My first show. I was 16, my parents dropped me off and waved goodbye telling me to "have a good time". And I absolutely did. Granted the ARCO Arena is probably the worst venue to see Phish in, but at the same time, you're seeing Phish, so no complaints. I was fairly green at this point and my favorite songs were Stash and Brother and was hoping they'd play both not realizing that Brother is a pretty rare song. I remember them playing with this ferocity that was infectious and just loosing my mind when they broke into Stash and did the chanting. Shame for how sober I was I don't remember more details. Pretty much just chilled up in the seats stage right (Page side!) and took it all in. Had no clue that it was such a treat to get two legends to join them on-stage (Apflebaum and McEuen), thought it was all just par for the course. Safe to say I was hooked from that point on. My next show at the Shoreline in 97, was even more tasty. Thanks Phish.

I remember sitting poolside at my friends house back in the late 70s listening to 'Waiting For Columbus'.
We all loved Little Feat back then. I just couldn't believe how fortunate I was to see Phish cover the whole album.
This show also contains one of the best 1st sets of 2010.

Completely average show. The only song to write home about is the YEM, which has lots and lots of fun interaction throughout. Mike absolutely slays the ending of the Trey jam. It's unfortunate that the bass and drums jam to follow is a little lackluster, but man does he nail the ending of the Trey portion. Nail it I tell yah!

This is a really good show. This is also a really odd show. Who ever heard of a Chalkdust -> BBFCFM -> Sample -> BBFCFM segment smack dab in the middle of set II? What about a Julius in slot three? Setlist wise this show just doesn't seem to make all the much sense to me, but it totally works. Every song that is jammed gets a really nice work out. Everybody should be familiar with this wonderful type II Reba, great Tweezer, and peaking Hood. Also, Bowie! The Landlady even gets a nice unique jam. Trey holds a single note for a long time and Fish takes over bringing lots of energy to the jam. This is Grade A Pasteurized Phish!

Get it, get it, get it!

Hello, my name is NYE '94, and I'm a truncated show.

It's embarrassing looking at my 3-set peers and withering in comparison. I mean, as a whole I'm shorter than three hours, none of my sets top sixty minutes, and my second and third sets barely top fifty! I'm a New Years Eve show! What gives?

Sometimes I try to convince myself that it's the content that matters, but I just don't know. What's a unique Maze with a super patient Trey solo and a sweet Mike's -> Buffalo -> Mike's sandwich in the second set if that set is so short? If I'm being honest, I suppose my second set, despite it's brevity, is really quite stellar. However, I can't for the life of me start to feel good about my first or third sets, which are filled with perfectly fine renditions of some great songs, but are really nothing special.

I guess I'll just go sulk and oft be forgotten at NYE '96's place.

This show is not exactly a barn-burner compared to some other shows from this period, but it is not without material you'll want to hear. The opening Wilson has a long intro and the part before Blat Boom is also extended. Reba's jam is average but still satisfying. The set-closing Antelope is extremely hot. It's the highlight of the show if you ask me. The Tweezer in the second set contains several minutes of good jamming, but it's a relatively tame rendition compared to others from the month. It seems to me that this is a 3 star show from the time period. Seek out the Antelope!

This show for me is all about the yem! its just sick! best version ive ever heard personally

The night before the infamous Tweezerfest, the band played Houston. I'm guessing a lack of ticket sales was the reason for the last-minute venue switch. The first set and encores of this show don't circulate.

The Maze has a really interesting chaotic and distorted section at about the 8:30 mark that lasts about a minute, somewhat unusual for this era. Reba is unremarkable. The Bowie incorporates a quiet, sparse section in the beginning of the jam before building up steam and finishing strong.

Everything else is standard for the era, with the Julius not reaching the heights of some other spring '94 versions.

At 3.8 as I'm writing this, I think this show is almost criminally underrated. Well, criminally might be too far, but how about freaking severely.

The first set is obviously anchored by a fantastic Sneakin' Sally that really heads on out and grooves, and has an Eminence Front flavor at one point. Spectacular Sally, but that's not all, as the set opens with a tremendous 20 minute S&SS which releases into a solid Theme. Throw in a tasty Seven Below and you've got a powerhouse first set.

