https://forum.phish.net/forum/permalink/1378183731

When I'm rating shows, it's a challenge for me to avoid being affected by song choices in the setlist. I'm inclined to give a show the benefit of the doubt if it includes a few of my favorites, which introduces the human element and skews the ratings. But everybody has a personal list of Phish songs that elevate a show's status from good to amazing, just because they were included. And Reba is likely on a lot of fan's lists.

Reba is a multi-part musical composition written in 1989, but ask any bro and they'll tell you that the song features many characteristics that equate with their own feminine ideal. She is complex but uncomplicated, in turns child-like and mature, intelligent and unpredictable, pensive and raucous. The four gentlemen who attend to her may occasionally stumble, but would never besmirch her name, and others pursue her for days and nights, only to find their efforts were in vain. The Reba from this show is one of my all-time favorites, for the astounding majesty of the jam.

Even so, Reba is an unlikely "tent-pole jam"; one could count the number of second sets carried by Reba on one hand. Thankfully, there is much more to enjoy from this show. Since 2018, Phish fans have been blessed with first sets of high quality, containing excellent jams and noteworthy bustouts at nearly every show. 12/8/94 contains a wonderful first set, bookended by rarities and overflowing with strong playing. '94 Jedi Trey levitates the audience during a dissonant Maze and a rollicking Possum second set opener, and then pins the audience to the wall like the Gravitron during Bowie. A well-balanced SBD brings out all the nuances of this superlative show from the tail end of the Fall '94 tour.