THIS DAY CHANGED MY LIFE!!!!!!

This is not one of Phish's stronger efforts. Antelope is inventive enough to merit a few extra listens. Otherwise, the modest highlights aren't especially noteworthy, and much of the time the band sounds clunky + disjointed.

Spices is an interesting opener, and not necessarily in a good way. In hindsight, it sounds compositionally like a "beta version" of Time Turns Elastic...before the song's positive qualities got added. A couple minutes of generic mud-crunching improv leads into a blissful, but "by the book", version of Waves. Reba is a little bit underpowered, but enjoyable enough. Lawn Boy is standard. Moma Dance gets into an atmospheric funk space for a bit before fading into Antelope, which has a little extra spring in its step and a couple of interesting thematic twists.

Set 2 starts solidly with a worthy, but not spectacular, version of 46 Days. Unfortunately, the added length to Divided Sky is more a matter of the band trying to find its footing, as opposed to inspired improv. Uncharacteristically sloppy version. Friday is extremely well-played, richly mining the intended emotions. Free starts off with a simmer, instead of the customary thunderous intro, but this works well in its context. Otherwise, it's an ordinary version. Seven Below is tight and crisp. Very brief jam at the end before it comes to an album-style stop. Velvet Sea is somewhat off-kilter, but solidly delivers the cathartic finish. 2001 is plenty good for a short version. Down With Disease is tight and energetic, a straight-ahead rocker to finish the set.

A two-song encore. Rift is well-played and does what it usually does. Character Zero is uncharacteristically tepid and murky, lacking its usual punch.

This is much more an experience review than a show review, drafted originally for this thread:
http://forum.phish.net/?thread=1328138901
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OK, various parts of this story are splattered all over the forum, but never in the context of what this thread is asking. But I fit the question in the initial post, so here goes:

Spring of ’92 I was a senior in H.S. and me and a bunch of friends got tickets to see the H.O.R.D.E. tour at Garden State Arts Center in July. We had all gone to a good handful of concerts together at this point, but mostly stuff like Van Halen, GnR, or smaller club shows that our friends’ bands opened for. None of us were much into the Dead or anything of the like, they were barely on our radar. We were all pretty heavy drinkers already in our young lives, but weed and other drugs were not in the picture either.

One of my best friends got a scholarship to a prestigious and exclusive private school, and had been living that dream near Princeton for a few years. He was by no means a prep school hippie, but he brought some of the music back home with him. This is how I first heard of the Blues Traveler and the Spin Doctors (local central NJ bands at that point playing parties and parks and whatnot). So when we saw the chance to go see an ALL DAY concert (!!!) with these two bands, and 3 more (!!!), we were like hell yeah, lets do it!

So we order the tickets (or maybe went to TM to pick them up…I don’t remember), and it has the 5 bands listed on them. Blues Traveler being the big name by far, because this was still before the Spin Doctors 15 minutes had begun. The other bands were Widespread Panic, Aquarium Rescue Unit, and Phish. Widespread Panic seemed like a normal enough name for a band. Aquarium Rescue Unit was a little out there. But Phish? What the hell? That was just silly. We spent the whole spring putting a ‘P’ sound on the beginning of every word that started with ‘F’. “Who the puh-fcuk is puh-fish?” “Hey, did you just puh-fart?” “How’d you do on puh-finals?” You wanna talk about beat’d to death? We puh-beat’d the ‘puh-‘ sound to death that puh-spring.

So anyway, we get closer to the day of the show, and the Spin Doctors single hits the radio, and all of a sudden this is a lot more exciting because now there is a ‘popular’ band at this thing too, rather than a bunch of relatively low-profile stuff. Driving down the Parkway, sitting in the traffic going in, it seemed like every car was full of 17 year old girls blasting Two Princes or something. (This might sound like a nightmare now, but remember it was brand new at the time. So… not so bad. Pretty glorious actually.)

It was a gorgeous day, and the whole time, it was a different experience than any concert, or any place, I had ever been before. Everyone was smiling and happy. There wasn’t a dark or overly testosterone-y vibe like at the hard rock and metal shows I had seen. There were hardly any guidos at all. What the hell??? Nary a pair of Z-Cavs, not a whiff of Drakkar Noir in the air. Am I still in Jersey?

Well, this was the prep school hippie contingency. Not that everyone was all hippie’d out at all, but, just kinda mildly to that side. The jeans were not tight, most of the girls were in these loose ‘peasant’ tops which I don’t think I had ever seen before. And everyone overwhelmingly outgoing, smiling, and friendly. Pretty different than my north Jersey public school experience where everyone seemed to be constantly posing or judging or fronting. The whole scene was glowing in the sun, and it was the first time I ever experienced anything like it. In retrospect, I considered this my first taste of the festival experience and attitude.

