still, always fun.  Trey says "cactus" two or three times at the start of Gordon's break.  High speed bluegrass, nicely played.  The boys are having fun, but really haven't gotten going yet.

I was thinking Stash all the way through Poor Heart, and sure enough there is was.  Just so you guys know, I don't peak at the setlists before I hit play on the show, figure it gives me a "blank slate" review.  A few hiccups by Trey into the 2nd vocal part.  The drums are a little low in the mix at this point.  Trey is immediately heading into a dark space with the jam, repeating a figure down low while Page plays up higher on the piano.  Got a little psychedelic before the first peak, but you can just tell that Trey is nowhere near through with this one.  Trey gets further and further out there, and the crowd roars its approval, hitting a brief peak before diving back in.  Then the band goes into a staccato jam, the bass is now low in the mix.  The band gets really, really quiet, just a little feedback from Trey.  Really sparse jam here, with Fish just tapping the woodblocks, kind of building it up from Trey and Page.  Fish and Mike bring it back to the traditional Stash jam.  Wow.  This is a really, really good version of Stash.

Lizards provides a nice opportunity to cool off after that Stash.  However, it still keeps the crowd engaged.  The band is exhibiting nice harmonies.  Trey says "my bad" in the middle of the first chorus, but I can't really tell why.  However there is a slight hint of feedback coming from somewhere, perhaps that's it.  Page takes a nice break, but nothing remarkable.  Basically, same from Trey, nice but not noteworthy.  Lizards is always a treat, but is never really special. This version is no different.

Apparently Trey wants to rock it out a bit, so we get the obligatory Sample In A Jar.  Heavy bass lines in the intro.  At this point, Trey is low in the mix, just like the version from Burlington.  Standard Sample, rocking, but you know, not much else.

Scent of A Mule comes next.  Another new song, at least back then.  Its standard right into Page's solo.  Page does some nice trills, a little reminiscent of a Close Encounters jam, but only hinting at it.  Then the duel.  Nice yelling during the duel.  Hey! The band accelerates together, unlike in Burlington.  Overall, a much tighter version than the debut from two nights earlier.

Fee, another repeat from Vermont.  Lots of crowd singing on the chorus.  Nice dissonant piano by Page before the last verse.  There is a neat little harmonic jam at the end into a pretty ending.

Page continues with the piano part that ended Fee as Trey starts in to Run Like An Antelope.  Time for a raging jam to end the set.  The band starts whistling during the intro.  That's a little different.  Trey seems to get lost, so he goes into a start/stop thing.  They are clearly having fun.  The jam starts off really rocking, no drop down here, just balls-to-the-wall, in your face rock.  Trey could definitely be higher in the mix.  Page continues to shine with some nice dissonant chords on the piano while Trey keeps rocking.  Heading up to the ending, Trey adds some descending figures and they kind of crash into the breakdown.  Not the worst transition I have heard, but not the best either.  Basically, a good Antelope, but not particularly inspired.

Overall, not the best first set of the tour.  Really, the only highlight was Stash, though the Llama opener was pretty good too.  Trey is low in the mix and maybe that is part of the problem.

The second set opens up with The Curtain.  Always a nice opener.  Usually leads into something big.  They are definitely in sync for this one.  A few missed chords, but overall, well played.

The ending of The Curtain leads into wet chords from Gordon, which can only mean Down With Disease.  While this is only the second Disease ever played, the crowd response is already great.  Again, with Trey low  in the mix, you can hear Page play the lead line as they head into the start of the jam.  Usually that part is drowned out by Trey.  Gordon isn't particularly distinct either.  As he moves up the fretboard, his bass is clearer, but in the lower registers it is just muddy.  All around, it's a nice, rocking jam.  It never leaves the structure of Disease, but then it doesn't really have to either.  The vocal part is nice to end the song, complete with the "oh, oh, oh's".  Fun.

