THE GOOD: This show featured a handful of tunes that hadn't been played on summer tour yet (Funky Bitch, Weigh, Forbin's) but the best part of this show may lie in the slower tunes, FEFY and Lifeboy, both of which got fine treatment. The first-set closing Possum features some nice work from Trey. While Forbin's had begun to be a rare treat at this point of 1993, this version is quite similar to others from this year (particularly the floating in an ocean concept).

THE BAD: Not too many negatives to this show, although the somewhat haphazard flow of both sets keeps this from being a must-listen. The band kept the bluegrass/southern rock trend for the tour going on this night, with a handful of #s that tilt in this direction (MMGAMOIO, Sparkle, Daniel, Rocky Top), but without the emphasis and energy from the night before.

ETC: Mike is particularly vocal in this Funky Bitch, which hadn't been played since the spring. Fans of the eerie may want to take a listen to the beginning of this Maze, which has Trey whispering indecipherably a la the Providence Bowie. During Daniel, Trey gives a special thanks to "The Blumps". There is a major classic rock tease in the YEM, which carries the jam (tune yet to be ID'ed). Bouncing has a longer outro than normal and is quite nice.

This WAS my first show. Sat in the balcony (yes, sat). I had seen MMW @ Lucille's about two weeks prior to this show and was blown away by them...Phish, well, not so much.

Still haven't heard a tape of this show (18 years ago today), but I remember four things vividly: (1) Page sitting on the steps outside the theatre prior to the show, (2) wondering why this guy was talking so much between Forbin and Mockingbird, (3) the second set Maze opener being stellar, and (4) a smoking GTBT.

Maze, GTBT, and the band's established reputation were intriguing enough that I made the drive about a week later from Orlando (where I was attending a conference) to Ybor City, FL. That show was astounding, and I've been on board ever since.

Nothing mind-blowing but a good tight show. The YEM jam locks into a repetitive theme that distinguishes it somewhat. Bouncing also has a wee bit extra on it in the intro and outro. Hey for BATR, I'll take it. The Forbins>Mockingbird>Possum run to end the first set was the best part of the show to me, with Maze and YEM coming through strong in the second set. It's not August yet.

3/5

Note: I wasn't actually at this show!!

BUT ... The concert tape was my first live Phish experience, gotten about 2 years before my first "in-person" show (State College, PA, 10-17-96). And from Divided on the A-side onwards, I was solidly hooked, even if my particular tape was 4th or 5th gen at best and sounded it.

Out of the buches of tapes and the few shows I attended, I always really enjoyed this concert. In particular, the encore of Rocky Top into Bird always really stuck out in my mind.

https://forum.phish.net/forum/permalink/1378210505

"[1993 was] the year Phish could do no wrong... Phish was so creatively and musically compelling and they were taking crazy risks. Before 1993 it had seemed to be a very practiced, concise show that flowed real fast and didn't necessarily have any huge improvisational moments. All of a sudden there were huge improvisational moments everywhere. You'd get some of that in 1992 and throughout the early years, but in 1993 the growth was obvious." - Kevin Shapiro, Phish: The Biography, p. 113

The growth that Kevin Shapiro describes seems to refer primarily to August '93, a month so venerated that some may not be aware that the Summer 1993 tour began on July 15. The band's performances during July were tighter than they had ever been, and they were making the jump to playing outdoor amphitheaters with larger capacities, but some of the playing is marked with the ambivalence that the band has shown whenever they have found themselves playing to larger audiences then they have been accustomed to. The "homecoming" show in Stowe, VT on 7/22 is notably bogged down by rain, and the 7/27 Richmond > 7/28 Charlotte run at the end of the month appeared to be a swoon. It would take a venue down-sizing in Tampa on 8/2 for the band to fully break out of their rut, and once they brought back Slave To The Traffic Light at the Cincinnati Zoo on 8/6, Phish was airborne once again and reaching for the improvisational heavens.

7/29 may be missing the ground-breaking hey-hole jams or segue-fests that make the best of the August shows so compelling, but the seeds the band had planted can be seen sprouting from the ground before blooming a couple of weeks later. One interesting aspect of Summer 1993 is how the band started sneaking in teases from more random sources; on this night, the three-note riff from Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning" is not only teased in GTBT, but becomes the basis for a wicked jam in YEM. @SlavePhan's show review mentions other setlist oddities including Mike's yodeling in Funky Bitch, Trey's whispering at the beginning of Maze, and a rare segue out of Bouncing Around the Room instead of the familiar ending. We are also treated to another mind-melting Trey narration during Forbin's > Mockingbird, Trey's bizarre dedication during Daniel Saw The Stone, and what might have actually been a double encore. This show is easily overlooked because there's just so much music played during August '93 that demands to be heard first; but if you have heard all that and want some more, this show is a lot of fun to revisit.

Yup