Is it National Hangover Day? This is the second and last show at the Palace in Hollywood, 32nd of the tour and I wish I could say it was a lot better than last nights show, but it's really not. Paul or the tapers continue to have troubles with the sound, which I though would have been fixed, but wasn't. A bad cord? Or bad reverb unit? Anyway, there are squeaks and squeals and DAT noise all over the recording I heard.

Good Chalk Dust to start with as I still had high hopes for this one. Guelah had some off spots as the tweaks in the sound continue. Rift continued to have timing problems during Page's solo and a rough ending. Fee was pretty good, maybe some monitor tweaking going on? Maze was ok. Trey desperately needs to tune during Forbin's, which was rough in parts, but had a really funny story with it as usual. "The first holographic Phish show." He does tune during the story making Mockingbird decent. Sparkle was ok. Horn was off on Mike's part. Trey actually says "oops" in IDK's false start and the nicknames fly again after "Tubbs'" trombone solo. Check out Mike's yell at the end too. Page adds some "get up" music after the all fall down signal and the Simpson's say "DOSE". Bowie was a weak closer as more DAT noise interrupts and then cuts off the end of a rough first set.

My Friend is good tonight and has a great Drummer Boy ending. Poor Heart was also good as this set starts to make this show respectable. Melt was good and so was Tela even though it's pretty rare. YEM was good, but the vocal jam was cut. Old tape flip? Fish forgets to turn the snares back on and Trey forgets to tune for an ok Pen. Then the balls come out and then we go right into a Fishman section with a good Brain. Coil had a few problems in the middle, but not too bad as Page again tries to pick up the pieces of this better, but not great set. Cavern even has a false start and makes for an average closer.

GTBT as the encore sums up this show pretty well and I wonder if the band really meant it as there were some good songs for the past two nights, and definitely some bad ones.

The sound problems never really went away making both of these Hollywood shows just average playing to my ears.

The first ever "holographic Phish concert!!"

(Published in the second edition of The Phish Companion...)

I had a really intense time at the show. It was one of those wonderful nights where you leave the show drenched in sweat. I'm listening to the second set of this show as I type; it's the only set I have on tape from both nights. Without a doubt the first night was also a great show with many musical highlights, but 3/18 was the night for me
The Palace is a nice theater, about half the size of the Warfield, right in the heart of Hollywood. (It's on Vine, and you can see the famous Capitol Records building from the theater). Similar to the Warfield, the floor is carpeted and open for dancing, and the balcony has seats. The show itself was GA, and I found a nice place to get crazy towards the back of the floor on the left hand side.
The show started with an amazing combination of songs. At the time I was sick of seeing them play "Fee" at every show, but I was stoked to see one of my favorites, "Maze", immediately after. It must have been intense (I don't have any clear memories from Set I), because they played "Colonel Forbin's Ascent" -> "Famous Mockingbird" -> "Sparkle"-> "Horn" to follow. The "David Bowie" to end Set 1 was sick.
Set II started with a decent version of "My Friend" that included many "Little Drummer Boy" teases, and then a "Little Drummer Boy" vocal jam. "Split Open and Melt" was an especially tasty version, with a "Staying Alive" tease/jam/theme throughout (yes, I'm talking about the Bee Gees here), and then more "Little Drummer Boy" teases, which turned into a "Little Drummer Boy" jam. The music then stopped, and I got my least favorite song: "Tela"! Like many Bob Weir first set tunes, this song always sends me straight to the bathroom.. Never liked it, still don't.
The "You Enjoy Myself" that follows is full-on, raging jamming: "Old School Phish". Trey and Page both playing at 100%, with Trey laying down a thick, hard lead along great big, Leslie organ sounds coming from Page. There's a "Once in a Lifetime" (Talking Heads) theme to the jam, which finishes with a bass/drums segment. Then the song ends with a crazy vocal jam, and that's where my tape cuts.
"Uncle Pen" was fun but not earth shaking, and so was the "Big Ball Jam". At least it was a blast for the crowd; people pleaded with the band for more when they stopped the first time...its classic! "Squirming Coil" is one of the best versions I've ever heard, Trey simply nails it. The jamming is really tight, the band is definitely playing together. The song then finishes with an epic Page solo piano moment, truly one of those magical moments that make you go back over and over and over again hoping to catch even a second of this type of energy. The "Cavern" that follows is very intense. You couldn't ask for a better way to close out a crazy set.
The encore, "Good Times/ Bad Times", was one of the peaks of the night (out of many, many, many peaks), and it was so good that I have forever compared it to other encores. (You know how that is... "Could this one possibly be as good as that time at the Palace?!"). These days, if I see Phish play an intense show, I feel like they should encore with this song... but I haven't heard them play it in nine years.
All in all, one of the best shows I ever saw the band play.

I was at this show and I taped it. The details are now hazy but I recall at the time thinking that this one (3/18) was one of the better shows on the CA spring 93 tour and distinctly better than 3/17.

The must hear on this show is the Melt with the Stayin' Alive teases. It's extremely tight and really funky. The Coil is also beautiful, while Forbins>Mockingbird is a bit longer than usual.