The usual strong 1994 first set, more or less - Phish came out for the first frame with a hell of a lot of verve in those days, none of today's occasional time-killing and warmups. The second set is a classic. Peaches, OK fine, but THEN: Bowie jumps off from Page's shy little post-Peaches chords into a soaring 'Mind Left Body' jam. (No, it's not a song, just a standard jam structure common to the Dead and Phish and every other group of musicians that's ever attempted a little free improv.) Through the changes, and the jam is a scorcher in the virtuosic Phish '94 style (clattering non-grooves, Big Weirdness from Trey, silly quotes and teases, the total absence of funk, the whole white-boy limit-case casual-fan-alienating weltanschauung if you will). Both Tweezer and YEM get the sort of big honking guitar-driven cock-rock workouts we don't hear anymore. Which is OK, but damn! These guys put on a great and *deeply unusual* show in those days, and that kind of committed wackiness takes guts - or else a colossal heedlessness. I say it's 'guts' and recommend this show as a shining example thereof, and good day to you then.

Trey on this Divided Sky:

“We were at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. And we were playing “Divided Sky,” and we got down to this quiet part where it gets silent. And we were getting quieter and quieter, and then became silence. And I had my eyes closed, and I could feel the crowd, and I started to — because improvising is, you`re trying to translate the — what`s out there already, greater pattern of things. And sometimes it feels like it`s coming through the hole, and you couldn`t play a wrong note if you tried; you`re just floating.

And at that moment, you are in the middle of it, and I started to see those colors, like I`m not kidding, floating around there, and I realized that I could almost — it was silent, but I could see what we were translating. And as soon as I could see them, I started improvising, but I didn`t play anything. I did everything in the sense of improvisation, except for the actual notes, and as soon as I did it, the whole place erupted. It was like, whoa, and just tears started rolling down my face, and it was at that moment that I knew that it was truly bigger than me. It. You know what I mean? There were probably a lot of moments like that, but those two just come to mind. It was amazing.”

This show absolutely rules! The first set is fantastic. AC/DC Bag through Divided Sky is an amazing stretch. The Bag in particular is just blistering. And I ALWAYS love to hear Mango. The second set might be my favorite set of 1994. The Peaches>Bowie>MLB Jam>Bowie is possibly the jam of the summer tour. Horn and McGrupp are flawless. There are also top notch versions of Tweezer and YEM. The flow of this show is like no other. A personal favorite of mine for sure. If you don't have this show, your collection is worthless.

Being such a lover of late-90s/2011-12 Phish, it's always kind of weird when I go back and listen to mid-90s Phish, as it might as well be listening to a totally different band. Songs like Wilson (without the Wilson chants, although you can hear a few crowd members giving it a halfhearted shot), AC/DC Bag (not funky??? how can this be???) and DWD are played with a whole different energy, as though Phish had little bets backstage with each other over who could play each song the fastest, with the most verve and ferociousness. Phish 2012 plays with a great deal of energy too, certainly, but this is different - this is energy borne of youth and sheer passion, instead of today's energy borne of experience and a rediscovered love for their craft.

Phish in 1994 seemed to make a habit out of playing insane second sets that make people go "how the hell did THAT work?" and turning them into classics (Bomb Factory, of course; 7/13 and 11/30-12/1 also leap to mind); this might very well be the best of them, and as a fervent Bomb Factory fan it hurts my heart to say so. Peaches kicks things off in seemingly normal fashion, and then things, as they say, take a turn. Bowie appears to be in the offing, but then Trey starts up my favorite moment of 1994, the Mind Left Body (Bowie?) jam, and good gracious is it a fantastic, joyful few minutes. Then Bowie kicks back in, and it's a damn fine version, full of weird teases (Hendrix, sure, but 3 Blind Mice? Really?) and crazed, atonal jamming - maybe my favorite Bowie of them all, when the MLB Jam is taken in. Horn and McGrupp are nice mid-set palate cleansers, and then we get into the *real* meat of the set. Tweezer immediately slips into this really beautiful minor chord groove before the band says "fuck it" and pushes the "hose" button, reaching the rock and roll noise nirvana they would practically make a science 18 months later, before the jam peters out (in a funny manner, to me at least) and they head into an uplifting, lighter-waving version of Lifeboy. Then comes a *punishing* YEM, which starts deceptively quietly before gunning the engines and just ramming maximum intensity riff-driven jams down our throats, then gives us a truly, truly goofy "Spam" vocal jam. Chalk Dust, ferocious as always, closes out the set, and Bouncing > Tweeprise sends everyone home happy. Well, happier.

1994's the year that everything really changed for Phish; this is one of the shows that showed us how far they'd come, during one of the greatest 7-day spans in the history of the band (the OJ show and 6/22 were all in that span - how ridiculous is that???), before Halloween and A Live One moved them to a different level. You want to know what the wild and crazy kids of mid-90s Phish were all about? Here's an excellent place to start.

This show has THE best Bowie and one of the best YEMs ever. Period. You really haven't lived until you've heard them. Insert ear diaphragm prior to listening because YOU WILL EARGASM!

aaaahhhhh, the good ol' daze!!!!!

the mind left body jam comes back with a vengeance about @ about 5 mins left in the tweezer... OH MY GAWWWWWD

To this day, this show really gives me the shivers when I throw it on. It was my first show, and a memorable one at that... I was only 16, and had just got home from boarding school for the summer. I remember being SO excited to finally see the boys as I had been grounded for smoking dope the last time they were in town at the Aragon Ballroom and couldnt go. To me, this show is complete... the venue is sooo small. I dont think it was sold out that night. I was just off the floor fish side and had plenty of room. The real tragedy of having a show like this be your first is that you dont get to truly appreciate how great it was. You are so enamored in what is 'Phish' and the whole scene enveloped with it that you lose sight of the music....at least I did...The second set is what really stands out to me. The Bowie>MLBJ>Bowie is absolutely stunning. And im a HUGE tweezer fan and this particular version is no pushover either. I walked out of this show completely awestruck thinking 'I am gonna do EVERYTHING in my power to see these guys as much as I possibly can while theyre around!'. 186 shows and 18 years later, I feel that ive fulfilled that promise I made to myself...: )

The Live Phish release has a soundcheck jam that is also the outro music on the ALO version of Squirming Coil. # random fact of the day.