https://forum.phish.net/forum/permalink/1378168583

From The Phish Book, p. 44:
Trey: "We had to ask ourselves, 'How can we make this transition [to larger venues] and still be the same band we always were? How can we maintain the same musical ideals as when we were playing in clubs?' It so happened that the next two tours would consist mainly of clubs and theaters in Europe, which not only reminded us of where we came from, but proved to me that even if I only did that for the rest of my life, I'd be thrilled. These tours got us back in touch with the looseness that's always been a part of Phish, and I think we brought these renewed feelings of spontaneity and intimacy back into the bigger rooms we played that summer."

March 1997 represents the encapsulation of many of the band's goals over the previous 18 months, as they stepped out of the shadow of the Grateful Dead and established their own national presence. The epiphany performance from the previous night in Hamburg demonstrated a fully mature band, but when they took the stage to begin their next tour in Dublin on 6/13, it was with an overhauled repertoire and rewritten rules regarding performances. In the intervening 100 days, they had recorded three days’ worth of jamming in Bearsville Studios that would be released on The Siket Disc, and Trey had hidden away in a Farmhouse with Tom Marshall to write over a dozen new songs that deliberately broke from the crafted compositional style Trey had developed over the previous ten years. So 3/2/97 represents a benediction of sorts, making peace with their past before commencing the metamorphosis.

Hysterical audience adulation towards performers first became a phenomenon with young Frank Sinatra, then with young Elvis Presley, and became a learned concert behavior with the Beatles and other British Invasion groups. Eventually, technology affording performers the ability to amplify their sound loud enough to be heard over the most riotous crowds, and now audiences understand at what times they are supposed to cheer (and many spend the rest of the time talking to their friends). However, an attentive audience will always bring out the best in Phish. 6/14/00 Fukuoka and the Amsterdam '97 box set are the most obvious examples, but this tour-closing show in Copenhagen also illustrates this point. The best moments of this show are the quietest: the pause between fade-out of the crazy Catapult jam before Trey starts Life On Mars?, the plaintive intro to Waste, the utter restraint and utterly shocking reveal of Swept Away/Steep, and the Bob Ross-esque tranquility of Slave To The Traffic Light.