This was my first Phish show. I had no idea what to expect. I worked at the David O. McKay center in Orem, UT (now the the UCCU Center) and Phish had rented out the arena for a whole week. They had just got back from a tour in Europe and they were getting back into form for their US tour dates. It was odd to be working with a band that kept playing their sets over and over 4 days in a row, in an empty arena, excepting me and the other sound and light techs. I was the only employee at the arena that could play guitars and drums, and I ended up hanging out with the sound techs a bunch that week and I got to talk with Trey and Fish a bunch. I got to know the band and crew through the week. It was odd to get to know the members of the band before I'd ever heard of Phish. On Thursday we packed everything up. The band gave us all tickets to the show at Wolf Mountain as a thanks for our help that week. Having never heard of Phish, but having spent the week with them I knew the music they'd be playing, but I had no clue what the concert experience was going to be. I had a couple of tickets so I brought a friend. Before the concert there was a massive double rainbow that perfectly framed the stage. It was so vivid it looked like a movie effect. Starting the show off with 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' on the theremin was perfect. We were surrounded by people doing drugs. I'd lived a fairly sheltered life, and this was the first time I'd ever seen people doing drugs and having a good time. The concert was amazing. The band played off the crowds energy, and the show was so much better than the practices had been. I and my date were buzzed from second hand smoke so we hung out in the parking lot for an hour before we headed home. What a night. That was my intro to the music of Phish and my introduction to some of my favorite musicians that I've ever had the chance to meet.

Beautiful venue!! Nice way to start summer tour. This was the same venue they were supposed to play for my first show a year earlier. Ok show. I remember likeing the Runaway Jim and the Tweezer. Punch You In The Eye was a cool encore. The rainbow over the stage was beautiful... and trippy!!

There was a big Phish crowd in Park City the day before and we all just happen to meet up at the grocery store purchasing sundries and what not. We asked a couple of the locals where we could camp and they told us of this ridgeline up above town. So we had a big party and camped up above Park City with probably 30 people and 5-6 cars/tents. Bonfire, BBQ, beers, and buds. Grate stuff!

To be honest the WSP show the next year(6/28/97)at the same venue was much better. Low Spark of High Heeled Boys encore. Dave Grisman Quintet opened. Check it out.

Peace All

We drove from Montana to this show after I rallied our troops last minute. Thank goodness I did! This venue was killer like I knew it would be, as we came from Big Sky Ski Resort, and ski resorts kick ass! The rainbow was dope at the beginning, and Ya Mar was a great funky starter. The first set was pretty much non stop fun and up tempo action. I was really high on mushrooms, so forgive me if I'm not completely correct here, but Foam was killer, as was Golgi and Possum.. I knew there would be a Tweezer, because that song has basically followed me to every show I've been to, including the 44 minute one in Bozeman, MT when I was higher than Whitney on LSD and mushrooms. Good god! I remember being in complete bliss as they capped off an unbelievable Fluffhead and Caspian with a Horse > Silent finishing with an Antelope set closer that took everyone out of their emotional spell and kicked ass! The Punch encore was fitting... great show, great friends, great psychedelics, beautiful setting.

SEt II!!

Runaway Jim in America finally !! This opener is a Fish vehicle. It's good to hear the band in all their separate glory and not have trey going to the pedals early. This is him and his guitar vs the snare and cymbals. the end is pretty fun in that vein

This is a good example of how pretty the melody of this song is. Trey works it out in a myriad of ways here. entertaining .

Interesting Taste. Trey is content to throw out chords and let the guys play.
Free is free but it goes into Fluffhead!! which hadn't been played since December. The written part is played perfectly. Check it out gets a rouse out of the crowd . The jam is not crazy but it almost gets to type !! territory . The end flows into a nice Prince Caspian
The last Antelope they played, in germany was pretty sick compared to all the music they played in Europe. This is almost type II but still fun nonetheless.
A solid return home.

They're BAck!!!