The DwD to open set II is just as great as the S&SS to open set I, and it lands brilliantly in Squirming Coil. Makisupa-> Buffalo Bill brings the lulz, and Antelope is flat-out BLISTERING. Thunderhead (much like Billy Breathes) is one of those songs that I didn't really care for when I first heard it, but since have come to love, and here it is paired expertly with a powerful, set-closing Slave. You could add Waste to the list of songs that has grown on me a lot over the years, so I don't mind the encore at all.

For a 2003 show, there's not even all that much slop, aside from a somewhat butchered Rift. This show is 4 stars at *minimum*, and I personally enjoyed it quite a bit more than the previous night. Even though I think 4 stars or slightly above is a good rating for this one, I'm giving it a 5 to help boost it to where I think it should be.

Yep, was there, heard and saw it. My friend ditched me, but who cares, I had ganja and Phish! DMB still in their toddler stage, so that was sort of cool, I guess...
Regardless, they opened with Wilson, and did a YEM->Catapult->YEM in the 2nd set. And again, I had lots of ganja. So yeah, it was a damn good night!

Damn good show considering:
The opening was in deference to Pink Floud who had played at Birmingham's Legion Field the night before. http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pink-floyd/1994/legion-field-stadium-birmingham-al-33d764dd.html
My friends and I had 4th row, center. We saw Trey and Mike on the floor several rows back during intermission, sitting there anonymous like. We told them we dug their shit, jams, etc., and hoped for a good show from them the next night. Very casual....
5 Points was a TINY venue, and Phish was still not a huge draw back them in the Deep South. That place held maybe 750 peeps at the most...maybe. Fire code was prob more like 500..
Opening was delayed due to the trouble of getting a disco ball to hang and spin correctly, but then it quickly kicked in with the homage to Pink Floyd. From there, I was way too baked and 3 feet away from Trey and the dudes to know what happened next. Who cares at that point, right? Several doobies later, and Oteil (OMG!!) is on stage jamming. I'm there, against the stage, basically in a small bar, seeing the dudes kill it. No hassle, no pushing, no frenzy. Easy in, easy to the bathroom, easy back to center stage. Set list... Whatevs. The vibe and setting were awesome, with the added bonus of having seen the boys at the Pink Floyd show (I had better seats!!) the night before!!

1994 was thee year for Reba. This one doesn't even stand out when there's the likes of 5.27, 5.28, 7.6, 10.31, and 11.25 to compare it to; however, it is still really phenomenal. At first I was skeptical that this whole "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" business was going to be one of those jam halting ideas that drag on for too long, but I was glad to be wrong. The "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" jam is quite nice and fits well within the Reba jam.

The Split Open and Melt is abnormally long for the era and is pretty great as well. There is some really nice engaging jamming throughout its seventeen minutes. The Antelope does not particularly stand-out, just rages like usual for the era. However, right after the peak, it sounds to me like the band is trying to interact with the fireworks. They drop the Fish and Mike groove and just start making abrupt eruptions of cacophonous noise that pretty closely parallel when the fireworks go off. I'm not 100% percent sure this is the case, but it sure sounds like that could be it.

The rest of the show is par for the course. I hadn't listened to any Summer '94 for quite a while and this was a nice show to remind me why I like it so much. 4 Stars.

If it were up to me there wouldn't any of this "-> Jam ->" nonsense between Theme From the Bottom and Tweezer. Those five minutes are without question a post-jam out of Theme. My second set setlist for this show would read "Theme From the Bottom -> Tweezer -> Tweezer Reprise" making this, to my knowledge, the shortest (in song count) full length (in time) Phish set out there.

Is the hour of music contained within the second set a successful outing for the Phish from Vermont? I can't really say. On one hand: HOLY SHIT! 20 minute Theme?!? 45 minute Tweezer -> Tweezer Reprise?! On the other hand: What?... With the benefit of hindsight, this is a really interesting set to listen to. It shows a band that had reached a point where they could comfortably do pretty much whatever they wanted on stage and get away with it. Including, but not limited to, only playing three songs and jamming two of them out for way longer than normal.

