Jam Breakdown - 12/6/97 Tweezabella

The Tweezabella is one of the most famous segments in Phish history. Opening the second set of December 6, 1997 at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, MI, it is a half hour of music that perfectly encapsulates the greatness of Fall 1997.

While Fall 1997 may not be my favourite Phish tour or era, it’s impossible to avoid the fact that it was a massively important tour (and year) for the band’s growth and produced some of its best music and improvisation. Having recently figured out the democratic jamming style they had been searching for during much of 1996 and taking the summer to really flesh out the ideas (as is the path of lots of Phish years), they tore into the fall tour with a vengeance, as we all know.

I hope you enjoy my breakdown of this legendary jam!

All timings are per LivePhish. Below video starts at around 0:21 of my breakdown.

0:24 – Trey starts Tweezer riff quietly

0:45 – Wah scratches

0:52 – Sporadic percussion and bass hits while Trey continues wah scratches

1:12 – Page hits clav every so often, Mike hits fight bell

1:30 – Trey brings Tweezer riff as Page does weird synth bending on it

1:45 – Possum-like build into song

2:05 – TWEEZER

3:05 – Tempo is molasses-thick

4:26 – slappa de bass

5:05 – First breakdown, Trey sustains and bends feedback down while Page lazily does some clav work

5:32 – Trey: “yeah”

6:03 – Second breakdown, much more dissonant – Page hammering random piano and Trey hits crazy whammy tremolo

6:35 – Jam begins with huge wah chord from Trey

6:46 – Page sparsely bending synth notes

7:05 – Mike and Fish are absolutely rock solid

7:10 – Fall 97 Trey vamp

7:20 – Mike does same bass line as ending of Denver Ghost

7:40 – Everyone is just hanging out in the funk

8:00 – Slap fill from Mike, stanky

8:10 – Fish catches on and does a bit of stop/start with Mike

8:23 – Page doing some sick clav work around Trey’s wah vamp

9:09 – Trey: “yeah man!”

9:20 – Trey changes vamp a bit, Page leading on clav

9:33 – Page adds in piano as Fish picks up the intensity briefly before settling back into funk groove

10:02 – Fish continuing stop/start jam

10:14 – Jam seems to break apart momentarily as Trey teases a modulation

10:29 – Trey sets up funk siren

10:38 – Funk siren gets a second layer

11:02 – Trey finally switches to lead guitar; jam gets more ambient with Page on piano

11:21 – Synth creeps in, space vibe continues to develop

11:35 – DEEP pocket

11:45 – Trey goes back to funk vamp, Fish on a triplet-like faster beat as intensity picks up a bit

12:05 – Fish drops out, wah break

12:26 – Band comes back in, thicc funk continues

12:45 – Trey starts repeating motif as Page switches to Rhodes and suggests a modulation

13:05 – Very different feel to the jam now with Fish on a faster drumbeat and Page colouring with electric piano

13:25 – Trey and Page interplay, hell yeah

13:33 – Trey emerges from brief moment of soup with repeating riff

13:53 – Trey introduces melodic feel to the jam and band follows

14:14 – Rhodes = perfection

14:17 – Trey on large notes

14:23 – Droning feedback from Trey in between runs of notes as Fish pushes tempo

14:40 – Gain-heavy melodic soloing from Trey

15:18 – Trey feedbacks and lets intensity drop a bit

15:37 – Mike rises from the soup a bit

15:44 – Fish brute-forces into bluesy shuffle

16:01 – Bluesy shuffle develops back into standard jam feel

16:12 – Rhodes is still awesome

16:20 – Trey on HEAVY feedback and playing with his pedals

16:35 – Trey adds octave-up chirp to effects soup as Fish changes beat again

16:53 – Page adding a bed of melodic piano to the jam

17:15 – Classic Fall ’97 disjointed space

17:30 – Trey on more feedback

17:35 – Fish pushes tempo even more

18:13 – Sounds like Trey is about to start Piper for a second

18:25 – Jam spaces out with some looped feedback in the background

18:35 – Page back on clav

19:09 – Jam returns to dissonant Trey craziness

19:47 – Trey playing Free ending

20:16 – Trey pushes tempo briefly and Fish follows

20:47 – Trey pulls band back together in half-time groove

21:27 – Trey gets dissonant again and keeps high-gain soloing up

22:10 – Trey playing variation of Free ending again

22:15 – Fish starts to push tempo into Izabella beat

IZABELLA

0:10 – Fish and Trey are off-beat for the segue

0:19 – Trey gets in sync

0:39 – Fish: “yeah!”

0:46 – Trey does not know the lyrics

1:13 – Fish sporadically yelling “Izabella!”

1:26 – Trey still using high-gain tone

1:39 – Trey rips into first guitar solo after messing up every lyric

2:26 – Hell yeah

2:37 – Page doubling on organ and piano

3:09 – Fast runs of guitar notes

3:27 – Trey extends solo and keeps melting faces

3:49 – Trey hangs on to feedback and takes jam down

4:04 – Page sweeps volume on organ

4:26 – Funk groove emerges

4:32: Trey whoops faintly

4:47 – Funk guitar vamp as Page leads with staccato organ

5:01 – More cowbell

5:08 – Mike lays extremely solid foundation

5:14 – Trey: “woo!”

5:30 – This jam could be from any Fall ’97 show

5:45 – Bass/organ breakdown mmm

5:54 – Fish grunts, Trey yells something unintelligible

6:05 – Trey on wah, Page on clav

6:37 – Distorted clav break

6:50 – Page slays it

6:54 – Band back in, Page continues to solo

7:04 – 12/29/97 Tube vibe

7:22 – Trey’s feedback loop still faintly going

7:31 – Trey wah vamp break

7:50 – Band comes back in, Page on piano now

8:08 – Trey and Page seem to accidentally play the same lick simultaneously

8:24 – Page on quiet synth runs

8:41 – Rhythm section break, Mike and Fish continue laid-back groove

9:04 – Fish seamlessly throws in ridiculous fills

9:17 – Band back in, Page on dissonant synth bends and band -> Twist