Set 1: The Gin in this set, while obviously no Went Gin, has its own cool, trill-laden jam that picks up steam and then segues pretty naturally into Rift. Nothing else particularly stands out, although the energy is appreciated (like in the short Bag jam); like yesterday, this set feels like a warmup for what is about to come.

Set 2: DWD kicks things off with a typical DWD jam before getting funky and swampy, before Piper emerges from said muck and catches fire, the band rocking so fast that Trey trips over words (what few words there are) to keep up with the speed at which the song is being ripped through. Piper then goes into its old closing coda, before the band launches into Ghost (slightly disappointed they didn't try a segue), botching the start of the final verse during the song portion, then making up for it with a slow, sweet, Page-driven jam that you can shut your eyes and sway your body to, before a brief passage reminiscent of some of last night's jamming and a quiet transition into Fluffhead. Circus and Wading, then a surprisingly long HYHU (Fishman introducing the rest of the band is a droll joy) that actually hits a neat groove before they say "ah, F it" and go into Sexual Healing, which is the usual amusing mess (at least they figured out the bridge!). A sprightly, typical late-90s Antelope (Page gives those ivories one hell of a tickling) brings the set of the weekend - by a hair over last night's 2nd set - to a close.

Set 3: Sabotage, yep, then out of the closing chords comes a barrage of alien sounds, leading into a smooth 2001 that (again) invites comparisons to the Went's version; again, it's not as good as that definitive version, but it's certainly funky as all get-out (even the cool-down section is funky) and Page plays some really nifty twinkling notes over the whole thing. Wilson comes next, and justifies its placement with a heavy loop-laden middle section that also threatens to go ambient before "Blatt boom!" gives us the big rock and roll ending. The rest of the set is crowd pleasers and a great bustout in While My Guitar Gently Weeps, a fine way to close out the festival...

Encore: ...except it doesn't close out the festival. Harry Hood does, and after a fine but standard Hood jam the band goes into one final, dark and beautiful ambient soundscape, guitar loops and all, as fireworks go off and Fish favors (?) us with some trombone work, before (of all things!) Page starts up Baby Elephant Walk (best known by my generation for being Dancin' Homer's theme song in that Simpsons episode) and the band wraps things up in a giddy, charming high note (although what was up with Trey's guitar tone there?).

Final Thoughts: Neither show is the best of the summer by any stretch of the imagination (maybe 8/16 sneaks into the top 5?), but there are some fine moments and both nights' second sets should definitely be heard. And, of course, the Ambient Jam is a watershed moment for the band and it's almost malfeasance to not listen to it.

Surely I can't be the only one who absolutely LOVES this Ya Mar > AC/DC Bag > Frankie Says trifecta ...

Right? I mean, it's blissful! Particularly that segue from Ya Mar into AC/DC - I was floored when I heard it live at Limestone, and sooooo very many years later I'm STILL as impressed. The whole thing just epitomizes summer.

All I gotta say is Sabotage -> Also Sprach Zarathustra > Wilson Dayum take a musical note! Then the exit of the Baby elepahnt. That's grand!

I must reiterate that 3rd set. It's sending a message. That arrangement of those songs is purposeful, and that's why Phish is reluctant to take requests. I mean this concert took place on a shut down Air Force base! "No one alerted, you!...Look at you all!" LOL

As is often the case with Phish festivals, the second day's second set is the main attraction (though I highly favor the Ambient Jam from the first day of Lemonwheel, too.) But Bathtub Gin in the first set is typically outstanding for Summer 1998, and Ya Mar has an interesting rendition found here. The second set, though, features a solid hour of music out of merely the first four songs of the set! Down with Disease and Ghost go some way towards integrating the stylistic innovations of the previous night's Ambient Jam into the firmly rocking signature sound we've come to know and love about Phish. The third set begins with Sabotage, which brings closure to the "Summer of Covers" (Summer 1998 often saw a new cover debuted at each show along the tour.) 2001 here is magisterial, but perhaps--depending who you ask--doesn't quite reach the sticky drama of the Great Went 2001 a year earlier. Then, finally, in the Encore you get another 30 min. or so of music, with Harry Hood -> Jam -> Baby Elephant Walk, another cover which is quite delightful to hear from Phish. I think Lemonwheel stacks up pretty favorably with the previous two 1.0 Phish festivals because it makes contiguous use of the "secret set," whereas Clifford Ball's Flatbed Jam was more of a surprising novelty, and the Great Went's Disco Set was not all that interesting, musically.

