Phish At The Palace In Auburn Hills In 1997

Phish‘s Fall Tour in 1997 will forever be remembered as one of the band’s best run of shows in their 32-year career playing live concerts. Fall ‘97 brought out a funky new side of the foursome as they honed their “cow funk” jamming style over the course of November and December of that year. It was 18 years ago today that Phish played The Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan just outside Detroit, delivering a truly memorable night of groove-driven music and thankfully fan-shot VHS video footage of (almost) the entire show was captured and is the focus of this week’s Sunday Cinema.

After opening the show with “Golgi Apparatus” a rare, second song “Run Like An Antelope” got the funk out in full force. A quick “Train Song” gave way to more funk-forward jamming in the “Bathtub Gin” that came next. However, it was the second set that lifted The Palace show among the most revered of the Fall ‘97 tour.

A slowly built “Tweezer” jam opened up the second half of the night and quickly delved into swampy funkiness as guitarist Trey Anastasio set a laid back rhythm and drummer Jon Fishman and bassist Mike Gordon produced a deep pocket for keyboardist Page McConnell to embellish over. The killer jam eventually segued fiercely and effortlessly into a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Izabella” before getting back to the thick funk. The epic “TweezerBella” combo went on to earn an Honorable Mention entry in the Mount Rushmore of Phish jams survey earlier this year. A return to the funk came in the “Twist” and “Piper” jams that followed while the set closing “Tweezer Reprise” saw Anastasio as animated as he’s ever been, strutting and jumping around the stage as the set closer threw the crowd into a frenzy. See for yourself how it all went down.

Watch Set One (missing “Golgi” and “Antelope” beginning:):

Watch Set Two (missing “Tweezer” beginning):

The Palace at Auburn Hills Auburn Hills concert is also available from LivePhish.