Before there were the Clifford Ball, The Great Went, Big Cypress and other Phish festivals, there was Amy’s Farm. The quartet held a free concert featuring three sets and an extended encore at first fan Amy Skelton’s Larrabee Farm in Auburn, Maine on August 3, 1991 in what was a precursor to the famed festivals they would start hosting in 1996. High-quality video containing a portion of Phish’s Amy’s Farm soundcheck has surfaced.
The video below was shared by Matt Laurence, one of the founders of Phish.net. Laurence noted he has footage of the entire show on VHS besides the encores and will soon post what he has. Matt is pairing the video with soundboard audio for its upcoming reveal.
Since audio of the soundcheck doesn’t circulate, Laurence decided to share footage featuring six minutes of the pre-show performance using audio recorded by the camera. Phish’s soundcheck started with a rare extended version of “Poor Heart.” The band displays a little rust as they work through the A Picture Of Nectar bluegrass ditty. After they get to the point of the song where it normally ends, Phish picks the chord progression back up and take turns soloing.
Watch Phish perform “Poor Heart” at Amy’s Farm in 1991:
