Phish - Bathtub Gin - 8/17/97 - Limestone, Maine (Reaction)

[@philrow9652]

One of the best times of my life

[@philrow9652]

you ever check out tv on the Radio?

[@bemplit]

I was present for this show.

[@scottlevine5030]

...and a new phan is born......at around 9:45 in this video

[@trismaccarran9950]

Quirky one. Need another listen later on....

[@johnfede7057]

Let's see, where was I on this date. Oh yeah after the best summer tour ever. I was spending my last shows of the summer in Maine. Oh yeah I was here. 😉

[@keithdunning4518]

As I type this I am at 8:11 in this video and I can hardly wait to the see the reaction to the jams peak knowing what is coming...Don't. Skip. Ahead. 😆

[@atamagashock]

Ahhh The Went Gin, what a legendary version

[@keithdunning4518]

"How can you think to put that in there" LOL, exactly! I wonder that often.

[@tonym127]

When your tripping, those transitions bring you for a ride, then right back into your good place.

[@remyremy6808]

I love to watch people appreciate Phish!!!

[@thebtron]

I was at this show also good times the second set this night was the best Phish I have ever heard, Harry Hood was fire with Chris killing the lights, also the first phish glow stick war during Hood. Just bumping into all my friends it was with before the cells phone was crazy, I had to crash in the car when my tent got flooded Friday night, got out of the car in the morning and boom found my friends, what a crazy weekend.

[@mattreynolds612]

3 years late checking out reaction vids, but yours are dope!!!💯🎶🎶🎵🎶🔥

[@stephanlarsen8169]

Phirst Time acquainting with you. Dig. Dead head dread Afro viking here Jah rastafari praises blessings respectfully Tucson Arizona Sonoran desert 🏜️ Jah sisters Jah Trey Jah Duane Africa Ethiopia Addis Ababa Selassie I Jah Creation

[@gratefuldude5676]

Don’t think, man. Just surrender to the flow. Once this covid crap is over I hope to see you at a show. Seeing them live and in the moment is something special man.

[@ratbrat9978]

Bathtub Gin an analogy for a clandestine LSD lab.

[@steveb931]

Gordon leading trey in at 8:54 is the bees knees

[@matthewstafford3849]

Yo your reaction to the piano around 3:45 mark had me dying 🤣

[@hipxlovex]

lmao I was crying

[@leestamper9451]

So Phish basically uses the original song as the launching point for their jams. So the beginning and end will typically be the same, but the middle section is always improvised. So you never hear the same song the same way twice. It’s what makes their live shows so much fun

[@leestamper9451]

Sorry about the length. It’s actually one of the shorter Phish jams 😂

[@TheJordaneisman]

thats it! its actually based on " sonata form"

[@briancullen9575]

That drum roll at 13:33 is life.

[@phiend2248]

The painting at 1:20 was part of a art installation that the audience and the band contributed to which at the end of the festival they lit on fire. The band would take turns making their paintings as the other members jammed on stage, the audience members made their art throughout the weekend and submit it to be placed on a giant art installation with the band art. The idea was that the band and audience created a piece of art together that was only in reality for the festival. It was magical.

[@71tmwsiy]

Lol..:.you guys sent him the went gin?

[@isaacchura141]

First Phish reaction of another reactor got sent 12/11/97 Maze haha, he liked it!

[@PIPER898]

My first Phish experience…. This is one one the cleanest Gins to date… maybe the best. How lucky I was

[@PIPER898]

The Great Went was nutz

[@bobweaver7799]

There’s not wrong note 4:15

[@YOUENJOYLIFE]

one of the greatest versions by one of the greatest bands...

[@TheHSIHP]

I was at this show.

[@TeezMcGee]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@martindecosta7350]

Me too my second show but the first where I “got it”

[@TheHSIHP]

@@martindecosta7350 that would be Sugarbush 94 for me

[@Andriig75]

Mine was a year later, at the Lemonwheel. It was awesome 😊

[@JCraig1301]

I will keep pounding the table to react to Phish on David Letterman. Live and on network tv for the world to see

[@phishm1]

Absolutely when you close your eyes it hits you different. The portal goes in.

