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

One of the things I remember mostly clearly about the parking lots in Chicago was the fact that was amazingly cold, and snowing. Will and I were dressed up in costumes; he as Esther and me as McGrupp. I had made a cardboard collar on which I had painted, "If lost, contact Col. Forbin". We had a great time running around the lots, seeing old friends, and trying to stay warm. We went inside soon after the doors opened just because we knew it was warmer inside. We had seats somewhere near the rafters, but we quickly snuck down closer to the first section near the railing- sorry if we took your seats!
From the opening notes of "Icculus" to Trey screaming, "The book is getting its ass kicked!", we knew this show was going to be incredible. The first set was great, really high energy. It had "Divided Sky", "Wilson", "Ya Mar", "Sparkle", "Free", and the band and crowd were feeding off each other. I had not even heard of the strange little song about a pig with all the whistling, but "Guyute" was just great. When the band finished "Antelope" (and what an Antelope it was), I figured the set was over. Boy was I wrong. They busted out "Harpua", and this was . With all the talk of the "Vibration of Death", Mike's insane dream about raccoons, and the mouth watering tease of "Beat It", the band departed the stage for a quick break. Simply amazing.
There is not much I can add to the already many reviews of Phish's take on the Who's Quadrophenia. I was not a big Who fan, I was not even familiar with Quadrophenia, but it was an amazing second set, and a site to be seen. The third set was really big, with monster versions of every song. This great "YEM" fills up the whole side of my taped copy, and the touches of the horns in "Jesus Just Left Chicago" and "Suzy Greenberg" added an extra layer of icing on this delicious cake.
When I tried to relay the encore antics to some friends back in Blacksburg, they almost did not believe me. No really, I tried to convince them, Fish and Trey trashed a guitar, a drum kit, and ultimately depressed a plunger rigged to an explosive charge, all the while as Mike and Page were playing a loopy bluegrass version of "My Generation". It was an incredible finish to an incredible evening, and Will and I did not mind clearing the couple of inches of new snow off of his truck when we got outside. We finished this amazing birthday weekend by driving up to Madison WI where we stayed with our friend Bill and drank some great dark beers before heading back to school. Yes, 1995 was a great year for Phish and for me.