I have rated this show five stars as it was such a personal live-changing event.

I was vaguely aware that Phish was playing a show soon at the Warfield and, while I'd never heard them before, I had read lots of talk online (and even voted YES to create a new rec.music.phish newsgroup a month or so earlier). It just happened to fall on a rare night off, and a friend had offered an opportunity to expand the third eye a bit, so off we went.

Started the show on the floor with opener Widespread Panic. Another band I'd never before heard, but I was impressed and left wound up by their high energy rock.

The room was quite schwirly as Phish took the stage, and I was left frankly confused (and face melted) by their performance. Was it music? Was it performance art? Why is the drummer in a dress...and playing a trombone? The crazy tempos, the virtuoso guitar keys and drums chasing each other around. The crazy chants that filled my head..."I didn't know that I was that far gone I DIDNT KNOW THAT I WAS THAT FAR GONE!" That neon dressed bassist...is he gay? That dance in the "Santana jam"...are they all gay? It doesn't matter if they're gay, of course, buy why do they keep yelling "FAGGOT! FAGGOT! Sellit tothe butherinthestore?!?" And that Bowie > Catapult > Bowie > Catapult >Bowie we've all drooled over on the tapes? Far more drool inducing in person.

As the lights came up for setbreak. My friend and I were convinced the show was over. There was no way to do more after that epic set, plus the monster WSP opener. Thankfully, as we were walking out the front door, an usher friend chased me down and said "DON'T LEAVE! THERE'S ANOTHER SET!" I didn't believe him, but stuck around.

Second set did not clear up any confusion. Bathtub on stage, while a series of people dance across the stage and climb into it, while the band sings evil "whoooooooOOOOOOOOooooooooh' sounds. Vocal jams and trampolines, WTF? Neil Diamond songs with cymbal up front? Then Tweezer Reprise, shredding so hard that we finally had to go home.

The next day I was in shock, rocked, and confused. What had I experienced? What was this magic band? I rejoined the young rec.music.phish, dove in to find out what I was missing, and eagerly awaited my next opportunity (Santana tour later that year) to see my new favorite band.

Not much else to be said about this one that the other reviewers didn't cover.

Great first set playing Fish is introduced as the Yo-Yo Ma of vaccuum cleaner playing in IDK. Page finally stretches out his solo in Maze! If there is a weak spot here it's the Bouncing. Very cool Catapult in Bowie.

Great second set. Lots of big songs YEM through Tweezer. Solid!

And we only have 2 minutes left! Says Fish for the encore.
Great show.

I love this one. In fact, it might be my favorite show of the year. it is pretty freaking solid from start to finish. now, can you imagine a phish/wsp double bill at the warfield not being sold out now-a-days... or hell, even 2 years later.

set one gets cranked up appropriately with a nice run away jim. they go onto really nail foam. sparkle keeps the energy up before really cranking into a fiery stash. trey digs deep on this one before bringing it home. i didn't know is good fun, and i've always liked cavern midset. reba and maze offer some really nice back to back exploration before a very standard bouncing. then you get a very nice landlady that finally delves into a nice murky bowie/catapult bowie. side note, many tapes of the stowe vt/'92 santana show have this bowie/catapult/bowie as a filler. it is usually marked as being part of the show, but it is not. anyway, trey and page are rock solid on this one.

set 2 is a whole lot of fun. trey wails on this brother. an early set yem blows up. gordon and fishman are very tight on this one. then they go onto bury fluff head. coil works out of fluff head. then they crank up a fun '92 tweezer. it is very tight and focused. good jamming. they make a nice little twist with a good version of uncle penn. fishmand does his thing in rosie before a rousing tweezer reprise shuts her down. great set with non stop fun and action.

Holy moly! The first set. Just. Keeps. Coming. Seriously top notch playing and song selection. Excellent Jim, top notch Foam, I love Sparkle here. What's that? Stash? Yes please don't mind if I do. I Didn't Know cools us off a little and introduces that '92 goofball energy with an early vacuum solo. Well placed and fun. Cavern picks us back up, another excellent song selection. And then BOOM. Reba. As in some of the Bowies from this period this Reba is showing us flashes of Phish Yet To Come. Maze is perfectly placed here, with great work from page. Bouncing and Landlady are fun and then they drop an epic wonderful Bowie with Catapult tucked inside towards the end. WOW.

