May 1990 is going to feel like such a grand reward with the band's return to the east coast and hopefully the necessity to crank the creativity knob in front of familiar audiences. April 1990 in Colorado/various midwest venues is--there's no better way to say it--a total slog. Same songs night in and night out, little to no exploration, poor audio quality, disinterested audience.

It would be interesting to peek into the minds of the band members at this point in Phishistory. They might collectively view this period as a relative success, a time when Phish took a couple of brief cross country trips, making several stops along the way, exposing new people to this new music. They were probably very excited. Unfortunately, time has not been kind to the repetitive nature of these April 1990 tapes at all, and listening to all of them on my Chronological Phish Quest has quickly become an exercise in redundancy. I can only hope that this changes soon.

As for the show itself, it's fine. Like nearly every show played in Colorado, there are few standout moments, and is mostly just a good band playing good music. Luckily for all of us phans, Phish eventually turned out to be the best band playing the best music! There is a nice chaotic Antelope that may be worth a listen, though.

2.5/5 stars.