Clearly the part of this show that will be remembered is BB. There are two thoughts on how that went and I think for the most part both are correct based on who you are.

The hour King played was not the type of music (straight blues) most of the younger fans had interest in or excepted when they bought tickets so I guess I get it that some didn't really enjoy that part of the show (the kids around me started comlpaining to one another about 20 minutes into the BB appearance). Being a little older and straight blues being what lights my soul on fire, I was beside myself. Blues is what made me pick up the guitar in the first place.

From a guitar players standpoint it's my opionon BB's blues vocabulary is second to none and this night was no exception. He says more with less notes then anyone in the game. Again, younger people who just wanted to see smoke come off Trey's guitar in typical Trey fashion may never understand how impressive BB's playing is or was that night.

What I remember most was watching Trey's face and body language. I got the feeling Trey was so selective with his notes, as if he needed to show BB that he too can speak the blues. Trey looked and played like he had been preparing for this moment his whole life and wanted to impress BB the way a boy might want to impress his father. I might actually say he seemed nervous.

There have been many shows for me since and hopefully will be many more in the future and most of those will be standard good night/bad night Phish shows. This was a one time thing and I thank God that it happened in front of me.

Without BB this was another night in life of Phish. A good time with some great moments but the show wasn't going to be blogged about for a decade after as epic. So in the end, the only reason this show gets noticed is that one hour of straight blues.

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

Ah"...the Continental Airlines Arena in beautiful northeastern New Jersey, formerly known as the Brendan Byrne Arena and home to numerous excellent Dead shows in the 80's (with tapes often labeled as merely "Meadowlands"�). I wonder if those Deadheads had as difficult a time getting into the venue as we did. This was the first time Phish played Continental, and the only way to access the arena via the parking lot was through a tiny space in a chain link fence, causing unbelievably long lines and thus delays. Logic would have seemed to dictate creating more openings, or using more (or less surly) security staff, but logic is seldom in abundance at the huge hockey arenas Phish rocks on the East Coast.
As it turned out, February 24th ended up being one of the more controversial shows of the winter tour because this was where B.B. King sat in with the band for the last three songs of the first set (all B.B tunes), a sequence totaling nearly an hour. I say "controversial"� because this resulted in opinions ranging from "best guest spot ever,"� to the more common, "the dullest hour of Phish I've ever seen"...B.B. didn't seem to know where he was."� Not having seen Phish since September of 2000, I would cast my vote in the latter camp.
After opening the set with a raging "Disease"� and fine versions of "Wolfman's"� and "Limb by Limb"�, the addition of B.B. King brought the house energy down to a frighteningly low level. While the old school meets new school pairing of Phish and King sure seems cool on paper, the actual result was a dreary hour of tentative blues licks that was probably far more suited to a smoky nightclub than a packed arena. Things bordered on embarrassing at times; Trey and B.B. often seemed to be stepping on each other's toes, while not wanting to outdo the other, and neither Phish nor King could seem to decide when it was time for the latter to leave. So while King remains a living legend, and the effort was appreciated, the Hiatus left the packed arena hungry for some raging Phish, and judging from the amount of fans in their seats, this wasn't it.
Fortunately, Set II was relatively solid from top to bottom, featuring a bevy of setlist staples that were goosed with some extra juice, the "Halley's"� > "Hood"� combo in particular. "Waves"� will eventually morph into the Set II standout that its capable of becoming, and the "Farmhouse"� encore, played in its original key of D, was a pleasant sendoff.
But ultimately, 2/24 was more of a historical curiosity than a good Phish gig. However, if this show led anyone to believe that post-Hiatus version of Phish painted a portrait of a band slowly losing its edge, the next three shows of the winter run wasted no time in putting such thoughts to rest.

