I heard the magic on the Berkeley tapes from Summer 2010 and decided to look back in time to see if the band had ever played at the Greek Theatre before. I found one show: Aug. 28, 1993 – the last gig of nearly non-stop touring since February. Let’s put this into perspective. Phish, by the time they reached the Greek Theatre at the end of Summer, had played over one hundred shows that year. That’s about a show every other day for seven months straight. And they didn’t miss a note.

Arrive Berkeley. As always, the boys end the tour with a summary of what has come before – and this one was flawless.

Find the remastered soundboards circulating.

First set highlights:

Acoustic Ginseng; a 15+ min. Stash that floats briefly into type II jamming before ending on a rip-roaring ending by Trey; Page’s Coil solo; and the Dude of Life’s first appearance on the West Coast during Crimes of the Mind. The band is sittin’ on top of the world by this point.

Second set highlights:

Another classic Antelope from ’93 with all the teases; It’s Ice>ball jam; a full-out Oye Como Va YEM jam and an outstanding segue from the vocal jam to Contact; Daniel Saw the Stone sees Trey, accompanied by Fish’s light bluegrass drumming, read a list of thank-you’s to all the crew members. He doesn’t forget anyone; not even the woman who busts folks selling bootleg t-shirts on the lot! Anyways, even the bus drivers of the two semi-trucks and two passenger coaches get credit, where it is rightfully due, of course.

Those who have made it into one of Phish’s four appearances at the Greek should complain of little in life. And anyone who wants to listen to how far the band has come in the past seventeen years, you should pickup these sbd tapes from Berkeley ’93, and juxtapose them with 2010.

Phish would go underground for seven months after Berkeley '93, only to appear for a quick New Year’s run, before resurfacing in April ’94 for another transformative year.

This was a special show for sure. I had never seen the Grateful dead at this venue and I could not help but think of great dead shows there. Well, this show did not disappoint. I had scene a slew of shows from '89-'92 having been from the east coast. Well is spent this summer at UCB in summer school and had a friend nearby one of the coops just down the street called, Cloyne. Great night for a show- and classic list. People don;t realize how rare Fluffhead was becoming, let alone hear it near the end of the first set.
Big Ball jam stand out to me. Phish had such antics. I enjoyed this show and what I must say is Phish has come a long way, but in many ways, the energy of the shows sort of higher, not that they were better- just that a young phish arriving on the scene was incredibly new sound to mostly deadheads. Classic list with all of the best tunes- YEM, Fluff, Antelope...NUff said- last of the great early days phish shows...I new Phish was starting to get big because I could tell they had money...they started wearing nicer clothes and stuff..

A monster Stash (at least in length for that time), a Dude of Life appearance, plus a legendary and explosive Antelope make this one more than worth the price of admission.

As mentioned by ChavaUT, tasty soundboards of this show can be easily found. Helluva fun show to cap off one of the most legendary summer tours in Phishtory.

25th Anniversary!

A strong and worthy finale to their greatest month so far in their career... and still a high water mark for the first "style" of Phish. The SBD out there is very clean and should be grabbed while it's free. (I wrote this before noticing that ChavaUT and Raible said the same thing...we're right...get it.)

Things start out pretty vanilla, although the Foam deserves a bit of recognition for being very well executed with some extra August 93 mustard. I recall the gist of a fan's story I read somewhere...he grabbed a few words with Trey as he was going somewhere (maybe in the golf cart). He told Trey his band did YEM... or tried to... it's really freakin' hard. Trey laughed and said "that's cool!...try Foam" and went on his way. I noted that Trey offered up Foam as his example of one of their toughest. And then you get a 1-2-3 punch of heavy hitters...Maze/Fluff/Stash...almost enough notes for an entire set right there. I'd say the Maze is a notch off the best of the tour but still hot. The Fluffhead, like Foam, is about as well executed as is practically possible for that composition. The Arrival finale is the euphoric release you always crave after the long journey. The Stash is another very intense, psychotic 8/93 version...pretty hardcore for a first set but a good one. It's just occurring to me that I think Page jumped to a new plateau this month. His Coil solos are more relaxed, fluid, and creative all of a sudden. I've always liked Coil as a first set ender, with a sweet walkoff Page solo easing things into the setbreak. Doesn't quite happen here... they throw out a 6 minute bone to an old buddy. I've got no problem with that.

The basic, early 2001 precedes another song that strikes me as a real brute to play, Rift. They nail it. The Antelope is true 93-style. It quickly gets into that abstract, slightly abrasive, weird noodling that pops up somewhere in most every August show. It ends with a full throttle, crazy-running-antelope finale. Timely Horse/Silent cool down with the acoustic intro...I love it that way. The Ice tails off before much of anything happens and we drift into a double novelty segment. Honestly, we're in a very skipable stretch here. I give you my permission to jump from Antelope to YEM...which smokes. High energy with a Santana spirit beyond the tease. I love this one.

It's not the best show of the tour (faint criticism), but it's a good synopsis of where they were, before heading off into a pretty long break. They'd finally mastered their whole early catalog... an epic 5-year accomplishment. They'd kicked off a prolific run of new, slightly less complicated songs...the Rift, Hoist, Billy Breathes period. And then the jams had finally busted open...anything goes now...Stash and Antelope showcased that. Very good show. Wish I was there right now.

Fantastic way to finish a legendary, band-defining tour. Very happy we have SBDs of this one on Relisten, because there's so much goodness to dig into. Set 1 features a very strong Foam, a fun acoustic Ginseng, and a four songs that absolutely slam back-to-back. This Maze is one of the strongest of the months in my opinion, with a fiery peak. Fluffhead is performed almost flawlessly and features some fantastic piano solos from Page. The Stash here is riddled with dissonance and delivers not one but two epic peaks; the improvisation doesn't land in as celebratory or distinct place as 8/15, but its sustained tension is impressive nonetheless. Coil isn't on the jam charts but I thought this was one of the strongest versions of the tune I'd ever heard; Page once again crushes it. Wrapping up the first set with Crimes of the Mind is a nice way to celebrate The Dude of Life; very catchy tune and Trey rips a fat solo.

Second set answers strongly with a classic Also Sprach intro and a tight Rift. The following Antelope is an odyssey of improv and exploration, make sure you check this one out. Plenty of meat in there. Later, It's Ice gets a sweet underwater jam that ventures from the groove coolly and works in some Secret Language. The heavy hitter from this set though is, in my opinion, the beastly Oye Como Va YEM. Slightly faster than normal, this version sees the best from all members of the band. Page's Santana licks don't go unnoticed, and the rest of the group runs with the theme, delivering a fucking killer jam for Trey's solo. The B&D is similarly top notch, and the VJ transitions SEAMLESSLY into an a cappella intro for Contact. Maybe the coolest -> I've ever heard. The band wraps up with a nice CDT, a fun Daniel Saw the Stone that introduces the band and crew, and an aptly placed, sentimentally unamplified Amazing Grace. The band even works in a Big Ball Jam and a Purple Rain/HYHU moment, sealing in all the things that make August '93 the year that Phish passed the point of no return as the legendary movement they are to day. Stellar.