This is such a killer show from a phenomenal festival, I know this isn't much of a review, but the Disease>Piper is MUST HEAR FOR ANY PHAN OF FUNKY JAMS. Especially the last few minutes of the DWD jam, which is just straight cow funk.

On August 16th, 1998 I woke up on the hard concrete tarmac of the Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine. Temporarily the largest city in Maine, the base was base for Phish’s third-ever weekend festival, a weekend-long extravaganza called Lemonwheel. In a fit of temporary insanity I had skipped The Great Went (and all Phish concerts in fact) in 1997, a year that will forever be known as the greatest year of Phish ever. Ah well, here I was.

And what I great time I had all weekend! I was there with my good friend and fairly consistent touring partner Jason, we had somehow managed to get his ailing VW Jetta onsite without completely falling to pieces, and we were camped under good weather amongst good people. The music had been absolutely divine all weekend and the vibe of the entire area was swelling with glee. I’m sure the morning was spent finding/making/drinking lots of coffee whilst the afternoon was undoubtedly spent further exploring the well-appointed festival site. And of course the night was dedicated to Phish.

It was a three-set show and strangely I had to be reminded that they played Sabotage by the Beastie Boys to open the final set, strange given that the moment they encored with the same song a week earlier in Maryland will be forever imprinted on my musical mind as a lifetime concert highlight. What I do vividly recall from this concert was the show closer when the band played Henry Mancini’s Baby Elephant Walk as a giant elephant puppet appeared from stage left plodding through the crowd spouting mist from it’s raised trunk. With fireworks blazing and a gleaming ferris wheel in the distance it made for a rather spectacular visual to close out the weekend. Good job, Phish.

But really, when I think back to Lemonwheel the first thing I can ever think of happened the next morning. Jason and I got up and puttered around until we had everything packed up and ready to go. As we prepared to pull away we saw that our camping neighbours were up and around so we went over to say goodbye. We had hung with the couple all weekend and knew that this Monday morning was their wedding anniversary so I was surprised to find the lady crying, her husband obviously trying to console her. Turns out she had lost her wedding ring the night before and they were both quite devastated…some anniversary!

I felt terrible for them but I knew I was unable to help in any way. Heck, we were packed up and leaving; the engine of Jason’s car was literally running. With nothing else to do I made a point of at least twisting my head and peering around our campsite, making the appearance of helping to look with of course no chance of actually…and then I saw it! From my spot on the asphalt I could see the glint of her ring underneath their car, about fifteen feet from me and plain as day. Wordlessly I walked over, bent down and scooped it up. She was sitting on a blanket with her back to me, her shoulders convulsing with sobs while her husband crouched in front of her trying to calm her down (I forget her name but remember that they lived in Connecticut and her email was bassgrrl – she was a bass player). I walked over and reached around from behind her, holding the ring in front of her face. She melted, we all hugged fiercely, and Jason and I hopped into his car and rode off into the sunset like heroes (okay not “sunset”, it was about noon). I felt like the freakin’ Lone Ranger…it was awesome.