[@justinbakerking]

Loving the Phish reactions!

[@DaFreezeey]

DAAMNN ... you hit him with the Went Gin already ?? All I can say... BUCKLE UP!

[@RUSHChick]

OMG! Is this the PHISH that Ben and Jerry named their PHISH Food Ice cream after? You think I would know. Cherry Garcia I knew about, but PHISH too!

[@leestamper9451]

Yep. They’re from Vermont like Ben and Jerry. They even had Ben and Jerry sing on stage with them once.

[@RUSHChick]

@@leestamper9451 Nice! That is information I can use!

[@TeezMcGee]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@basednigel]

Hope you’ve been to a show (or several)

[@bemplit]

That piano/keys off key is a feature in this song, not a bug. It is one of the many times you will see time signatures and keys shift mid bar. this band brings it every time.

[@UlyticConvert]

this man reacting to the fucking went gin???? oh hell yes sign me up

[@TK-fk4po]

Went Gin. The granddaddy of them all. Another contender is the Prague Ghost.

[@tombadil64]

Sand>QT BC baby. The peak.

[@epbeagle4242]

Love You picked up the Zappa vibe.I have been saying that the Reba Jam is Inspired by The Inca Roads Jam for Years.

[@barbarjinx3802]

The piano part you didn’t like was him riffing on a song from 1924 called Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. It’s normally played much cleaner but it always sounds a little drunk. Bathtub Gin after all.

[@murph3194]

I've been listening to Phish for years and never knew that. Thanks bro.

[@PM-zu3cz]

It's also done in an unfriendly tonal progression to create a lot of tension. Page knows what he's doing.

[@whitmatthews6740]

@@murph3194 there's an "Anatomy of a Jam" video on youtube of this version where he goes into the history behind Rhapsody in Blue and how it influenced the janky, lighthearted feel of Bathtub Gin. Pretty interesting

[@basednigel]

❤️

[@MrBetbeze]

Yeah I think Page (keyboards) is essentially rolling the crowd with the piano.. the song also revolves drinking and alcohol and stuff, so maybe he’s mimicking a drunk pianist?

[@MrBetbeze]

Trolling**

[@robschuder3210]

I was at the ventura show in 97 a month before this show. Arguably the best year of phish. This was the, "Phish destroys America" tour.

[@hipxlovex]

you gotta do 12/29/97 TUBE. phunky phresh

[@pebblesanddirt]

Glad you were digging that jam. This band has a DEEP catalog of music. But they aren’t a group that can be “summed up” in a quick clip. It’s wild how big they are without really being known at all. They have their own channel on Sirius XM, but they’ve never had even a hint of a hit song. This show was attended by 65000-70000 people - at the northern tip of Maine, and the only act was Phish (six sets over two days). They recently sold out a run of 13 shows at Madison Square Garden, never repeating a song. But most people walking by the arena wouldn’t know who they are. You haven’t heard them get dancey and funky; and they can get really spacy and psychedelic. Then there are the intricate composed pieces, closer in style to orchestral prog rock. Strap in; you’re in for a ride.

[@pebblesanddirt]

@Dennis Strassberg spam commercial content reported

[@sneakonproductionz]

I think free is the closest to a hit they have had.... or at least did the best on Billboard. Could be wrong

[@TheBadgertwo]

@@sneakonproductionz Down with Disease had a video on MTV and was featured on Beevis and BUtthead. After that Farmhouse actually got some decent playtime, at least around the northeast.

