This was my very first Phish show. Rode a Greyhound bus for 24 hours from northern Indiana for this show. I was still 15 and travelling with my sister. I was going mostly because of her excitement for it and what the little Phish that she had exposed me to. At that point the only album I had listened to was Billy Breathes and the only live show I had heard was the Nectar's show from mid 80's, so my Phish knowledge was very low. Not knowing 95% of the songs they played hurts my memory of the show itself. I didn't know what I was hearing. All I knew is Phish took control of my body with their music and made me dance my ass of like I never knew I could. Such a mind blowing feeling. I'm kind of glad I hardly knew any Phish when I went to these first shows because I wasn't chasing songs, I wasn't worried about how long jams were, and I wasn't picking the show apart which happens when you become a jaded vet. I had no expectations at all so I could be completely unbiased in judging what I saw and heard. And my judgement was indescribable love for this band, scene, and whole community.

Since then obviously I have seen many shows and immersed myself in their vast live catalog and I've listened back on this show many times. So to actually review the music. The Chalkdust opener is really good. You can feel the excitement when you listen to it, both of the band and the crowd. Then the Gin gets a good funky kind of groove for a while before climbing to a satisfying peak. I love this version of BOTT. It explores a bit more than the norm. wouldn't consider it type 2 but it gets close to it. I also love the Round Room that follows. Underrated song and should be played more. It has a sick outro that leads into The Horse very nicely. The Stash isn't bad but it isn't great. Some good tension jamming but this is one of the songs where you can hear the rust the boys were shaking off from hiatus. 2nd set starts with a banger. "Another new song?" You're damn right another new song and they are gonna jam it out over 20 minutes. They used to jam the hell out of that song in 2.0. The jam dies out into the start of Simple. The rest of the show is good but not great. I like Thunderhead and like most phans I wish they play that more and Antelope is always fun but nothing else stands out in the 2nd set besides 46 Days. Cavern is kind of butchered by Trey flubbing the lyrics and guitar multiple times. Mexican Cousin encore was ok but there really needed to be a 2nd song in that encore IMO to make it satisfying. Overall, I think this was a good, fun, exciting show but setlist flow is a little lacking and, like I said before, there is some definite rust in there. I gave it a 3 star rating but it's more like 3.5