This run was a trip. I saw these two shows right after catching 8 out of the 9 Grateful Dead shows at Vegas, Shoreline, and Cal Expo (hey, I had to work ONE day). I was lucky to still have a job when I got back into town. I saw the Laguna Seca Dead shows in '88 and '87, so I was pretty familiar with the camping drill. The stage was set in the middle of a big dirt field that might have had grass there at one time. One difference between these shows and the Dead shows 5-6 years before was that Fort Ord was shut down by this time and was not blasting off ordinances between songs.
I liked this show overall better than the next night, but to be honest, I was already exhausted and a little burned by the time the music even started. This felt a little like in 1987, when day after the Dead run here at Laguna Seca, I got dragged to a Billy Idol concert at the Cow Palace. I was pretty fried.
Anyway, the one-set show was pretty solid with highlights including the vacuum solo in Cavern and the Big Ball jam. YEM> Jim was pretty good too. I remember thinking during the Big Ball jam that ABB, Shawn Colvin, and Blues Traveler probably thought these guys were pretty weird. It was all good fun, tho. The crowd was mainly there for ABB, but they seemed to appreciate Phish's playing.