My first show. I was one of 12 audience members. Nobody knew them in NC but I had heard someone playing a live tape in the Stadium lot in Buffalo when the GD had played there Summer 89 so I wanted to hear them. The band spent most of set break chatting with us - I remember asking if they were inspired by the GD and Trey and Jon saying they were more Zappa fans. Songs I clearly recall include Bouncing Around The Room, Golgi Apparatus, You Enjoy Myself, Contact, Dinner And a Movie, Lawn Boy, Squirming Cool. Liked the show enough that I bought the Lawn Boy and Junta cassettes and a T shirt and went to see them over the next 4 months at the Brewery, Pterodactyl, 23 East Cabaret, their return to the Cats Cradle, and Townshend Family Park - which was quite an eye opener seeing them play for a crowd that was closer to 12,000 than to 12.

This is so much better than the earlier 84 and 83 tapes in existence both from a performance perspective as well as a sound quality perspective. That said, it's still not great and Phish tapes at this juncture are little more than historical curiosities. The fact that any of these shows rate higher than a one or a two is pretty mindboggling. Y'all are a lot kinder than me. I think super diehard Phish fans should give these a spin so they can hear the band's genesis, because they've come an astoundingly long way. This one isn't all bad though. The first half of what exists on tape is pretty entertaining and of solid bar band quality (Scarlet Begonias through Slave.) Spanish Flea is a fun curiosity as it's a peppy Herb Alpert cover than everyone kind of loves even though it has all the substance and sustenance of cotton candy. Once it gets to "Don't Want You No More" though, the set kind of nose dives in my opinion. A ten minute drums? (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) and the Skippy & Fluffhead with the Dude aren't terribly inspiring. The Eyes of the World has its moments and it's fun hearing Phish play it, but you aren't missing out if you never listen to this show.

Look, yea, set one is kinda a wash, but come on, if they had ONLY played this Simple and nothing else for this show, it’d still be at least a 3/5. Don’t miss out on this show, this Simple has that special sauce that meanders like a lot of the Europe 98 jams do, but has several different passages that develop into some amazing music and is a jamming style they don’t really run with for the rest of 98. The Mike’s Groove surrounding it is slick high energy type 1 playing. Then we have the Haley’s which is again type 1, but is a long drawn out cow funk groove and peaks well. Listening in on tape, this is closer to a 3.5-4/5, depending on if you can just get over the abbreviated length (which should be easy since there are plenty of other shows to listen to afterward). I get it, tour closer, technical issues, it was probably a bummer to be there, but look at how they made the best of this show and what they managed to salvage. This is sitting at a 2.8 right now, putting it in league with Vegas 04, that ain’t right. Everyone should check out this set 2, it is still very much worth hearing.

A re-listen review. This Stash has to be one of the best jams of the tour, if not the year. It has some of everything: 99's signature precision and haziness, and then a fiery conclusion that reminded me very much of 7/25/99's My Left Toe> Whipping Post. I love the second set, but it's pretty much what you see is what you get. They're all quite strong versions, and it's a really good set, but nothing gets to the must-hear level, although that Sand....

This show is a pretty rough in patches but it has it’s moments. The Mfmf and Rift both feel like the band is having a low energy night. The Ya Mar takes a nice walk but doesn’t really move beyond a meandering type 1 jam. The Cities is probably the biggest highlight of the show, and the back end starts to resemble the back end of YEM as it pushes towards the peak. It’s definitely worth a listen if nothing else. The Stash flirts with be coming interesting around the 7 minute mark before falling right back into it’s regular progression with the band looking for but never really finding something to push Stash over the edge. The second set doesn’t have a lot going on. Free is fine, If I Could is played well, but the set list doesn’t really have much cohesion or any stand out moments. I’m sure for rarity hunters, being at this show must have been fun, but solely on tape, you won’t be missing anything skipping the set entirely. If you’re looking for a show without a lot of jamming and a weird set list, check out 7/28/98, it’s got much tighter playing with just as random song choices but it all comes together into a very enjoyable show. As it stands, 7/31/98 is one of the weakest from summer 98.

