Ahhh, as the 12 year anniversary of this amazing show approaches, some great memories begin to flood back.
We stayed at a hotel within walking distance to the venue and I was bringing 3 Phish n00bs to their 1st show.
We had decent pavilion seats in the back center. Great sound and sight lines.

The show opened with what is widely considered to be one of the top Bathtub Gins ever. 24 minutes of pure HOSE! Gordo locks down a serious disco groove that just pulsates and drives the band to amazing places. Just a breathtaking start and the crowd is going ape shit at the end of the song. I remember turning to my Phish virgins (they had a major 'buzz' going) after this Gin and they WERE HOOKED!
Dog Log follows and it is still to this day the only one I have seen. Super rare and very well played.
Foam starts out a run of 3 'F' songs and Trey is very on point in his solo. The now uber-rare Fikus ensues followed by Farmhouse.
The debut of the reworked Vultures starts out, and the intensity is just mind blowing! Lots of peaks to end. Vultures is a very ominous song, and at this point I was speechless as the quality of the set.
Then another super rare song Glide! Keep it coming!
Set closes with a fiery Birds which was still relatively new. They hadn't explored the possibilities with Birds yet, but it was pure octane.
WHAT A SET!
2nd set opens with some spacey ambiance before Fishman starts the Buried Alive drumbeat and within a couple of minutes it was apparent this was no ordinary Buried Alive. They explored the boundaries and then some. Lots of Type 2 in Buried Alive??? Are you kidding me? This might be the only jammed out version ever! It was 15 minutes of amazing exploration. As they are winding down the version with repeated runs by Trey through the spaced out Buried Alive theme they pulled a major audible by going into a new cover, Call Me If You Need a Fool. This is the start of a trend in '98 that runs through nearly every single show through the end of the tour of debuting a cover. After the debut it segues into AC/DC Bag(which normally would've come out of Buried Alive! Outside of Atlanta 7/4/99, this is my favorite Type 1 Bag. Super high energy and lots of peaks before ending.
>Lizards! Super patient! If not for a lyrical flub in the 3rd verse, this might be a candidate for best ever. Super emotional.
>Tube---YES!! The funk is DEEP!
>Kung---whacko! Golf Cart Marathon!
>Antelope complete with Vacuum solo? are you kidding?
I was FLOORED by this set again!
The triple encore with Bittersweet Motel to close was the whip cream and cherry on the Phish sundae!
Amazing show. My n00b friends looked @ me with their flying saucer eyeballs and were slack jawed!