Phish took the first three months of 1998 off, beginning their globe-trotting year of concert dates with the now legendary Island Tour, a four date run comprised of two shows each at Nassau Coliseum and Providence Civic Center, which were sandwiched between two studio recording sessions for “The Story of The Ghost,” nicknamed “Ghost Meat”. The year took the Vermont quartet about as far from their humble beginnings at Nectar’s as possible, beginning with nine dates in Europe in June and July, before beginning a summer tour that featured their third summer festival, Lemonwheel in Limestone, Maine. 

Successes and landmarks continued to stack up, with October being punctuated by a Halloween blowout in Last Vegas. November followed suit, featuring a series of epic performances, closing the month by inviting fellow Vermonter, guitarist Seth Yacavone, on stage for the first time at The Centrum in Worcester, MA. Perhaps unknown to many in attendance, Yacovone delivered stunning vocals and blistering blues guitar on All The Pain Through The Years, drawing raucous cheers from the Centrum crowd. The guitar duel was far from over, with Yacovone quite literally going toe-to-toe with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio on an amazing cover of Derek & The Dominoes “Layla.” The two Vermont guitar icons matched searing licks for nearly two solid and hair-raising minutes before the iconic track’s soaring coda.

Check out the video, courtesy of gdoucette1978 on YouTube.

Photo credit: Jeff Kravitz

The Jam Buzz guest author for this week is Ross Mickel. Ross, aka ‘The Bootlegger’ is the producer and host of Bootleggers Beware, a weekly live music radio show airing from 10AM-1PM EST on The Radiator, 105.9FM in Burlington, VT, and a live music enthusiast, curating a collection of over 2500 recordings. Check out his website and on Facebook.