I thought this was a pretty solid show...really showcasing Paul Languedoc's skill behind the soundboard. Place really sounded nice and the mix was just right IMO.

1st set highlights for me were: Very ripping Chalkdust that set energy high...FANTASTIC Wolfman's -> MLB jam which was first creepy jam of night....a slightly extended It's Ice middle section which had some nice growling...a machine gun Trey Antelope with another unique take on the "Rye Rye Rocco" segment plus alternate lyrics...a great Disease that gets finished but with a nice 14 minute jam in between!...and last but not least one of the most jammed out Meat's you will ever hear complete with digital delay loop jam. Pretty awesome night!

Friday the 13th... something's gonna go down...

This something would happen AFTER the show. Get back to my car, somehow we end up going home with a dog that my friend, who had his windbreaker pockets stuffed free of charge by a generous ethnomycologist, rescued after it was thrown out of a moving VW minibus by some wook trash POS's. A dog, with no tail and some seriously birth deformed legs ears and eyes, that had CLEARLY ingested drugs. And a veggie burrito that my friend thought was a good idea to feed a dog - marginally a bad idea for human consumption, overwhelmingly a horrible idea to feed to a dog on drugs. Dog proceeds to vomit all over my backseat and my other friend who was, well, on a journey of his own. Vomits again. And again. 'lucinating humans screaming, ???-inating dog barking spewing semi digested veggie & bean burrito remnants & generally flipping out... lovely, exactly what I look for in a post-show drive home. What could make this better? Oh yeah, the glass beer bottles I was neglected to be informed of that are smashing together and breaking... Ok whatever, we'll deal with it when we get home - but wait, crap, do I have a flat tire? Of course I do, duh. No problem, not like we're in the HOOD RIGHT NOW... young lady in our party walks off and refuses to get back in car - out of towner, isn't aware we are in the ghett... after about 15 minutes of illogical bargaining, pleading, begging, threatening and finally praying to whatever deity was pulling the strings of this surreal ride home, we coax her back in the car. Finally get things back on track, get home, clean car for next hour. Epilogue, friend took dog back home, his friend adopted it, ended up being an awesome doggie and best friend for our buddy for the next 8 years.

Preshow/lots: We have floor GA tix, pretty sold out from what I remember, we miracled a girl who was in town from United Kingdom, was crying because no extras on lot and this was her only chance to see them since 94 or 95 and she was flying back to London 2 days later. So that felt good. We made fun of her accent all night. People were mad that we miracled someone who clearly could have afforded the ticket and were trying to offer us more money... I don't ever go over face when selling extras, sorry, put your money away.

Set 1: Chalkdust.. and I AM PUMPED, I always love a CDT opener. Not my fav version but whatever, 1 down... Wolfman's... YES.. so far 1st set is a winner, awesome jam on the brotha. Then... uh... yeah, you lost me. Ice was cool.. Lope was fun, otherwise unremarkable 1st set

Set 2: DWD now we're cooking with gas, loved how Trey would attack this tune with aggression in 97 & 98. And I love Sample. So far so good. Dirt breather, I love this tune, so, alright. Birds... fun, like it. Good meat. HOOD.. well, is good. Not an MVP version but it gets on base.

GTBT what ended up being foreshadowing encore, hell yeah, whatever happened before this didn't matter anymore because they rocked Zep, very appropriate. A swing and a drive, a-waayyyyyy back.. GONE... walk off home run. Crowd goes wild and leaves a winner.

If we only knew what we were in for as we left the arena... Good Times, Bad Times indeed!

This was my first Phish show, and thus I remember it quite fondly. To the point my opinion would be bias at least................That being said, it was an amazing show, and because of this show I was on board for many years to come. It was an incredible show that left me as speechless as a mute monk. The set list says it all, but what stands out the most is that felling of enthusiastic amazement that leaved me wondering, Whens the NeXt show??

If anyone has a copy of this I would love to trade..

11 Min Meat -> Hood for the win. This is quite the show IMO. November 98 SLAYED!

Listen to Meat from this show,stretches 10mins.long..by far the most unique version to date.

