My, oh my, the years go by... 20 yrs later... I remember right well... My first Phish show was also my first time buying a concert ticket to a non-arena show... under age and all in Colorado... I'd heard bootlegs from friends on the East Coast and knew I was obliged to go as a Deadhead, but had little to no idea what to expect... It was spring in the mountains... Friday night... my brother and I rolled in all of 16yrs and 18yrs old between us. Ski bums we knew from town were in the parking lot, furious that they'd been sold out of their first Phish show... call it the begging of the end of the Early Days.

The band was set up on 1ft risers in the back of a banquet hall that felt empty when then they took the stage. A few feet from the front I was grinning nervously as house lights dropped... here comes Trey like he's straight out of an NFL pre-game huddle... jumping up and down, completely pumped... except he's all of 120 pounds, scrawny and white as a redhead can be... I seem to remember it as one of those really bad cut off tank tops from back int he day... he's counts out Landlady and just tears into it... Carlos eat your heart out.

Up until this point the only bands I'd seen were arena sized rockers who'd earned their place in the pantheon. Here was this group of what felt like kids not much older than me, completely dedicated, completely ripping, and making it happen... a new thing made new to me right there on stage. Didn't know a single song, but I was swept up. It was new and it was magic and once it was done, I wanted more of it... a lot more.

So 20 years later... good times, bad times... there was a lot more magic and certainly more lows to come. But the feeling still hits me every time the house lights go down. 20 years later... I'm still upside down.

Solid show tonight. Lots of tough songs on the list. The new material was really good. Page is back to the organ for his Maze solo, I like, I like! Fluff was sloppy in the middle. ATR is a lot tighter.

The Curtain to start off second set was sloppy but, hasn't been played in a while so, a little rust I suppose. Great transition into The Sloth though, I've never heard one like that. Mound is coming along nicely. YEM had some slop in the middle, but again, great vocal jam. Back end is great as usual, haven't heard Hood in a while either.

Rocky Top was missing from the bootleg I heard.

::Source I heard only have the second set::

The 2nd set is pretty excellent from this show. The > into The Sloth is seamless. Possum is a top notch version. YEM is played with a fine polish finish. The vocal jam is also pretty solid (although it’s super annoying at the same time). The Mango song is thoughtful and very well played. Llama rips as always. The highlight of it all to me might be this Hood. It’s played so tight, yet in the middle it is beautiful in more of a loose way. It moves to the outro without a hitch.

Great set all around, very inspired playing. Would listen again.

So I thought I'd go through and listen to some of the essential 90s tours or longer section of tours beginning with the Spring 92 West Coast run. However I like to have some context going into something like this so I wanted to hop on tour a bit further out to orient myself in 1992 Phish. So why not just start in the mountains and make my way west?

So the music.
This is a solid show. It's not a hidden gem or anything but it's Phish so there are moments of the sublime
peppered throughout.

The first set has really excellent energy and solid song selection. The Melt stood out to me.

The second set opens with The Curtain>The Sloth which really works for me, the transition is really fun.
Possum is very cool, definitely deserving of it's spot on the Jam Chart. If nothing else listen to the Possum (and why not hang around for a strong and fun Mound?) The YEM is is just OK I mean that in the context of YEM), I liked the vocal jam. Mango though to Suzy is fun and the Hood is good.

In the pantheon of Phish this is a Don't Skip rather than a Must Hear, but seriously don't skip it!
Glad I listened, see you in Boulder.

Post Script: I started listening to the second set again while I was writing this and I already feel like the show is better than I made it out to be. It's a fun one.