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

December in Chicago: its freakin' cold. Winter break had just started at school and I was going to see Phish for the second and third time. I had been listening to Phish for well over a year, and had a ticket to see them on the spring 1992 tour, but I got sick as hell the night before the show. I gave my ticket to a friend. Finally I got to see them open for Santana that summer, which was great but short. These two shows at The Vic were finally my chance to see them in their full glory; back to back nights and a free ticket for the second night, via the girl I was seeing at the time.
I can honestly say I was hooked from the moment they opened with "The Landlady". The Vic is not very large, its like an old movie theater. I was about midway between the stage and soundboard the first night and much closer the second night. At the time I had become familiar with Phish's song arsenal so, needless to say, when they went into "Chalk Dust" I was psyched! Trey was in a bobbleheaded frenzy; I vaguely remember commenting on how he must have the most insane headache after playing a three hour show.
Over the course of these two nights we got some very tasty song nuggets packed by the boys. Night one included: "Rift" (this was about a month before the album Rift hit stores and I was blown away by the song), "Lizards", "Mound", "Reba" > "I Walk The Line" > "Reba" (which was awesome) and Jonnny B. Fishman kicking out a "Whipping Post".
Night two also had the same energy and a killer song list that included: "Foam", "Fee", "Fluffhead", "The Curtain" > "Stash", "TMWSIY " > "Avenu Malkenu" > "TMWSIY", "Lengthwise" (which I thought had to be a joke, until Rift came out in January) and a "Possum" encore complete with a "Vibration Of Life". These two shows really are the ones that sent me on the path.
Andy Clawson