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

Friday the 13th. What a spooky day. Nothing is supposed to go right and you just might be in danger of getting hacked to bits by a machete-wielding, hockey-masked, pissed off summer camper who just doesn't seem to want to die.
However, such a day in Phish world could only mean one thing: one crazy show. Surely the band would realize the significance of this day and do something special. After this show I learned not to get my hopes up.
The two-hour drive to Cleveland went by for the most part uneventful, with my buddies Matt, Mike, and Jaremy, along with myself, excited to get to the lot. Fall Tour isn't much like Summer Tour as far as the lot scene is concerned. Instead of being condensed into an amphitheater's parking lot, since most venues on the Fall Tour are located in big cities, concert goers are forced to park in different lots, each of which are separate from each other and each of which costs a different amount to park in. I was lucky enough to park in a lot on Prospect St. about four blocks away from the venue. Luckily this lot was also a block away from Shakedown, which just so happened to be overflowing from the next parking lot and into the street and up and down the sidewalk across from the venue. Superb purchases were abundant and after making several, my crew and I headed back to the car to get away from the cold November air before heading into the show.
Finally it was time for us to head in and find our seats. We walked to the venue and stood in line to get frisked. As I was waiting for my turn, the security guard called up the kid in front of me. This kids was acting super shady and as the guard was frisking him he kept pulling his jacket back down over his waist and reaching for his back. I could see the guard getting a little worried as the kid kept reaching around for the back of his jeans. Finally the cop decided he wasn't going to wait to see what that kid might pull out from the back of his jeans. He turned him around and lifted up his jacket, exposing the kids' brand new bubbler, a really nice pipe way too big to be trying to bring into a show. I think the cop realized how much that thing was worth because instead of taking it he just told the kid to go put it away and come back.
I'm really not a fan of seeing Phish indoors. It's always too hot, the bathroom lines are too long, the halls are too hard to maneuver, and there are no jumbotrons. The CSU Convocation Center is no different; however, at least we scored some good seats. Granted we were in the bleeders, but we were directly in front of the stage so we had a nice view. The house lights finally went down as Phish took the stage. Surprisingly they weren't met with an overwhelmingly warm response. The band kicked off the show with about as much warmth as they kicked into a lackluster "Chalk Dust Torture". This version was kind of sloppy and didn't really have much to offer. The "Wolfman's Brother" that followed was a different story. The band funked this "Brother" out for a good twenty minutes and showcased some very inspired jamming. Later set lists would have a "Mind Left Body Jam" listed as taking place within "Wolfman's," but I'm not sure how much validity there is to that claim.
Phish followed the explosive "Wolfman's" with an average pairing of "Roggae" and "Ginseng Sullivan", and then broke into an entertaining version of "It's Ice". This would be the final version until the year 2000 and it was by no means a letdown. Each part was flawless and at one point Fishman climbed on top of his drum throne, stood there, and did the mashed potato.
The next song, "Cars Trucks Buses" is always a fun instrumental and although it didn't break any new ground it was still good to hear. Next up was "Farmhouse" and at this point in its existence it was still a rarity for the most part, so it was a real treat to hear it. As far as Phish's country numbers are concerned, "Water In The Sky" should have been left alone and should still be played like it was back in 1997. "The Sloth" brought the lukewarm first set to a simmer before "Antelope" brought it to a boil. The band was doing some serious jamming during this song, and the audience was really loving it. The band seemed to take notice, or at least Trey did, as he switched up the lyrics and said something to the effect of, "set the deer shift for this side of the hole." Whatever Trey. It's still not sure what was said for sure; possibly instead of "hole" it was "hall", making reference to the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame. Regardless, for the first time all night both the band and the audience seemed to be having a really good time. "Wolfman's" and "It's Ice" stood out as the first set highlights and as the house lights came back on, intermission was met with the collective hope that the band would really bring the thunder in the next set.
Since I knew what kind of confusion was going on in the hallway that surrounded the venue, I stayed in my seat through set break. I was glad I did since by the time Matt and Jaremy made it back to the seats after their excursion, the house lights went down, leaving them no time to eat their pizza and hotdog.
As the band took the stage it seemed as though spirits were high. The band joked about how Carini showed up for work late that day since he had gotten so drunk at the Flats the night before. Kuroda shined a spotlight to the side of the stage, lighting Carini up and Trey announced that Mike thought they should leave the lights like that the whole set. After the banter Mike lead the band into the intro to "Down With Disease". The band worked its way through the tune before they embraced the jam and really spread their wings. A huge jam ensued, one that really got the second set moving and for the most part made up for the averageness of Set I. After "Disease" ended Trey started up "Sample In A Jar". It was by no means the greatest Sample ever, but things could have been worse. Afterwards we were treated to a beautiful rendition of "Dirt". This song is absolutely fantastic and this early version was superb, complete with an emotionally moving guitar solo.
This show was taking place not too long after Story Of The Ghost had been released and, if you may recall, "Birds Of A Feather" actually made it onto the radio as the album's single. I knew it was inevitable that they'd play it tonight, and they did. The version wasn't bad at all and after hearing it live I actually grew to enjoy it. An excellent jam springboard. The SOTG theme kept itself alive as the band brought forth "Meat". The funk was hitting hard and heavy and the band stretched this way out and ended up repeating the digital loop section several times. As the audience let out a deafening cheer of approval, Fishman started in with a wonderfully placed "Harry Hood" to end the set. "Hood" was pretty much your standard version, which is fine by me. The band worked the parts nicely; however, when they settled into the mellow blissful jam Kuroda blacked out the stage, allowing the fans to wage an interrupted glowstick war. Although it had potential to be huge, this war was pretty small; however, the gesture was still nice. The band sent us into the night after Kuroda shined the bright white lights on the stage as Page belted out the words to "Good Times/ Bad Times". What an extremely appropriate encore.

