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Saturday, August 06, 2011

Phish and Neil Young: "Down By the River", Farm Aid 1998



On October 3, 1998, Phish performed at the Farm Aid Benefit, near Chicago, IL, with Young. Setlist notes from Andy's Phish Page indicate that Young joined Phish onstage for "Runaway Jim". Next came an electric instrumental that is best described as "Arc"-like. This was followed by a monster 26 minute jam on "Down By the River".

Judge for your self, but this version of "Down By the River" is considered to be of the top 10 performances of the song. Certainly the best ever non Ol-Black version. Neil uses a hollow body Gretsch guitar (Trey Anastasio's older Languedoc guitars, hand-made by Phish soundman Paul Languedoc) and delivers some heavy hand blows to the body at various jam points. Massive shredding ensues.

The Trey and Neil duel @ 12:45 is epic. We can't honestly we've ever sen another guitarist ever push Neil so far to the dark side.

Unfortunately, the YouTube version is *only* 19 minutes long.

phish-neil.jpg
Phish and Neil Young - Farm Aid 1998
Photo by Barry Brechsian


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9 comments:

  1. Martin D458/06/2011 06:35:00 PM

    Neil is not playing a hollow body Gretsch. He's playing one of Trey Anastasio's older Languedoc guitars. They are hand-made by Phish soundman Paul Languedoc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joe8/06/2011 08:58:00 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joe8/06/2011 08:59:00 PM

    Ah yes, Farm Aid '98, aka The Neil Performance I Walked Out On Due To Rude Phish Heads.

    Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous2/11/2013 10:24:00 PM

      Haha!!! You missed the best performance of this song ever. Rude my ass.

      When people pay more attention to fans than music at concerts they should fucking stay home like the whiny bitches they are.

      Delete
  4. Martin D458/07/2011 08:18:00 AM

    I stayed, and it was magical. After this jam, Willie Nelson (and just about everyone else on the bill) came out and played 3 or 4 more songs, with Phish as the backing band. I'll never forget it...

    ReplyDelete
  5. thrasher8/07/2011 10:04:00 AM

    @Martin D45 - thanks! corrected.

    @Joe - too bad. Maybe you could've filled us in on the missing last 7 minutes of DBTR...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Martin D458/08/2011 02:44:00 AM

    I have this on VHS somewhere. I should encode it to .avi and upload it. Few mention it, but Neil's acoustic set that night was excellent also, including a stellar "Throw Your Hatred Down", and "Old Man", tuned down a full step.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Joe8/09/2011 12:20:00 PM

    Eternal regret, Thrasher. Eternal regret.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Unknown6/20/2014 05:15:00 PM

    Cactus.

    ReplyDelete

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