I want to put in a good word for this Bowie in particular; the show as a whole just smokes at both ends, but this Bowie is great stuff from the [i]just [/i]pre-Type II days. The Vibration of Life is great in and of itself, but the central jam dives into cubist territory almost right off the bat, the angularity approaching the realms of the cartoonish right away. Upbeat but also sharp and right-angled, comparable in certain ways to a Mothers of Invention improv right around the time Lowell George was in there. For a second or two even Carl Stalling comes to mind. The cartoonishness pops up again later in the more typical E minor jam before they bring the song back around. Too brief (August is just months away though).

I actually had the “official” review for this show. Suffice it to say that housing arrangements did not allow me adequate time for reflection. I pretty clearly remember some guy saying “you spent less than a paragraph on the golden age. Kiss my ass.” And kiss his ass i shall, at least In hindsight, because that jam is the one of the show, and also one of the darkest, nastiest jams of the entire 2018 fall tour, which is one of my favorite tours ever. Lotsa motion, dodging and weaving. Trey plays rhythm master to page’s plinko. Mike makes an issue out of all of it. Then comes the shipwrecked quotes. And then page starts doing them in reverse. Which is against the rules. And when all of the sanity left the room. Total melt of a show.

These 2 Laguna Seca Daze (LSD) shows ended Phish's 45-show spring tour the way Phish loves to party, with music and camping! I was not there, but I feel it through the music. The first night (5/28)'s first set sounded like an early 3.0 "festival" set, but that notion flew completely out the window from that night's 2nd set through the 2nd encore of 5/29. As mentioned, 5/28 is well known for the Reba and Claypool YEM, and the Ice and Tweezer are also fantastic. This night has a looseness and a playfulness that expresses the band's mood at the end of the first leg of a great tour before a 1.5 week break. Especially great are the Bowie, Melt, McGrupp, ANTELOPE, and Hood. And then a double encore! Because as Trey says before Hood, "This is the last bit before we go home and take a vacation, so we kind of feel like, keep playing, you know... what are we gonna do for the next 2 weeks?" This show is a great cap to a great month of Phish.

I was somewhat disappointed listening to the first 2 nights of this 3-night Warfield run. The band was at the tail end of a 45-show spring tour here, and May '94 continued Phish's upward trajectory of ever-better playing. Aside from 5/25's Tweezer and 5/26's YEM, both of which are amazing, the first 2 nights are mostly average-great (that is to say, mindblowing, just not reaching the crystalline transcendence Phish is capable of). Night 3, however, this Friday night 5/27 show, gives something more to write home about. Without going into too many words, definite highlights in Bowie, Hood, and Reba, but especially everything from Mike's Song through the end of the run deserves knowing. After playing around with Simple-style jamming during a couple '93 Mike's Songs, the "song" finally debuts tonight with the lyrics droning over great swells of screaming, cymbals, and be-bophones. It's not every band that can close out a 3 night run by debuting something never heard before like this on their audience. After returning to Mike's Song, the jam vaporizes into the dimensionless space where no concepts can exist. Out of this ether arises a melody through Trey's guitar that speaks the original language of the heart. That melody turns out to be a Puccini aria, which Phish naturally has a professional opera singer come on stage to sing sans microphone. During the brief opera, [from the phish.com show notes:] "the band handed out boxes of Kraft Flintstones macaroni and cheese for the audience to shake (this was the 3rd Mac and Cheese Jam in the tradition of 9/27/85 and 10/31/89) during Possum and Fire. Appropriately, Possum also included a tease of the “Flintstones” theme." In sum, while far from the best 3 night run in Phish's career, the Tweezer, YEM, and 5/27 are all very worth hearing.

