[This post is courtesy of L. rufus on BlueSky who some of you may recall from RMP as squirrel. Read on to learn to whom Trey was directly speaking before launching into the encore. Fwiw you can listen to LivePhish Vol. 1 on YouTube Premium. -Ed.]

"ANGER, he smiles towering . . . !” The first time I saw Phish perform “Bold as Love” was as the encore to the 12/28/94 show in Philly. It was one of the best encores I’d seen, at the conclusion of a tremendous show that these days is overshadowed by the following night, but which at the time was transformational for me. “Bold as Love” thus became my favorite Phish cover. Prior to 12/14/95, however, I had only seen the song one other time (at the Mann on 6/24/95). Thus, while I still hoped to see “Bold as Love” at every show, I was starting to think I was doomed only to see it in Philly, if at all.

My original plan had been to attend the Binghamton show with my girlfriend at the time and her sister. Between the Phish Tickets by Mail order date, however, and the date of the show, my girlfriend and I had broken up. Her interest in the band had waned, and she was no longer interested in making the trek from Haverford College (where we were both students) up to Binghamton. To my enduring gratitude, however, she agreed to sell her pair of tickets to my friend Josh and his girlfriend, with whom I got a ride to the show. I’m not sure how or whether I would have been able to attend the show otherwise, being an 18-year-old with no car. The drive north to Binghamton was fraught, as we were buffeted with monsoon-like freezing rain. The roads were flooding, the car (it was a compact) was hydroplaning on the inundated roads, and I was feeling anxious in the backseat, trying to distract myself from my obviously imminent death by making a sign for the show.

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