this is a pretty serious show. now, i really liked the velvet underground set in vegas, but all in all, that vegas run was pretty disappointing. it definitely pailed in comparision to the previous 3 halloweens. now, after sending many heads heading out of vegas grumbling, those that made their way over to utah really got it made up to them in a big way.

this show has more than just the dsotm. it starts off hot with a smoking tube. this one is very funky. the middle section is nice, but the extended jam on the back end is gravy, especially when it takes a turn into a pretty rocking drowned. this song was still pretty rare at the time, so getting it 2 songs deep in the show is pretty snazzy. this is a pretty rocking jam that eventually drops down into jesus left chicago. this is a nice deep, bluesy version. driver and bittersweet are nice little breathers. before a pretty solid limb by limb picks things back up. trey plays pretty well on this one. as for the rest of the first set....hhhmm pretty blah.

a nice down with disease kicks off the 2nd set. this one does not go too far, but they take the opportunity for a bit of exploration. page had some nice licks in there. the mango song and the moma dance are both early set winners. you enjoy myself does very well. gordon gets in a really nice groove before it peters out. oh yeah, the composed portion is also well-executed. well, normally, especially after that vegas run, i would expect phish to find a way to bone a potentially great set, but tonight, they are not going to bone it. oom pa pa oom pa pa! they do a really nice story in harpua about jimmy's trip to vegas. on the way home, they are listening to dsotm. i will spare you to song by song here. considering they learned the whole album in less than a day, this is remarkable. apparantley, trey and, i believe, fishman were at a bar and a fan mentioned how they should just say fuck it and play another album in utah. so half drunkenly, the fan challenged them to dark side. trey and the boys accepted the challenge. well, they did not play it perfectly. there were a few flubs. it was so sick it's unbelievable! speak to me/breathe feels like a dream. even if you know the setlist listening to it, you just keep expecting them to stop and cut back into the harpua narration, but alas, they do the whole album between now and then. anyway, there are little nuances of this version of dsotm that really make it. some of them are funny some are just glorious. harpua comes back around and ends a shockingly good show. smells like teen spirit is a pretty funny way to end this one. after playing the very complex, precise, and mind blowing dsotm, they end with a very simple blunt song of teenage angst. only phish.

i love this one, especially in context to the rest of the tour. also, every album they've done from the beattls to the stones all had at least one song they worked its way into the repertoire. none of these have worked their way in. maybe some day we can hear trey sing time again. until then....

highlights:

set 1:

tube>drowned>jesus left chicago

set 2:

harpua>dsotm>harpua!!