This is no 4.6 show, but it is better than the current average (3.3, and that's *after* I gave it a 5 just to bump it up) suggests. This is a pretty straight-ahead rocking show from '92 with enough good that you might as well listen to the whole thing. Plus it's one of those remotely mixed pristine sounding Colorado tapes, so that's a bonus!

The show opens very strongly. They're on point for the first three songs. The Divided Sky is really quite darn good. If you like the setlist you'll like the rest of the set. Possum is particularly fun with all of its ridiculous secret language. One thing I will say about the secret language is that sometimes they got a little overzealous with it. All the best examples of secret language are used within the context of already good music. Sometimes they let the music get away from them a bit and just played these secret language cues without much thought. The intro to this Possum is a good example of this. It's really a pretty minor complaint, but despite the humor of them, I could use a few less sometimes.

The second set boasts a fine opening Melt and a pretty good YEM. YEM's intro is sloppy, but jams are quality. They seemed very unsure of themselves during Weigh. It never really gelled. Bowie is the highlight of the show. I really like this one despite not being a huge Bowie fan. Trey hits a cool riff and lays back for a while while Page pounds away. At the end the jam slowly morphs back to more normal territory and gets finished as usual. You'll definitely find yourself listening to this Bowie multiple times.

Overall, this is a pretty par-for-course-show with a below par-for-the-course average.

Great sounding bootleg! Right off the soundboard. You can hear a lot of stage banter between songs. Good Llama, some digi-noise in Guelah. Pretty good first set until the new material. Horn is sloppy. Calls for No Dogs Allowed before Ice. Possum has a lot of teases that I can't remember who the band is that they are referencing. Another barbershop ending first set.

Melt is a good opener, check out the screaming guitar tones. ATR is a little off, but YEM is an absolute train wreck in the intro. Page is no where to be found in spots. The vocal jam is worth the listen though. Horse>Silent is so close to being good. Trey singing the chorus vocals instead of Page? Maze and Weigh are good. Bowie is sloppy but has a good jam. Fish does a great vac. solo. A-Train and Jim are outstanding. Great drumming from Fish. Trey laughs through most of the lyrics in Jim.

Encores are great! Very tight.
Average show. This is a bad Page night but, has fun moments.

After a solid opening the first set gets going for me with a well played Divided Sky. The ending of Wilson made me smile. Stash is worth hearing because well what Stash isn't? I liked Rift here, Horn has been better but isn't jarring or anything. Ice is maybe a tiny bit shaky if you're picking nits but it is enjoyable and fun.... Possum! Very fun version, Landlady quote, secret language stuff. A good but relatively inessential first set.

Second Set!
The opening SOAM is great. I try to just stay in the moment listening to shows, especially earlier shows, and not compare this to the many great SOAMs to come. This SOAM rips. After ATR, YEM gets off to an amusingly rocky start, but the band recovers and the jamming is very good, the Mike 'n Fish portion in particular made me smile. The vocal jam's immediate decent into chaos is also fun. Seriously give this YEM, at least the jam, a couple two tree listens... you won't regret it. Trey gets another chance to show off during Maze. I agree with the previous review on Weigh, it does seem... off but they get back together with Landlady and launch into a really great Bowie jam. The composed section might bother you if you're a huge stickler for accuracy, Page has some rough moments. But the jam is excellent. If you only listen to two songs from this show listen to the YEM and the Bowie. Hold Your Head Up>Love You>Cold as Ice is fun, vacuum solos almost never really translate into something enjoyable for me on recordings but this one is almost not annoying at all. It's fun to hear them get silly after that great Bowie jam and then take the show home. It's really great to hear jazzy Phish on A Train and as noted Trey laughs through Jim which made me smile. The recording has crowd noise and some Trey banter before the encores which was nice. The encores are good. Ok!

It's a pretty run-of-the-mill Phish show which means that it is very good! I enjoyed the whole thing and the YEM and the Bowie jams are both well worth revisiting. So that's three smiles, two recommended songs and 18 buckets of popcorn and two sodas.

https://forum.phish.net/forum/permalink/1377918656

April 1992 has received its fair share of recognition, mainly due to the excellent West Coast run in the second half of this month, which has been well-circulated on Soundboard recordings. A couple of new recordings have surfaced to fill in the gaps from the first part of the month, but the best recording of the whole tour has been overshadowed - this "Separate-from-soundboard 16-track" SBD/AUD matrix from 4/5/92. Whether on earbuds or a quality home theater system, Mike Grace's recording of this "surprise show" is a sonic pleasure that should be shared.

The two posted reviews of this show seem to pick nits with the accuracy of the playing, ignoring the peaks of the jams. It's true that this show is not Page's sharpest, but he holds his own during the jams in It's Ice, Maze, the breakdown in Weigh, and another sweet Landlady > David Bowie combo. Meanwhile, Machine Gun Trey demonstrates the art of pointillism with solos from Llama to Runaway Jim, but especially in Divided Sky and a ripping SOAMelt set 2 opener. And as with 4/22/90, the spacious stereo mix from the 16-track allows for excellent attention to the playing of Fish and Mike.

The Possum from this show deserves its own paragraph, considering the brief description on the jamming chart. Some fans may feel that Possum is overplayed, but many forget the improvisational weight the song carried for the band in the early touring years, making the song a favorite for many fans at that time. Once the band had let the audience in on the Secret Language, many looked forward to participating in the antics during the extended Possum intros. But just about every Possum from Spring 1992 also features astonishingly inventive soloing from Trey; rhythmic motifs and melodies that were rarely if ever repeated from one version to the next. And although most Possum peaks resemble an 18-wheeler barreling down a seven-percent grade at 90+ mph, the peak for this Possum is more like an F-16 taking off with full afterburners.