Setlist

Set One
Llama 277
Spock's Brain 347
Ginseng Sullivan 185
Foam 642
Bathtub Gin 530
If I Could 503
Taste 424
I Didn't Know 204
Split Open and Melt 850
Set Two
Halley's Comet 352
Chalk Dust Torture 533
Prince Caspian 171
Uncle Pen 252
Mike's Song 1240
Contact 379
Weekapaug Groove 566
Hold Your Head Up 101
Cracklin' Rosie 156
Hold Your Head Up 59
Highway to Hell 241
Encore
Slave To The Traffic Light 725
Amazing Grace 139
Filler
Theme from the Bottom 1097
Tweezer 2497
Tweezer Reprise 191
Blossom Music Center
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Jun 20, 1995

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Setlist

Set One
Llama 277
Spock's Brain 347
Ginseng Sullivan 185
Foam 642
Bathtub Gin 530
If I Could 503
Taste 424
I Didn't Know 204
Split Open and Melt 850
Set Two
Halley's Comet 352
Chalk Dust Torture 533
Prince Caspian 171
Uncle Pen 252
Mike's Song 1240
Contact 379
Weekapaug Groove 566
Hold Your Head Up 101
Cracklin' Rosie 156
Hold Your Head Up 59
Highway to Hell 241
Encore
Slave To The Traffic Light 725
Amazing Grace 139
Filler
Theme from the Bottom 1097
Tweezer 2497
Tweezer Reprise 191

Show Notes

* Filler from 6/22/95 Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center * Notes from Phish Archivist Kevin Shapiro: It was hot and humid on Tuesday June 20, 1995 - the night after the Summer Solstice - when Phish played their first headline show at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.  The venue was a wooden, natural parabolic amphitheater designed by Peter van Dijk and set inside the Cuyahoga Valley National Park near Cleveland.  Phish had played Blossom once before in 1992 opening for Santana but this time they sold more than half of the 18,000 tickets to the eleventh show of a 22-show summer tour. The band's first live record, A Live One, was to be released the following Tuesday and Trey had recorded his experimental jazz project, Surrender To The Air, during the spring.  Phish and their management had begun the move from Boston to Vermont.  Adding to the atmosphere of change, the Minkin backdrops that had been used onstage since 12/31/91 were replaced with a new set of Minkin-designed fabric scrims better suited to amphitheaters.  The band was playing new material too, including a cluster of songs debuted a month before at a one-off show in Lowell, Massachusetts like Spock’s Brain, Theme From The Bottom, Strange Design and more.  The ten summer shows between Lowell and Blossom saw the first live performances of Taste, and Prince Caspian as well as new covers like A Day In The Life and Johnny B. Goode.  Most of these originals were eventually recorded for Billy Breathes, which hit the streets more than a year later in fall 1996. Blossom '95 was a barn burner, kicking off with a Llama opener followed by a killer Spock’s Brain - the 4th of 5 played in summer 1995 before the song was shelved until 2000.  Set I also featured Bathtub Gin with a pogo-stick tension jam that the band rode right over the cliff. Taste and I Didn't Know followed and Trey introduced Fish during I Didn't Know as "the only living layer that’s fueling this living layer."  A deep and crazy Split Open And Melt closed set I as Fish deconstructed the beat, breaking up the jam in a demented tick-tock vibe that led to a taste of Dave's Energy Guide and some huge drums and bass.  Set II opened with Halley's Comet, Chalk Dust Torture, with some incendiary full-band jamming (and another taste of DEG) during Chalk. The major highlight of the show was centered on the jaw-dropping, first-ever combination of Mike's Song, Contact, and Weekapaug Groove.  This Mike's is must-hear, primal Phish that culminated in a spooky pulsating drone accentuated by sirens and Fish’s maniacal giggling.  The pure insanity of the Mike's ending formed the transition into Contact. Weekapaug Groove finished the suite, with Trey focusing on rhythm leaving Page free to shape the jam and foreshadowing the addition of Trey's percussion rig in fall.  Weekapaug ended in a deep, tribal section that melted into Hold Your Head Up as Trey took over the drums and Fish sang Cracklin' Rosie. A possessed Highway To Hell capped the set.  The encore was Slave To The Traffic Light, with some nice improvisation that bumped between huge arena-rock and minimalistic, almost ambient work from Page's Rhodes to Fish's cymbal rolls. Amazing Grace closed another Ohio show for the ages. The icing on the cake of the 6/20/95 Blossom release is the filler from the next show - the entire second set from 6/22/95 at Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua, New York.  This outrageous 3-song set picked up where the band left off at Blossom and rocketed through the stratosphere so fast and far that it even left some veteran fans confused about the band's new direction, which was clearly OUT.  Set II from FLPAC was based around a giant 41-minute Tweezer that was instantly known by all present as "The Fleezer".  Theme From The Bottom opened set II and led into perhaps one of the weirdest Tweezers in Phish history.  This Tweezer spun its way into a bluegrass detour through My Generation (in the style it was played at Blossom’s soundcheck and eventually on 10/31/95 when the band covered Quadrophenia), some bent jazz complete with screaming, vacuum accompaniment and even a quick Rift tease.  The Fleezer departed its free-form psychedelic roots just in time to segue into Tweezer Reprise by way of a piano interlude.  Trey acknowledged the magnitude of what just transpired with his refrain of "Step into the Fleezer" as the band laid waste to the first Tweezer, Tweezer Reprise combination in more than four years. To call this segment Filler is to do it an injustice - Blossom and FLPAC are forever connected. 6/20/95 Blossom was created from Paul Languedoc's stereo soundboard/audience mix, mastered by Fred Kevorkian and contains three and a half hours of music totaling just 25 songs.  The 3-CD-length set is currently available as a FLAC and MP3 download at livephish.com and is slated for release by JEMP Records on April 30, 2013. Enjoy! --ks   Credits: * Llama (Anastasio) * Spock's Brain (Anastasio/Fishman/Gordon/McConnell) * Ginseng Sullivan (Blake*) * Foam (Anastasio) * Bathtub Gin (Anastasio/Goodman) * If I Could (Anastasio) * Taste (Anastasio/Fishman/Gordon/Marshall/McConnell) * I Didn't Know (Wright) * Split Open and Melt (Anastasio) * Halley's Comet (Wright) * Chalk Dust Torture  (Anastasio/Marshall) * Prince Caspian (Anastasio/Marshall) * Uncle Pen (Monroe**) * Mike's Song (Gordon) * Contact (Gordon) * Weekapaug Groove (Anastasio/Fishman/Gordon/McConnell) * Hold Your Head Up (Argent/White#) * Cracklin' Rosie (Diamond##) * Hold Your Head Up (Argent/White#) * Highway to Hell (Scott/Young/Young^) * Slave to the Traffic Light (Abrahams/Anastasio/Pollak) * Amazing Grace (Traditional^^) * Theme from the Bottom (Anastasio/Fishman/Gordon/Marshall/McConnell) * Tweezer (Anastasio/Fishman/Gordon/McConnell) * Tweezer Reprise (Anastasio/Fishman/Gordon/McConnell) All songs copyright Who Is She? Music Inc (BMI) except for: *Blake & Blake Music; **Unichappell Music Inc (BMI); #Marquis Songs USA (BMI); ##Prophet Music; ^J Albert & Sons (USA) Inc ; ^^Public Domain.  
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Reviews

