Wednesday, 05/04/1994
State Palace Theatre, New Orleans, LA

It’s heartening to see things revitalized in New Orleans these days. I spent several hours last night in the beautifully renovated Saenger Theatre right across Canal St. from the State Palace. The Saenger along with the Joy represent the best of what can be done when people care enough to do it. Unfortunately, the State Palace is still sitting there in disrepair with an “available” sign hung by some real estate broker. I’ve gotta believe it will come back soon like its brethren.

This morning I’m up early despite my exhaustion. One more day at the Fairgrounds and Jazzfest 2014 is on the books. It’s been a long two weeks, and I’m not really sure how I’m going to settle back into the reality of life tomorrow. I need another week off to recover!

I did not attend this show. If you read yesterday’s post you know I had a final on this day. If you keep up all year, however, you’ll have a chance to hear about my first New Orleans Phish show in the fall.

The show starts with the staple RunJim Foam combo. Already in the quiet part of Foam you can hear how attentive this crowd was. Somehow I doubt that would be the case if Phish played a small NOLA show these days as most of us are older, chattier, and drunker now than we were in 1994.

The first major highlight is the Ice jam. What fun they were having with Ice on this tour! You’ve gotta hear this one! Page leads with Trey all over the wah pedal throughout. It’s intense!

Add Tweezer and Tweezer Reprise and this first set’s already a keeper. The Tweezer is great, too.

Second set starts with a bang and only gets better from there. What a great show. The third “horns show” of tour does not disappoint. Perfect compliment to my morning!

The crowd goes nuts when the horns come out during YEM. I love that shit! I wonder if they just skipped the tramps on this night. Nothing in the notes about a sub for the still gimpy Trey.

Julius and Wolfman’s both steal the show here! Wow! Just as good if not better than the earlier horns renditions from Burlington and NYC. Wolfman’s goes into another extremely fast high-energy jam. Magilla and Suzy are just icing on the cake.

Great show! Ready to hit the Fairgrounds one more day!

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, 05/04/1994
State Palace Theatre, New Orleans, LA

Set 1: Runaway Jim, Foam, Sample in a Jar, It’s Ice > Sparkle > Axilla (Part II) > Tweezer > Lifeboy, Rift > Tweezer Reprise

Set 2: Run Like an Antelope, Bouncing Around the Room, You Enjoy Myself, Buried Alive, The Landlady, Julius, Wolfman’s Brother, Magilla, Suzy Greenberg

Encore: Caravan

Notes: It’s Ice included a Right Off (Miles Davis) tease. YEM through Caravan featured the Cosmic Country Horns: Michael Ray and Carl “Geerz” Gerhard on trumpet, Dave “The Truth” Grippo on alto sax, Tony Tate on tenor sax, Jerome Theriot on baritone sax, and Rick Trolsen on trombone. Suzy ended with a jazz jam involving a megaphone on Trey’s guitar and an electric screwdriver on Mike’s bass. Trey dedicated Antelope to his friend, who was, at that moment, giving birth. He recommended that she name the child “Marco Esquandolas.”

Setlist courtesy of phish.net.

Key tracks:
http://www.phishtracks.com/shows/1994-05-04/it-s-ice
http://www.phishtracks.com/shows/1994-05-04/tweezer
Then start with YEM and just listen to the rest of the show… Seriously!
http://www.phishtracks.com/shows/1994-05-04/you-enjoy-myself