My first show too. I was actually suffering from borderline clinical depression for the weeks running up to this show. My music major friends wanted us to drive down from Northern Ohio to see this obscure band... I wanted to stay in bed. They DRAGGED me into the car saying it would be good for me. Little did I know...

On the way into the show thestaff frisked me and found my loose j in my tube sock. Depression continued. Stood up in the balcony just wanting to go home.

Runway Jim jogged something in my head... I felt weird (totally sober). When 'Bouncing Around the Room' started, some pretty hippie chick grabbed me by both hands and we bounced for the duration of the song. The entire audience bounced in those days. I smiled for the first time in months.

Caught a buzz and went down front. Fluffhead cleared all my depression. It was orgiastic. Just hard to describe. I was not just free from my depression, but empowered. I felt like superman.

I wrote to Phish after the show and told them what happened. Mike sent a post card back that simply said: "Those that go down can go higher up..."

I've had an amazing life since then. All first shows all special. This was very very special indeed.

For a post script, see my review of the show last night at Riverbend 23June2012. All I wanted to hear after all those years was Fluffhead. Was having a bad day that only a married dad in suburban hell can have... I asked on facebook for some special Fluff therapeutic magic to cure my ills. Save me again boys, you did it once... And they play Fluff as an encore. The first one since 1990. Check out that show. Another 5 star whopper.

The best band in the world, bar none. Easy.

Written with much love

Lama Lamma

My first show!

For someone who had some tapes at the time and the officially released stuff, seeing the band live just cemented them in my mind as a band I needed to see whenever possible. It was so great to see them play YEM and Fluffhead- like "holy shit, they actually pull these tunes off flawlessly live". At the time I had no idea that I would never see Fishman sing Whipping Post ever again, but that has been the case. And it took me until last year to hear Weigh again.

Not much more to add- just that I ended up driving back with my friends to Springfield Ohio and deciding right then and there that we were coming back the next night. Tickets were purchased at the door both nights. My Spring semester grades were greatly affected by these two nights. Totally worth it!!

Making their return to the Newport a mere four months later, the boys storm into Columbus with a barnburner of a show! The 55th show of the tour isn't the tightest, or best show, but it really rocks. Trey continues to dig out low rotation songs to fill the set list. The recording definitely needs help as the old tape generations show. Oh, and it's a 4:20 show as well...

Jim is super fast right out of the gate. Just killer, if anything, just maybe a bit too fast? Weigh is great, I love this song and they did well on it tonight, right into a double shot of Rift material with a standard Sparkle. You can hear some sound adjustments going on here and there. They are really hopped up tonight as Stash is way fast and almost falls off, but had a good jam. Fish false starts Bouncing for some reason? The song itself is also rock star fast, so is Ice. Glide was pretty good, then Pen continues the massive rush that this set is in, and was really shaky because of the tempo. Then an old tape flip puts us right into Lawn Boy which wasn't bad and Trey gets the nod for the solo tonight. Bowie also fades in for some reason and again it rocks, but it's just not very tight. The whole set was good, but the really frantic tempos made it rough at times.

Continuing the rocking feel of this show, Chalk Dust opens the second set in style, and was well played for the most part. Fluff also had some rough spots, but rocked and had kind of a unique ending morphing right into Sample, which was good except for the ending. Then the Balls come out... A couple of rusty songs get called next with the tandem of TMWSIY and Avenu. It's been a while for these and it shows, especially the outro. Trey picks up the acoustic for a rushed but ok My Friend. Then the other old tape flip takes us to a rocking and dynamic Llama played reasonably well and lightning fast. Trey rushed YEM so it's a little rough at first, but it gets tighter. Funny spot in the middle where some girl is screaming so loud and high pitched that the band tries to match and mock her voice. Very dynamic jam from Trey and a fun vocal jam to follow of course. HYHU brings Fish out for a rare Whipping Post! This one is also a screamer and he blows the lyrics, but who cares? Golgi was kind of a weak closer tonight. Not too bad, but just not all there.

Nice call with a Funky Bitch encore tonight. I really enjoy this one and it's been kind of rare in my listening, so this was great. Everyone gets shushed for a Grace, which was fine.

I know it's a weird thing to complain about, but this show was played with a "Where's the fire" mentality, which is great for some songs, like Chalk and Llama, but it crushed the creative spirit of others, like Stash, Ice, Bowie and YEM. Still I'm giving this one four stars.