As I had alluded to earlier, Jason’s car had been limping when we arrived at Lemonwheel, with its most obvious and pressing problem being the battered exhaust system that was dragging on the ground, barely clinging to the chassis. We were only a few kilometres from the border so we sputtered into New Brunswick, where my parents operated the biggest muffler and exhaust warehouse/distribution centre in the Maritime provinces. I stopped at a pay phone and called my dad in Moncton, explaining our difficulties. He told me to call back in five and hung up. When I called back he directed me to drive to a garage in nearby Edmundston where an open bay awaited us along with free coffees and Tim Horton’s doughnuts. The crew slapped on a brand new exhaust system front-to-back and sent us on our way without charging us a dime. They doubtlessly charged it all back to my dad who never mentioned a word about it to me, ever. I bet he felt like the freakin’ Lone Ranger.

https://toddmanout.com/

On August 16th, 1998 I woke up on the hard concrete tarmac of the Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine. Temporarily the largest city in Maine, the base was base for Phish’s third-ever weekend festival, a weekend-long extravaganza called Lemonwheel. In a fit of temporary insanity I had skipped The Great Went (and all Phish concerts in fact) in 1997, a year that will forever be known as the greatest year of Phish ever. Ah well, here I was.

And what I great time I had all weekend! I was there with my good friend and fairly consistent touring partner Jason, we had somehow managed to get his ailing VW Jetta onsite without completely falling to pieces, and we were camped under good weather amongst good people. The music had been absolutely divine all weekend and the vibe of the entire area was swelling with glee. I’m sure the morning was spent finding/making/drinking lots of coffee whilst the afternoon was undoubtedly spent further exploring the well-appointed festival site. And of course the night was dedicated to Phish.

It was a three-set show and strangely I had to be reminded that they played Sabotage by the Beastie Boys to open the final set, strange given that the moment they encored with the same song a week earlier in Maryland will be forever imprinted on my musical mind as a lifetime concert highlight. What I do vividly recall from this concert was the show closer when the band played Henry Mancini’s Baby Elephant Walk as a giant elephant puppet appeared from stage left plodding through the crowd spouting mist from it’s raised trunk. With fireworks blazing and a gleaming ferris wheel in the distance it made for a rather spectacular visual to close out the weekend. Good job, Phish.

But really, when I think back to Lemonwheel the first thing I can ever think of happened the next morning. Jason and I got up and puttered around until we had everything packed up and ready to go. As we prepared to pull away we saw that our camping neighbours were up and around so we went over to say goodbye. We had hung with the couple all weekend and knew that this Monday morning was their wedding anniversary so I was surprised to find the lady crying, her husband obviously trying to console her. Turns out she had lost her wedding ring the night before and they were both quite devastated…some anniversary!

I felt terrible for them but I knew I was unable to help in any way. Heck, we were packed up and leaving; the engine of Jason’s car was literally running. With nothing else to do I made a point of at least twisting my head and peering around our campsite, making the appearance of helping to look with of course no chance of actually…and then I saw it! From my spot on the asphalt I could see the glint of her ring underneath their car, about fifteen feet from me and plain as day. Wordlessly I walked over, bent down and scooped it up. She was sitting on a blanket with her back to me, her shoulders convulsing with sobs while her husband crouched in front of her trying to calm her down (I forget her name but remember that they lived in Connecticut and her email was bassgrrl – she was a bass player). I walked over and reached around from behind her, holding the ring in front of her face. She melted, we all hugged fiercely, and Jason and I hopped into his car and rode off into the sunset like heroes (okay not “sunset”, it was about noon). I felt like the freakin’ Lone Ranger…it was awesome.

As I had alluded to earlier, Jason’s car had been limping when we arrived at Lemonwheel, with its most obvious and pressing problem being the battered exhaust system that was dragging on the ground, barely clinging to the chassis. We were only a few kilometres from the border so we sputtered into New Brunswick, where my parents operated the biggest muffler and exhaust warehouse/distribution centre in the Maritime provinces. I stopped at a pay phone and called my dad in Moncton, explaining our difficulties. He told me to call back in five and hung up. When I called back he directed me to drive to a garage in nearby Edmundston where an open bay awaited us along with free coffees and Tim Horton’s doughnuts. The crew slapped on a brand new exhaust system front-to-back and sent us on our way without charging us a dime. They doubtlessly charged it all back to my dad who never mentioned a word about it to me, ever. I bet he felt like the freakin’ Lone Ranger.

https://toddmanout.com/

PHISH, SUNDAY 08/16/1998
LORING COMMERCE CENTRE
Limestone, ME

SET 1:

Ginseng Sullivan: Interesting opener.

