1991-11-30

Capitol Theater, Portchester, NY

Portchester's Capitol Theater hosted Phish seven times on the cusp of their rise to super stardom in the early 90's. The legendary venue, home of the Grateful Dead's famed Acid Tests with ESP which happened 20 years previously, never disappointed. As had their predecessors in Pink Floyd, Traffic and the Dead, Phish left their mark with historic permformances. The atmosphere was always electric and often involved the convergence of different Jam Band fan bases with other bands sometimes sharing the bill or opening for Phish. The venue, easy to get to for New York City area fans as well as across New England, became one of the larger venues to consistantly sell out at that time. It was fun to be at the Capitol, balcony literally shaking with delight and rocking to the core with a couple thousand fans only to be followed the next night with such venues as the hole in the wall Haunt or the mob-run and sparsely attended Club Bene. On this particular evening, Shockra opened, and while it was only the second year that Phish chose this venue for a "Thanksgiving Jam", it already felt like a tradition. Vastly oversold with scores of people who had snuck in, made the aisles full and the hallways packed but the expectations still sky high. While Phish did return the following year to complete a Thanksgiving trifecta in Portchester, sadly, those were the last shows ever played by Phish at this great venue. Unfortunately, a scheduled Trey Band date in 2008 was canceled at the last minute at this venue that helped define, mold, and inspire the entirety of the Jam Band scene.

So it was great to be reminded of the footage from this show when YEMBlog noted earlier this week that previously uploaded songs from this show had been reuploaded as one long clip. Thanks to YouTube's lifting of the 15 minute limitation, we are able to enjoy quite a nice dose of this show:

Harry Hood, It's Ice, Bouncing Around the Room, My Sweet One, Horn, I Didn't Know

Watch right at the beginning for a little clip of Chris Kuroda and sitting & giving the "one finger salute", one of the earliest tapers, Dave Hollen.

There's so much to enjoy from these clips and can bring you back to such a critical juncture in the band's career.

Every Friday, we highlight a video with a brief recap of the show it is from and what makes it interesting, noteworthy or simply fun. With the help of Dan Saewitz from Phishvids.com, we hope to keep the stream of videos coming at you entertaining and interesting. Have a cool video you’d like to suggest? Interested in contributing a review yourself? Please feel free to PM me and we’d be more than happy to get your input. Thanks for reading and watching.