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

There's nothing like your first Phish show. And there's nothing like a Phish show in your hometown. I was lucky enough to have both happen to me back in Summer `94. I was thirteen at the time, and some older friends of mine had insisted I see a bunch of shows around this time, it being Jazz Fest time as well. I saw some great music of those two weeks, and even remember catching a glimpse of Fish a couple rows ahead of us at the Elvin Jones/McCoy Tyner show. Phish hasn't been back to Montreal since. A terrible shame that I can only hope will be remedied sometime soon.
Theatre St. Denis is not a big place. I'd say there were at most 1200 people there, and it was basically full. To give you an idea of how intimate the show was: tons of people had taken off their shoes, myself included, and put them in a pile behind the speakers on Page's side. The band took advantage of this to do a few a cappella numbers without mics in both the first set and in the encore. And indeed, this show is as full of typical `94 playfulness as any other. Listen for the banter before the killer "Bowie" (w/ Munsters theme!) about doing "a song about a really good friend of ours "... someone we consider a brother" or something like that.
But I also consider Set II to be one of the great overlooked "Tweezer"fests of `94. And unlike some of its aimless counterparts, this "Tweezer", and the feats that follow, are all well constructed and focused fun. Trey leads a full-on "2001" jam in the "Tweezer".
Yeah, by the time the soaring "Hood" hit (the "Hood"s were goood in `94) I was pretty much hooked. If I hadn't been a clueless thirteen-year-old, I may have had the sense and means to get myself down to Great Woods to catch a Gamehendge two days later "....