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

The process of waiting on line and getting into this show, then getting frisked has never been more disorganized and simply pathetic than on this night. I think anyone who was there would agree, it was a disaster. We decided to head in at 6:45 p.m. and the entrances had huge lines of fans across the entire parking lot. We didn't get in until almost 8:00 p.m.! It felt like I was sitting in my car on Snake Road on the way to Big Cypress.
When BB King emerged, I, and I think a lot of other people, were pretty much in shock that it was really him. Talk about a '”special” guest. The man is a legend. The first tune contained a few rough spots. Trey and BB were sorta feeling each other out a little bit. The “Thrill is Gone” was pretty special. Trey and BB got into some nice dueling blues licks, then BB would pump up the crowd. All in all I feel fairly privileged to have been there to see this. Trey and BB exchanged hugs at the end of the set, which lasted nearly ninety minutes. Very good set and a good feeling.
Set II began with “Haley's Comet”, which was very sweet. It was the first one played post-Hiatus. There was not a lot of soloing by Trey but he found some nice grooves and you could really hear the band playing together so well. It pretty much went right into “Harry Hood”. The band is definitely taking this song to new and interesting places. It seems like they build up the jam at the end but now they sorta bring it back down before bringing the jam all the way back again into a frenzy. This was another spot where the band could have come with another fast and upbeat song and blown the roof off. But “Heavy Things” came next. The jam at the end of this song was definitely turned up a notch compared to usual, which made it a little more enjoyable.
“Twist” came next, and they took it to a place I've never heard: a real spooky, noisy, funky jam. “Waves” is unquestionably my favorite song on Round Room but this version clinched it for sure. Regardless of its questionable placement in this set, the jam built so intensely with Trey rolling the notes off so perfectly. When “Sample” started I think everyone thought this long and interesting night was coming to a close, but out of the closing chords we heard the opening riff of “Chalk Dust”. The crowd went crazy, myself included. I was expecting something fairly slow for the encore and got “Farmhouse”. I will take this song over any Round Room ballads.
Even though the second set looks a little suspect on paper, the band was experimental, really on and really tight throughout every song they played the entire night. “DWD”, “Wolfman's Brother”, “Haley's Comet”, “Hood”, “Waves”, and “Chalk Dust” were all above average versions in my mind. And BB King was more than I could have hoped for. Truly a great time.

Welcome to beautiful wastelands of East Rutherford NJ!! Tripping hard on purple oregon mushrooms (Thanks Dar for getting those from Layla!), led me to believe for the longest time while outside the lot that I was actually stuck in the "Dolldrums" from the Phantom Tollboth, the creatures from the muck were tearing at my legs, trying to pull me into the deep, and I was simply terrified! Once me and my girlfriend of the time (this was our first show together, we use this show to measure how long we were together, which ended around 6 years later) got into the arena, the first thing I could hear was the opening hook of the Down with Disease jam that just sent the crowd in the arena into an absolute FRENZY!! The energy level toppled off the charts at this point, fueled by Trey's screaming licks which moistened the panties of both girls and guys alike! For whatever reason, that particular hook at that particular moment, really stays with me always...I still get goosebumps when I listen to recordings of it years later.

Now, after attempting to ingest a lit cigarette, and climbing off the balcony (purple mushrooms are evil/awesome!) I made my way to the bathroom where a guy was talking about BB King, and he kept trying to tell me BB King was actually playing with Phish. I didn't believe him. I thought he was trying to mess with an obviously tripping kid..than I heard BB King playing, and I thought that the power of this guys persuasion, coupled with psychotropic compounds, had actually made my mind believe that BB King was playing, and my mind was playing BB King......I looked over, and the guy on the urinal on my left looked right at me, and had a priceless look on his face, his pupils were as wide as the night sky, I felt like I could just fall into them..He than asked me "Dude, am I tripping? Or is BB King playing right now...? Still not conviced, I headed back to me seat to find that yes, in fact BB actually was playing with Phish on stage.....that whole debacle in the bathroom was probably more exciting than actually hearing BB King play. Now we must give him respect, he is absolutely a legend. "The Thrill is Gone" was great. But honsetly, we all didn't travel from points all over the world to here standard issue, dynamicless blues....We wanted Phish!

Set 2 was Fantastic! It had been a long time since my last Halley's Comet, which was very special. Harry Hood was great < Sample/Chalkdust were SICK!! But than, as sometimes they do, they decided to drop the LAMEST encore ever, Farmhouse. hahah, I wasn't mad, I just found myself laughing my ass off on the trip back to the car.....Good show overall, very easy to pinpoint because of the presence of BB King....oh and just for the records, East Rutherford NJ might be the grimiest place on earth.

This was a pretty weird show to be my first. B.B. King part was pretty darned boring and neither set had a particularly good flow. That being said, I'm glad to have been at any shows at all.