It's been thirty years for the boys and a decade for myself. Having just turned 14 I ducked out of chemistry class early and my mom drove me down to Boston from NH for my first ever Phish show. I went in having only listened to one tape and a mix CD of their "hits" my brother had made me so I didn't know a lot of of the songs going in. As I got out of the car, the energy had changed, with lots of tense anticipation. After I got through security I looked at crowd and one man was dressed in a Winnie the Pooh suite...what fun!

Harry Hood....was probably my first time ever hearing it, and everyone was yelling HOOD, except what felt like me, and I am thinking POTTER???

What song I remember most is Ya Mar, because that was on the Phish tape I had at home and it was my most favorite song ever. I wanted to hear it live so badly but didn't expect so.

My brother gave me a pep talk before the show, and told me that when you see Phish live, it oftentimes sounds a lot different than what you might listen to on tape, or a CD at home, so just get ready for the music to always change from what you might expect (today those are still wise words)...and I remember during the show one of my friends pointed out that they had been playing a song for about fifteen minutes. Yes...very different than at home.

Kung...was wild... it almost made you nervous....And you couldn't help but let go and .... STAND UPPPP!!! As if anyone could possibly do anything else....

Then Frankenstein...

The lights got me the most I think. They were such a fantastic display of color changing through and with the music.... I couldn't believe that
lights would be ever so cool. The lights and the glow sticks. This sounds silly but I still have this glow stick I picked up and hung around my neck during that show. I felt so sentimental about it.

I think what surprised me a lot about the show was how many people were asking me for cigarettes (I was very innocent at that age) and also that the band didn't say a word to the audience. I had been to a bunch of different concerts at that point, and I was always excited to hear the band members talk to the audience... Person to person. It surprised me and kind of lingered that they didn't say a word to us. Not even a thank you.

My cousin gave me a copy of the show on CD and guess what I only listened to for the next 6 months.

Little did I know that 10 years later and many Phish adventures later I would still be finding solstice in this band. During this fall tour I couldn't help but think that I was the luckiest gal alive, and that all of us fans are really lucky, because we have such great American rock and roll band that keep a good grin on our face.

Here's to 30 years. I hope to see y'all for another ten!