Listened to the first set this morning... 25th Anniversary! It's been a good day and this show kicked it off with a jolt of electricity. Popped in here, expecting to find some jam chart entries and glowing reviews... it sounded so damn good to my ear this particular morning. But wow, mostly crickets.... except for Dareba... he gets it! It took his review 4+ years out there on an island... but I hereby give him a hearty like! I too had crispy tapes of this back then, but unlike him, I didn't appreciate it quite enough at the time. Those were the crazy days... packages of tapes were flying in and out of my apartment at a deranged pace. Dual Harmon-Kardons spinning day and night...trying to throw out some blank and postage offers on the side. ... tapes coming in faster than I could listen to them. I remember considering this an excellent, better than average show for the tour , but kept moving on, looking for higher and higher peaks elsewhere.

But revisiting this one.... wow, their energy is just crackling. One of those shows where you can clearly feel that they're glowing with enthusiasm. This isn't about any deep experiments or good beats you can dance too.... it's about just letting it rip on a remarkable catalog of material. Jim, Foam, Split!, Mike throwing killer fills into PYITE and Sample (zesty early version), and the kind of blistering Bowie that was basically extinct a couple of years later.

This one's in the mold of some of my underrated 94 favorites: 4/10/94, 5/8/94, 5/13/94, 6/21/94 . In the box barn-burners.... I love 'em even if others write them off as vanilla.

I stood on the street and grooved outside the big, open windows for this and the next night. First time I was ever shut out of a Phish show. Guess I could have begged around the backstage door area, but Roseland had annoying security people. "Sir . . . Sir . . . Excuse me, sir." So, I stood on the Burnside side, listening out the windows. For a while, it was either on 3/30 or 04/01, there were quite a few of us. One dude suggested that it would have been too loud inside anyway. We could hear it loud and clear, but I still wish I'd been in there.

I almost ditched Phish all together after the shut out. (I relented once they returned to the big room, Memorial Coliseum.)

wasn't at this show . but this was one of my first tapes. so much sentimental value. it was a really good audience copy of the first set with the bag encore. Having stipulated all that:
The Runaway jim mkes me feel like I'm in a comforter going 200mph great opener. the sound of the room and was amazing aparently. they sounded like a full tight polished machine.
MELT!! out of control. Straight to the point. Fish wasn't searching niether was Trey.
Reba!! I was at Clifford BAll, and 4/2/98 . hose were my fav live reba's. 6/23/95 . But this is my fav all around reba. Perfect orchestrated part. The jam makes me cry no matter how many times I hear it in a row. I literally cn sing trey's whole solo.
The Bowie is a face/melter. You can not hear the rest of the show and be satisfied

This show looks better on paper than it sounds in the ears. The 42nd show of the tour is a return to the Roseland Theatre for the fourth time. The average playing seemed to be hampered all night by the squeaks and squeals of the monitors being EQ'd and/or mixed, so I guess Pete or Paul had a rough night too. It was a good recording to hear overall.

The mixing starts right away during an ok Jim opener, they aren't warmed up yet. Feedback continues during Foam which was nice and dynamic. Sparkle was good, Melt was rocking, and Mound was pretty solid. Punch is getting there; it's just not automatic yet. Sample was slow tonight, but still good. Reba was good overall, but kind of had a weak ending. IDK had more feedback adjusting for Madonna maybe? Bowie was ok, it seemed to go on and on, and it sounded like Mike wanted out about two minutes earlier than Trey did at the end.

It was a strange way to open second set with Fish leading the Lengthwise chant into an average Maze. Bouncing was pretty standard. Pen had more squeaks going on, but was good until the end. Hood was not good at first, but rocked by the end. Then the Balls come out and it almost sounds like Fish does a little Hot for Teacher drumming in there. Ice's first verse was off and was a little weak throughout the whole song. YEM also seemed a little lackluster, but had a good jam with kind of a Smoke on the Water flavor to it. A funny vocal jam leads us to...holy crap...we have a Harpua!!! I always love to hear these and this one is no exception. Great story as always from Trey and great sound effects from the rest of the boys too. And if that wasn't enough they get a Chalk Dust closer? It was rocking, but kind of had a weird tag ending on it to say thanks. Crazy set, but not the best playing.

Bag is slowly making its way back into set list rotation and tonight it gets the encore spot. This one is pretty good for the most part and then everyone gets shushed for and average Adeline.

I'm not sure if the sound issues had anything to do with it, but I'm sticking with three stars on this one even though I really want to bump it up for the YEM, Harpua, Chalk closing.