Happy St. Patrick's Day with the first of only two shows at the Palace in Hollywood, this is the 31st show of the tour. Sound problems rear their ugly heads early on in this show and they don't quite fully recover. Since there are other reviews by actual attendees, I'll be brief. Pretty good recording overall with a few edit points here and there.

Decent Landlady to open up with as Trey anxiously rips right into Jim. And this is where the sound problems start as you can hear clicking and the sound of a bad mic or cord. The middle of Jim suffers. The problems continue in Foam, which takes a nice dynamic turn and isn't bad overall. Bouncing was good, maybe things are fixed? Nope, Stash also suffers a false start of sorts, but rocks regardless. The sound problems force a mid set Grace, and then they dive back in with a decent Paul and Silas. Ice isn't bad considering tonight's problems. It seems they are starting to relax a bit as a playful Oh Kee Pah brings on a rocking Suzy. This one had a really nice "Leo" section second time around. Antelope was a nice closer to the shaky first set.

Nice Axilla opener, Glide was also good. Reba had its rough parts, but not too bad overall. Jesus is nice to hear, but still not very tight in the progression itself because of its recent bust out status. Mound kind of lacked tonight as you get the full dose of Mike and Trey needs to tune. Mike's was ok, nothing too special. Hydro wasn't too bad, and Weekapaug had some interesting points, but not great. Horse was good; Silent still had some timing problems. HYHU brings Fishman out to cries for Whipping Post. Instead the "OK Gig" is brought out for a second time complete with vacuum solo. Very funny, as usual... Golgi is a rocking closer, not particularly that great, and sounds like Paul is still tweaking things at the board to make it sound better tomorrow. Trey is also still out of tune.

The crowd gets shushed again for Adeline and then a super charged Rocky Top sends everyone out on a high note.

This may have easily been a four star show if the sound problems hadn't happened. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

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

I had moved to just a few blocks north of the Palace, so this was a venue I could walk to from home. The show was quite a rocker! The Palace tends to be a bit boomy, so that wasn't helping the band, but the show was awesome nonetheless. I was so amazed by the second set. "Mike's" -> "H2" was sublime, as was the "Horse" -> "Silent in the AM". I love all Page songs, so "Jesus" was a treat! The "Great Gig in the Sky" was just hilarious, and the audience was just plain annoying for "Sweet Adeline".
We came back the next night begging for more. Mikey and his taper buddies had invaded our house before the show and the floors were a sea of battery chargers and patch cords. We got to the show and had a fantastic time again. The Gamehendge songs were really cool and turned out to be foreshadowing the coming Crest show. "Horn" has always been one of my sentimental favorites, perhaps this show is why.
The second set was much better that the previous three sets at the Palace. "Split Open" did just that, then it melted all over the Palace floor. I think I got some of it on my shoe! I was checking my shoes and wham, what the hell are all these big balls? This was my first Big Ball experience and I was psyched. The band just played percussively. I'm not sure if each one assigned themselves a ball, or if they just reacted to any of them, but it was quite fun. I don't know, for some reason all those tapers were not as fond of the "Big Ball Jam" as I was.

Phish was still virtually unknown in Southern California in the spring of 1993. I was attending USC and talked a friend into coming along to the Palace, a club that held less than 1,000 people and was not sold out. In fact, we strolled in a few minutes before showtime and casually found a spot a few rows back. Elektra was promoting Rift at the time and there were posters plastered everywhere of David Welker's cover art. I carefully removed one from the wall, grabbed a pen from the bartender and scrawled the setlist on the back of the rolled up poster.

Unfortunately, the first set was somewhat sabotaged by sound system issues, forcing a mid-set a-cappella Amazing Grace to give the sound techs a chance to work out the issues. A frenzied Antelope and nice version of It's Ice are the high points of the first set.

Second set gets off to a raucous start with the still new Axilla, followed by a Reba that was a bit shaky in the composed section, with a briskly-paced jam section that ends a bit abruptly. The second version of Jesus Left Chicago after a two-year absence,with it's multiple California references, was welcomed heartily, and Page shines brightly on this version.

Mike's Song is tight and rocking, but hardly stands out in a year of great versions. Trey tosses out a few noticeable teases of Heartbreaker during Weekapaug before they break it down into a full-on Lively Up Yourself jam, complete with Trey playing the notes of the verses. Great Gig was a typically great had-to-be-there Fishman experience, complete with extended vacuum solo and smoke machine effects.

A solid night for 1993, and the Mike's Groove is worth a listen, but the following night is a far superior performance.