I was very surprised to read the reviews here after listening to the show. The setlist has some completely unique moments, and I thought the playing was the most consistently inspired throughout a show I've heard since mid May, and there've been some good shows since then! Firstly, the soundcheck. Though I don't know of any recordings circulating for this, an experimental Makisupa and Voodoo Chile Jam (likely a rollover joke from 6/13/94's pre-encore tease of the song) reads very well. First set second song Guelah post-Asse Festival pauses for a Sweet Adeline (that would be noteworthy enough) and is then followed by the wild psychedelia of an excellent Digital Delay Loop Jam (third ever appearance of that jam), before returning to Guelah. Heads should be turning. Rift then captures the sizzling energy the song was written with perfectly, both the intro and outro of DWD has some extra churning effects, and Fee's outro is slightly more extended than usual and is bubblingly beautiful. A few masterfully played songs later, IDK pauses for the very rare unamplified MSO, and then returns to IDK to complete the set's 2nd surprise sandwich. And finally, Split Open and Melt doesn't let up, so much so that at the short set length of 58 minutes, the band decides to end the set after Melt instead of trying to top that jam with anything else. Second set you get the first set-opening Frankenstein, and what a way to start a set! David Bowie then requires multiple listens to appreciate all it does. The band is locked in, and this jam goes many exciting, diverse, gritty, groovy, DEG-like places. Highly impressive playing all around. It's Ice also gets taken to some very pleasing patterns, and even Sparkle sounds especially on-point tonight. Then comes the YEM, which, following the 6/11/94 Red Rocks version, gives these 2 YEMs a bid for the biggest and best back-to-back versions of a single song played to date. '94 YEMs have been getting extra experimental, if not entirely leaving YEM structure then creating new sub-structures within it. This version straight rocks, with the old school On Broadway tease throwback, and a section where the crowd is so swept away everyone claps along to a mellow section in Trey's solo before getting their heads blown off by the rest of the song. The rare -> out of YEM (3rd of the show after the segues from DWD -> Fee -> MFMF) leads to HYHU and a superb Fishman vocal performance and extra funky vacuum solo in Bike. I love Mike's vocals and playing throughout the set closing Possum. Trey rocks the Possum as he does the Sample encore, and I'm happy for Sample to be the first Hoist song to be given the encore nod. Also, this night led to some significant band interactions with ZZYZX, recounted in his highly enjoyable tour memoir This Has All Been Wonderful. The playing tonight is tight and filled with the deep listening creativity I love most in Phish shows. Don't hesitate to listen and Enjoy this sweet one.

This is a difficult show to review because there is just too much going on to really capture it all with words. The band's playing is really tight throughout and in particular, the 2nd set is a showcase of great communication and the willingness to take cues and explore musical ideas with abandon. Highlights: 1) [b][u]Stash-> Kung-> Stash[/u]:[/b] Oh my god, Trey is in peak form for this screaming tension filled Stash. Banshee wails behind Fishman's deft tribal drumming and Page with great melodic phrasing to hold things steady. After several spell-binding minutes of Trey's tension filled soloing, the jam settles into a bass/drum driven subtle groove and minimal playing from Page and Trey. The Kung incantation emerges over this quiet beat and then leads back into a final coda of Stash. Extremely strong Stash and jewel of Set I 2) [u]Glide[/u]: The perfect tune to follow that raging Stash. Trey's playing is too good. I haven't heard a Glide executed with such speed and precision in a while! 3) [u]Reba[/u]: Superb playing from Trey and Page - phenomenal version 4) [b][u]David Bowie -> Jessica Jam -> David Bowie -> Have Mercy -> David Bowie[/u]:[/b] Right out the gate, Trey is playing a dark riff over the Bowie intro hats and Page immediately starts teasing Jessica. Trey picks up pretty quickly for a brief but wonderful riff on Jessica before returning to the original dark riff played over Fishman's hi-hats. This dark riff theme returns after the main composed section of Bowie, with Mike aping Trey's riff and Page offering dissonant trills. The theme evolves as the tempo increases, and various band members start yelling into the chaotic jam. Glorious fun, but far from over! The darkness eventually emerges flawlessly into the beauty that is Have Mercy. And to complete this triple decker, the band again executes a flawless return to the chaos of the Bowie jam with a raging conclusion to this excellent musical foray. Crowning jewel of this show and is priority listening for those who don't have the time/patience for a whole show. 5) [u]It's Ice[/u]: The band takes a brief interlude to jam out this tune. Atypical, brief, and even funky for a minute. The way the band is able to morph between the main song and these strange digressions is impressive 6) [b][u]The Squirming Coil[/u]: [/b] Keeping up with the atypical interesting jams, the band jumps right back in during Page's outro solo to take an extended foray into a bluesy and funky jam that's especially fun to hear both because its coming off the heels of Coil and because the improv is so good it almost sounds composed 7) [b][u]Mike's Song -> Crossroads-> Mike's Song[/u]:[/b] Another great jam that involves an incredible and energetic sandwich into Crossroads! The playing is unsurprisingly enthusiastic, but my biggest impression is with how well everyone seems to be communicating with one another to play off each others energy and execute these weaving transitions between songs and musical ideas. Incredible show, check it out ASAP!

