Friday night baby! Me and a bunch of buddies cut classes and set out from Bowling Green, Ohio good and early so we could get to Pittsburgh in plenty of time to get settled and get our pre-show on. Weather was nice and we made the 4-hour drive with no issues.

SET 1: Runaway Jim: Outstanding opener. Crowd and band immediately have the vibe and the crowd is in full throat singing along. This Jim is nicely jammed and gets the energy locked in. Tonight will be a good night!

Guelah Papyrus, The Old Home Place, Cars Trucks Buses: Standard.

Stash: I like the placement here, kicking of the second quarter of the show in strong fashion and anchoring set one. First peak is at 8:40 and the crowd eats it up. Page is awesome in the second build, just pounding away on the baby grand. There is a huge build at about 10 and a half but for whatever reason they decide to slip into the ending instead of finishing off their hard work. This is a good Stash but could have been so much more.

Strange Design, Divided Sky, Billy Breathes: Standard.

Taste: Good jam but some difficulty in the ending.

Sample in a Jar: Was hoping for something big to take us into the break so was a little disappointed when this rang out but oh well.

First set summary: Pretty solid set, wasn’t blown away by anything but still had a lot of fun. I loved the Jim to open and feel it has plenty of replay value. Too bad they didn’t go for the jugular with that Stash as it was set up for success. We buckled down for the break as things had gotten plenty weird by this time ????

SET 2: Suzy Greenberg: Standard, but creates a ton of energy coming out of the break >

Maze: Page’s solo is so long and so intense that by the time he finally kicks it over to Trey the crowd is just completely whipped into a frenzy, the place is already bursting at the seams. Trey builds an incredible amount of tension throughout his solo. When you think he can’t build more, HE DOES JUST THAT. When you think he is going to peak it, he just keeps building more. The first release at 10:07 just drives the crowd nuts, we all lost our collective minds. The second comes at 10:26. I love hearing a fan on the aud in the 9:50’s just losing it twice. Funny story, one of our buddies was like four rows back of the stage DFC. We had pretty good view of him for the most part and let’s just say he had what we had. Anyway, this Maze broke him, and we all watched it go down. Gave him guff about that for years. That Maze, in my mind is best version of that tune I have seen live or on tape. The band and the crowd fed off one another and everyone got OFF.

You Enjoy Myself: Now we knew that this set was going to be great, and we were in for a true throwdown. Listen to Trey during the BMGS and leading up to the tramps for a preview of the funk that becomes so prevalent the following year. The Do You Feel Like I Do stuff was awesome, when they back off of that, jam a bit and then Trey just destroys the world at 12:29. Mike is especially liquid sounding throughout this YEM.

Reba: This version just continues this steady climb ever closer to the top. Hard for me to describe but it took my breath away that night. 13:14 just kills me the way Trey bends that note(s). Kind of sums up Phish in a few seconds for me, sounds pretty dumb. This jam soars incredibly high, it borders on going off the rails even towards the end buy they all maintain and deliver a thrilling conclusion.

Waste: Due to personal circumstances this one hit me particularly hard.

Harry Hood: A lasting memory from this show is me and my buddies just air punching and generally dancing our rear ends off during Thank you Mr. Miner. I can still see them sort of silhouetted in the lights, it’s burned into my memory. Every wish your memory could take a photograph? Page shines brightly in this jam. Trey seems not quite lost in this jam but nowhere near what I term as comfortable. He never quite finds his way and this one is short. At the time it felt amazing though. “Special thanks to Mario, thank you man, you’re great!” – Trey

ENCORE: Julius – Total face melter. Left me a sweaty mess. They burned the place down with this.

Second set summary: We were just completely blown away by what we just saw. My memory of the show is very keen, but of our post-show exploits, a little hazy, lol. All I remember is we went to a bar that was way too nice for the likes of us and stayed in a hotel that was also far beyond what we were at the time but when you have 7 people throwing in on one room, you can get something quite nice as it turns out. I will say, We proceeded to tear that hotel down. The next morning was not pretty but we did what we had to do to ensure we could get this show on the road in Buffalo at the brand, spanking new Marine Midland Arena