I tend to forget that the first set of this show even exists, because the second set is - maybe, I suppose we should say 'maybe' - the finest set of the finest year of Phish. Like the 11/17 show, this one's got everything: knife-edge cow funk, classic rock homage, eerie soundscapes, that ambient-roar 'space jam,' and the whipcrack segues that would all but disappear a couple of years later. Twelve years after it went down, it's the intense focus that gets me the coherence: there are no dead spots, no throwaway moments, just continuous shared creation. Even Phish's unfortunate musical dick joke (Sleeping Monkey) can't dispel the breathless energy of the jam out of Tweezer. The suite of four tunes that opens the second set feels like an old-school Tweezerfest a la 5/7/94, though of course we don't get back to the Tweezer theme until the set-ending Reprise. It's all of a piece - Izabella is just a coalescence of the 'space jam,' Twist spills out of Izabella's stop/start funk outro without breaking that loping rhythm, and Piper feels like gathering up shattered pieces of the three songs preceding it.

Despite wandering freely between styles and tempi, the second set of this show feels like a single piece of music - certainly as cohesive as the previous week's Runaway Jam in Worcester. It doesn't have the upbeat catch-all catholicism of a show like 11/26/97, but it's not meant to: this is a single statement. And I guess there's a first set in there somewhere - probably right before the second set, now that I think of it - and if you've got an hour to spare you can probably listen to that one too. I hear the band's decent.

(Published in the second edition of The Phish Companion...)

Auburn Hills certainly isn't my favorite venue, but I left it the night of 12/6/97, rethinking everything I had ever thought about it (and that's saying a lot, because I was a philosophy major!). The “Tweezer” that opened the second set is one of the best I've heard. It contained a long jam, which bring you to Funk Central Station. The segue into “Isabella” is fantastic, and we are treated to an atypical jam that can only be construed as a "licentious funk groove." The segue into “Twist Around” was — once again — fantastic, and then they played the best “Piper” I have ever heard. “Piper” was technically unfinished, as the jam launched off with the power of a space shuttle from Cape Canaveral. This “Piper” took me to another world. It was so intense that Aaron, my traveling companion for the last part of tour, was worried that I would spontaneously combust.
“Sleeping Monkey” was perfectly placed, and the “Tweeprise” that closed the set threatened to bring down the house. I can't remember the encore. This entire set has no regard for accepted rules, morals, or standards. Get this tape…but be very afraid!

Best Tweezer ever!

Don't sleep on the first set. The Antelope is absolutely top shelf, as are the Foam and Maze.

Truly one of the greatest of all nights.