One of the biggest musical gifts of my concertgoing career was the performance Phish delivered this night in Utah. After failing to convince any of my friends who attended Vegas with me, I headed north alone, sleeping in my car and arriving to find a nearly empty parking lot. Everyone had skipped this show for Denver, a sure sign that Phish would mix things up after the bacchanalia that was Halloween. To my recollection, there were maybe 3 or 4 thousand people in the arena. I was holding a seat for the stands but after a full-body cavity search by some overzealous security, I walked up to about 10 feet from the stage, where I stayed the rest of the night.

The perfect show for the moment in time in the band's history. The opening Tube>Drowned>Jesus is delivered with a ton of punch, at which point the band gets intimate with the crowd for Driver and Bittersweet.
The second set Disease opener was strong, and the Mango is an especially tasty highlight. The mid-set YEM was pure pleasure, but the Oom-Pa-Pas that followed caught me completley by surprise. Trey's story is a hilarious and touching listen, and in retrospect probably says a lot about where the band's heads were a couple of nights earlier. When Speak to Me started people immediately began cheering, but at 40 minutes or so into the set, I can safely say no one was expecting the entire album. It wasn't until the clock effects at the beginning of Time started ringing out that it dawned on me and everyone around me that they were going to play the entire album.

The DSOTM performance doesn't feel forced, and certainly reflects how gifted the band is, considering they'd learned the music in pretty much a single day. Kuroda did a nice job as well on this one-I remember vividly how he alternated different colored spotlights on each band member during Us and Them. By the time they got to Eclipse, we were ready to explode with joy and appreciation. It didn't matter that Smells Like Teen Spirit was a complete slopfest. In the days before everyone had cell phone cameras, there aren't a ton of photos of this performance I've seen. For a long time, I only knew of one audience source though I'm sure that since then more have appeared. With the lights out, they entertained us.

It's hard to express how much certain shows mean -- but in the greater context of my experience following Phish -- this night was as emotional as any I've had... Sometimes for whatever reason these four guys connect to their phans and to the greater positive energy in this life and the universe is uplifted. I don't think there's ever been a band that's been as organic as Phish, by that I mean: nothing is sacred, everything is sacred...

Yes, Dark Side was liquid time, but the whole night was simply special... From the opening licks of Tube, everyone was in the fishbowl, swimming in a complete range of musical style and emotion -- the best way Phish knows how -- unexpected, off-the-beaten-track, intimate, and connected. Listen to the stories from the DeadGoat salon -- these guys don't necessarily need the hype of Vegas to have a good time -- they rocked out an open-mike with a handful of people... This is why I believe they can command the stage anywhere, because they remain approachable, humble, and keep it real...

Yes, I was spinning the whole night... Probably had my eyes closed for the majority of the night... There was so much room in the back half of the floor that I didn't have to worry about dancing into someone. When people talk about having spiritual experiences at concerts -- these are the nights where everything peaks... Yes, there was plenty of "are they really going to play it" moments leading up to Time -- and equally for me there was plenty of "well, whatever happens I'm giving myself over to this trip, because up to now it's been amazing".... And sure enough it continued, right through the encore...

It was the only show I saw that Fall Tour. I didn't get Vegas tickets in the lotto or on-sale... I was working as a Wilderness Ranger at Natural Bridges N.M. in southeast Utah. The night before the show I drove solo up to Arches N.P., backpacked out to Delicate Arch and camped under a Full Moon that rose above the horizon and through the arch... That fall for me was an awakening of a life-defining relationship with the natural world that continues to guide me... And on that night at the "E" Centre, I knew I was on the right path...

I like to think I have to muses in life: Nature and Phish...

I can't think of a 1998 show that opens more strongly than this one: Tube > Drowned > JJLC sends a hell of a 'We've recovered from Halloween and are ready to destroy you' message. That's also a gorgeous LxL in the first set. The second-set YEM features an unusual (and beautiful) extended ambient interlude in what the old-school folks used to call the 'pre-Nirvana' section of the song.