SET 1:

Chalk Dust Torture: Great energy out of the chute, yet another rocker to open the show. Standard fare for Fall 98!!!

Wolfman's Brother -> Mind Left Body Jam -> Wolfman's Brother: Super slinky and funky. The MLB stuff is fantastic! Amazing in the two hole this early in the show!

Roggae: Standard.

Ginseng Sullivan: Mike forgets lyrics.

It's Ice: Sloppy intro and the immediate stuff that leads into the ‘jam’ – some of that is suspect as well. The jam is very lengthy, dark, and evil. >

Cars Trucks Buses: Standard.

Farmhouse: Standard.

Water in the Sky: Standard.

The Sloth: Sloppy.

Run Like an Antelope: What is Trey teasing in the intro? GTBT? Ramble On? I can’t place it. Anyway, very chill and mellow beginning of the jam. Patient. This version gets really strange in the 11 minute range, sounds like Trey is killing cats. Not good sounds coming out of that doc. But the trilling that comes out of that around 12:17 is sweet. Antelope's lyrics were changed to "suck the deershit from this side of the hole." As it turns out this was not a very good version, it’s just mostly off all the way around.

SET 2:

Down with Disease: Trey messes up the lyrics. I LOVE the space this gets into in the late 14’s. Not quite ambient but so chill and patient. Then Trey strumming that starts at about 14:53 and well beyond is very pleasing to my ears. Around 17:25 though it sounds like he is kind of running out of ideas. Someone needs to rescue him. There is no rescue to be had and they find their way back to the closing segment at 18:40. Kind of meh. The overall body of work is good enough though that I would recommend this version. >

Sample in a Jar: Oof.

Dirt: I love this tune, but not in this spot. No sir. Set needs much, much more.

Birds of a Feather: The band sounds tired and bored. This version is very meh. The fact that this is a jamcharts version is laughable.

Meat: I love loops - love them. This is basically a super mellow soundcheck jam. I don’t like this in this spot of the set based on what had come before, the set needed more. >

Harry Hood: Loops continue into the Hood opener which is neat. Pretty solid Hood right here.

ENCORE:

Good Times Bad Times: Raucous version, they rip it big time.

Summary: I remember reading that the night before the show the band was out raging it in The Flats. This is basically confirmed by Trey when before the second set he introduces Bruno and says he was late to work this morning because he got drunk partying in The Flats the previous night. I just don’t think this is a very good show. They crushed it in Grand Rapids, rolled into Cleveland and got wrecked the night before apparently and this show mostly just sounds tired/bored uninspired. The current rating of 3.828/5 (128 ratings) seems to strong. I would rate it a 3.5/5.

Replay Value: Wolfman's Brother, Mind Left Body Jam, Wolfman's Brother, Down with Disease

Mind Left Body Jam is sweet. Antelope is decent as is the Hood. DWD is the clear highlight. About 20 minutes or so of raging.

Wolfman's Brother (despite the slight MLB tease) through Water in the Sky was a HUGE black hole in the 1st set, and the show kind of never made it back. Kind of a schizophrenic show in general. Gigantic DwD though.