Set 2 opens strong, a great Brother into a cool shred-y YEM with very solid Mike and Fish. The vocal jam sounds great, they use reverb so well on this tour. Fluff>Coil is sublime and that Tweezer is top notch early 90s Tweezing. Poor Heart kicks off the usual show winding down whimsy and antics. The Ice>Rosie>Ice is fun and tight tonight. Tweeprise is the perfect Set 2 closer.

They certainly couldn't get it wrong tonight!

This is an ESSENTIAL show. Absolutely wall to wall nonstop essential Phish. This is a must hear.

Trey is KILLIN' it in the epic Catapult > Bowie ending the first set! Yep, great rockin' old-school Phish!!

After finally catching on to the whole Phish thing back in the previous October at the Catalyst, I couldn't wait to see them again. I was surprised that they were booked at the Warfield; I really didn't think they were that big of a draw. As it turns out, you could get tix at the door, and there were probably only about 500-600 people there. My friend and I were kicking back at the balcony, but I think we could have gone anywhere we wanted that night. The Warfield is usually set up do that you had either reserved tix (upstairs) or GA (downstairs), and you couldn't switch up during the show. But I saw people coming and going from the balcony all night.
With a nice SBD circulating since the 90s, there is no need to go into too much detail about the playing. But I will say that they were on fire this night. A lot of people were buzzing about the night before in Santa Barbara, so expectations were pretty high. They did not disappoint for a second.
I was never into Widespread Panic, but their set was pretty good. I just wanted Phish, so nobody would have made a good opening act for me this night.

There are a lot of highlights in this show for me. The most obvious are the Bowie, Brother, YEM, Fluffhead, and Coil.

Just another night that cemented my love for this band.

(Published in the second edition of The Phish Companion...)

I had driven back from Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz after the Anaconda show, and only got a few hours of sleep before getting up to "rally the troops." After the Anaconda show, I was anxious to get everyone on the bus, so I packed my car with heads and drove up to the city for the show. Not one of the five of us had tickets, but the show was far from sold out so we were all able to score tickets at the box office. Gordo and Fishman were hanging out in front of the Warfield, so we started talking about the Anaconda show. They both agreed that it was the best show of the tour (so far) and that they both had a great time.
When we finally made it inside the Warfield, the place was pretty empty. The whole show was GA so you could go wherever you wanted. We chose to sit in the balcony, which remained mostly empty throughout the night. Widespread Panic opened with a set that lasted around an hour. It's still the only WSP tape that I own, and the best set I ever heard them play. The place was on fire, and we were really looking forward to what Phish would do.
Again, another solid show, still on many people's "must have" list of shows. I don't remember much specifically about the show itself (I let myself get pretty "out there" for this show), except at the beginning of the second set they brought out a bathtub and had various people get in and out of the tub during "Brother". "YEM" and my first "Fluffhead" were amazing, and so was the "Tweezer" sandwich.
We went back to Santa Cruz that night, brains still fried, to get ready for the next show: a free one at Stanford the next day.

I went into depth on my thoughts regarding 1992 (and specifically this five-night run) in my review of 4/16/1992, so I'll avoid re-stating the same sentiments. The entire '92 California run from 4/16 - 4/21 follows a similar formula: high song density, a few shredders that venture into shallow type II waters, a Fishman goof-off, and very consistently excellent playing from all band members. The band's chops speak for themselves in these shows, but because the creativity hadn't developed as far as it would in years to come, it's tough to write about these shows at length without associated anecdotes, of which I have none, unfortunately.

Highlights from this show:
- Reba features some nice full band play in the beginning of the jam that sounds more like a 93 groove. Trey takes a nice walk to get to the peak. When he finally arrives, Fishman helps deliver a booming energy.
- David Bowie / Catapult alternating jam is absolutely killer. Really awesome way to debut Catapult--I'm sure the audience was a bit lost, but this definitely captures the spirit of what the "tune" (poem?) would become in future setlists right from the get go.
- YEM features more rhythmic syncopation across band members, including a nice start/stop pattern at the beginning of Trey's solo. A longer than usual VJ closes out a great iteration of the song.
- Really tight Fluffhead with an excellent Arrival section from Fishman, Page, and Trey
- Tweezer stays rooted in pretty standard territory, but rocks with some extra conviction. Check out 4/21 for more adventure.