Wolfman's Brother follows.  Gordon is laying it down thick to start the song.  Trey is having fun layering in some trills.  Really laid-back version.  A little doo-woppy heading into the jam.  They go into a start/stop jam.  It is clear that they are still working out how to do the jam in this song.  Page is dancing up the piano, Gordon is laying down some bombs.  Trey is kind of fading away here.  Neat little jam, with Page ending it singing "shouldn't have took more..."

Trey starts up Sparkle.  Time for the crowd to shake their ass.  Tight into the jam.  Page is on it nicely and Trey is still low in the mix.  They nail the ending.

Finally a jam song.  Trey kicks those opening notes to Mike's Song and the crowd goes wild.  In the first set there was actually a Mike's Song chant that is audible on the recording "Mike's Song, Mike's Song, Mike's Song....."  Ask and you shall receive.  Page sets the stage on the piano for the beginning of the jam, then switches to organ when Trey starts playing.  Trey immediately goes into a repetitive, droning jam with Trey and Page duplicating each other.  That heads into a funny little ditty that is reminiscent of a children's song.  Then is starts to slow down, staying on the same scale, though more menacing now.  Then Fishman kicks it into double time, and Trey starts to hint at getting back into Mike's.  They get back to the theme and start rocking it pretty hard.  Definitely an interesting Mike's and worth a second or third listen.

Lifeboy flows out of Mike's and this transition works really well.  Page lays a nice sounding grand piano hit at the start of the song, and then the usual ascending figure.  Very tight.  However, like the If I Could from Montreal, Trey is just too impatient to let the jam build up.  Hopping to quickly to a more forceful jam, it can't hit the heights if it doesn't have the quiet parts at the beginning for comparison. 

Fish immediately kicks Weekapaug Groove, but then pauses as if to check with Trey and make sure that's really what's next.  Then he kicks into it again.  Page is playing great.  Trey is still low in the mix, and he does his typical triplet figures.  Trey leads the band into another droning jam, and then they get atonal.  Gordon is playing syncopated beats.  Fish hits the snare twice and then boom!, back into the Groove.  Trey holds a long note while Page just gets down.  Nice Weekapaug! Rocking!  As they get back to the final chorus, Gordon lays down a cool bass lick.  They're singing the chorus an octave high, and then Trey starts going down really low.  Kind of vocal jammy here.  Page leads the ending lick too.  He is on fire tonight.

It's fitting that since Page is the clear MVP of the show, Squirming Coil comes next.  The composed section is solid.  With Trey so low in the mix, the final chorus just doesn't have the punch that it should.  Page is just playing beautifully though, reminiscent of Keith Jarrett.  Once he is on his own, he plays a gorgeous ascending figure that sounds very classically influenced.  Wow! Nice solo by Page.

Cavern follows to end the set probably.  Always a nice rocker.  Gordon is using his envelope filter.  Rocking version as usual, and it does end the set. 

The Coil and the Mike's are the only standouts in this set, and even then, the Coil suffers from Trey being low in the mix for the composed part.

Fishman comes out and says "Did any of you guys see Madonna on Letterman?  Yeah?  Well this is my Madonna washboard."  This leads the band into an acoustic, unplugged encore.  I had to juice the volume by 6dB in order to make the songs audible.  At that volume, there was noticeable hiss in the recording.  Ginseng Sullivan was nice.  The vocals are audible, as is the hit of the bass, but the guitar and mouth piano are basically lost entirely.  During the washboard solo there is some giggling by the audience.  I wonder what Fish was getting up to?  Trey's solo is basically inaudible. 

Nellie Cane is played next.  The high harmony is a bit rough.  In the middle of the song, somebody is doing something because the crowd starts hooting and hollering, but whatever they are doing is inaudible, made worse by the crowd shouts. 

The band finishes up their encore with an a capella Sweet Adeline.  The crowd stays quiet throughout and the song sounds quite nice. 

All in all, this recording suffers mainly from Trey being low in the mix, which is no fault of the taper.  However, there is a noticeable lack of clarity in the lowest registers as Mike gets muddy in the mix.  Definitely listenable though.  I will check out the Stash and Mike's Song again.