In an awesome reversal move, Phish opened up the second half of the Island Tour (the first of two shows at the Providence Civic Center in Rhode Island) with "Tweezer", after capping the first half with the "Reprise" version of the tune.
Funk played a big part in Phish's jamming in the latter half of 1997 and that spilled over into these shows, too. It was clearly evident in the "Tweezer" jam that sounded like what the version at the Great Went festival the previous August had the potential to be.
By this point of the four-show run, the rust was shaken off and the composed songs were executed as wonderfully as the jams - from the simple stuff like "Ginseng Sullivan," "Bouncing Around the Room," "Funky Bitch" and "Lawn Boy", to the more complex tunes like "Limb by Limb" and "Taste". The latter had a jam that even blew away the excellent version from 3/1/97 that had been officially released on Slip, Stitch and Pass, five months before this show. And as a set closer, "Character Zero" just kept getting more and more rockin' in '98.
"Birds of a Feather" was obviously a new song they really wanted to push and explore. The Island Tour featured the song twice, first at its debut on Long Island and then with a long jam in its second go-round in Rhode Island. In addition, the officially released Island Tour package includes a version played in between at the Providence soundcheck during which the band members seem genuinely excited about its prospects (and with another excellent jam, too!)
In previous years, leaving songs unfinished was an occasional occurrence, but not quite commonplace. The fall of 1997 demonstrated that jams could get so far out that they could not come back, and the second set of 4/4/98 continued in that direction, with "Birds" giving way to "2001" (which built upon both the extended-jam potential from the Great Went and that fabulous Phishy funk), which segued beautifully (and surprisingly!) into "Brother", which itself abandoned its usual chartered course before the final chorus to sail away on the tide of its own funky momentum. And though the latter did actually come around, it was so forced as to seem unnecessary. After a pause, the band must have sensed the weirdness, too, because they jokingly started to play the song again from the beginning.
The "Ghost" that followed was another open-ended funk jam, but "Ghost" has always been an open-ended funk jam; at this point, though, that was becoming the norm, not the exception. Maybe that is why this "Ghost" never really got its due, being overshadowed by the standout versions that preceded it. Fans will always recall 11/17/97, but no one mentions 4/4/98 as a "Ghost" highlight.
With the exception of the oddly placed "The Lizards", the fact that an excellent set-closing "David Bowie" and a gorgeous "Harry Hood" encore are the least interesting things about the second half of this show should be all you need to know about how far the band had come and where it was headed by the time it hit Providence for this tour.
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