The Riverport Gin is infamous as it should be, but this show as a whole is monster of its own. Particularly, set two really shines as its own stand alone piece. Highlights: 1) [b][u]Bathtub Gin[/u]:[/b] Jam starts on in full hose mode, typical Gin fare, then morphs into some dirty funk by 15 min. Everyone here is locked in. Mike's bass tone is incredible, Page is peppering the whole affair with organ licks and then some baby grand, Trey is alternating between brief swirling leads and funk chords, and Fishman is holding down a steady groove while executing hits and rolls seamlessly. This is a masterclass of a jam that evolves without ever feeling forced. The return to the main Gin theme is excellent and by the end of this funk excursion, the boys could have just walked off the stage for set break. Amazing start to the show! 2) [u]Dog Log[/u]: Who doesn't love a song about dog shit? Would go nuts if I ever saw this tune. 3) [b][u]Buried Alive[/u]:[/b] Alright! Bowie opener! Start those hi-hats Fishman! Wait... WTF?! Fishman, that's the wrong drum beat... oh hot damn, buried alive emerging out of some Bowie-esque dissonance! That intro is a strong hint that this not going to be your typical high energy blues fest. After experiencing a more dissonant than usual take on the song proper, the band leans into the rollicking Buried Alive beat and push into high energy psychedelia. Trey is on an unrelenting shred fest while Page and Fishman are providing lots of pounding noise. Things eventually begin to drift towards more ambient territory, well beyond the bounds of Buried Alive, although the main melodic theme is amazingly maintained in bastardized form. Two phenomenal set openers. This is a hell of a show! Buried Alive seamlessly transitions into... 4) [b][u]If You Need A Fool[/u]:[/b] ...a fun and energetic take on this great bluegrass/folk tune. Too much fun! 5) [b][u]AC/DC Bag[/u]:[/b] Short, but amazing Bag! The band feels confident and locked in, every note lands with purpose and Mike is really plucking the feathers out of that bass line. The song eventually hits two huge peaks and from the crowd cheers you can tell everyone is raging face! 6) [b][u]Tube[/u]:[/b] Extended funk and grooves galore. Great version of a song that is always a welcome treat in any set. I particularly love Mike's solo breakdown over the delay loops before the band slides back into the funk like thick socks on a hardwood floor. 7) [b][u]Kung> Run Like an Antelope[/u]:[/b] A spacey Kung emanating from the Tube funk wallows right into a lilting Antelope. Don't worry, this beast doesn't lilt for long. The rocking energy that characterizes this entire 2nd set is ever-present as this Antelope kicks and flails to several chaotic peaks, the tension unrelenting before finally releasing into some beautiful aye-rocco funk where Mike really thickens the room with chunky peanut butter bass. A delicious version and apt ending to a beautiful set. 8) [u]Waste[/u]: Say what you want about this tune, but when Trey is on, this song has a gorgeous and soulful outro. Case in point.

Man, Cavern opener! Why is this not a thing? It's a great opening tune. Nice Split, Coil, Ice (ReListen show cut out before the end of the track), Mike's, and Tweezer. Early 90s Guelah and Llama are always money. Overall, the show is a really solid, well-played show. This is definitely an improvement from the previous night (4/22/92 Eugene, OR) where there were a ton of flubs and the playing just was not very sharp. Worth a spin if you want a nice show you probably missed from their historic April 1992 run.

