Must hear versions of Possum and Reba! The macaroni and cheese boxes add a surprising percussive element to Possum, well done!

Shake shake shake during the drum break.

I was there, and it was my one and only birthday show. I went to all of the four bars, two upstairs, two downstairs, and collected a free Sierra Nevada Pale Ale from each. As for the show, I really don't remember too much, as it was 16 years ago now and we had gone pretty hard the first two nights and the aforementioned four beers were not my only libations. The first two nights were comparatively tame, and this one stands head and shoulders above. I recall snippets: the opera singer, the girl who played violin (from Camper Van Beethoven?), a six foot bong some guy had between the taper section and the pit, watching DownerMan dance in the first row of the balcony, taping (and staying) with AssholeMan, noticing that Paula Poundstone was on the marquee as soon as we left the theatre:

http://www.pbase.com/sigphotography/image/44027216 />
Here's the official poster, as well:

http://www.pbase.com/sigphotography/image/44517244 />
All in all a good run which would have been mediocre without this gem.

Cant believe there's not a review of this show yet. If I'm not mistaken this became the "Simple" bootleg, at least by '98......

This is my favorite version of Reba ever.......

For those of us who care about such things, this is my favorite version of hood.
Page is particularly active In the 25/8 runup. Mike finds a hook and page follows. Fish directs traffic until Trey steps In. When Trey hits that flurry of notes...it’s like for a moment we fly above all the pain and disappointment and frustration life offers. For a moment we’re free. This version of this song is why I listen to this band.

Some really tremendous moments in both sets of this show. David Bowie jam doesn't fall too far from the tree, but certainly tests the limits of the song's Type I frame. Page and Fishman really help sow the seeds of dissonant tension and tow along a heart-tightening crescendo the final, booming measures. Harry Hood (SBD now available on Live Bait Vol. 18) gets a fun extended intro sequence and then really takes off beautifully in the jam. As the jam chart points out, Mike settles into an emotional pattern playing with the major 7 just before the band resolves back to D each cycle through the changes. The band lets it ride, adding almost nothing but harmonic support and a drawn-out crescendo for a minute and a half, and landing in a space just ripe for Trey to come in and mow it down. Spiritually moving performance.

Before I got to the second set, I read some of the reviews that were already on here and saw a few testimonies calling this Reba their favorite. I have to admit that I was immediately skeptical: there are a LOT of "best" Reba's out there, maybe only second to YEM in sheer quantity. But god damn, the more I listen to this one, the more I think y'all might be on to something. Though there isn't as much exploration in this version as some of the greats from '93 (8/16/93 is a fucking journey...), the dynamic play in this performance is mystical. The near-silent passage that kicks off the jam alone is worthy of an SBD release. Every single guy on that stage works his magic to its fullest extent on this one, and Trey's phrasing through the solo drives a compelling point. I'll be re-visiting this one frequently.

The debut of Simple is at once both completely sensible (how many Mike's -> Simple's have we seen?) and shocking. The typical formula is Mike's F# first jam, followed by a drop to the F second jam -> Simple and this is what I was expecting after seeing it on paper. Instead, the band rips the debut in F#, completely forgoing a Mike's Song jam. That said, "Simple" itself is performed not with the polished, organized, and blissful arrangement we all know it to bare, but almost in a Catapult-esque fashion where the whole band delivers frenzied vocals over a non-stop hard grooving jam. You could almost classify this as Mike's Song with Simple quotes. Very, very cool to hear after so many years of familiarity with its eventual delivery. When the band DOES finally drop into F, we get a stunning outro jam that gorgeously allows for -> O Mio Babbino. This should be required listening for Phans, if only for its istorical significance, and I'm kicking myself for not hearing it sooner.

Band closes with a fun Possum closer and Fire encore that get the audience involved with boxes of macaroni that serve as an additional percussive element. Even if you just pick out the meaty jam chart tunes from this show, you're in for a treat.

I was somewhat disappointed listening to the first 2 nights of this 3-night Warfield run. The band was at the tail end of a 45-show spring tour here, and May '94 continued Phish's upward trajectory of ever-better playing. Aside from 5/25's Tweezer and 5/26's YEM, both of which are amazing, the first 2 nights are mostly average-great (that is to say, mindblowing, just not reaching the crystalline transcendence Phish is capable of).

Night 3, however, this Friday night 5/27 show, gives something more to write home about. Without going into too many words, definite highlights in Bowie, Hood, and Reba, but especially everything from Mike's Song through the end of the run deserves knowing. After playing around with Simple-style jamming during a couple '93 Mike's Songs, the "song" finally debuts tonight with the lyrics droning over great swells of screaming, cymbals, and be-bophones. It's not every band that can close out a 3 night run by debuting something never heard before like this on their audience. After returning to Mike's Song, the jam vaporizes into the dimensionless space where no concepts can exist. Out of this ether arises a melody through Trey's guitar that speaks the original language of the heart. That melody turns out to be a Puccini aria, which Phish naturally has a professional opera singer come on stage to sing sans microphone. During the brief opera, [from the phish.com show notes:] "the band handed out boxes of Kraft Flintstones macaroni and cheese for the audience to shake (this was the 3rd Mac and Cheese Jam in the tradition of 9/27/85 and 10/31/89) during Possum and Fire. Appropriately, Possum also included a tease of the “Flintstones” theme."

In sum, while far from the best 3 night run in Phish's career, the Tweezer, YEM, and 5/27 are all very worth hearing.