After a long European Tour They return to the states to a rainbow over the venue. Page plays "someWhere over the Rainbow" on his new theremin.
Ya MAr gets the boys vibin good. The crowd is very enthusiastic.
DWD!!! They are tight and ready . There's none of the ambient sort of lazy playing that peppered the europe tour.
This is a brilliant interpetation of one of their staple songs. Trey is in full flight throught. Fish and Mike are on a mission to groove your head off your shoulders. Mike drops a few teases like Carinin and another one that is an obvious standard that i can place now. But unlike the last DWD they played in Europe they are are all in full flight the whole jam. They don't leave the theme but trey's ideas are spraying out him.

Theme!! So we know they turn this song inside out in February. We know they played some decent versiond in Europe. And we know they are tight as hell. First note are Trey on top of the groove. Good sign!
He does go back to the pedals but its a rhythmic expression. Fish and Mike are so great Trey can do whatever. But what makes it all genius is that Page is following Trey note for note then Mike clearly drops an It's Ice baseline tease at the 5:40 or so mark!!! this Theme is worth the listen just for that!!! it worked perfectly.

TWEEZER ! If this were a week a go Trey probably when have been working those pedals. Here its him and his guitar listening to the band. Its a solid Tweezer. Trey brings it to a great, logical ending .

Possum!! Early on you can hear how much they are listening to each other. this jam is just a man and his guitar !! lol Trey has some great fun with his axe in the beginning.!!! This isn't Europe anymore!!!
Must listen POSSUM. Trey is just flooded with ideas. Fish continues his MVP status for the year. Mike gets his props for taking this jam into Type II territory . At one point you quickly forget what song they were playing then Trey brings it back to a loud and boisterous final flight.

Been meaning to get to this review a long time ago. I can hardly remember this show now being 15 years ago.

The scene was serene, and immediately sublime and keen.
I had never experienced so many smiling faces at a concert before. As this was my first I had my brain dosed with Phish for the 8 days leading up to it. Non-stop school across the country. So I had my early favorites. What is ironic is how your taste changes over time.

After this show I was a huge fan of Free and Caspian. Almost like the catchy pop hit that you can't get out of your head. Not even realizing that in my very first show I get a Theme and a Fluffhead and a Tweezer and Antelope in the same show. On paper this show should be considered epic. But frankly I remember Red Rocks in the proceeding days a lot better. And I was on more drugs at the time.

SET 1: Over the Rainbow – Had to be there’d?

Ya Mar: Just got done relistening to Europe and USA Summer 97 tours. This sounds exceptionally fast to my ears, lol. Standard.

Down with Disease: Straight ahead face melter. >

Guelah Papyrus: Standard.

Poor Heart: Standard. >

Foam: Standard. Fast as hell.

Theme From the Bottom: Standard. After having listened to all those summery 97 shows, this version isn’t close to all those.

Golgi Apparatus: Standard >

Tweezer: Straight ahead and hard charging. Imagine it melted a few faces.

Hello My Baby: Standard.

Possum: Fun Possum, not sure it’s really jamcharts worthy or worthy of a relisten even. But I do like the stuff Trey was doing right at the 4 minute mark, pretty cool but brief.

SET 2: Runaway Jim: Very solid version! >

Simple: This gets the unfortunate rip cord treatment, too bad as it was ripping pretty good. >

Taste: This current iteration of Taste is not very good at all. Page’s part is good, but you can’t hear him very well. Taste just strums away the exact same way for what seems like minutes on end. Hard pass >

Free: Standard. >

Fluffhead: Solid version, good end shred. >

Prince Caspian: Trey’s vocals briefly struggle in the intro. Standard version. >

The Horse: >

Silent in the Morning:

Run Like an Antelope: Star Wars stuff is cool. This climax is a face melter, Trey goes off.

ENCORE: Punch You in the Eye – In 160 times played, this was the first time it owned the encore slot. It has only been done 6 times total or 3.75% of the time. Standard version.

Summary: Really vanilla show. Guess they were trying to save as much as they could for the big four night run at Red Rocks? For me, there just isn’t anything to revisit here. Oddly enough, I have listened to this show a number of times over the years and again just now. The Phish. Net rating of 3.59/5 (61 ratings) seems right on the money to me.