I'd call Theme From the Bottom proper mediocre at best, but the post jam and segue into Tweezer (Fishman mistakes notwithstanding) are really nice. This monster Tweezer, just like the Mud Island version, has lots to love, and lots to... feel otherwise about. Personally, I didn't *hate* any of it, but it wasn't a full 40 minutes of mind = blown. My favorite portion is right after the My Generation jam and the subsequent build into the vacuum jam/chaos. (I don't like the My Generation jam at all, though. It's just awkward.) Had they segued into Rift when Fish then Mike fell into that groove, I'd have been a happy camper. It's not even that I dislike the jamming after Rift fails to catch, I just didn't need any more at that point and Fish and Mike really had it grooving.

However, all of that said, had I witnessed this in person, I don't think I would have responded particularly well. Nobody goes to Phish shows to see four guys go on stage and wank for an hour. Because, if these long excursions are anything, they're self-indulgent. I think their ability and rate of success when it comes to these XXXL jams increased tremendously with time (Cypress Rock and Roll, IT Ghost, and IT 46 Days immediately come to mind), but at this point, they just weren't something I'd necessarily want to witness. Of course, as I said earlier, it is fun to listen back from our current vantage point and be able to hear these anomalies within Phish-lore.

But what are my words worth? Now that this set has been released as filler on the Blossom '95 archival release, you no longer have an excuse for having not heard it. Take a listen and decide for yourself! At the very least it will be a pretty wild ride!

This is one of my all-time favorite shows, and I was bored, so I wrote a haiku about it.

July seventeenth
Nineteen ninety eight is great
It's really quite ornate

Who could ask for more
Than a laid back Makisupa
As the opena

Ya Mar's gots the chill
Gumbo's gots the super-funk
Divided Sky, dank

The rest of the set
Is just party-time fun-town
It totes got me down

Two thousand one, man
It's so hot I got a tan
But it don't cool off

Mike's Song is nasty
Weekapaug is nasty too
Hell, Zero's nasty

This show, so damn great
Has everything you need
On it's luscious plate

Listen now, for you
Will not be disappointed
It's incredible

I've got one word for you: underrated. This is the most underrated show of 2012. As far as I'm concerned, the three best shows of 2012 are Dick's 1, SF 3, and the one you're reading about, and not necessarily in that order. The first set contains letter perfect performances of both Kill Devil Falls and Stash. Neither are the best versions of 2012, but each are perfectly played type I versions. They're so perfect they could have been used as the studio versions. The rest of the set is just good old school fun. That set actually looks, for the most part, like it came right out of Summer '94.

Set two's opening trio, which constitutes well over half the length of the set, is as good a jam sequence as you will find in 2012. I have not heard a more blissful jam than this Rock and Roll. It's not necessarily the most ambient (Fukuoka set II), patient (half the jams from Cypress), or minimalistic (also Fukuoka set II), but I'll be damned if there is a jam that features more empathetic and beautiful playing from Trey and Page. There's a solid 10+ minutes in the middle of this jam where Trey and Page just play these absolutely gorgeous melodies back and forth over a superb foundation laid down by Mike and Fish. After that it dissolves into five minutes of awesome and eery space.

Following Rock and Roll is one of my three favorite 3.0 Ghosts (along with MSG '10 and Albany '09). While I wouldn't call the transition from the Rock and Roll jam into Ghost a segue, the two songs fit together perfectly, like two puzzle pieces. The Rock and Roll jam delicately fades out and Trey delicately starts chunking Ghost, it's absolutely superb. The jam itself is great and the ending features some sick playing from Fish. The Limb to follow foreshadows the hose that would go down in St. Louis 13 days later. This Limb isn't anywhere near as good as the St. Louis version, but it is way better than average and has a different energy than most. The beginning of jams of these two versions actually sound quite similar. The rest of the set is gravy. A very well played Guyute, a great Hood, and a rockin' closer. It would be unreasonable to ask for more.

This is must hear Phish.