Living large in the land of sin. We went to this Kid Rock show and the opening band was pretty good..... We left the always classy Stardust in two taxis from two separate companies, and pretty sure we started a taxi war. The lot was happening and on our way in we saw Kid Rock. Initially cool, there is Kid Rock. Then, what is he doing here? Then NO! Please NO! Enjoyed the Mellow Mood and Spock's Brain. Gin was great and the second set opener of Dinner and a Movie is always enjoyed. Loved the Moma Dance and 2001. Things were building nicely, it was a madhouse inside and... Then the headliner appeared. At first it was funny, especially the Rapper's delight. Then it just became tedious. We kept thinking he would leave, and he kept coming back....Not my favorite Phish moment. Afterwards we were released into the madness of Vegas including the Hard Rock Casino Cafe where we didn't fit in, but we certainly had fun.

This one starts off hot and heavy with an infectious Moma Dance and an overall nicely played Set I with the hidden gem of a Ghost which absolutely smokes. The setlist may not look like much on paper but the flow and vibe is all there. A fantastic YEM closes out an amazing set I and there's still lots of goodies ahead in set II. This is one of the underrated shows of the summer. I've never really heard a major pitch for it and I was not expecting to love it nearly as much as I did. Don't skip it if you are trying to hit the Summer 1998 highlights.

Front to back, I loved every single moment of this show. It feels cohesive, focused, yet fun and loose. The famous Gin from this show is worthy of every bit of acclaim it has gotten. It is probably my favorite jam of the tour and, currently, my favorite Gin of all-time. That said, every song is perfectly placed, well-played, and the flow of this show was just perfect. Dog Log was a great followup. Oh my goodness, I love Fikus live! First time hearing it. Bring it back! It's such an interesting tune and it could have been turned into a fascinating segue out of a jam if they had kept in rotation more. Of course, Set II is anchored by the out-of-nowhere jam in Buried Alive which beautifully segues into If You Need a Fool. This really is a unique bit of music. Lizards, Tube, Antelope and some Kung on top. It's a unique show with a wonderful flow and energy throughout. Beautiful encores to boot. After listening to the whole Summer U.S. 1998 tour, this is my favorite of the tour. Everything I love about Summer 98 is right here.

I listened to this on @dscott recommendation and man is it a great show. For anyone who wants a deep cut from the early 90s with absolute fire playing, an all-time Divided Sky and YEM in my book, along with lots of other fantastic moments (Bowie, Sloth, Stash, Cavern, Mango, A Train). It's just a front-to-back fantastic show with a particularly great Set II. It was one of those where when I finished it I immediately relistened to a bunch of moments again. The band sounds fantastic and totally locked in. The AUD on ReListen lacks the encore and a couple of the songs cut in a few measures late but even then, this is an A+ show and the AUD still sounds good.

See my review above and here's my apology. I guess I'm a jaded old bastard and the Show of Life always was a call to the exits for me. Then I listened to Season One of the Long May They Run podcast in which Trey explains the song. And now I'm a humbled and adoring fan of the song. Sometimes its just shut the fuck up (interior monologue) and listen to the music. Look forward to seeing you all again when we can.

My very first Phish show. Not disappointed in the slightest. I hoped for a Mercury, a S.A.N.T.O.S., and a Jibboo on the way over and was treated and delighted with all three. Especially this Jibboo. My god, this was WAY above average in my opinion. Have Mercy set the laid back mood, Lifeboy was a rare one I didn't see coming, Taste is killer, Jim was great, and how about this for a phirst Phish show treat: a Tweezerfest. Like, come on. I couldn't have asked for a better time. Thank you Phish for the wonderful night. See you again soon.

A bit scattered with some flubs here and there, but overall a fun show. Features a ton of songs that are on my "too see" list so I envy some folks here. Almost bought tickets to this show too. If I'd have known Covid was gonna hit us like a ton of bricks I would have gone! Thank goodness for LivePhish, though. It's not the best show of the three, but that's subjective as is anything. Enjoy yourself, Phans.

This was my first show. It was a life changer. My best friend took me. We have been in a relationship ever since. It was definitely the show to enter the phish world. I will never forget this show. Phish has truly become a huge part of my life. From falling in love with the environment and the phans to getting proposed to at a show. 8/8/2015 was definitely a new start thay was very much needed.

