I have just finished re-listening to a remastered AUD of this show (thank you @kernalforbin). Highlights abound; I found it interesting that there are four bold-face .net jamming chart versions of songs in the *first set*: Possum, Reba, Foam, and Melt. More favorite moments are in the second set Weekapaug, and the second-to-last performance of A-Train.

In the notes to his remaster, @kernalforbin opines that this show should be a future LivePhish SBD release, and I concur. The AUD source is not the best; the audience at this show is one of the chattiest I've heard on tape. Kevin Shapiro played a SBD of this incredible Reba during a special FTA show for the band's Walnut Creek DVD release, and I would really like to hear more of this show with less distraction. But I will gladly listen to this AUD for now!

I went to this 3 day run, and Saturday night was my favorite night. I loved how wacky SOAM got, Carini always gets things wild. Simple simply melted my face. After the show my buddy and I couldn't stop doing the Carini jam. Gawd I love Phish!!!

I wasn't at the show but I decided to give a listen after reading about Fishman being stubborn with Yo Soy H.

I heard the soundcheck before I listened to the show proper. Lemme tell ya, if you're interested in all the mad interplay of how unconstrained the quartet was on that night then you should really do yourself a favor and find the soundcheck if you haven't already.
So.

SPOILER ALERT!
-This Review Is Not About The Second Set!

If you WERE at the show I suspect you'd have known to buckle your seatbelts already by the ROCK Bitch they dropped as an opener, in opposition to the funky Bitches that were coming out at the time. You could take a few clips from near the end of this Rocky Bitch and stick them in the middle of a Llama and they'd fit. They'd fit well. Seriously. Or if you were a "Page Side Rage Side" type like I am and you came to the show with a nice shiny sports car that you keep very clean, you'd certainly have noticed Good McConnell asking you "Roads?" when Leo starts telling Ya Mar like it is.

...

"Where we're going we don't need roads!"

...

Ya Mar is so chill I would have expected it to segue into a Billy Breathes or a Prince Caspian. But no. Out of such peace and comfort Carini bashes us over our lumpy heads, which would have been rude except I would have been so full of excitement to hear an Axilla, BBFCFM, Led Zeppelin mad metal show. But no. Runaway Jim. No metal show.

Runaway Jim would have further discombobulated me, especially because it blisters the way a hyper Maze or a rip roaring Rift does. This Jim would have had me thinking about some of those early SOAM Your Face Off Jams but that's about the only foreshadowing I would have been somewhat correct about. I read another review here that hearkens this show to those of 1993 and I find such an assessment apropos. With the exception of Izabella, it's almost seems as if the Autumn of 1997 never happened. This whole show does kinda have an early 1990s thing to it, pre-Hoist.

But by the time Meat would have rolled around I would have been in free fall, totally confused and without a map. They did warn early that I was unprepared for what they had prepared for me but I guess I don't take advice well. And Meat doesn't really end here, does it? It unexpectedly keeps on going until it just kind of gets interrupted by...
Well, the Meat gets bagged, tagged and sold to the butcher in the...
Old Home Place? Wow.

But Wait! Wait.
I feel like I am in that Pixies song Where Is My Mind?
"Stop."

Did I just skip Reba? Yes. There is a reason for that. It's because this Reba is nearly nameless. It's subtle. What I mean is that this is a subtle performance that transcends its form and composition. What I mean is that there is nothing obtrusive about it, nor is there much with which we are familiar and comfortable onto which we can grab hold. While there's nothing here to give you a lumpy head, it's true, there's also not a not a lot of what we'd call "Reba" here. It's kind of a vehicle for this other... thing that's happening onstage. This is a lullaby! It's okay, I slept through it the first time, too. And it was a good thing, I think we were supposed to. Like the long, dark mist sequences that nobody seems to notice the first time they watch Battleship Potempkin, our brains pleasantly check out for a much-needed moment of respite and reflection until we give the material a second visit. Except for the peace that Ya Mar offered, this Reba is not in line stylistically with any of the rest of the concert up to this point. The tender rhythmic feelings of this lovely "Reba" are to be reprised in tone in Vultures (strangely enough), when Fishman forces Yo Soy H and finally in Velvet Sea.