[@sneakonproductionz]

@@TheBadgertwo That's true... But I think on Billboard specifically Free did the best. Could be wrong

[@treebeard8475]

@@sneakonproductionz they had a guest appearance on the Simpsons playing run like an antelope. Hilarious and as a kid my first introduction to phish

[@murph3194]

Yeah bro, this band is a trip. He def plays the piano parts like that on purpose. A lot of their lyrics are very acid trippy Alice in Wonderland style fantasy so they get really playful with their sounds. You can definitely go down the rabbit hole with this band. Embrace it. lol

[@danielofinan5071]

If you want a really good but more recent epic jam look up the tahoe tweezer

[@cestjane2260]

That bad part is a Gershwin Riff…Rhapsody in Blue, I think.

[@dubstylee]

if your on mushrooms, trust me, the weird transitions and temps make perfect sense.

[@stillwaiting8971]

I second that. To me, on L it makes even more sense 😁.

[@christopherrogers1598]

I was at that show. Epic.

[@bryangregory6447]

I realize this was a year ago and you likely know already, but you got thrown into the deepest water here with no chance to learn to swim first. Phish is the most different band on the planet because they want to fuck with you. All that musical unraveling and devolution is just there build the tension and make it weird to make the major key explosions later even better. You need to have heard the studio version of their songs at least so you can understand how different and interesting each live version is. Starting with *this* gin of all gins wasn't giving you the best chance.

[@fireatwill7707]

I like the hat too.

[@cshubs]

I suggest Run Like and Antelope from the 1992-95 era. 1992 will be a bit different from 93-95 because of the "big equipment change" which took the sound from mid-tone to treble. I once the Memphis '95 Mud Island show when they played Tweezer for 52 minutes.

[@AB-oe2ud]

Great choice, you need to react to 97’ Tweezer next

[@timflim4149]

that sculpture thing in the beginning of the video was a piece of artwork the audience made during the weekend of this festival. We made several pieces of art that got built into a sculpture that was burned down at the end of the festival. This festival also may have a world record of naked people being photographed all at once. I did not participate in that, not sure if I knew it was even happening. The Great Wet!

[@Andriig75]

Went

[@timflim4149]

@@Andriig75 yes, I will always remember it as the Great Wet because of how much it rained and my travel companions tent got absolutely soaked and everything in it was drenched.

[@Andriig75]

@@timflim4149 sorry, didn't catch that, but the Lemonwheel was my first. Had a lot of fun with a lot of people. Cheers

[@Andriig75]

@@timflim4149 cheesecake

[@DocRobert]

😂 I love it, man. Seeing somebody check out Phish for the first time. This was a good song to do for them. Yeah, he’s playing like that on purpose. He’s an insanely talented classical and jazz pianist. I think these guys all met at music school? Every one of them is AMAZING at their instruments... and then, you know Trey is an alright singer I guess. 😇 They’re fully aware they’re playing for an audience of people on, like, ALL the drugs. Toying with harmony and dissonance and fucking with the tempo and playing with the audience’s expectations, because they’ve all heard this song so many times they can all sing along with the weird, childlike lyrics of... what i think is a song about a party? They used to let people tape directly off the soundboard and we’d all trade around tapes of shows we were at or had recordings of. They never quite played a song the same way twice, and you never know what they were going to play at their shows. It was such a cool scene.

[@kellydelay18]

The sheer volume of work they did is staggering

[@davegoral4368]

A little history from this festival (their 2nd) is that this took place over a few days in Maine at an Air Force base(Loring AFB) and we were the largest population for that weekend (77,000). It was magical. You should check out Tweezer>Prince Caspian from Magnaball in 2015. Another great piece of Phïsh history. Thanks for jumping on board the train. Hope to see you at future shows. It’s soul cleansing.

