Phish fans are coming out of a big season for fifteen-year anniversaries, with the great shows from 1997 achieving that vintage last year. This comes on the heels of the 1995-era anniversaries, and then that of the Clifford Ball, which will be old enough to vote in summer '14. This week marks the last big, 15-year moment until Big Cypress's time comes in '14. (Hopefully by then we'll have worn out our DVD box sets of those shows...)

The Island Tour (which I still habitually call by its lesser-used nickname, the Spring Run)—taking place at the Nassau Coliseum and then the Providence Civic Center on April 2,3,4 and 5 in 1998—was a huge moment. The 1997 New Year's Run had already capped a momentous year with at least one classic show, and an all-around sense of good-natured back-patting. We were already hibernating, and likely speculating about summer tour, when the surprise announcement came: four stand-alone shows in early April. In the Northeast. Golden Age overtime.

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