Which leads to the conclusion of my synopsis of this show, fully understanding how rude it may be to say it: For me, November 27th, 1998 is a "Fishman Show." Sometimes, albeit rarely, one of them just seems to musically declare, "I'm on fire tonight, fellas." The rest are all are respectful and professional enough to ALWAYS respond with a collective, "Go, we got your back. Do it." If you were to do some surgery and open up the insides of most of the songs in this show and eliminate the keys, guitar and bass, you might be left with what virtuosic jazz / progrock percussionists play at drum clinic master classes. No exaggeration. I don't usually focus so much on any one instrument and even more rarely do I (or can I) focus strictly on the drums but after listening to this show a couple of times, that's where my ears are pulled and it's there that they stay. After trying really hard to wrap my head around what's happening in this mad show, I think I found the key. And I think it's Jon Fishman. And the following musical moment may elucidate why.

Suddenly and from out of nowhere, about ten minutes into Reba they get stuck as if a single rotation of a scratched record is playing over and over. And over again. It's weird. I urge you to give this strange short moment another couple of focused listenings to ask yourself, "Were I playing that, up on that stage, behind any one of those instruments, responsible for such an odd magical loop, how in the hell would I be able to UN-SCRATCH the record?" Personally, I would likely stay tied up in it as most of us would but if you concentrate I'll bet that you too can hear how Jon Fishman unties the knot with all the subtle skill of a true master. Furthermore, I'd like to say, he infuses it with a whole lot of confidence and joy.

There are many comments about the setlist, about how Chalkdust appears thrice, how Weekapaug also appears thrice, and so emphasizing these oddities yet again would not serve this review well, especially because I believe I've found a longer arc, spanning just about the entire show. So allow your attention to fall upon the cohesive thread that runs through the innards of:

Ya Mar = Reba = Vultures = Yo Soy H = Velvet Sea.

...

I was swimmin' in Massachusetts
Vultures were hiding behind the ROCK!
Except the little Fish
But they told me,
He swears
Chalk Dust Torture me, Dog Log...

Where is my mind?
Wipe Out in the water, see it swimming...

Somewhat ironically, this was one of only two shows I had heard from Summer '95 at the time it was released. I have since gotten my ass in gear and heard quite a few more, because this was a great tour. But I digress...

This is a pretty sweet show punctuated by a really wonderful Mike's Groove. I'll take me a Contact as the "meat" any day! The Mike's in particular is really inventive and has a unique Mike solo section. He plays some really nice melodies. Weekapaug rages nicely, and even gets a little weird. All told, that 35+ minute stretch in the second set is the highlight of the show (and one of the higher points of the tour), but there are still some other great cuts to see here.

Summer '95 was a great tour for Split; this one is relentless. So dissonant. So intense. Foam and Slave get decent workouts as well. Also, Spock's Brain. Everything else is served straight up.

Not a classic show in the grand scheme of things, but a really fun listen nonetheless.

Three stars. It is what it is, an in-studio appearance. I would almost say that this is inessential, but the cover of Carefree should be heard.

One of my favorite Hoods here. I'm surprised it's never received any attention.

I'm going to say something controversial: I've always felt this show doesn't live up to the hype. And I certainly think it is the weakest of the three on the release. However, it's also Fall '97, so there really isn't that much to complain about. Maybe it's because I have no real connection to Emotional Rescue as a song. I don't mind it, and I have even, after quite a few listens, learned to appreciate it's really mellow jam, but in the end it really isn't that big of a deal to me. I also initially found the Ghost to be pretty underwhelming. It's by far the most mellow of this hallowed tour and, like Emotional Rescue, I have learned to appreciate it more with a few re-listens. Bag -> Slave is by far the best part of the show, IMO, but other than that, there isn't that much else to see. Split rages pretty hard, bul ultimately fails to reach somewhere that really grabbed me, PYITE is one of my favorite set-in-stone songs, so that was nice, and that's about it.

This show is plenty of fun, but I don't feel it's a classic like the next two nights.

