Expanding on (and stepping back a bit from) my earlier comment:

The first set of this show is awesome and weeeeeird. A 20-minute DwD in the #2 slot? Yeah! Then a delicately creepy segue into Maze, which builds with unusual deliberateness from deep quiet to Trey's sci-fi roar (an engrossing pair of atmospheric solos from Page and Trey here). Trey was apparently in a ruminative mood this first set: check out the texturally-rich downtempo LxL batting fifth. No idea what Rocky Top was doing creeping in there, especially after a first-set Loving Cup. Oh well. Some nights just weave away from the straightline path, and it paid off here.

Actually there's a bit of an early/mid-2003 vibe to this show: lots of odd textures, opioid playing from Trey, quickstep tempos alternating with plodding oddities, a dark dark darkness creeping in around the edges. And of course the powerful stupidity of Roses Are Free, which Phish would later turn into a huge jam vehicle (4/3/98, 12/31/99) but which functions here as a goofy pick-me-up after the bedraggled ambience of Drowned. (Check out how little recognition it gets from the crowd, though! Funny).

The show is indeed outstanding, but not in a *purely* desirable way: the atmospherics are pervasive and strange and the first set must've blown minds on that night, but there's none of the feverish intensity and focus of 12/6, nor the partyfunk vibe of 12/7. The Ghost > DWD quote > Johnny sequence is fine, but Ghost is a straightforward, monotonic version with a solo from Trey that's either bravely restrained or sublimely boring depending on your tastes. Waste is Waste.

Definitely seek out this show - it's a treat to hear SBDs of Fall '97 no matter what the vibe is like. But I'm gonna revise my earlier enthusiasm to a cautious endorsement: this is one of the tour's weirder and (yeah) weaker shows. Its highlights are lovely, but a one-month stretch containing 11/21-11/23, 12/6, the three huge Worcester shows, and those wild Denver outings doesn't require this night to be a classic.

Wow E Wow! This is a wonderful hidden jem tucked away in the infamous 97 fall tour. This show is known for the first Roses ae Free but trust me this whole show is hot. This is a dark and trippy show. Did I mention it's DARK! The whole show is a must hear but if you must pick a few highlights here they are: DWD(twice), Drowned>Roses, a very scary BBFCFM and an extra funky ghost! This is the show in which I got "it" and after hearing again just now I know why. Get this tape!!!

This is one of the very few Fall '97 shows available in a soundboard recording - and it circulates freely rather than as a download-for-pay, so you have no excuse for not hearing it. And oh, is it a good show? My friend, it's an *outstanding* show that would have been a major highlight of any other Phish tour (but was pretty much par for the course in December 1997). Seek it out 'ay-sap,' as they say.

Hey Waxbanks I have a wonderful audience recording on tape where can I score a SBD download? Not enough people know about this show which is a shame. Thanks Bro!

Rochester will always hold a special place in my heart...whether it was the crack dealer who bought us food and smokes to drive him around for what we realized was a crime spree or the lost crack addict (who told us quote, "I'm from the grateful dead!") who lost "his kids" that my buddy and I picked up after the show in our friend's mustang we borrowed to go to the gas station and get some smokes and food...or maybe it was when after the show (before the crack people) I found out someone broke into the mustang and stole his stereo..this bothered him so much he ditched my buddy and I to go back to college in Vermont and left us to fend for our own way to Albany...out of the three of us I was the only one who got in the show that night...don't remember if I had the carphone or not that night, but my buddy from high school passed me my ticket over the gate at the front entrance and "the man" allowed me in...any later and i probably would have missed my ticket...phish came on stage...trey was wearing a winter hat (which cracked me up) and he gazed out into the audience, happy, but serious as I knew they were playing Punch for me (and everyone else) It truly was an epic show...I saw a girl who was a senior (VI) when I was a freshman (III) and I went up and introduced myself...being a freshman once again...thirteen years later I find out we have both moved to the same town...that crazy night in Rochester will live on in my mind forever and I wish there was room to write the whole story. anyway after that night it was safe to say (that) The Roses Are Free!