Part of my full run through of Summer '98, see here

The Virginia Beach show opens with Punch You in The Eye, a song that makes for a great opener in any era. This is quickly followed by Bathtub Gin; compared to others from this tour this one is very straightforward, but still provides a nice dose of rocking hose early in the set. The Gin fades into space and then goes into a brief Trey instrumental that teases the Tela theme but is also clearly an intro to The Lizards. This kicks off a batch of songs that bounce between Gamehendge and new '98 tunes. Nice versions of Moma Dance and BOAF follow The Lizards, and then Esther joins the frey, and this version has a little more oomph than others. The run wraps up with another solid version of Roggae. After a quick romp with Bouncing Around the Room the band dives into another David Bowie; again while these Summer '98 versions aren't making the jam charts they continue to make for excellent listening.

After some quick banter, the band opens set 2 with AC/DC Bag. At about seven minutes the key changes and the band jumps into a funky theme with a nice foundation laid by Mike. Trey and Page have great interplay here as well. At around 11 minutes the pace starts to pick up and the band goes for the peak. This one is full of great rock energy until it suddenly bottoms out at 13.5 minutes, and then slowly drones off with touches of ambience before segueing into Sparkle; overall a very unique and rocking Bag jam unlike the Fall '97 versions.

After Sparkle the song selection for this set gets a bit wild. First we have Antelope which starts out strong, but the band loses the transition into the ending. They try to bring it back by giving the ending a nice bouncy groove. After this the band gives us a cool down song (Brian and Robert) followed by a ballad (a pretty good version of Waste). The Waste fades out into ambience and then coalesces into an impromptu and beautiful version of Over the Rainbow (a nice touch here). What follows is then a whopping four songs in a row that could serve as closers at any given show. First is an unusual YEM that has no extended jam section to speak of, the vocal jam of which empties out creepily into Frankenstein. Next up is Chalkdust, performed at a ripping pace. Finally, the band closes things out a capella with Hello My Baby.

I'll admit I wasn't all that impressed with this show thus far, aside from the AC/DC Bag which was decent. That being said, I can totally understand why someone walking away from this show thought it was the best ever due to this encore. Seemingly out of nowhere, the band breaks out the Dead's Terrapin Station, a stunning tribute to Jerry Garcia on the third anniversary of his passing. This encore, captured as filler in the SBD release of the 8/8/98 show, is flawless and powerful. The roar of the crowd at each passing movement of the show is impossible to miss. This is Phish at the peak of their mastery, able to deliver a performance like this at a whim. Despite the show being underwhelming as a whole this encore is one of the highlights of the tour and should be sought out.