This was my first Phish show. I had a friend who worked the counter for Ticketmaster at the local mall (remember when they had those?), so she scored us some second row tickets.

I was, for all intents and purposes, a total newbie. I'd heard A Live One a few times ("what kind of music is this? it's not rock music"), but honestly had no idea what I was in for.

My memories of the actual music are vague. Stash raged. Coil was the track that most definitely caught my ear. I don't even remember what's being touted as a very good Tweezer. Trey was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and I distinctly remembered he looked like a latter-day Tommy Chong. "Who the fuck are these guys? Who the fuck do THEY think they are?" was the thought that was going through my head most of the time.

Alas, something stuck. The next show I saw was Charlotte '96, and the next two after that were Hampton '97. I think we can all guess what happened after that....