Of course this show's main selling point is Harpua > DSOTM > Harpua, which is a fine performance that plays to the band's late-'98 ambient-textural strengths. It's messy and feels a little slight compared to the rich production of the original album, but rumour has it the band learned the album the day of the show - certainly post-Halloween in any case - as the world's greatest consolation prize for fans who couldn't make it to Halloween. So you can cut them some slack. The encore is a sloppy mess but it's supposed to be. Is this a 'good second set'? The event was the event, and you might've found god(s) there. On tape it's a mixed bag. You're not likely to turn to this album cover in lieu of the original. It is some fans' ideal Phish set, regardless, and one of the best arguments for Phish's late-90's omnipotence. And parts of the cover are really great, the overpowering pretension and self-regard of Pink Floyd themselves notwithstanding.

And the sound of the crowd - the ecstatic cheering and constant buzz of excitement and mounting disbelief as each song flows into the next and the album approaches its newly-remade climactic line ('When the band you're in starts playing different tunes / I'll see you on the dark side of the moon') - is magnificent. Hell, the beginning of 'Time,' when everyone in the auditorium realizes that Phish really are going to play the *entire* album and not just the opening twofer - is reason enough to seek out these tapes. Er, CD's. Or mp3's. However you get it, you may as well get it.

This show, as we all know, contains one of the greatest sets that Phish ever played. And that reputation is fully deserved - the Tube and its attending jam are a marvelous blend of '97's funk and '99's space, the segue into a ferocious Drowned is marvelous, and the sequence ends with a perfect, relaxed JJLC, not to mention that great Limb by Limb and...

What? Oh.

So, yes, this is the famous DSOTM show, the ultimate example of You Snooze, You Lose, as an arena that can probably generously be half-full gets treated to a surprise musical costume that Phish basically learned in less than a day (!!!) as their reward for a) being in West Valley City, Utah, and b) not skipping the show after Halloween in Vegas. And, all jokes aside, that first set is really quite good, and the musical costume itself is just fine (IMO), but does anybody REALLY think the musical quality is the main reason the show is rated the way that it is? To me, at least, the show is all about Phish covering one of the albums that would probably hold the most meaning to their audience (as well as to them, I imagine), in a tiny venue in the middle of nowhere, for no real reason other than they're Phish and they do things like this (hell, with Tweezepplin and the "S" show, they still do), with the crowd going absolutely bonkers as the album slowly unfolds in front of them, in a way probably no Phish crowd has ever done before or since. There's a lot to be said for that, much as there's a lot to be said about how people felt at Big Cypress or the Went or any major event in Phish history - and this might honestly be the biggest, all things considered.

That being said, having listened to the show on tape, I find myself wishing that the show's inherent specialness could be divorced from the actual music itself (which, again, is anywhere between pretty good to very good). I don't care too, too much about DSOTM (my go-to for Pink Floyd is Wish You Were Here), but I know that plenty of people do, and I honestly think many Phish fans do, which definitely helps this show's reputation. As a "musical costume" show, I don't think the show as a whole tops 1994, nor do I think the costume section tops 1996 (both in musical value, as the Remain in Light performance is damn near perfect, or in historical significance, for obvious reasons). It doesn't have to, of course, but that makes a difference; nobody really plumps for Halloween '96 or even '94 as best show ever, do they? And I think the surprise factor has a bigger role in the show's rep than maybe it should; would people care as much if they'd just played this on Halloween, or even if they'd flip-flopped this and Loaded? Ultimately, the weight of this show's reputation tends to crush it a little bit, a bit like Big Cypress's reputation does that show a disservice. Maybe that's just me.

In the end, I absolutely, wholeheartedly recommend this show to any person that hasn't heard it before, if only to make a judgment yourself about its quality. You might end up keeping the whole show, or just the DSOTM part, or even (much less likely) just the first set. And that's okay; that's what loving this band, and the countless hours of music they've produced for us, is all about.

Mea culpa: Steve Albert informs me that there's no circulating SBD of this show - the existing (quite nice) matrix recording just combines multiple AUD sources. Whoops!

