So we left Providence and drove to my Dad's house in west Jersey. Slept until 3pm and then hung out with my Dad for a bit. He had seen Phish once before and I tried to get him to go to this show but he wouldn't go without a ticket...
So we drove to the show and Luke's started breaking down every time we slowed down. We hit a ton of traffic outside the LIncoln Tunnel and broke down every few minutes. We had to push start it every time! We made it through the toll and immediately broke down again. The tunnel people came and gave us a jump and we made it through the tunnel. We get out of the tunnel and park immediately. It wasn't until after the show that we realized we parked right next to the Port Authority! Not the nicest place in those years...
We were late so we ran to the Garden by following all the heads and made it in just as they were coming on. In those days they did not search you at all before going in so you could bring ANYTHING you wanted inside. MSG back then was the greatest scene in the NorthEast. Just total insanity in and outside the venue.
This night was special because the boys had played some big places but this was the big room! Who ever thought our little band from Vermont would sell out the Garden? Not me for sure. It all happened so quick but at the time I was very excited for them. I feel like the band had some jitters this night. It was a fun show but it didn't really have the impact of most of the other shows I had seen. Plus we 12/29 was one of the classic shows of all time and this was the next night. It would have been hard to top themselves. I do remember we were happy to get 3 of the heavy hitters in one set. YEM,Tweezer and Harry. That was what stood out to me the most.
Post show we met up with Luke's friend and got insanely lost trying to find the Wetlands Preserve. We finally made it and a great band was playing called moe. I was pretty faced and they sounded FANTASTIC. I remember being in the downstairs lounge and it was filled with people smoking cannabis. The bouncer came over to a guy next to me who was smoking a cigarette and said "put that out". Best club ever in NYC. I ended up working there for awhile 5 years later but that's a whole other story. After they threw us out we drove a few people up to Peabody Mass and they let us stay in their house before my first NYE show...