Thephats 6/27/2024 9:48:07 AM

"Llama comes in like a bolt of lightning. Great song to open with at such a cool venue. Crazy someone climbed up on that amphitheater. Shows how cool the 90’s were. Now, here in 24’ life just isn’t nearly as hype. It’s too murky with the current of hells gates flowing into our basements all the way up to our chins"

Kurt Myers 6/29/2023 2:40:52 PM

"I was at blossom and would like to get confirmation that someone ran on top of the pavilion during the second set and then jumped off (possibly during the highway to hell) other than my friends I can’t find any information on this occurrence. This was my first show and like so many other phish fans your first one always changes you forever and is placed at the mountain top of your personal experiences. For me I can always put on the split open and melt from this show and be amazed every time I hear it … it definitely is unique as it’s more of a rocker in this version versus the heady dark jams that the song has evolved into. Amazing grace is the other cherry on top of the ice cream from this show. After having your mind blown there’s nothing like hearing the band do a religious cappella …. How sweet the sound for a wretch like me!"

factsareuseless 7/20/2013 4:21:59 AM

"Most amazing Tweezer I've ever heard. Segue from Theme is almost magic, too. Thanks, Kevin!"

chad 6/30/2013 10:09:08 AM

"Thanks Pauly, I was at this show and never revisted until now. "

NLM 6/7/2013 10:44:19 AM

"Great show and glad for the Fleezer filler. I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of a CD version, but then again there are a fair number of download-only pre-hiatus shows in the archive, (not to mention nearly all the 03, 04, & 09 shows are download-only as well) so this isn't exactly a new phenomenon. The presence of download-only archival shows was the main reason I signed up for LivePhish, and I'm glad I did."

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