SET 1: AC/DC Bag: Personally, I think anytime you get a Bag opener it means that something is definitely up! This most assuredly was the case on this gorgeous July night in Utah. The Bag was pretty standard and tight throughout. Sweet opener that primed us for the rest of the night. Nice jam! >

Ya Mar: Nice, this is the penultimate Phish summer song for me, so light and happy. Was it just me or did the "Play it Leo" by Trey seem way off? Like the timing was really off? Either way, good Yamar; nothing crazy like the one from IT; just good solid band jamming here. Fishman was really going off on the wood blocks around 5:40 or so, love the wood blocks!

Theme From the Bottom: Sweet!! This is a song I was totally sick of by the end of 96, I caught it at every third show it seemed and it never really changed much. But now that they have scaled it back to once or twice a tour, it makes it much more enjoyable. This version made me remember why I liked this song so much back when I saw it for the first time at the Palace of Auburn Hills in 95. There is so much tension building in this song that when they finally climax it can be quite intense as was the case w/ this version.

Saw It Again: Standard.

Poor Heart: Standard, still the crowd ate it up.

Two Versions of Me: Did they really need to play this again so soon after just playing it at the Gorge? Personally, I liked the Gorge version more specifically because it was segued out of that hot Piper. Still my second favorite of the new tunes.

Secret Smile: Seriously, stop playing this fellas, it's not good unless I am spun to the moon and need a really sappy/slow song to bring me back to earth. TAB, you can have it. Yuck. This was only one of two drawbacks of the whole evening for me.

Mike's Song: Good, solid jamming. >

I Am Hydrogen: Standard.

Weekapaug Groove: Bring the love Mike! A nice jammed out Week that lasted just over 12 minutes. They catch a nice them for a couple of minutes. What a way to close out a romping first set, you could tell that the band really meant business and was intent on showing why you should never ever skip a Phish show in Utah. I mean, didn't people learn after 11/2/98 DSOTM?

Set break: Bill and I spotted Malcolm just after first set closed out and he told us where we could find them, so we moved back into the 300 section on Mike's side where I had a whole aisle all to myself to dance in. Little did I know that I would need every inch of that aisle because I'd be running around like a madman w/ what Phish was about to lay on us!!

SET 2: Mr. Completely: As the opening notes rang out, this just sent me into outer space baby! I was jumping up and down like a little kid. Most around us did not seem to have a clue what this was. I never, ever would have expected Phish to play this. Every time TAB plays this bad boy, they jam the living hell out of it so I assumed we would get a 15 minute or so version. Wrong. What lay before us may well have been THE jam of the summer tour. I can't really begin to even explain the places this jam went. At around 14:50 Page really starts to lay down some funky riffs w/ Trey playing some rhythm behind him, ahh the funk! Around 25 minutes or so they begin patiently working back to the original theme of this song. Excellent overall job by the band to be able to bring this back around but wait what was that I just heard?! At around 27:45 or so Trey is repeating a few chords that to my ear sounded like Low Rider. Two minutes later this does come to fruition segueing into ->

Low Rider: Woo hoo! Dare I say this Mr. Completely>Low Rider outplays the Ghost>LR from 2/26. Then at 3.5 minutes, no it can't be, it can't be… ->

Big Black Furry Creature from Mars: Finally at my 67th show I am finally hearing Big Black Furry. Unfuckingbelievable. As some of you may know, our tour partner Lee made a sign for his run from Phoenix > Bonner Springs. I believe this was the first venue that actually allowed him to bring it in and by God did the band ever take notice. Lee, I sure hope you see this and comment on it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. A quick romp through this punk tune lands in ->

Buried Alive: Amazing segue into Buried. At this point I was running up and down the aisle pretty much screaming like a banshee. I have only seen Buried Alive like 3 or 4 times, and I think I'd be fine w/ seeing it every other show I like it that much. This was very short and segues right back into >

Big Black Furry Creature from Mars: OK, holy shit. This setlist is starting to look like something straight out of 93 or 94 with the segues, unreal >

Ha Ha Ha: Good Lord the band is just having the time of their lives and so are we out in the pavilion just eating this all up >

Big Black Furry Creature from Mars: Just when you think it cannot get any crazier segue into >

Mr. Completely: Now that is what I call a sandwich, one that only this band could possibly even think of doing! What got into the band tonight? I still cannot believe they came back from whence they began, and they still aren't done w/ the segueing madness!! >

Spread It 'Round: All of us are pretty much just looking at each other w/ mouths agape at this point. Sounds like a new tune. Just 4 minutes into this I am thinking to myself, this is the worst song Phish has ever played. Well maybe second worse compared to Jennifer Dances. Actually they may be tied! repetitive, soooooo cheesy. Crap. This would be my second and last drawback of the night.

Walls of the Cave: This is another song that I think I would rather hear on the tape’s vs live for some reason or another. This one however really rages but still found me taking a geezer breather in my seat >

Golgi Apparatus: Hell yeah, I saw you! This ticket stub will stay w/ me forever.

Slave to the Traffic Light: Bless you boys! Just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in! This is my second favorite Phish song, just a tad behind Divided Sky and this version did not disappoint. I don't get to hear Slave near as much as I'd like (like I did in '97) so anytime I hear it now it just melts me. This song means so very much to me. I was going thru some pretty rough times at the end of my college career at the end of '97/beginning of 98 - Slave was always the song I would pop in at those times to try and bring me out of the darkness. Enough of that though - this version was pretty solid; a few very minor flubs can be heard but for the most part it's very solid. The wave of emotion I was riding throughout this set climaxed here in Slave. This is the reason I spend so much time, energy, and money on Phish right here. Because there is nothing else that I know of on this planet that can make me feel like this (at least that I know of yet) - no drug, no girl; there is nothing like an amazing Phish show (that for Me) just puts me on top of the world. All that said, this is a below average version.

ENCORE: Sleeping Monkey: Ha ha, nice! I hadn't heard this little ditty in a long time! It made me think back to 12-6-97 when I saw this as an encore also,
Fishman climbing up on his kit and crooning to us all! Gotta love this song and the quirky abandon it has to it. Great way to end the night.

Replay Value/Summary: Mr. Completely is an all timer – absolutely epic jam. Weekapaug I would also recommend. The first 1/3 of set I is solid as is the Mike’s Groove and the second set was a ton of fun. I would rate this a strong 4.5 out of 5. Off we go to Kansas, stopping at my place in Denver to pick up my friend Pat who would see the rest of tour w/ us. We saw the car in front of us narrowly miss hitting a big deer about an hour after getting on I-80. Bonner Springs (holy letdown Phish!) review coming soon. We carried Lee’s BBFCFM sign with us for the rest of the tour as his last show was the next show in Kansas. On the other side was Fluffhead. Tony made it close to the front of one of the IT shows, he got on the big video screen, prompting the infamous Fluffhead chants > Mike said no. True story. He was way up front for this Utah show and was the reason they played BBFCFM. Pretty cool!