Happy 22nd birthday to a fun show. My cousin and I attended the 7/31 show together in Columbus (his home turf) so we figured we’d call it equal if he and his sister drove down for this one. Halfway to the venue my bud remembered he forgot his ticket back in chapel hill. Bummer. Brief thunderstorm gave way to the opening pairing of water/drowned. I recall good renditions of stash and foam in the first set as well as the big col forbin/mockingbird bust out. I was a big enough fan at the time to know it was a big deal, but not to assess the execution. Thank goodness for @ucpete! Second set featured an absolutely filthy mike’s jam. Trey went off hard for a minute or two, just tearing up the fretboard. Bearing in mind they’d played Disease in Atlanta the show before, it was surprising to hear the beginnings of a tease in weekapaugh. It sounds as though Trey caught himself about halfway through the lick and buried it. This waste is my favorite version of a tune I really don’t enjoy that much. The solo is beautiful. Listen to the foam, stash, mikes, and paug

This show is for sure all about the first set, but don't sleep on the second set either. Fantastic versions of Stash, Gumbo, and Crosseyed in the first set. And to think that at this time, Crosseyed was still a rather rare song and had only been played a handful of times since the Halloween 96 debut. I really like where this Stash jam goes so early in the set. The Gumbo is must-hear Phish. Maybe the next best jam to the Went Gin from this summer tour? You be the judge and you don't have to pick a favorite.. they can be co-favorites! I was surprised to see that this version of Ghost was not on the Jam Charts. I really liked this version, more than a few others on this tour. Great segue into Izabella, too. Kind of a funny mid-set Sleeping Monkey.. definitely more of an encore song nowadays. McGrupp>Sample is a bit of a slower segment, but that funky 2001 picks things right back up, and the Golgi>Frankenstein closes things strong. Overall one of the best shows of Summer 97, with one of the marquee jams of the tour in Gumbo

Rating: 6/10 Belgian Francs This is a very up and down show. Nothing in it that reaches the levels of London, and some off placement on some of the songs. Standouts are YEM, Disease, and Reba. Jim is a nice start to this show, and a well-played version. Jim openers are always nice! Some good playing from all parties. Bodes well! NICU is the perfect placement. Great flow to this set so far. YEM: great version! The section following tramps gets really quiet with some lovely playing from Trey. Not what I would call typical YEM at all. Really cool. Mike has some weird effect going for Drums And Bass, but it works. Vocal jam is nothing too extraordinary and just kind of dies out. Sweet Adeline mid first set is an interesting placement. It kind of works though. Axilla: the energy is back! Trey’s tone is Perfect and Fishman is a beast. It’s Ice: Trey doesn’t exactly nail the composition here, but it’s mostly fine. The break down section is just Page providing a mostly classical sounding solo (playing all alone) before taking it slightly atonal with some Mike in the mix into the end of ice. I like this version! Billy Breathes: not really ready for a down song here. This set is very up and down so far in terms of energy. I mean, I love BB, but this is maybe not the best spot for it. Still, nice soloing from Trey. Uncle Penn puts us back on track with some energy followed up by a great Antelope! Let’s say this about ‘lope: if I had to choose one song to end every first set it would be Antelope. Even an average Antelope is awesome. This one gets interesting in the middle with some cacophonous jamming leading into the stop, which sees Fish continue to whale on the drums for another few measures. Then it comes on home, followed up by the infamous “see you in 15 minutes.” Set 2 Bag struts its stuff. Some really good jamming in here, and it takes its time. Bodes well. Ya Mar stretches it’s legs a bit with some nice playing, and a little bit of vocal silliness. Disease feels like the first song of this tour to sniff true type 2. It’s another round of cacophonous jamming and then a return to the song proper to end it. Very nice. Funky Bitch really stars Page who just tears up the keyboard. Reba! Very nice Reba jam. Who doesn’t love a Reba jam? They can suck it. This one gets messy a couple of times but still soars. From about 11:30 on is really excellent. No whistling. Intro to next song: “to make sure you don’t confuse this next song with the sauce, this song is called Walfredo, not Alfredo. I guess Walfredo is growing on me a little bit, but I still don’t think it’s very good. RAW on the other hand—I love this song. It kind of rules. Mule has a great extended piano solo from Page, and then is unfinished > A Day In The Life. Well played version to end the set. Encore: Zero. Yeah, okay.

