Venues

Ventura County Fairgrounds

Ventura, CA, USA

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Top Rated Shows

Highest rated shows at this venue by Phish.net users:

Date Rating
1997-07-30 236 votes 4.5636/5
1998-07-20 226 votes 4.5133/5

Top Reviews

Highest-rated reviews from shows at this venue:

1997-07-30 by waxbanks 21
If nothing else you absolutely must hear this Bowie > Cities > Bowie, which is one of the tastiest jams of summer '97: totally seamless segues back and forth between a beautifully detailed Bowie and a zippy stateside take on the Talking Heads cover. As for the rest of the show, if you're new to...
1997-07-30 by nyetjones 12
A flier for this show appeared in the 1998 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled "What's My Line Part 1."
1998-07-20 by MiguelSanchez 10
this is a great unsung hero of not only the summer tour but the west coast run. it gets a bit overshadowed by shoreline and the gorge, but this one is a doozey. it's got some damn fine jams, a fun debut, and a nice bring back. the first set starts with a mighty fine bathtub gin. like a...
1997-07-30 by MiguelSanchez 8
on 7/30/97 in ventura, ca, phish put forth one of their all-time great jam sequences. beyond that though, they also brought west-coast phish fans their first taste of '97 phish. all four shows on this run, ventura, shoreline, and gorge x2, complimented each other well, giving west coast heads the...
1998-07-20 by n00b100 7
It's hard not to like a set that gets started with a 20 minute Bathtub Gin; this Gin really hits a sweet groove halfway through, Trey alternating between mellifluous soloing and his usual rock-god tone and Mike laying down some really thick baselines, before the jam shifts into raucous funk mode...
1998-07-20 by Campster 6
In the spirit of finishing off the box set I'll review the '98 show. 97 was fantastic, and this one held up in equally fine form. It didn't have the monster Bowie, but it definitely has some monster jams of its own. So set I. Bathtub Gin - woah! This is probably the jam of the show and...
1998-07-20 by terms_of_the_dance 5
This was the first Phish show I ever heard. Set 2 with the encore was passed around the halls of my high school on one cassette tape for a few weeks in my junior year. I must've listened to it a hundred times. I had never heard anything like Drowned > Makisupa and all at once it seemed to open...
1997-07-30 • Cory Ferber by 5
(Published in the second edition of The Phish Companion...) "There's some good points, and some bad points." I wanted to see a show at the Ventura County Fairgrounds because it was common stomping ground for the Grateful Dead. We were doing...
1997-07-30 by Blackeydsloth 5
I don't know how much more I can add about this show the reviews above pretty much sums it up. This was my first show I remember driving from the Inland Valley with 2 friends of mine who also had never seen the band. I really didn't know what to expect. As I rolled into the lot it hit me that I...
1998-07-20 by MongoNugget 4
I don't do long song by song revue's of shows. I am just going to tell you that this was a gem! The venue itself was a dirt race track with the stage set up on the infield. Palm trees in the background and the beach a short walk from the venue it was a great place to be for sure. The band was...

Notable Jam Chart Performances

Individual jam chart entries from this venue:

1998-07-20 • Prince Caspian (12:03) Set 2 Noteworthy
Great combination of rocking yet slightly ambient sound from Trey mixed with bluesy piano stylings from Page. > to "Harry Hood."
1997-07-30 • Chalk Dust Torture (10:05) Set 1 Noteworthy
Brother to versions from 6/20/95, 7/30/03 and 7/16/13. Incredible improvisation packed into this 10 minute version.
1997-07-30 • David Bowie (21:29) Set 2 Noteworthy
Features an epic, mid-jam "Bowie" -> "Cities" -> "Bowie." And interspersed among a substantial amount of tight, well-played "Type I" jamming are several forays that get beyond "Bowie."
1997-07-30 • Cities (5:21) Set 2 Noteworthy
Fantastic -> in from "David Bowie" and -> back to "David Bowie."
1997-07-30 • David Bowie (5:56) Set 2 Noteworthy
-> in from "Cities" to conclude this heavy-duty "Bowie."
1998-07-20 • Bathtub Gin (21:03) Set 1
The customarily great '98 "Gin" jam breaks into a funky groove at 13:45 and then gradually works back to "Gin."
This funky version segues out of a funky "Drowned." There's a breakdown for Mike and a sweet little solo around 4:40 from Trey, and a spacey ambient jam for about a minute at the end.
In the encore slot, the band extends the jam out into a nice, upbeat groove, and finishes the show by gradually cycling down their instruments, leaving only a Digital Delay Loop whirling away.
1997-07-30 • Stash (15:06) Set 1
Although largely straightforward, there is a nice shift to major mode at about 7:42, plus a very gradual build up to the peak.


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