From: Victor Szalvay
Subject: Antelope in Review Pt.27 11/24/96
Greetings Everyone,
Ok, Ok!!  So, I’ve been gone for like a couple months, but now I am back
hopefully for a while.  School and tests got a little out of control, but
you know how it goes.  Well, Antelope still intrigues me, and I’ve noticed
you MUST be in the right mind set to feel the full effect of this one.
Just as the song says, you can picture this herd of wild, out of control,
stampeding antelopes running through the wild!  Free as the night and
without constraints of any kind!  The ultimate expression of freedom, imo.

So, this version, to get back on track, is from my home town of Portland,
OR 11/24/96 was the date and this is a very good
version at that.  (Also, see the Portland Reba if you want to get your
socks knocked off).  Here it is:

Antelope -- Intro:  So after I Didn’t Know, they surprisingly took their
seats for a little Antelope action to close out the set!  Good call, I
thought, I mean, it IS an essential move, right?!!  So, the intro was
really calm and laid back as intros go, and there seemed to be a lot of
people there not knowing what was coming, so when the Opening theme
commenced, everyone went nuts!  So they brought it down all the way to
silence and then...
POW!
Opening theme: Right on track!  The place erupts and the boys really got
the desired effect.
RakE!: Pretty smooth, the riffs afterwards are a little sketchy.

Key Change to Em:  Here we go! Trey is intently starring off
into the crowd during this entire version.  Silly as this sounds, I felt
like he knew I was there and was looking right at me!  You know, like when
he does this starring thing and you think he is looking right at you...
well, I was close enough to see his eyes and I was able to fool myself!
Pretty stunning feeling.
They get serious right away as we head into the realm of the Em jam!!
There is no turning back as Page lays down some serious structuring and
Trey gets mean with some nice licks.  Milling around for several minutes,
the tension is alleviated and
heightened all at the same time and Trey starts in with a cyclic
Psycho style riff, compounded by Page’s ominous chord work... the pattern
evolves out to be a bit more complex and Trey gets neurotic on this little
line... Page is there ever-more
increasingly to heighten the tension.  Trey releases with a little 
bump in the road and more cohesive solo line starts up... The
darkness is evident once again as Trey hits another round of severe
tension building... Page is really noticeable all the way through... 
They even it out with a pausing riff that just hold out before the shift
for a second long, and then...

Second Gear:    Nice and smooth... nothing enormous but interesting out of
the stagnant riffing.  Here we see another
pausing stagnation and Trey gets wild while Phish pounds away.  They raise
noticeably to another slight shift... I wouldn’t
give this one gear-status but another tension evolves and simply explodes
into a downright gear-grinder!!!

3rd gear:  Whoa!!!  The grinding is on as this extended shift really feels
help from the double-kick work of Fish!!!

4th gear:  Follow not long thereafter!!  Trilling all the way another
extended session and really, really intense!!! The build just keeps going
after this as Trey just trills and trills and trills!!!  All the way to
the sky and back; to fall into the...

Pre-Marco-Groove:  Hello again!  back to earth... Trey moves immediately
to the kit!  Go Trey!!  Pretty calm PMG until Trey
announces:
Ry, Ry, Rocco!!
 Norton Charleston Heston (Trey points to Fish and Fish responds with some
Ey! Ey!!)
Been you to have any spike, man?
High Gear Theme:  Nice transition, but nothing miraculous!  It smoothes
all the way into the end with no other noteworthy happenings.
End:  All in all a fabulous version.  I wouldn’t say it is top 20 or
something, but still very smooth nonetheless.  Ferocious gear shifting,
and listen to this one if you want to hear a really nice gear-grinder.
Well, overall I’d give it a 6.5 on the Victor Scale.
Take it easy everyone,
                -Victor Szalvay