"Phish mit pee-ha!!!" This is a nice 30-minute nugget from the band's history. The interview segments are hilarious, with the German host being overly polite in his struggles to understand The Phish From Vermont.
The songs presented are pleasant, understated, and intimate acoustic takes. If you're looking for Type II jams or shred-fests, this isn't the droid you're looking for. If you can still have fun, then you'll find plenty of it here.

As the reviewer from the 2/17 Paradiso show alluded, this show prooved to exemplify a new found freedom in their musically repetoire. Both in song selection (ie. bust out central-camel walk, dog log, magilla) and their improvisional prowess (ie. ha, ha outro, yem and scent). Heard this tape during fall of '97 and despite all the aforementioned greatness of this show, the most intriguing element was the ha, ha outro. Phish.net calls it heavy metal outro but upon rememberance of my friend's old school tapes, my belief is that this jam is a revival of the jam within the early section of reba that they had played only during the first performances of the song. Find The Front show from 10-22-89. Listen for the heavy metallike jam after the "bag it tag it" section during reba (begins at 2:35 or so) and give a relisten to the ha, ha outro from this show. For the sake of posterity and to further illustrate how important Europe "97 was to the development of the band, I feel that this is a correction that needs to be duly noted. Since no one has cared to make note of this after all these years, I feel that its about time.

Set 1: Camel Walk, Llama, My Friend, My Friend, Harry Hood, My Soul > Tube > Carini, Rock A William, Dog Log, While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Set 2: Buried Alive > Poor Heart, Ha Ha Ha[1] > You Enjoy Myself[2] -> Kung, Theme From the Bottom, Scent of a Mule -> Jam[3] -> Magilla -> Scent of a Mule, Slave to the Traffic Light

Encore: Highway to Hell

I couldn't quite figure out how to post this on the actual show from 2/26, but i had to write on it. this show is stacked, from start to finish. I love this show for a number of reasons. If I am raving to a new fan about the greatness of the winter/spring europe 97 tour, and they are not familar; this is the first show i throw them. it gives you a great idead of what this tour was all about. very very fine jams, great setlists, and fresh playing.

the first set is a smorgasboard of fun. of course, a camel walk opener is always welcome, and this one is nice and fun. after the funky camel opener, they delve into a rocking llama. trey and page are red hot on this one. great llama. my friend works well in the 3 slot, and like most stuff from this tour, it's very well played. harry hood is golden in the middle of the first set. the whole band has some lovely delicate playing in the middle section. its not the longest version but its very focused. my soul was still a nice new treat, and they put a lot of feeling into this one. they really dug this song in '97, as evidenced by playing it almost 2 out of 3 shows in the fall/winter u.s. tour. they spring into a still blossoming tube from there. they explore that funky middle section a little more than they had in years past, but they were not stretching like they would later. page has some nice licks and fish keeps a nice hard funky rhythm. a young carini rocks, as usual, and i love how it fits between the goofy dark rocko williams. i really love this song; i wish it would come around again. maybe it will come out at telluride if they get remniscent over their old colorado trips. trey really blazes wmggw, putting an end to one of the best first sets ever.

so they opened the first set with the first camel since '95, so why not open the second with a red hot buried alive. they chose to work the classic pairing with poor heart, and as usual, it works oh so well. i love the juxtaposition with a harder than normal hahaha. this also finishes with a very deep heavy metal ending. shifting gears again, they nail a gorgeous yem. this is a very loose, funky yem. gordo has some good licks on this one. they eventually drift into the realm of kung. i love how theme arises around of the scurvy depths of kung, and this version is certainly a winner. trey and page work off each other well. then they cut loose. this mule is a sure fire winner. they do not go with the typical "russian" jam, but they opt for a very cool jazzy jam. this is a candidate for best/most unique mule. not to mention, they throw a very rare magilla in the mix too. great job. slave closes this one out in fine form. slave seemed to really only pop up at the ultra killer '97 shows. i love highway as an encore.

this show is a must have, and it really exemplifies all of the good qualities that phish was sporting early in '97. after '94 and '95, i kind of thought '96 was sort of a blah year. don't get me wrong, there were some great shows, halloween, deer creek, middle 2 nights at red rocks, west palm beach, but all in all, they seemed to be lacking a little of that fire they had in the previous 2 years. this early '97 tour exclaimed that the boys were back. by the time these tapes made it across the atlantic, fans were ready for summer baby!