The fact that I was at the show when they played DSOTM is one of those cosmic mysteries that eludes a simple explanation. I had just moved to Utah 10 days earlier for the ski season, and up until this point in time I'd caught about 65 shows since '92 - all northeast shows.

I remember just hopping in my car with my girlfriend and trying to find the "E" center. We didn't have tickets, but after years of always getting one in the lot when needed, we figured it would be ok. We arrive at the venue and the lot was just dead. Like almost nobody was there. I almost thought that they cancelled the show for some reason. Anyway, we just head up to the box office and bought a few lower bowl tickets. Showtime!

We get into the venue and it's super empty. (Up until this point, I don't know if I'd ever attended a show that wasn't sold out, or at least super close.) The floor was pretty empty, so we snuck our way down and introduced ourselves to a few new neighbors. I don't think we even got to 50% capacity, but the show went on. I remember first set being pretty chill. The acoustic Driver and Bittersweet Motel were a cool touch. Trey told the cool story about hanging out with Mike at an open-mic the previous night at the Dead Goat Saloon and chilling with some locals from SLC.

Second set gets going and I remember the YEM was super fun. (Memory check... I remember some glow sticks flying around during the YEM vocal jam, and Trey caught one out of the air and everyone cheered. Did that happen?)

Anyway, HARPUA! Usually that means some fun hijinx and silly cover song. When the heartbeat kicks in and the Speak to Me crescendo happens, I lost my shit. DSOTM is one of my fave's, and its what I wanted for Halloween '94. It probably wasn't until On The Run that we all really knew that we were getting the whole thing. Was it a little sloppy at times? Yeah, well who fucking cares. It was a moment.

My apologies for using "marvelous" twice in one sentence in the above review. I might not be the greatest writer, but I should know better than that.

this is a pretty serious show. now, i really liked the velvet underground set in vegas, but all in all, that vegas run was pretty disappointing. it definitely pailed in comparision to the previous 3 halloweens. now, after sending many heads heading out of vegas grumbling, those that made their way over to utah really got it made up to them in a big way.

this show has more than just the dsotm. it starts off hot with a smoking tube. this one is very funky. the middle section is nice, but the extended jam on the back end is gravy, especially when it takes a turn into a pretty rocking drowned. this song was still pretty rare at the time, so getting it 2 songs deep in the show is pretty snazzy. this is a pretty rocking jam that eventually drops down into jesus left chicago. this is a nice deep, bluesy version. driver and bittersweet are nice little breathers. before a pretty solid limb by limb picks things back up. trey plays pretty well on this one. as for the rest of the first set....hhhmm pretty blah.

a nice down with disease kicks off the 2nd set. this one does not go too far, but they take the opportunity for a bit of exploration. page had some nice licks in there. the mango song and the moma dance are both early set winners. you enjoy myself does very well. gordon gets in a really nice groove before it peters out. oh yeah, the composed portion is also well-executed. well, normally, especially after that vegas run, i would expect phish to find a way to bone a potentially great set, but tonight, they are not going to bone it. oom pa pa oom pa pa! they do a really nice story in harpua about jimmy's trip to vegas. on the way home, they are listening to dsotm. i will spare you to song by song here. considering they learned the whole album in less than a day, this is remarkable. apparantley, trey and, i believe, fishman were at a bar and a fan mentioned how they should just say fuck it and play another album in utah. so half drunkenly, the fan challenged them to dark side. trey and the boys accepted the challenge. well, they did not play it perfectly. there were a few flubs. it was so sick it's unbelievable! speak to me/breathe feels like a dream. even if you know the setlist listening to it, you just keep expecting them to stop and cut back into the harpua narration, but alas, they do the whole album between now and then. anyway, there are little nuances of this version of dsotm that really make it. some of them are funny some are just glorious. harpua comes back around and ends a shockingly good show. smells like teen spirit is a pretty funny way to end this one. after playing the very complex, precise, and mind blowing dsotm, they end with a very simple blunt song of teenage angst. only phish.

i love this one, especially in context to the rest of the tour. also, every album they've done from the beattls to the stones all had at least one song they worked its way into the repertoire. none of these have worked their way in. maybe some day we can hear trey sing time again. until then....

highlights:

set 1:

tube>drowned>jesus left chicago

set 2:

harpua>dsotm>harpua!!

