(posted nearly 13 years ago at rec.music.phish regarding Mike's performance of "Love Me" that night...)

Oh my God..are you deaf? ;^) This was absolutely terrible! First of
all, Mike started in the _wrong key_ and the guys were cringing
throughout the whole song. Even Mike (after his face'd get all sour
from creening to hit the high notes...which were WAY to high for him
was looking over at Trey/Page with a completely embarresed look
around. It was novel for a bit, but then it's lack of musicality got
annoying. I'm suprised they didn't abort it. This single song was
_the_worst_ I have ever heard or seen Phish play a song. It truly was
that bad. And while were at it, the Fluffhead wasn't just messy, it was
SLOP. Everyone raves at this show for a Tela and a Forbin, but the show
was pretty crappy, IMO (and much of that was thanks to Kesey.) The
Camel Walk was nice, but the Taste lacked the energy I'd seen at Alpine
and the Went. Even the Hood tonight seemed to lack the glory it usually
carries - possibly the fault of the fireworks. The First set was poor,
and was saved only by the raging Antelope..but Set I gets a 4.0 on the
S.J. scale tops. 3.5 is probablly more honest. Set II is noteworthy
ONLY for the Chalkdust, which was only average, and the Camelwalk,
which, IMO, wasn't that splendid...only rare. While not
"liquidation material" because of the Kesey thing (annoying as it
was...) this is not a set I'll listen to over & over again.

Sorry, I didn't mean to go off on you like that, but I never posted my
tour review like I promised I would, and you stating that Love Me was
all fine and dandy struck a chord. Nothing personal, I'm sure you know.

Take care,

- Mark

PS: I know this is semi-contradictory, but the coolest thing I have
ever heard said by Trey was "So we're supposed to do Mockingbird now? .
. . But the funk is too deep!" (Pet Peeve: He never said "but we
can't" as I've seen misquoted in the HPB and in various .sig files.
Sorry...)