europe 97 wins my nomination as best tour for the boys, so this show is a banger in my eyes. check this shit out on the youtube.
fish is lookin hairy, disgruntled, and all-together badass; trey, the same ginger-bearded, marvin the martian donning wildebeest we all know and love. (perhaps a little zombieish as he jumps on his own little drum set during crosseyed and painless.) on paper this show seems a little song-based, maybe due to a tv airing, but it nonetheless has some supreme jams.

set numero uno: nice little debut as an opener with beauty of my dreams..i'm always a dancin' man when it comes to cavern, and waste is a beaut. dirty tweezer; page and mike layin down a smooth groove initially, leaving trey to take this one over halfway through and go metal apeshit on germany.

dos: free is quite a journey, with trey's drumset adding some extra texture there. next to halloween 96's, this is probably my favorite Simple; just, heavenly. when the circus comes, you're not gonna jump up and head-bang, but it's still my favorite slow song. big jam to end the show was a dainty david bowie fit for a ballerina. page sets the pace coming into the jam, turning mr. bowie's 40th birthday celebratory tune into quite a tear-jerker, which builds and builds with the assistance of trey, who once again poops all over the german crowd, until this compact bowie peeks with grace.
lovin the theme encore, trey executes like tom cruise on a seemingly impossible mission to melt face.

only negative i could muster, once again, is that there seems to be a high amount of typical encore-esque, "piss-break" songs peppered throughout. but hell, its phish.

highlights: set 1: crosseyed and painless, tweezer

set 2: free, simple, bowie (theme encore)