This was my hometown and first show. I was 16 and it was the second time I'd taken LSD. So this won't be a classic song/show critique; intoxication, time, and perspective muddy any attempt at that.
I had listened to Lawn Boy and a couple random bootlegs prior. (Luckily for me, Phish had a significant following in Keene and a lot of my friends had been to shows and turned me on to them). Thank you Jesse!
A month before the show, I listened to Antelope while alone in my bedroom. Just closed my eyes and listened, focusing soley on the music. It induced me to inadvertently meditate for the first time. I felt as though I'd lost time. I had to see this band.
To the show: We walked into the theater just as they opened with Suzy. The entire room was bouncing. The L probably enhanced this, but I'd never felt this type of energy before. I had another teenage musically-motivated meditative moment during Reba.
Everything was just fun and loose. The band's banter, Kathleen Turner, the drummer who played a fucking bag-vac, Simpsons signal, Smoke on Water (please don't smoke requests). It was raucous. A unique "Evening with Phish," as the tickets used to say. No memorable 20 min type II Ghost Jam....these were different times.
For instance, we got to leave the theatre during set break. Outside, fat flakes of snow began falling and a pyschadelic snowball fight ensued on Main Street.
I couldn't appreciate the signifigance of the Sanity encore bustout at the time, but it certainly summed up the evening for me. Quintessential Phish: segue from an electric, wailing mind-fuck Sanity into a flawless a capella of Memories and Carolina, with Kathleen Turner hitting the high notes .
I was hooked.

Interesting foreshadow to the inspired hilarity of the Oswego Icculus: after Trey and Mike tease Smoke on the Water to accompany the 2nd set smoking warning by Page, Trey then mentions Cat Scratch Fever before they bust into Llama.

Not quite as good as the Portsmouth shows but, still avery important part of Phish history in Keene. Some of the "older" songs are not as well practiced as the new ones, like Reba and Melt. Baby Lemonade is funny and new. Great Sanity bust-out to start the quadruple encore.

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

Overall, this show did not live up to the expectations set by the Portsmouth shows that preceded it, but nevertheless it was great to see Phish in such a fantastic theater. This show was very much like Portsmouth Friday, but with a few curves thrown in. They opened with “Suzie Greenberg”, which I haven't heard them play in a while, and never as an opener; they did a nice “Split Open and Melt”; “Bathtub Gin” is always welcome; and I finally heard “Mind”, which was new at the time.
I also decided that I liked the song “Mound” much better this time than the first time I heard it (at Portsmouth) — much like “It's Ice”, it grew on me. They only did one musical language cue tonight, which was one incident of the Simpsons theme, and only about three other people seemed to know what was going one and did the "D’OHHHH!" with the band. I was hoping for more. Oh, yes, “Sloth” was a very nice addition. Also, the three-quarter-height V.I. Warshawski standee on Mike's amp not only added a touch of class, but from the balcony it looked exactly as if it was standing on Mike's shoulders. She also helped out in the a cappella Carolina. And Fishman sang a new Syd Barrett tune, Baby Lemonade, and played bagpipes, which were fitted with a special attachment so he could hook the vacuum cleaner up to them and play without expending any of his precious oxygenic gasses. All in all, a pretty good show.
But the big surprise of the evening came during the encore when they whipped out a song I had considered retired for years, one which I have been hoping to hear for ages and asked Trey to play numerous times, to no avail. Or so I thought. I could not believe it when they started in and the words rolled around, the words I had been waiting to hear live for years now…
"Sanity never came my way (came his way)…"
Yes, folks, that's right — they played Sanity! It was the slow version rather than the hopping one that was played a few times in 1989, and Trey sang the lyrics out of order, but it was Sanity nonetheless!

The audience source for this one is pretty rough, you can tell it’s been passed through a few cassette generations.

The show kicks off with Page thanking the crowd for not smoking while Trey noodles Smoke on the Water in the background. Seems like Page always ends up being the guy stuck making those announcements. lol Suzy gets things moving and Trey drops the proper name of My Friend after it wraps up. He even shouts out a fan, Steve E, for driving 18 hours to be there—then cracks a joke about having the bouncers toss him out “just to make it a night he’ll never forget.” Haha Reba is gorgeous as always. Page has to step in again before Maze with another no-smoking warning, saying the venue might shut it all down if people don’t cut it out. Melt keeps things tight, and Trey makes sure to reveal the name of Mound this time, something he skipped back at the Portsmouth debut. During the pause in Divided Sky, Trey clowns a fan by yelling out “Possum!”. lol

Set two comes out swinging with a ripping Llama. The In an Intensive Care Unit jam is playful and even drops a Simpsons signal for good measure. Both Gin and Brother hit solid, and then Fish breaks out the bagpipes along with another Syd Barrett number, Baby Lemonade. There’s even a little Sanity tease slipped in after that. Before All Things, Trey takes a moment to talk about how much he digs the tune and where it came from, and they roll it into a sweet Hood. Rocky Top slams the door shut on the second frame with plenty of energy.

The encore is a treat. Sanity makes a return after almost three years and they even bring it back at the original slower tempo. Memories and Carolina close things out, and considering they’re sung without microphones, they actually come through surprisingly clear on tape.