[@juhawks37]

This was an epic "Gin" and that's saying something because there are quite a few other epic "Gins" out there that Phish has performed, but this one is widely regarded as the greatest. Though Phish had always been a 'jamming' band, 1997 was really a pivotal year for them, especially the fall tour which happened a few months after this show here. Their sound started to change more to a spacy, funky oriented sound and started really stretching songs out like never before. Their longest jam ever, clocking in at 55 minutes, was played later this year on their fall tour. This show was a 3 day festival they did way up in upstate Maine at an old, decommissioned Air Force Base. They called 'The Great Went'. In 1996, Phish started doing these festivals to end their summer tour. They would draw upwards of 70,000 people. The festivals became legendary, mainly because it was only Phish playing and it was way in the middle of nowhere, like upstate Maine, and completely off anyone's radar (this festival actually made the town it was held in the largest town in Maine for the weekend with almost 80,000 people). Phish ended up throwing two more festivals at this site -- in 1999 "The Lemonwheel" and again in 2003 which they called the "IT" festival. Though they still do summer festivals, they have slowed it down a bit in recent years. The most recent one was gong to be held in summer 2018 at the Watkins Glen Racetrack in New York but it got cancelled the day before it started due to water contamination (it was after all the storms and record rainfall in the northeast that summer). Roughly a third of the total attendees were already on site when the town pulled the permits and we all had to leave, including my group. We actually had friends who were flying in from the west coast to meet us on-site and found out about the cancellation while transferring flights. You seem very open-minded and very patient, and those are the first two stepping stones of getting into Phish. Rather than throw out more song selections, I would suggest looking for some other versions of Bathtub Gin to see how they vary from one another, shows you how it's never the same thing twice. Always something different, and that's why we chase this band all over the country every year. Cheers.

[@timcardona9962]

Regarding that piano part - the idea is the contrast between the normal sounding backdrop with that chaotic, dissonant rambling piano rubbing against it, creating a tension. This is a device that has been used in music starting with classical all the way up through jazz. It's only used for *effect*, whether dramatic or comical.

[@DocRobert]

Everybody is gonna say listen to Phish live, and I get why, but some of their studio work is fire tho. Try: My Friend My Friend Stash You Enjoy Myself David Bowie Maze The album versions of those songs are so hot.

[@fullnelson9999]

Album versions are dope and it's good to know what the bare bones versions of the songs sound like so that you can appreciate it more when it's jammed out!

[@FlowerSupply420]

Always good to start with lots of studio Phish, to get familiar with the catalog.

[@porgyt7177]

AGREED

[@euphegenia]

Nah. Their live shit is way better. But I do agree those are good studio versions. Also, studio Reba is great.

[@averyprice9422]

The whole Ghost album was done really well..

[@polarbear7577]

Trust me when I say you would have had a good time 🙂

[@rayscott678]

these guys are fun because the truth isnt in the lyrics its in the atmosphere (in my opinion)

[@moondog2032]

So true

[@tombadil64]

There's a lot of truth in their lyrics too. Surrender to the flow...

[@damiandoucette]

next on your phish list: Tweezer

[@christophergwara2422]

Bathtub gin is homemade alcohol

[@christophergwara2422]

So they’re performing drunk for the most part, that’s what I think

[@dougdanger100]

You should check out tweezer>Prince Caspian from magma all 8/22/15. That’s 36 minutes that is so worth it. Enjoy the ride my man.

[@steveb931]

It is on purpose and you are pronouncing the band name right

[@kenziemcdermott4236]

Hell yeah!! We love to take a bath!

[@bobschenkel7921]

Discordant notes, thanks to Paige McConnell, very intentional and oddly satisfying.

[@kennethwright9631]

If you listen carefully, hear Paige (the keyboardist) rip off a few bars from Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. This is something the boys do frequently - add in snippets of other music, classical, blues, jazz, bluegrass, whatever. They're the masters of genre.

[@TheMisfitChef]

You've started off with two of their umm, sillier songs. Both lyrically and I'm as I'm sure you've noticed the do crazy stuff with their time signature stuff . Also don't let people only have you watch older stuff. They still play well and have professional HD footage for every show.

[@RraMakutsi]

True dat... the Baker's Dozen and Trey's recent Beacon Jams are some of the finest material they have ever recorded. I wouldn't say any Phish era is better than another, but they are playing some damn fine music lately... can't wait for them to hit the road again!