Bathtub Gin: Solid jam and welcome placement, officially off to a good start now. ->

Rift: Little sloppy.

Punch You in the Eye: Standard.

Lawn Boy: Standard.

Ya Mar: Standard. >

AC/DC Bag: Standard. >

Frankie Says: Standard.

Birds of a Feather: Standard.

Guyute: Standard.

Possum: Strong jam and a great way to close the set.

SET 2:

Down with Disease[1] Upon my relisten, was surprised at how good this jam was. Has your typical hell fire for the first 10 minutes and then gradually gets nice and funky. Would recommend this one, plenty of replay value here. - >

Piper: Good, low key version. Sneaky good if you will. Set is looking very good at this point.

Ghost: Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous – the best thing to happen at Lemonwheel was this right here. It perfectly encapsulates what the festival vibe offered and 1998 in general. That ambient vibe. This one is like laying in the grass watching clouds slowly drift by in the sky, so chill. >

Fluffhead: Wow, nice placement! They were feeling it at this point. This one was cathartic for me!!!

When the Circus Comes: Perfect placement! >

Wading in the Velvet Sea: Didn’t need another ballad but this was very well played. Tons of heart.

Hold Your Head Up > Sexual Healing > Hold Your Head Up: Meh, didn’t want comic relief at the time or upon my relisten. Banter is funny though.

Run Like an Antelope[2] - Standard, but fun. Good way to close out a great set. Best set of the weekend.

SET 3:

Sabotage: Very fun! ->

Also Sprach Zarathustra: Nice! We had a blast getting down to this one. Very funky and very long, would recommend. >

Wilson: Standard. >

The Mango Song: Standard. >

Character Zero: Wank city. >

Bittersweet Motel: Standard.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps: Standard.

ENCORE: Harry Hood: Standard. ->

Jam[3] -> Baby Elephant Walk: This segment was surreal and then just like that – it was over, and I was faced with the fact that I had recently graduated from college and was moving across the country for my first big boy job. Holy anxiety Batman.

Summary: Thought this show was head and shoulders better than the first. Got that wow factor in set two for sure. Would rate this as a 4.25/ - .net is at 4.554/5 (>50 ratings) and that seems too high for me.

Replay Value: Down with Disease, Ghost, Also Sprach Zarathustra

[1] Unfinished.
[2] Alternate lyrics referring to "Bob Weaver."
[3] Fish on trombone.

This was the second show of the Lemonwheel festival. Trey teased Jean Pierre in Possum. Disease was unfinished. Fish alluded to Terrapin (“a love song about a turtle”) after a long HYHU intro but instead led the band into Sexual Healing. Antelope included Sexual Healing teases in the intro and a reference to “Bob Weaver” instead of Marco Esquandolas in the lyrics. 2001 contained Crosseyed and Painless and Super Bad teases from Trey. WMGGW returned for its first appearance since February 26, 1997 (103 shows). A fireworks display took place behind the stage in the jam out of Hood. The jam also featured Fish on trombone. Baby Elephant Walk was played for the first time since December 1, 1992 (516 shows).
SHOW RATING
Ratings are currently offline.
Overall: 4.554/5 (>50 ratings)
JAM CHART VERSIONS
Possum, Down with Disease, Ghost, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Wilson, Jam
TEASES
Sexual Healing tease in Run Like an Antelope, Crosseyed and Painless and Super Bad teases in Also Sprach Zarathustra, Jean Pierre tease in Possum

This was a while back, so I guess I could be wrong, but I believe this is the show where in response to "Harry" the crowd called back "Balls" in stead of Hood. It was being passed around on a flyer for quite a few shows before this one that next time the song is played everyone will call back "Balls". But I did not see that in the notes anywhere.