For a pre-1990's show, this show is surprisingly listenable in terms of sound quality, so it's as good as any if you're looking to get a snapshot of early Phish (although the best option is still the 8-26-1989 Live Phish release).

The show cuts into an abbreviated La Grange that is a predictable wankfest. If the Trey from today listened to the Trey from 26 years ago, he'd be shocked at how many notes he used to be able to play, many of them tasteless. Despite this, mostly everything in the first set is played well, including a zippy YEM, a Suzy complete with humorous Purple Haze and Popeye teases, and a SOAM that phish.net seems to think is particularly noteworthy. If IDK had a jam chart, this version would probably be on there. Testify!

The second set starts out sluggishly with one of the slowest Harry Hoods ever, although it does have an interesting staccato portion mid-song that may warrant a listen if you're a big Hoodie. Following this is only the fourth Reba ever, but this was their third night in a row playing it...so you'd think it would be good, right? Well, it's not awful, but it's certainly not the Reba we know and love today. It still contains that horrible falsetto "Bag it, tag it" section, which is mostly only interesting in historical context. In general, the song is okay, but they clearly hadn't worked out the kinks yet.

In a Hole is another newer song, but this one didn't stick around as long as Reba. (I wonder why?) This one also doesn't have the I'm an a-hole joke, so you can skip it and listen to a later version.

The Who Do? We Do! coming out of McGrupp is worth a listen. The segue is perfect and should be marked as a -> in the setlist. One thing I liked about late 1989 was their willingness to take Fluffhead apart and insert various portions of Fluff's Travels into other songs. Lots of other setlists from October have these little segments, and they're all worth listening to because they almost all work very well.

My Sweet One is yet another early version of the tune, and it's not quite at breakneck pace yet, but still worth a listen for a nice Leo solo.

Overall, this isn't one of those must-listen early shows that everyone knows about, but it's not a bad choice if you're picking and choosing old shows to listen to. It's pretty average for the era, though. (The best show of this Front run would definitely be 10-20-1989, if you're interested.)

Night 3 of The Front sounds pretty good but does suffer from pitch issues. The band sounds a bit like Alvin and the Chipmunks. This is an easy fix for someone with the skills to do such things.

Most of La Grange is cut. The recording starts towards the end of the jam. A few notes…It sounds like from the crowds reaction that the tramps were used during YEM. Split Open has the OG Fishman solo preceding the “Steam Dream” section. Following lots of random requests, the newly reworked version of Tela makes it’s return after more than a year! This is paired nicely with a killer version of Sky! GTBT is cut in the beginning but the quality seems to improve a bit. Still a hair sharp though.

The upgrade in quality continues into Set 2, but unfortunately the pitch is still sharp. Hood to open a set is always a welcome treat and this version doesn’t disappoint. This is followed by the 5th version of Reba. If the second version really took place at The Front and not in New York, this would be the fifth performance at The Front. Trey gets through the lyrics this time with only a minor slip up. I really love these old versions of Reba! The whistling section is tighter than the last three versions. McGrupp is solid. Fee was inspired with Trey getting through the lyrics with no issues. Fun version of Undun. Unfortunately the tape cuts 4 seconds into Antelope.