Still one of my all-time favorite shows, it managed to stand out, even coming right before the unbelievable Vegas weekend two-nighter. I was lucky enough - no, smart enough to go to all three of those shows. They are all favorites. It was a gorgeous night, and yes, that place is lovely with excellent sound. We love the LA Greek, almost as much as the Berkeley Greek. The slow songs that pop up in the first set felt just fine in this place, honestly. It's a major downshift into Roggae, but listen to the crowd on the audience tape just love the song choice. I hear it. Roggae had a long way to go before it matured into what it is now, but this was a great early version. Driver was very special, very intimate.

I remember that, initially, I left this show really impressed by the Reba, but it was how amazingly they nailed the composed section, rather than the jam. I was just blown away by how effortlessly they rip through the insane hard parts of the song. There were a lot of covers this night, getting us warmed up for the Halloween weekend (what will they play?!), and I remember Walk Away being really fun. I had no idea what a bust-out it was. And the Something encore really made an impression. It is just fucking flawless, and if you're gonna play that song, you have to play it flawlessly. It's too important a song. And they did it. The crowd fucking loved that encore, it was very special on what could have been just a warm-up night.

I also remember, during one of the hiatuses, listening to everything I had (on CD, kids), in order, starting in I think '96. And from '97 on, I had every show. So when I got into late '98, I was listening carefully for the first appearance of Trey's reverse delay effect that became THE thing in '99. You know what I'm talking about, the backwards Hendrix-y brain-melting effect. Trey leaned on it heavily in '99, and to great effect. We are thankful. But yeah, I wanted to know when it started, and it was here, I'm pretty sure. Prove me wrong, please. In any case, while I don't think Trey used it a whole lot in Vegas, it is all over this show. I thought that I had first heard it in Reba, of all places, but upon a re-listen last night, it starts in Llama, and then again in Birds, Zero, yes, Reba (at around 18 minutes), and Bowie, and maybe more songs too. It's the face-melter, and I love it. Trey still brings it out occasionally in jams, and always in First Tube.

Thank god the audience recordings are so good from this night. They should release this show, but I would still listen to the auds, probably.