Rating: 7/10 Deutschmarks Highlights: Crosseyed, free, steep->Bowie, Theme The energy at these Europe shows continues to be way up there! Set 1: Nice start to the show with Beauty of My Dreams. Good way to start a show, and apparently it was the debut! This is a pretty good Melt, but doesn’t do anything super memorable. The first highlight of the night comes with this Crosseyed, which is played at the right speed: fast. Fish messes up the lyrics and actually totally restarts, which is rather humorous, and then the jam gets kind of out there. It feels a little but like a turning point of the tour, as it gets pretty weird, but rather than going on as long as I wanted it to, it cuts off early. Still, nice micro jam! Guelah works in the spot. Nothing wrong with a good Guelah. Ginseng is Ginseng. I like it as the song before a good Tweezer. Compact Tweezer here that doesn’t go out there, but is perfectly solid. Waste is nothing special, but if you like Waste (and I do) this is a good spot for it. And then we’ve got the set ending fake out! Cavern! But instead of ending on Cavern we move straight into Chalk Dust! This is a rocker ending to the set, and the CDT is slightly slower than the one from a few days earlier, but possibly better. Set break: about 15 minutes. Set 2: I love Sample as a set opener, and this one is played well, but CTB kind of throws off the energy. Free, however, picks it right back up, and this is an excellent Free. The jam is quite good, and not totally typical. Sparkle is Sparkle. Nice placement. Simple does some great type 1 before quieting down and -> Circus. Swept Away> Steep -> Bowie is a fantastic sequence, with Steep dissolving into the hi hat intro. Really great Bowie that feels a lot longer than its 13 minutes. Loving Cup > Tweeprise works quite well to end the set. Encore: A really well played Theme starts the encore in a spot I wouldn’t expect to see it. Could have ended right there, but Trey’s gotta Trey, so we also get Johnny B Goode as a final farewell before the end of the night. I quite enjoyed this show, and will probably go back to Crosseyed and Bowie at least a few more times.

Rating: 7/10 Pounds The energy is very high for this show! The crowd is pumped and into it! CDT: very VERY fast version! It’s easy to forget how fast they used to play it. Blazing fast and fun! Wolfman’s: nice version, with just a hint of the funk coming later in the year. 2001: not too long, but quite good. Stash: the highlight to this point. A weird and noisy jam at points, and I always love the return to stash. Walfredo: is this supposed to be good? I don’t like it. Reminds me of a bad Spock’s Brain. Take a breath before this next series of songs... Taste> waste > poor heart > zero > peaches is absolute grade A phish. The taste rages, waste almost loses me with a slight Trey flub early but regains it’s footing, than a lightning fast poor heart. This zero though. Man, it is great. Trey really goes and gets it with a bit of wah wah. The crowd is super in to the beginning, clapping the beat during the intro. Kind of cool! And then the white whale appears, a song I will never get, Peaches! And it rules! Love Me: not sure what inspired them to do this cover, but it doesn’t really fit and breaks up the flow of an unbelievable set. Bowie: pretty good Bowie, though nothing to write home about, but it would absolutely be near the top of 3.0 Bowie’s if played today. Set 2! This is an on fire Julius, and a great way to start the set. CTB seems above average with Page really bringing the heat. My Soul is pretty standard. This PYITE is certainly...something? It’s a sloppy mess. However, it leads into this weird Jam that is well worth it and salvages a so-so set. The Jam is minimalist and cool and eventually goes into a gorgeous Slave > when the circus comes. An absolutely stunning 23 minutes of music between those 3. Maze: more audience clapping! This audience is loving it! A nice rocker of a Maze that gets a little weird at the end and doesn’t finish before > RAW. Rock-A-William. Never heard it before. This is a much better silly phish song than Walfredo. Hood> Stein: holy damn. The jam in hood goes to the place of ethereal lightness that is just beautiful. Nice little quiet section that really lets Page shine. Then they bring it back up and all of them are just locked in and letting the universe flow into the room. Unbelievable. Just fantastic Hood! But we aren’t content to end the set with a joyous good hood. Nope! The fires of Hood scare Frankenstein out of his castle and he comes roaring out to end the set in fiery fashion. And boy is that drop into Frankenstein fantastic with Page bringing the heat again. A really great set comes to a rocking end. Hot stuff! Encore! Caspian as an encore? Eh, okay. The slow build-in to the opening of the song is nice before the song really starts. I wish they would do that more often. Fish is hitting the drums kind of hard for a Caspian though, like he doesn’t appreciate not being able to rock out for the encore right away. It’s kind of a rough version, honestly, though it does improve once it gets past the main song to the Trey solo. Nice work out of Trey there once he gets going. JBG is a much more fitting way to end this show though. Nice and fiery for sure. Trey shred-fest! Highlights for me were that Jam>Circus section and that unbelievable Hood.

