It was the summer of ’92 and I had just completed my freshman year at SUNY Geneseo in up-state NY. Back home on Long Island, a high school friend who was always picking up CDs based on articles found in guitar magazines had a new album he thought I would like - called Lawn Boy by a group called Phish.

I was immediately taken by the disc. I had never heard anything like it before (or since!) and I thought it was perfect. It was musically complex, theatrical, funny, and had a great groove. I immediately bought it along with the other Phish disc I found at the local independent/alternative record shop (Prime Cuts) called a Picture of Nectar. I have never enjoyed playing a CD for the first time as much as I did with those albums, and music has never been the same since.

6 months later back at Geneseo, I had found a group of like-minded fanatics with whom I was taking in the newest offering called Rift as well as the few bootlegs that people had found, when I heard that Phish was coming to our University. In retrospect, it seems some pretty amazing luck, but I don’t recall it being too out of the ordinary - it seemed right that they should come.

The show started off in a rocking fashion, but I don’t really remember the enormity of the experience setting in until It’s Ice. Not that the show itself was particularly great in a Phish show vs. Phish show comparison, but compared to anything else I had ever seen (which had included the Allmans and Santana) it was amazing. The music was dizzying and captivating. I was trapped beneath the Ice. I ran away with Jim. I was the Tetris piece (Shuttle? Kremlin?). I would never get out of the Maze. I didn’t know either!

Set Two starts in with Wilson, and was packed with classic period Phish numbers including Tweezer, Mike’s Groove, and a lyrically botched Fee. The post-Tweezer Contact, Uncle Pen, and BBJ do prevent Set II from sustaining momentum, but I was not complaining at the time. Then they get back to it with an interesting Mike’s Groove. Mike starts Mike’s Song with a Split Open and Melt lick (that’s how I hear it anyway) - not sure if they were not together on where to go or if they were trying a new groove, but it settles into a standard version after a minute until the run-up to the Hydrogen segue where Trey jams on a Simple riff (before Simple came out, of course). Weekapaug has some odd moments which include a brief Page solo and some very sparse playing by all involved before Trey ratchets it back to cruising speed.

In an interesting follow-up to the show, I entered a raffle for a signed Phish poster which one of the fraternities was having (they had someone on the event staff)…and won! I later found out that I was the only one who actually bought a raffle, but hey – a win is a win! This poster, now framed and still on my wall, was signed by 5 people – the band plus “Milli Luh” (or Jah or Luk). Not sure if this is Fee’s Fading Beauty or someone else on the crew or something else entirely, but would love to know if anyone has any ideas.

In retrospect, Jim from set I and Mike’s Groove from Set II are the stand-outs.