Posted to rec.music.phish and/or submitted to Phish.net, many moons ago...

The Front must have been 120 degrees inside that night. I recall spending the majority of this gig standing directly in front of the huge fan that usually was set up to the right of the stage near the exit door.

This night featured a couple of special moments. Rocky Top was played in honor of the Drebbers, who had gotten married a few days earlier. The happy couple was planning a move to Oregon, and apparently Rocky Top was performed to "bring up the flavor of Oregon."

The second set included what could be considered a major milestone in the PHISH legacy. Nancy gave his farewell performance of Haley's Comet. He seemed initially reluctant to sing it, but with some coaxing, the words began to flow. He related to us all a dream that he had. It had to do with crawling through a hole in the wall and ending up on a big stage with four other guys. Obviously a touching rendition. Oh how I yearn for his return. The Dude is The Dude, but Nancy, well, there's no rational comparison. The man could move masses with his voice.

There was also an announcement made concerning the upcoming Townshend gig. But that's another review.

Antelope was in the birth years at this point, and this set offers a solid version for anyone seeking good antelope.

While the Grateful Dead were in my backyard, slaying the Greek Theatre during their final run there, Phish was a world away crafting the first of two Triple Nipples (the other being on 10/26/89: The Sloth's "I'll take this piece of paper (slice your nipple)" beefs up the first set; Fee's "Cause Milly took that paper and sliced him on the nipple" fills out the second set; and PYITE's "And held a piece of paper to my tender nip" makes the third set no bust.

Mostly average show, some slightly above average stuff (Mike's, YEM) some not so much (Mango, 1st time PYITE, Sloth) but overall very good. I think the highlight is plainly Nancy on Halley's Comet, describing the dream he had and declaring that he would never sing Halley's in public again. Props to Mike for keeping the vocal bop up so long. Amusing to hear Nancy's confusion about the love for the tune: "Seriously, what do you guys get out of this? It's a stupid song, it doesn't mean anything!" Also, as the 2nd verse is about to start, you can hear him say "Seriously, what would you do if I suddenly gave head to this microphone." Good question, Richard. Anyway, after that long and curious rendition of Halley's, it segues perfectly into Alumni, which is cool. There is also some amusing banter in Contact "Is was are can past present future" etc. 3 stars for this show, I think.

The source for this show has ok sound. I would guess that it’s at least a Cass/4 maybe Cass/5 generation given the amount of hiss. It starts out a little pitchy, but gets better by the second song.

A few things to note from set 1. Sloth didn’t have the instrumental ending that was added at the start of the year. This version of Sloth has the first “Uno Dos Tres…” ending.
Rocky Top features a solo from Trey instead of Page.

Set 2 and 3 were well played. Mango Song was reworked again. The first recorded version of Oh Kee Pah kicks off set 3 with Trey saying “Oh Kee Pah!” A handful of times throughout. Punch You in the Eye saw it’s debut on this night. The “Hey!” call out wasn’t present yet as well as the storm dance portion of the Landlady section. Unlike current versions, this segues back to the intro section out of Landlady, complete with a mini Fish solo to end! Highlights: Hood, Mango Song, Set 3

Wow. This Halleys is a total train wreck. It takes Nancy about 9 minutes to even start singing the song. I don't know whether to cringe or laugh. I guess I'm doing both. I'm surprised the band didn't give up and tell him to sit down. The bar crowd seems to be eating it up... maybe a lot of them were drunk? Maybe Nancy was, too? Gosh.