Out of all the shows I saw at Alpine Valley, this one is my favorite. It helped that I was now feeling comfortable on tour and had a lot of the kinks worked out from the year before, but it was the band and the crowd that brought the heat this Saturday night.

Before the show started, we saw a guy sitting on the lip (of the lawn near the bathrooms) pull out a huge sack to show off to his friends. A kid in a yellow security shirt who couldn't be over 21 walked by and snatched it up saying, "Thank you," to the guy. We couldn't help but laugh at his misfortune. "Only bring what you need for the show!" his buddy yelled at him.

The second classic non-musical moment of the show occurred during set break. We walked back to the lodge bathroom area and it was horribly packed. I noticed an opening around the three step area and we tried to get over there for some space. Little did we know that the space was being created by a naked guy pissing on himself with a group of security guarding the borders until he stopped. The crowd of people looked like statues, unable to look away from this guy jabbering to himself. Writing this in 2011, I'm glad many of these moments don't happen at shows very much anymore.

Now for the music: The entire crowd went ape-shit with the first notes of Ramble On, as they did most of the night. This time the band's jukebox hit a winner. If only I had stayed on until the Vernon Downs version. The Mike's/Week wasn't nearly as hot as the version the year before, but it didn't disappoint. The rest of the first set was pretty standard rocking 98 Phish. Everyone we talked to mentioned the Esther bust out and the lack of serious jamming in the first set. We were all prepped for a blowout!

Boy did the band deliver. The short Piper bled into my first jammed out Wilson and first Magilla! The real treat of the set was the now famous Tweezer. This still stands as a top 3 version for me, maybe #1 (2-28-03 anyone?). The jam starts immediately (rare during this era) and flows effortlessly behind Mike's lead. Along with the Riverport Gin earlier in my summer run, this was the transformative moment causing me to go from a Phish fan to a total phreak. I had to go on a real tour run (more than 5 shows) and I had to do it as soon as possible. The transition into Fluffhead caused all in our area to give high 5s and hugs. This was the first show for me where total strangers wanted to hug over and over again. Here's another show where the band and crowd needed two songs to cool things down. The jukebox continued with Been Caught Stealing, but we were still in the freezer the rest of the night.