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Live Phish Vol. 15: 10/31/96, The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia

Phish - Live Phish Vol. 15: 10/31/96, The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia Audio CD

A fair review of the Phish "Live Phish Vol. 15: 10/31/96, The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Phish reviews here, or go back to the Phish tabs.

Band: Phish
Title: Live Phish Vol. 15: 10/31/96, The Omni, Atlanta, Georgia
Rating:

Release Date: 2002-10-29
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Sanity > 2: Highway To Hell > 3: Down With Disease > 4: You Enjoy Myself 5: Prince Caspian 6: Reba 7: Colonel Forbin's Ascent > 8: Fly Famous Mockingbird 9: Character Zero 10: Star Spangled Banner 11: Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) > 12: Crosseyed And Painless 13: The Great Curve 14: Once In A Lifetime > 15: Houses In Motion > 16: Seen And Not Seen > 17: Listening Wind 18: The Overload 19: Brother 20: 2001 > 21: Maze 22: Simple > 23: Swept Away > 24: Steep > 25: Jesus Just Left Chicago 26: Suzy Greenberg 27: Frankenstein

Another legendary Phish live performance
Phish has long had the reputation of being a band with an "open audio taping" policy and as a result they built up a great following - especially as a live act. If there has been a band that has had the most success of being an "underground" band, it would have to be Phish. . In fairness to the quartet, this is a band that produces some of the most innovative music anywhere on the music scene. With the wealth of bootleg recordings that existed from Phish concerts, it did make sense when Phish launched the "Live Phish" series starting in 2001. This is a twenty volume set that provides some of the great Phish concerts - in their entirety. With the proceedings going to charity, it also gave an opportunity to cleanup and remaster these recordings. One of the more famous ones of the "Live Phish" series is the four disc "Live Phish Volume 15" - recorded Halloween, 1996 at the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. Phish had built a reputation for their Halloween concerts and the "Live Phish" series contains 4 of them. "Volume 15" easily ranks not only at the top of their Halloween performances, but at the top overall of Phish performances.

The reason why the Atlanta performance works so well is because it contains a solid set list (since this was performed in 1996, this was the tour in support of "Billy Breathes", so that is the "newest" material). In addition to "jamming" (and this set contains some of their all-time live jams to their classic songs), Phish continues to cement their reputation as one of the greatest improvisational bands of all time. They also continue to build their reputation for doing covers of other music. Halloween had become a Phish tradition for doing covers of entire albums. On this set, Phish would cover the Talking Heads' "Remain in Light". Other Halloween sets would feature the Beatles' "White Album (Halloween 1994 - "Live Phish Volume 13"), the Who's "Quadrophenia" (Halloween 1995 - "Live Phish Volume 14"), and the Velvet Underground's "Loaded" (Halloween 1998 - "Live Phish Volume 16"). Phish also mixes in many other covers in this set.

Here are ten thoughts on this concert to support the points above. These are listed in no particular order:

1-Phish plays homage to many of their old music. In addition to classics from 1988's "Junta" such as "You Enjoy Yourself" and "Sanity" (the concert's opener). Phish plays homage to 1987's "The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday" by performing "Colonel Forbin's Ascent" and "Fly Famous Mockingbird".

2-The performance of the Talking Heads' "Remain in Light" might possibly be one of all-time jams by Phish. You don't even have to be a fan of this album to appreciate what Phish brings to the table here. They perform "Remain in Light" in its entirety and nearly segueing each song into each other. Give bassist Mike Gordon enormous credit here - his bass really is the highlight of this cover set.

3-When looking at each of the four members of Phish, they clearly bring there "A" game to Atlanta. Gordon also shines on songs beyond the "Remain in Light" set, however the "MVP" of the band on this night was guitarist Trey Anastasio. Anastasio demonstrates some of his best guitar work I've ever heard on a Phish performance.

4-The nice thing about the "Live Phish" collection as opposed to many other live collections from other artists, is that you are getting the complete Phish concert from a single night - delivered in the order in which it was performed. I prefer this approach as opposed to a live album that puts together "best of" live performances from several nights on a tour. By showcasing the concert - in its entirety on a single night, you are able to capture the "magic" of the performance. The Atlanta performance on this particular Halloween night clearly had that magic.