Nothing to complain about set 1, but other than a groovy version of Free, it's in the "solid but not spectacular" category. Set 2 is another story, with nearly every song getting an extra splash of hot sauce. The Chalkdust is one for the ages, and the band makes just about every minute count... several times I'd thought they reached the appropriate stopping point, only to build things to a new level. The peak of the jam, wow just wow, they definitely dug their heels in and blew the crowd's head off. We're talking any era, not just 3.0. I didn't know they still had that kind of game left in them, lol... Between 3 and 3.5 for set 1, and a definite 4.5 to 5 in set 2.

Come for the Ghost, stay for the Ghost. This is a fantastic early show on the Summer Tour, and it's really all about that Ghost. This is hands down the most locked-in, funkiest, grooviest Ghost of the entire summer tour. I used to think the Denver 97 Ghost was top dog, but after several listens to this version, I'd have to say that the Lakewood Ghost nudges it out as best ever, at least in my book. The porno-funk just rages so hard and never relents. There are other great jams sprinkled throughout this show, but it really just boils down to how awesome that Ghost is. Listen to it... NOW!

Damn, this show kind of has it all. Coming on the heels of a killer show the night before, this night delivers even more of the goods. Highlights include Gin through Disease, SOAM, Hood, and really the whole second set, although some of the Rotation Jam goodness is lost in translation on tape. They kick things off with a really strong three-song opening sequence, with the Gin and Disease both getting the special treatment. There are a few standard 97 tunes in there, and then the epic SOAM jam. Definitely check this one out. A rare treat in Bye Bye Foot and a rock solid Hood, with Trey really urging the fans to be prompt during setbreak as the band would be back in EXACTLY 15 minutes, set your watches, don't get caught in the bathroom... This second set is quite a treat. Cities is a masterpiece and should have been played at every show in 1997. GTBT is standard-great, and the Rotation Jam through Bowie to complete the set is pure Phishy madness. I'm sure the Rotation Jam and Rock-A-William were completely insane in person, and although you can get that feeling on tape, both tunes are kind of odd and not super-listenable more than once. Bowie, equal in length to the Cities that opened the set, brings home this grand set. If I had to pick two jams from this show, I would go with Cities and Bowie. Check em out

The opening four-song stretch of this show is top-notch Phish. Theme really developed as a nice set one opener during the Summer 97 tour, and this version sits high among them. PYITE is kind of the "classic" set one opener so they throw that in the mix and really get the party started. You can't go wrong with Ghost->Taste anytime, and this Ghost especially delivers. Extra funky and danceable, this version can hang toe-to-toe with the Lakewood Ghost. Taste is its typical, gorgeous self. I'm not usually a big Reba fan, but this one made me feel some feelings that I haven't felt about Reba in quite some time... there's a reason it was released on a LiveBait. Crossroads..awesome bustout. The second set breaks from the typical Summer 97 structure a bit and delivers a lot of shorter but enthusiastic versions of songs that you might find elsewhere in the setlist normally. I dig the Wilson>Foam opener.. Foam had been and still is almost an exclusively first set song, this being the lone exception for many shows prior and all shows hence. This monster Mike's Groove to close the set is really fun. I'm a huge fan of Ain't Love Funny, and although this version doesn't quite compare to the Amsterdam version, I still love its placement in this set. Five "S" songs come next and all are well-played. You can hear the crowd really getting into it during SOAM when Trey and Mike start dueling, although the playing doesn't quite translate on tape. Overall a really great show during a summer of REALLY great shows