Ah, the memories. I was 18 years old and fresh out of High School. Bring on the party! For some stupid reason my parents let me and my two friends borrow the car and drive it across the state to see this show. My best friend Nate and Craig were with me. Nate is the guy that I have to thank for getting me into Phish in the first place....but that my friends is another story!

Having seen the "Fleezer" show a few days earlier my mind was still recovering and in a fragile state. This was only my sixth show so there were still a lot of surprises and songs that I've never heard before on tape or live. I believe I heard my first Tela and Sloth but I know it was the first time I ever heard Free, Strange Design and Sleeping Monkey. The DWD is simply awesome. So weird and all over the place. Amazing raw improv. I was SOOO lost during this song that I was certain that Phish were aliens and that I was now dead and I was going to spend the rest of my life within this confusion and lights. The Free saved me. This was the first time that I heard that riff. Instantly fucking loved that song. INSTANTLY. I wish I had a video of my face during those first lines of Free, I probably had tears running down it. Soon after the bliss I was again launched into fright and amazement by the mind-fuck that followed. Poor Heart brought me back to reality but I was again off into the stratosphere during YEM and Strange Design. I remember really liking Strange Design and thinking how fucking weird of a song it was. Trippy shit! I also remember the lights really well during the song. It was a Strange Design indeed and of course it blew my mind a litte further. I've seen Antelope more times than any other song and I never get sick of it. I can only imagine how excited I was to hear Antelope this night. At this point in my Phish career I was still hearing songs I've never heard before and the ones I did know where always such a treat to hear. I was still figuring out the how, why and what and didn't fully "get it" until a few shows later.

I remember after the show talking to an older Phish guy (he was probably in his late 20's...OLD) who was doing the whole tour. He told us about Free and Strange Design. I remember telling him how much we all loved Free and how fucked up the DWD and Free were.
At one point he stopped and looked at us with his knowing and knowledgeable face and said
"You guys totally got your minds blown tonight didn't you?" Yes sir. Yes we did.

After the show the cops drove around to us like 5 times and asked us to leave. We kept yelling at them "just eatin' and leavin'!". It was extremely funny at the time. Eventually they got out of their cars and, started grabbing all our shit and started packing it up for us. Again, it was REALLY funny. Can't see how they allowed me to drive out of there. Being 18 and not able to make any long term plans, we ended sleeping in some farmers field outside of town. I had a towel for a blanket and no pillow but everything was SO right with the world at that point. What a night.

BB

Jibboo Crew
JSW#1