So the music starts and everything is great. There are some people that are much weirder than others on the spectrum, but even they seem pretty harmless and well-intentioned. I come to find out that a lot of these folks are tripping, of course. I had heard of acid at this point, but really had no idea what it was all about. But my friends and I were more into the vast amounts of liquor we snuck in, and talking to the endless number of very cute, very age-appropriate girls. It seemed like 90% of the crowd was between about 16 and 20 years old.

I really enjoyed all the bands, especially the three I had never heard of. I remember that Aquarium Rescue Unit was my favorite on that day. I do not remember the exact order that they all played, though I am almost positive that the Spin Doctors were third and Blues Traveler closed. I think Phish may have played second. I do clearly remember they played (or at least started) in the daylight, and I am almost positive they did not lead off. (I say this because I feel like I had a baseline that I compared the music off of at that point, and also that I remember being set in a spot when they came on and observing the crowd’s reaction.)

So anyway, onto Phish. They started playing (whether they were first or not) and I thought “Huh, after all this crunchy groovy rock (the term “jam” was not in my musical vocabulary at that point), what is this, a Latin jazz band?” They had opened with Landlady. And all of a sudden there were swarms of people blasting down the lawn to get closer to the pavilion. Not everyone, not by a long shot. But all the people that were dressed really crazy, with the super nappy hair and patchwork overalls. They were all on the same page for this. Looking up, dancing on the lawn like they didn’t have a care in the world.

I just kept listening and enjoying and doing whatever else I had been doing all day. Nobody I spoke to was like “Oh, this is Phish, they are great, blah blah blah.” No such experience. Listened to the rest of the set and remember the impression of, “Oh this is more like straight ahead rock” (Runaway Jim, in retrospect), “No, wait they’re playing some sort of eclectic fusion jazz again” (Foam) and back and forth like that for their whole set. “Whatever they are doing, its definitely interesting, and they seem pretty good, they can all play. (Stash) But its weird. Definitely weird. (YEM) Not sure if I like it or not.” There was a full-on stand-alone vacuum solo, which I’d be lying if I said I definitely remember, but coupled with YEM I remember long periods of what seemed like relatively sparse music, and weird sounds, like they were just goofing around. Which, obviously, they were.

So that’s really my memory. Like I said, I had no idea who they were, and nothing that day made me seek out their music. I did not realize that one might go on tour with them, or that all their shows were different, or that I could acquire tapes of live performances, or any of the other stuff that we take for granted. Just that they were a really interesting interlude – a quirky highlight, both musical and observing their fans – within a really fun day of music. It was within the next year or less that one of my brothers started to bombard the family with tapes. But that day I had no clue of the profound influence the band would have on the next 20 years (and hopefully more) of my life. We were just satisfied to finally know who the puh-phuck this puh-fish actually was.

One other funny memory of is that a few of my friends wanted to leave early, before Blues Traveler. Recall they were the main band I wanted to see that day. And as the driver of one of the two vehicles for our group, I was basically like, “No way, are you all nuts?” So a bunch of them took off, and a few of us stayed for what was a really great Blues Traveler set. I’m sure we hit a diner for some cheese fries and gravy and a milk shake on the way home. Probably the Tick Tock or King George.

Only if . . . dang . . . gosh . . . if I'd a . . . Oh well.

I can only enjoy the simulacrum. With a solid FOB I picked up about six years ago, I come back to this show more than almost any other in my collection. Why?

One can feel the dissipation, here, yet due to the small venue and novelty of Japan, there's a compressed concision of yore balanced with the high tech eerie of whiz bang e-jam. Trey pulls out some "scratch" sounds, there's a night club vibe, and yet there's a dream drifting, too.

Compared to the band at the same time one year or 10 months before, this is definitely the "other side of the peak." I always did like the after-burn, though. It's that moment when you can finally draw a deep breath and reorient yourself, maybe even find your car. It's definitely a floating home vibe, and that's where I am listening to this right now.

A must have.

