Hello Phish Phans!
This week’s song, “Weekapaug Groove,” has been around since the late 80s and there are a ton of great versions. I am sending out 3.5 different versions (technically 4 versions but one youtube video only has the first half of the song). Over the years, Phish’s style of playing has changed and in comparing different versions of the same song, it’s interesting to hear how the band has evolved. For example, Phish jams in the early-mid 90s were largely driven by Trey on guitar. Some people refer to Trey’s playing in those years as “Machine Gun Trey” because Trey would shred, or play a lot of notes rapidly. As I mentioned last week, Phish experimented with funk-grooves in the late 90s. Since they’ve come back from their hiatus, the jams feature all members of the band equally (Trey doesn’t dominate anymore like he did in the early 90s).
Weekapaug Groove isn’t much of a proper song. It’s just some chords with throwaway lyrics that the band uses to launch into a prolonged jam. The 1992 version is a good example of the “Machine Gun Trey” era. There’s also plenty of comparable versions from 1992 and 1993. The 1996 version is a good example of mid-90s Phish (see also 12/1/1995 and 12/31/1995). The 1998 version only has the first half of the song (couldn’t find the second half), but it gets pretty funky from minute 6 on. The 2015 version goes into a different song, “What’s the Use,” in the middle of the jam (around minute 5).
3/20/1992: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxjMDKFB_to
12/6/1996: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B-qrEzFy0M
4/3/1998 (only first half): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHkEh_-h5aU
12/30/2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mpwRZHYgkI
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