In my humble opinion, the ultimate Phish performance is the 1st musical costume from Watkins Glen. It had everything, including fairly lofty expectations. The E-Center show is #2, but closely a #1 overall favorite, overall experience & just a magical, amazing show. I literally get goosebumps when I listen to this show. I have been a phan for nearly 20-years, and this show is easily a #1 desert island Phish show.
What makes the DSOTM show so incredible is the element of surprise. What were the fans expecting after a dissapointment in Vegas? Certainly they weren't expecting a full cover of one of the greatest albums ever recorded, right? Trey tells the audience it's coming & why during Harpua (Jimmy went to Vegas but couldn't get tickets, the driver puts on his favorite album...) but I can't imagine that anyone was really expecting the whole album. Listen to the crowd, can you imagine the "NO WAY's!!!" that were being echoed as fans realized what was happening? Think about it, not only did they decide to do a surprise full album cover, but DSOTM?!?! And brilliantly woven into Harpua, so beautiful. This band is so generous & incredible, and this show is one of the best of the many musical gifts that they have given us over the years.
You may not find this show to be the most musically "perfect" but if you can appreciate this show for its experience and significance, you may find your new favorite and most significant Phish show. It just may give you goosebumps too.
In closing... I hope that someone who was at this show can post a review & detail what was like to experience it first-hand.

Covering Loaded a few nights before was brilliant. I didn't make it to those shows, so when I showed up to the E Ctr I didn't expect what happened that night to happen. Another amazing thing about these guys is that they will make it a point to dazzle you when you least expect it. Never a dull moment!

This show has already been pretty thoroughly and capably reviewed, but I would like to express my own unique enthusiasm for it. I have somewhat of a self-conferred identity as a preferrer of soundboards, but I will listen to the audience recording of this until the wheels fall off or a soundboard is released--and maybe after--because as with some extremely special shows, the audience is a big part of this one. The sheer, unreserved delight expressed by the crowd throughout this show but especially during the Pink Floyd musical costume is worth hearing by any means necessary. If you're like me and you love to hear an organic and fitting response to the grandeur of a Phish gesture--though I'm by no means belittling the effort it took to pull this show off, by calling it a "gesture"--this and 8/9/98 are where you should be headed. We do have the 8/9/98 Terrapin Station in SBD quality from the Lemonwheel From the Archives show, thanks to Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro, and I hope that some day this historic moment will be captured in similar quality.

Allusions to ecstasy pervade Trey's banter at the very outset of the Harpua storytelling section.

He says, "We're happy to be here at the E Center," with huge emphasis on "E." Wink wink.

He doubles down, saying, "What a good place to be. I LOVE this place. I'm in love with this place. I love everyone here, I love everything. I feel so warm and full of love..."

Not sure if the crowd picked up on this stuff live but definitely this is straight up drug banter. Oh, Trey!

I was so stoked to get some UT love after I moved there for two years without having to go back to Jersey or travel to Vegas or Cali. As a product of the 90's I was especially stoked to have them play Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, years after Kirk died and I missed any live Nirvana concerts lol.

Got miracled into this show. I remember the tube being a long coveteted song to catch. Right up there with alumni blues... Show had the same feeling as the night the dead broke out unbroken chain. From the sounds of alabama gettaway in the early first set, you knew the boys were going to bust out. Tonight was the same. Tube opener i said, ok this now is going to be cool. Tickets were 20 bucks or less outside. I was soooo hobbled after 5 nights in Vegas at the hard rock that i had zero cash or gas money home. One of my bartenders at the molly brown in Bozeman who was on this mini tour with our crew gave me the gas money and bought me a ticket to this show. we were both headed back to Montana from vegas and stopping at this show was right on the way... Was very tired and sat in awe for the entire second set. I did not like the vegas album one bit so i was psyched to be here for this moment....