A decently played first set with the easy highlight being an excellent Sneakin' Sally. Set II really starts to cook, opening with a killer Light Up. Alumni steps up and goes straight off the damn hook. There's also a nice On Your Way Down, and ya gotta love a changeup like TMWSIY > Avenu Malkenu > Peaches En Regalia! But the best, the highlight of the set, is an absolutely EPCOT 14 min. Jesus Just Left Chicago where Trey rips so damn hard that Page has to go "JEEEEZUS!! left Chicago!" On the downside, there are a couple of disappointing cuts (Fluff, Bowie, maybe Antelope, although I may just have a broken file, there) and McGrupp is definitely better without Fish on trombone. But, overall, another fine, fine Nectar's show with enough tasty highlights to merit 4 Stars. Seriously, if you like JJLC, check this one out, it'll make you take someone's name in vain!

THE GOOD: This show is full of inspired playing as the band finally got a good chance to play the Mann on their own (they opened for Santana in 1992). The Ya Mar is quite nice and, even though a warm-up, is impeccable. I love the FEFY in the first set. FEFY shines throughout this tour, and reaches spectacular heights in August, although don't let this early tour version slip under the radar. Trey soars. The set-closing Antelope, a song which would become the major jam vehicle for this tour, is also above-average. This is great hey-jamming, with the erratic spontaneous licks that the band catches onto before thrusting back into the main groove. I also like the quick pace of the Marco section. The first 2001 ever starts off this second set and leads into 2001. Now, this 2001 is quite slow and chunky compared to today's standards, but I love the grittiness of it and how much more Mike adds with a few extra notes. The 2001>SOAM, which would be perfected later in the tour at Red Rocks, is flawless, and the SOAM itself is ever moving closer to the grand peak that the song reached on 8/20. It's an up-tempo race to the release. Good stuff here. The second set doesn't let up, with an absolutely scorching Maze with not one but 2 peaks. A great Maze. YEM flows into Yerushala Im Shel Zehav during the Nirvana segment and contains a herky-jerky jam that makes its way to an absolutely raging conclusion. Following YEM is one of the tightest most perfect 3 minute Poor Hearts I think the band has ever played. You really need to hear this one. I mean, if they play Poor Heart so well that it deserves a mention, you know that things were going well. One might think that, given the set thus far, the Purple Rain would have been followed by a standard closer, but the band really was on this night and continued with a transcedental Hood, containing a truly magical five minutes of the band completely locked in and following an absolutely wonderful Trey story-line. The star of this Hood may be Page, though, who provides beautiful echos to some of Trey's runs. Really, a 5-star Hood here. The Llama, FreeBird encore is no slouch either.

THE BAD: Hard to write much about this show here. There's a few timing errors in Golgi going back into the chorus (doh!) and a band miscue during the Glide bridge (which you probably won't even notice). Generally, though, the band was ON this night. If there is anything to be said about this show, it's the handful of short numbers in set 1. But boy does set 2 make up for it in spades.

THE NERDY: Trey takes the break in Daniel to welcome everyone to the show. Listen for some fun band interplay during the Poor Heart where Cactus is introduced and Fish chides Trey as "Big Red". A handful of debuts at this show, including Purple Rain which features a Fish "The Purple One" vaccuum solo.

I've put the stand-outs on Youtube, so take a look

I was at this show, and I remembered quite liking it at the time. Here is my original review from my blog (some of the odd wording was due to those words being linked to pictures I took at the show):

"Despite what you may have heard from the naysayers, Vida Blue was excellent.

They aren't Phish, of course (but they did bring some of their equipment), but how can you not love seeing Page on stage? It was a special feeling, just like seeing Mike play with Trey at Great Woods this summer. Call me a sentimental idiot, but something about seeing anyone from Phish play music just makes me feel giddy.

Vida Blue really gives Page a chance to stretch out, and while some of his lyrics are a bit...unsophisticated...his keyboard playing is first-rate. Page truly has his own sound which sometimes got overshadowed in Phish - you really get a sense of what each of his 8 keyboards sound like. If you go to the show expecting Medeski you will be disappointed, but if you go in with an open mind you'll have a great time. Page's rhythm section (or is the whole band a rhythm section?) lay down a great base for his techno/funk/classic rock explorations, and Oteil sings a damn good "Manic Depression." Hearing Page sing through the voice changer on Zepplin's "No Quarter" was a dream come true.

Of course it didn't hurt that it Paul Languedoc and Chris Kuroda were along for the ride. As you can maybe see in the Kuroda Pic, Chris has a piano keyboard that he uses to control the lights. It was amazing to watch him work, because you can never get that close to him at a Phish concert. He even brought the high beams!

All in all it was a great night, and well worth the price of admission. If only they could have had a better beer selection!"

I recently re-listened to it for Phish.net verification purposes and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it has stood the test of time.