This is the kind of show that helped get me into Phish. It's accessible, in that there are no monstrously whacked out '94/'95 Tweezeresque jams. For the most part it's *extremely* tight, and, most of all, it's HOT. Right out of the gate, with Chalkdust, Foam, and Paul & Silas, you can tell they are ON. Melt and Jim are not mind-blowing, but definitely tight and well played. It's Ice is pretty shaky, but being that it was two weeks old at that point, that can be forgiven, and Llama, despite the false starts, has a blazing jam.

Set two starts with the highlight of the show, IMO, a rendition of Brother that blew the windows out in my apartment. What a way to open a set, just SICK. The Reba is a fine version, and while it sticks to the basic formula and moves smoothly to a Classic Reba Wail peak, it's extremely well done (B-/B version IMO). Antelope then comes along and just RAGES THE FUCK OUT OF THE PLACE, even though it eases back instead of releasing into Rye Rye Rocco at the peak. We have yet another nickname for Fishman ("A master of disguise...Butch Cassidy!") and, shocker of all time, Trey forgets the lyrics to Fee. That never happens, right? Anyway, the first set closes with a Mike's Groove, and though I think they had run out of gas a little bit by the time Weekapaug rolls around (I was a touch disappointed, thought the Weekapaug would just blow up), the Mike's Song has an excellent F jam. Cap it all off with a double encore, a nice Coil and, fittingly, a fiery Fire. If I wanted to be picky, I would say that the 2nd set was missing one more jamming tune and had a few too many song songs, if you know what I mean. But I won't say that, even though I just did. A great show, and if you want to introduce someone to classic, tight, flamethrowing Phish, this is a good show to do it with. A solid 4 Stars, with absolutely no bonus for being at the EMU Ballroom.

EMU POWER!!!