When you’ve been around as long as Phish, your songs are bound to take on some enthralling histories. Interestingly, three of the band’s most prized originals, “Tweezer”, “Cavern”, and “Runaway Jim”, were all performed for the first time at the same show, on this date in 1990. The show also featured the debut of two beloved covers in the band’s repertoire, Bill Monroe‘s “Uncle Pen” and the Richard Husch Gerard-penned “Sweet Adeline”.
The show was played as a party for the Beta Theta Pi Intramural Hockey Team at Denison University in Granville, OH, an otherwise innocuous evening night in a college town. Phish came in and melted faces, but of course, it’s the histories of these three classics that caught our attention. Two of the three debuts, “Tweezer” and “Cavern”, would later land on A Picture Of Nectar, but it’s no surprise that all three are in the band’s 50 most played tracks.
Each song has spawned a unique story throughout its 30-plus years of existence. “Cavern” might be the most straightforward, though the oft-quoted line “whatever you do, take care of your shoes” has made it on shirts worldwide. Meanwhile, “Runaway Jim” hosted the band’s longest-ever jam in 1997, running just under an hour, and “Tweezer” has been the launching point for some of the band’s best and most memorable improvisational expeditions—a list almost too long to dive into.
The moral of the story is that we’re certainly glad Phish introduced these tracks into our lives. Listen to the whole show below to hear these songs in their infancy.
Phish – Denison University – Granville, OH – 3/28/90 – Full Audio
[Video: fromtheaquarium]
Setlist: Phish| Denison University, | Granville, OH | 3/28/90
Set 1: Possum, Ya Mar, Fee, Walk Away, Tweezer[1], Uncle Pen[2], The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > Suzy Greenberg, Take the ‘A’ Train > Runaway Jim[1], You Enjoy Myself, Good Times Bad Times
Set 2: Funky Bitch, Mike’s Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Jesus Just Left Chicago, The Lizards, Split Open and Melt, Contact > La Grange, Rift, Cavern[1], Highway to Hell, If I Only Had a Brain[3]
Encore: Carolina, Sweet Adeline[2], Whipping Post
[1] First known performance.
[2] First known Phish performance.
[3] Fish on trombone.
[Originally published March 28th, 2016]
The post Phish Debuts “Tweezer”, “Cavern”, & “Runaway Jim”, On This Day In 1990 [Audio] appeared first on L4LM.
