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

I had moved to Northwest Pennsylvania in fall of 1993. Phish announced the NYE run for 1993 and I said to myself, "Its on!" I ended up getting a free ticket to this one, lucky me. After waiting in the cold in what looked like a crazy long line at the American University's student union, we realized the arena really wasn't an arena at all. Just a large opening in the student union. No seats, but an aquarium at the end. I actually didn't realize it was an aquarium until "Hood" in the second set... duh. We made our way down front when my friend Courtney asked, "When was the last time they played `Peaches En Regalia'?" I said it had been a while. She said, "Well, Frank just passed away. I think they are going to bust it out." I said that would be cool, but then to myself thought, "Yeah right." Phish came out onstage and BAM: "Peaches". I would never doubt anything Phish could do from then on.

The aquarium stage set up made 93 feel like the official start to Holiday Tour. We saw 12/31/92 but not that whole run. 93 was the start for me seeing every holiday run in their entirety up until/including Miami 2003.

This run was full of great music and heavy snow storms. It says Bender “Arena” but it was more like a GYM. Outside there huge line of hot chicks scantily dressed in a snowstorm. The energy of the room was glowing. It was still the era of “Phish is my dirty little secret” for those that were there.

The first set was pretty sweet. Peaches was the obvious theme of the whole tour due to Zappa’s recent passing and his impact on Trey/Phish. Peaches was a great way to start the tour. Melt was hairy. A bunch of twists and turns. Trey’s guitar sounded vicious. Esther is always a treat with a dark, floating trey solo at the end. But the song of the set was Possum. Totally broken down to start the jam, Phish build it up slowly in an erotic way. The buildup runs into Kashmir which is the closest thing we had to Zep especially at the time when Fish was an animal. Trey hit the high notes over and over, the white lights were blazing, Trey drooled on his guitar, I drooled on the paint for the opposing team’s hoop. Set break.

2nd set standouts are YEM, Fast Enough, and Hood. With YEM being the natural jam of the night. Trey’s leads were perfect. The band backed him up. Tension-Release all over the place. Couple of Gamehenge Tunes with Lizards-) Sloth. Fast enough helped me come down a little with a welcomed slower pace. Passionate and skillful solo at the end. Hood was really good too. The intro was tight. With Simpson language. Trey’s finishing notes were clean and emotional.
It was a solid tour opener. We went to the car pumped to drive to New Haven.

I won’t review the Cumberland/Worchester shows since everyone knows they were 2 of the greatest of all time. Phish built up to those with Bender/New Haven. It felt Holiday tour 93 was one long 4 day show. They are legendary for a very good reason. Pure Shred. We followed the band’s tour buses up the turnpike through the snow storm chasing live music history.

This version of Possum is worth a listen. Its in my Possum top 5 list!

The darker the Phish the better and the second set at American University delivers just that. The bulk is a rollicking You Enjoy Myself which starts innocently enough but soon dissolves into an acoustic interlude and then a jarring My Friend, My Friend. Trey and Page mingle on a couple of runs but its Fish's bombastic pacing that keeps the song afloat -- he's the true MVP here. Lizards lets the band come back up for air briefly before diving head first into a fantastic Sloth. And while there's some unevenness here (particularly the Uncle Pen which feels like it belongs in the first set), the second set is worth it simply for that meaty four-song run alone.

A wonderfully laid-back and fun -- albeit safe -- first set is highlighted by a tightly woven Suzy Greenberg into an airy Ya Mar.

Rating: 8.2

Still maybe the best NY run, with the stage design and 1993-era precision of the tension/release style. This show gets overshadowed by the monster 12/30 and 12/31 gigs but don't sleep on the SOAMelt with Kashmir and the YaMar with Auld Lang Syne. The onlu time I can recall the set design influencing the vocal jam - see YEM. Phestive Phish.

I know I was there - I remember flipping out over Peaches, since I had been getting heavy into Zappa that previous year and he died in early Dec. of that year, around the date of this entry. I don't remember the show being in DC. I thought it was somewhere in Mass. Hmmm.