5-In addition to the "Remain in Light" set, Phish delivers two other standout covers - most notably, AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" and the theme to "2001". Perhaps the most interesting cover is when Phish performs an a cappella/barbershop quartet style rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner"

6-The popular Phish covers of ZZ Top's "Jesus Just Left Chicago" and Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" are two of the last three songs that wrap up the concert. While these aren't bad covers, I did feel these two songs were a bit of a let-down compared to the rest of the performance from the Omni.

7-There are plenty of other Phish classics included. Standout performances (in addition to above) include: "Down with Disease", "You Enjoy Yourself", "Prince Caspian", "Reba", "Character Zero", "Maze", and "Simple".

8-The jam to "Simple" might be one of the best jams I've ever seen attached to that song. The 15+minute jam will surely not disappoint.

9-It is worth noting that Phish performed three sets at this performance. The first two discs contain the first set, the third disc contains the second set (the "Remain in Light" set), while the fourth disc contains the third set.

10-The Liner Notes are not very inclusive. They do include a listing of the songs and the length of each of the performances (as well as identifying the sets to the performance). Other than a few pictures, they don't offer much more.

It is also worth noting that Phish has a very interesting packaging model. The outer packaging is a cardboard slip case while the inner packaging unfolds to a binder page. This was to store into a special "Live Phish" binder. Overall, this is nothing short of a legendary performance by Phish. While there are many good live recordings made available by Phish (such as "Hampton Comes Alive" and "Live at Madison Square Garden"), this performance in Atlanta definitely takes its place among those. I would highly recommend this collection.

if you like music, this album is for you
Then theres the reba and the colonel forbin/fly famous, possibly the best versions of these songs. Alright, so trey flubbs the arpegios at the beginning of yem, but parts of the yem, like the lyrical section and later solos are some of the best out there, they all just rip it up.
The Remain in Light is practically flawless, Trey nails all of the abnormal solos with his own twist, and Gordon slaps all the bass lines while still keeping to the heads themes. Born under punches and houses in motion are spectacular, and the version of The Great Curve is perhaps one of the best songs of all time, the first solo is perfect, and the second goes into this ridiculous jam, which the horns add to a lot.
To top it off, the open the third set with a sick Brother, and keep it fresh until the simple, the song part of Simple is pretty solid, and if you wait through the five minutes or so after that part (through the long bass drum and keyboard jam that doesnt change until about 11:00) trey comes in with this really intense pitch and they go into one of their best jams of all time. . . This show is easily one of their best performed.

need right discs
I ordered another one and it happened again if you could send me the Omni show I will be happy to rate it. You guys sent me the cd case but when I opened the cd, it had the Las Vegas show. I am not very happy with the problem I have had trying to get the right cd, or the one that I ordered. Could you please send me the right Discs I already have the cover. If you look at my records you will see I have ordered two Atlanta Phish shows and both of them have been the right case but when I opened the cd case it was the Las Vegas show. Please Please help me out with this problem, I really want the Omni show so please send it. .

The tapes don't lie...required listening.
When I bought this volume of Live Phish, I was hoping I didn't build up that Halloween night in '96 TOO much in my head over the years. I was lucky enough to have attended this, and with the exception of Big Cypress Y2K, it was the best Phish show I've been to. . . but after hearing it, it only confirmed that the boys were indeed on fire. Talking Heads' "Remain In Light" album was right in the bands' wheelhouse, and surpasses the other albums Phish covered on Halloween ("Crosseyed and Painless" even re-appeared several times in future shows & has become a fan favorite). As for the other material, standards like "You Enjoy Myself", "Reba", "Down With Disease", and "Maze" are cream of the crop versions, and rarely is there a weak moment anywhere else on these CDs. This is a "desert island" show, so pick this up NOW.

Live Talking Heads album included
It's like getting a brand new Talking Heads album as a present in 2004!. A wonderful version of Remain in Light.

You can see a complete list of all Phish discography, or go back to the Phish tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.