A long story:

This was my first Phish show. I had gotten into the band in 2012 through a friend at summer camp (not a unique path to Phish, to be sure). My first opportunity to see the band came in Summer 2013, but unfortunately I didn't know anyone else who could go with me (my friend was working that summer and unable to attend). But I was determined to go and convinced my parents to let young 16-year-old Yam attend the show solo. I took a train from NYC up to Saratoga alone and attended my first ever show solo.

The show itself is a very solid show. The first set is pretty standard but I was excited to see Bowie as it was and is my favorite Phish song. The second set is great--I still listen to the Light from time to time. For a while this was also my only Mango Song (another one of my favorites, streak broken at Camden N3 2019).

After the show, it began pouring rain. I needed to find a cab back to where I was staying, but so did everyone else, leading to a massive shortage. After a while, my very old phone died. Eventually, without much else to do, I wound up following a group of people who were walking along the highway once the rain had stopped, marching on back to downtown Saratoga.

It eventually thinned out to a group of three wook-adjacent friends and myself, a 16-year-old in way over his head. They noticed I was following behind and turned around. One said, "hey man, are you following us?" I said, "well I'm just trying to get back into town and I think this is the way. Seems like you all have a GPS." He said, "we do! We're actually headed to my buddy Mike's house in town to huff gas if you wanna join." "I'm good," i said. I followed them the rest of the way to town and eventually found my hotel. I finally texted my parents, letting them know about the whole ordeal, but I'll never forget my last line of the text: "Despite all of that, this was still definitely the best night of my life."