This Wolfman's is the jam of the run, far as I'm concerned. The Tweezer, Bowie, Disease, Carini, and Ghost are all strong as well, but I don't think any of them reach the level of creativity of this Wolfman's. (To be fair, Carini two nights later is right up there, but it hasn't stuck in my rotation as long for some reason.) From the Mike solo, to the Drummer Boy jam, to the 6/8 finale, this jam is in a league of its own when it comes to jams out of this song. There isn't another one like it.

The jam has three sections: the pre Drummer Boy, Drummer Boy, and post Drummer boy jams, and the best part is the whole thing still feels like a single succinct idea. I suppose you could even argue there are four or five sections since the pre DB jam, following my analysis, is by far the longest of the three. The pre DB jam features some great Trey/Page interplay, the aforementioned Mike solo, a great tension filled build complete with an appearance by Machine Gun Trey, and a great release and come-down into the DB jam.

The DB jam is absolutely wonderful, Trey's tone is just so damn beautiful. Hearing the audience sing along is great too. And to top it off, the funk drops so good afterword. All Trey has to do is give one little wah-laden chunk and the crowd erupts. Then comes the great transition into the 6/8 and the great build to the end. The band tears the ending of this Wolfman's up! Very energetic.

A jam for the ages, if you ask me. Hear at all costs!

classic bowie here

A lost gem of 2000, most notable for four songs.

Least influential of the four was Oh Kee Pa. It was the only time Oh Kee Pa showed up in 2000 after only appearing once in 1999. It was also its last appearance of 1.0.

But the Suzy that Oh Kee Pa lead in to was sublime and, IMHO, the best Suzy ever played. After a standard, but intense version, the band brought the song to an end. But after they hit that final chord and held it a few seconds, the band launched into a good 10-or-so-minute easy-to-dance-and-groove to jam. It maintained an upbeat tempo and rhythm throughout.

The second set opened with Drowned, a song that has become very infrequent in 2011 and 2012, which is a shame because, frankly, its awesome. This one - clocking in at around 30 minutes - is a masterpiece. But its a masterpiece driven by Fish, Mike and Page. In fact, Fish was just awesome throughout this entire show.

After the 30 minute masterpiece, they > into Crosseyed and Painless, which is also jammed out for a good 10 minutes. Crosseyed had been played less than 10 times at that point and you can really hear a huge difference in how it sounds when they play it now. If you are a fan of spacy jams, this one is for you. Not so great to dance to in the moment, but to just sit back and listen to now is amazing.

And after Drowned > jam > Crosseyed > jam, they > into Dog Faced Boy as a nice cap to 45 minutes of incredible jamming.

Great show. Highly recommended.

Having some non-phans over for an evening and want to play show audio that people can chill hard to without feeling overwhelmed the vast musical terrain that a band like Phish can cover? This is that show.

Just got done listening to tis one. pretty decent show. I gave it a 3/5 but the Ya Mar was awesome! might be the best ya mar ive ever heard besides the funk one from 97, cant remember the date right now but anyway still good show and great ya mar

My first show. I was 16, my parents dropped me off and waved goodbye telling me to "have a good time". And I absolutely did. Granted the ARCO Arena is probably the worst venue to see Phish in, but at the same time, you're seeing Phish, so no complaints. I was fairly green at this point and my favorite songs were Stash and Brother and was hoping they'd play both not realizing that Brother is a pretty rare song. I remember them playing with this ferocity that was infectious and just loosing my mind when they broke into Stash and did the chanting. Shame for how sober I was I don't remember more details. Pretty much just chilled up in the seats stage right (Page side!) and took it all in. Had no clue that it was such a treat to get two legends to join them on-stage (Apflebaum and McEuen), thought it was all just par for the course. Safe to say I was hooked from that point on. My next show at the Shoreline in 97, was even more tasty. Thanks Phish.

I remember sitting poolside at my friends house back in the late 70s listening to 'Waiting For Columbus'.
We all loved Little Feat back then. I just couldn't believe how fortunate I was to see Phish cover the whole album.
This show also contains one of the best 1st sets of 2010.

Completely average show. The only song to write home about is the YEM, which has lots and lots of fun interaction throughout. Mike absolutely slays the ending of the Trey jam. It's unfortunate that the bass and drums jam to follow is a little lackluster, but man does he nail the ending of the Trey portion. Nail it I tell yah!