I would do just about anything to have been at this show. Even tho I was only 10 at the time

I'm honestly just listening to a very good recording of this right now so I wasn't there unfortunately, an ex girlfriend was and had no idea what she was witnessing, but that's a different story. Anyway ... I feel as though I have to comment on this show. Sometimes it's like they're ripping into your brain and extracting everything you want to hear. To hear Phish cover Floyd to this extent and this spot on is incredible. I wish I had been there, maybe #2 after Big Cypress.

By the way, a lovely SBD/AUD matrix recording of this show circulates freely - do yourself a favour and seek it out.

SET 1: Tube: Has everything you would except out of an easy all timer: The funk, ambience, ferocious and driving jam – it’s incredible. I absolutely adore the big, ol’ loops that are such an important piece of any good Tube jam. Wish they still played a part in tunes these days other than when you occasionally here them in First Tube or Gotta Jibboo. Killer segue into… ->

Drowned: What an opening to this show, wow!!! This Drowned is absolutely fantastic. Again, like Tube, it incorporates all the elements of this era that made it so great. I love the droning aspect that is prominent to open this jam and it eventually evolves into intense rock and roll. Then with three minutes to go you get some big, nasty effects and then a very spacy and ambient thing, and we get another awesome segue into… ->

Jesus Just Left Chicago: Awesome. Page has a great solo.

Driver: Nice banter RE: Dead Goat Saloon

Bittersweet Motel: More fun banter about the experience at the bar.

Limb By Limb: I LOVE how ambient and sparse this one gets. So quiet and patient. There is absolutely no peak to speak of so this one will never get much press. But it exemplifies what this era was about.

Wading in the Velvet Sea: Oof. Love this tune. But the set needed more at this point. >

Sample in a Jar: Oof. The set started so strong but ended so poorly.

SET 2: Down with Disease: Type I face melter.

The Mango Song: Interesting placement! >

The Moma Dance: Standard.

You Enjoy Myself: Pre Nirvana section is exceptionally heady. Super spacey complete with loops. Doesn’t get any cooler than this!!! Other than that this is an average YEM.

Harpua: Very funny and reveals what many had wondered about – Vegas was too ‘overwhelming’ >

Speak to Me[3] -> Breathe[3] > On The Run[3], Time[3] > The Great Gig in the Sky > Money[3] > Us and Them[3] -> Any Colour You Like[3] -> Brain Damage[3] -> Eclipse[3] >

WOW. Incredible. What a band! I had just moved to Denver two months ago and recently graduated from college. I badly wanted to go to Vegas > SLC > Denver but was flat broke. When I saw the setlist the next I thought I would die, what a cruel joke. Snooze you loose!

Harpua: Triumphant return.

ENCORE:

Smells Like Teen Spirit: Sloppy as hell. Didn’t matter.

Summary: An all timer. The ultimate snooze you loose show. Such an odd turn of events with what happened during set III of Halloween and then this. That they learned how to play this album the day of the show is mind blowing. Tube is a must hear, easy all timer – same with Drowned. By the way, Drowned isn’t a charted version? What????

Replay Value: Tube, Drowned.

What a frickin' surprise. I would've done something really wild upon realizing what the band was doing, what they were playing. DARK SIDE OF THE EFFING MOON! What that wild act would be I'm not sure because it would be WILDLY spontaneous. It would be something celebratory and I'd like to say that everyone would still be safe, and that's probably true, but I might jump off some balcony or what have you and get hurt ... HHCCCCAA ... I've heard the band didn't have too great of a turnout here in Utah with the big Halloween '98 show (in which they covered The Velvet Underground's "Loaded" album) passing just a few days earlier, so they decided to treat the fans that were showing their support in Utah. The Nirvana encore is really cool too, albeit sloppy as a Joe. Carry on, if you're watching a movie at home, Carrie: >ON