[@dylnthmsn420]

You had to be there in 97.

[@mattmyers207]

The Went Gin is 10/10

[@alan-daniel]

This is widely regarded as one of the best jams - if not THE best - of Phish's 35+ year career. Everything after probably the 5- or 6-minute mark is improvised on the spot, especially once the chord progression changes and it "goes Type 2" (aka essentially stops sounding like Bathtub Gin and becomes a new, made-up thing), and the peak is one of the most powerful out there. If anyone's interested in an easily approachable yet deep-ish dive into the structure, theory, and improvisational ideas in this jam (and Phish improv in general), I HIGHLY recommend this video from amarguitar, even if you're new to the band and/or don't know much about music: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWHMl3ypaMRqkNk Welcome to the Phish community. I always love seeing new people discover what this kind of music can do when it's firing on all cylinders like this.

[@WallyPDoyle111]

Have you heard the Gin from 10/11/95?! That 2nd set is criminally overlooked! One of my favorite Possums to open it, then Gin with the 1st insane intro I'd ever seen Page play, then Mike's-McGrupp-Weekapaug-Llama, which is absolutely gorgeous! Then a Suzy-Crossroads right near the end. Such a ridiculous set!

[@phiend2248]

I love the Superball Gin. The climax on Treys guitar in the Superball Gin brings me to tears every time. Not that this one is not great, I was at both. Got married here at the Great Went.

[@thomasgladstone7667]

Lol I love the phish.net heads explaining type 2 jams hahaha, I loved his reaction it was very wholesome

[@aaronswartz4788]

Dipping your toe into Jam Bands I see. Phish is awesome. Check out Llama, Cavern, Stash, Tweezer, Fast Enough for You, Maze, The Wedge to start with... about 50 more worth diving into after your intro is complete. Funky and fun band.

[@rayscott678]

coming back on the beat i thought was a tight way to show how good you are at an instrument. But I dont play an instrument so it is all wild for me lol

[@yankeerepairs]

WoW - Didn't know we were going down this road ? PHISH is a neato hippie jam band from VT Some of their funky, and not 28 min long songs to react to : Chalkdust Torture Tweezer Hoist And the "Junta" album is a good trip too... I am still jonesin for more Beastie Boys, Of Course, but it's cool to see some diversity in reaction channels ... As with many, I dig everything ... Here is some bands that don't get much love, but are worth a peek : *Ariana Grande* The Black Crowes Smashing Pumpkins White Zombie Soundgarden Swollen Members Tesla Rusted Root Black Sabbath Ted Nugent Enjoy the rest of your birthday week 🎊 Looking forward to more of your reactions 👍👍

[@spencerravsten60]

You like those keys? You need to come to a show and dance with us Page Side Rage Side!

[@SF_Bud]

"What will make them put that in there..." It's song about getting drunk! "Catch you off guard, and make you DRINK!" It's drunken playing. The studio version he starts playing straight, then gets sloppier as the songs goes, so it's a little more obvious. Live, he's just having fun with it - as he should! Peace from SF

[@porgyt7177]

It's so awesome that you enjoy pPhish and that you have a few hardcore fans of yours that keep recommending but IMO by asking you to react to Live Phish, a disservice is being done to you. Phish, as least for me, was a slooowww grow and it was set due to listening to the Albums. Yes, Phish kicks Azz Live... but if you are not there and dancing , so much of the actual Songs is never heard or understood, certainly upon a 1st listen. Live Phish is for people who Love Phish. Its when the songs you really dig Expand. It seems you should listen to Albums versions for your fistt listens .

[@keithmccrary325]

the little things that sound "wrong" comes from their jazzy phase they went through between 1988 and 1990. They take it as far out as they can go before it's total rubbish and then bring it back

[@RUSHChick]

They are BAKED. It's a prerequisite for Grateful Dead, Widespread Panic, and them. Seriously.