After several years of listening to Phish, my friends finally convinced me to drive the long distance (80 miles) from my hometown to see the band for the first time. I thought this was too far to drive for a rock concert. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The night changed my life forever, as did many of our first shows.
The venue was basically a concrete box that could hold 5000 people. A large high school gym essentially with terrible sound, but that didn't matter. After listening to many live tapes of the band, they surprised me with many songs I had never heard: Buried Alive, NICU, Makisupa, KUNG!, and of course, Shaggy Dog. It opened up a completely different world to me. How could a band have this many songs that they didn't bother to put on their albums?
The Possum and Bowie still enter my regular listening rotation because they raged so hard. The band was powerful and humorous the entire night, making an experience that totally blew me away. The "shakedown" was only a few people selling shirts and beer, but I could already see the potential. A year later, they would sell three times as many tickets at Rupp Arena. On this night, they were still a well kept secret.