This was my 9th show. I saw the shows in the midwest at the time. 1996 - a much overlooked period, but as solid as it gets. The year of the Clifford Ball.

This show is not nearly as bad as some here seem to think. If it were played today in 2013 people would think it's the shit. The songs are great and the playing and singing are all above average. If you feel Tube was too short you're crazy. Page jams the piano hard on Tube. It's short, but solid. Songs don't need to be 20 minutes long to be good. This is a night where Page shines.

Come one people, look at the list:

Set 1
Buried Alive (Great opener)
Poor Heart (High energy here - top notch clean playing)
The Sloth (More Energy to start)
Divided Sky (Classic - great tone on guitar, they build the ending nicely)
Horn (This is slow but way better than Velvet Sea)
Tube (Great Piano)
SOAM (Wicked Jam at the End - if Trey still played like this people would freak out)
The Lizards (Solid as Hell - piano solo great - guitar silky smooth)
Character Zero (Not my favorite, but sounds great this night - much better than an encore. Works well as a first set closer)

That was set 1 - If you had that kind of show with 3.0 you would thinks it's the best show of the year with just set 1. The vocals were incredibly solid and the playing is high energy and dynamic. Trey is ripping, Fishman is pushing the jams with attitude, Mike is solid and Page is getting some room to jam. Great first set. If this is average 1.0 it's top notch 3.0. Just listen to it.

Set 2
David Bowie (Spacy intro - Love It. Trey is totally on his game here in the jams) (First peak nice - second peak is totally dissonant and insane, 3rd peak crazier, 4 and 5 peaks are super clean arpeggios by Trey - this is a great Bowie) THAT is how you open a second set.

A Day In The Life (a great cover - much better than Loving Cup for old school tunes. Page sounds great this night on vocals - probably the best version I have heard them play)

YEM (Trey actually nails all of the beginning arpeggios - haven't heard that in a long time. This is a very dynamic version of the song. Trey is all over it on the first solo. The funky part is wah driven, very funky. The first Page solo is a synth sound - spacey, second solo is clav with a wah - extra funky. The crowd participation is in top form here. The guitar solo at the end starts funky with the wah and then proceeds to melt your face. This breaks into a drum solo with trey on percussion, the bass solo afterward is a deep think funk with a syth layer - the vocal jam is very psychedelic)

Taste (One of the better Billy Breathes songs, Page sounds great on this - yet another highlighted Page moment on piano this evening - Trey is sweeping through the end solo in and out - very tasty indeed)

Swept Away>Steep - A cool down. Vocals sound very nice. This transitions into Harry Hood perfectly

Harry Hood - Trey doing some interesting arpeggios in the beginning, Band is really tight. Very patient jam with percussive dynamic.

Encore: Julius - Nice encore. Trey jamming at the end is similar to Chalk Dust Torture with a couple of peaks.

The second set has David Bowie, You Enjoy Myself & Harry Hood. That alone would be classic enough, but then to throw in A Day In The Life and a solid Taste makes this nicely constructed second set with great flow and songs.

I would love to hear a board tape of this show. The taper version is pretty bad quality. Too much room noise. Anyway - I thought it was a great show. I went to this one with some of the guys in my band at the time and they were blown away. Great experience. This show should be considered to be much better than what is generally thought of it. It's probably because of the level they were playing at the time, but compared to today's standards this show would be at the top of most people's lists. This would be classic 3.0 material.