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

This was my first show ever! By this time I had already heard a tape from the Catalyst show in October, so my interest was piqued. I had just recently moved to a loft in downtown LA so the show was about as local as it could get. The theatre itself was beautiful! Very ornate and somewhat inappropriate for a rock show. In those days when Dionysian Productions was booking Phish in some of the prettiest old theatres in California.
I remember liking Widespread Panic as the opening act. But they were not quite in the same league as the headliner. Phish grabbed me by the ankles if not from the first few bars of “Oh Kee Pa” then definitely by the time they started raging through “Suzy”! I found the band to be an interesting mix of many of the musical styles I like, yet, somehow they still were not easy to pigeonhole into a simple category. The band ranged from bluegrass covers with all due respect to Bill Monroe to insane vocal jams that twisted and turned and included quotes from popular songs. Man! Who and what are these guys?
I did not realize until much later how cool that set had been! If anyone has a tape out there that would be really fantastic, Well, needless to say, Phish hooked me and I was signed up for the rest of the shows that tour that I could conveniently make. The next two or three nights were spent driving from venue to venue.