Your Top 10 Phish Moments

[G. Augusto]

My list would be all "moments" I was in attendance for, but I can see how a non-attended moment could make a list.

1 - 12-31-1995 Countdown My first NYE with the band. The entire show is the T.I.T, but this is the one part of the show that stands out for me.

2 - 07-02-1994 Divided Sky The first time I got IT. Dunno what happened, but it all came rushing in during the pause.

3 - 07-23-1993 My first show and was really close the entire night. I remember watching Trey closely and thinking his fingers looked like "spiders" all night. He made me start playing the guitar.

4 - 10-07-2000 After wrapping up a nearly complete Tour (skipped 3), this show was the break that a lot of people needed. The band was fading and they came out and delivered a SOLID show with no antics and no banter. A PERFECT cap to their first chapter. That second set is still one of my most played tapes.

5 - 04-03-1998 II Still my favorite set of music by the band with the Roses being my favorite jam of all time. Being on the floor and having the band be so fluid, the stage jumper, the LIGHTS OUT ANTELOPE and the encore is just something I can never forget. That Antelope was so killer and the vids do it zero justice.

6 - 04-15-1994 GCH Solidifying the fact that anything could happen on any night. The horns were just so LOUD that night.

7 - 09-29-2000 Was pretty much losing my mind for the first three songs. How many songs can they use the evil red lights for? Finally got my stuff together and partied hard with the crazy crowd. Fuck the haters, this show is bananas.

8 - 12-04-2009 1st Tube I thought having those special moments with the band were over, but this one just rocked me. Being on the floor and having the composed part of the tune just SHAKE MSG all over the place was fantastic.

9 - 05-22-2000 There was something about being at this famed venue and getting down barefoot and the plush carpet. Not to mention scoring an ultra tough ticket for face after being shut out for the only time in my career the night before and being destroyed by a pretty epic Ghost, Gin and Split Open.

10 - 11-20-1998 Quinn the Eskimo This whole show was great for me, but this song really made things sink in. I was all alone for most of this run and the troubles I was having 8 hours away at home just melted away. First time at Hampton and a really fun show.

[justjezmund]

ok Ill play.

1: IT - tons of experiences involved but im gunna count it as one.  Graduated from high school and piled in my 89 voyger with good friends and one terrible one. 

2: 12/11/97 - First show.  Didn't remember anything really till Bittersweet came out. nuff said.

3: 9/14/00 - extended suzy/Crosseyed+downpour= awesome

4: 5/31/09 - Tweezer & the first time seeing the boys in over 4 years.

5: 8/14/09 - i dont need to say anything

6: 12/2/03 - Rock&Roll>Weekapaug>Reprise =  :crazy:

7: 8 - Taking the gamble to skip court and take the trip to cali. best decision of the year.

8: 12/2/09 - Peaches/Light. I love Zappa and I love that jam.

9: 8/16/09 - BDTNL, some reason besides not finding the car for 3 hrs this is what i remember most.

10: 6/7/09 - The jammed Fee, and the Sand, awesome.

[MiamiPhish]

I've only seen 6 shows, so my list looks something like this:

1-9: 3/6/09 - Fluffhead, on the floor, RIDICULOUS.

10: 12/30/09 - Tela.  No one around me even flinched.  Their loss.

[susep]

1. 2Nov.1994, this was the show that set me off and solidified my relationship w/ the band as a fan and student.  I had been listening to them seriously beginning in early 1994 specifically 30Dec.1993 that my head-friend Debbie aquired.  The opening Halley's in set 2 w/ their barber-shop quartet vocal style was surreal combined w/ the first 6-7 minutes of the Tweezer Jam including the head of song left me forever changed. 

2.  16May1995 - such an incredible and rare performance for Phish, hearing the debut of Free on my buddy's XLII off an FM source blew my mind.

3. 31Oct.1996 - I've told this story before but it reflects the metamorphosis Phish was undertaking, most of my friends in College were diehard 92-95 Phish heads, by the time Fall '96 rolled by they were not listening as much.  In particular one stoney night I introduced the 31Oct.1996 DwD and one of my friends was like, "oh I've heard this tune" which I replied "not like this" and proceeded to melt his mind.

4. The Went - '97 had many sick highlights but this Festival and music were a soundtrack to many fun events for me that Summer and Fall.

5. The Lemonwheel - more or less a continuation from the Went idea but added excitement and intrigue w/ Phish morphing into an ambient style of improvisation.

6. Big Cypress - still riding the Phish waves hard for 5 solid years this performance was a great summation. 

7. 12Sept.2000 - last time seeing them before the end of 1.0.

8. IT - beyond the pain in the ass traffic getting in, the music and nuggets I scored made it all worthwhile. 

9. 29Nov.2009 - really began doubting if Phish was ever going to make it back but this show was an affirmation that good things await. 

10. tba from this Summer. 

[redrum]

my head-friend Debbie

she sounds like a great friend!!  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

:wink:

[Buffalo Budd]

I'll try to list a few, might not get 10 as I don't have as many shows under my belt.
These are in no particular order.

1) 8/16/97 - Cities, 1st time witnessing this band and not really knowing what I was in for.  This song just got me dancing my ass off, loved it.

2) 8/17/97 - Gin, could not believe what was going on.  Just when I thought my mind was blown, they did it again.

3) 8/16/98 - Sabotage, was pumped to hear them cover this and  :rawk: out.  Not to mention, I snuck my video cam in and was recording periodically throughout this set.

4) Oswego - Went down with a bunch of my closest friends and just had a raging weekend.  The whole trip was one of the best weekends of my life.

5) 12/7/99 - Halley's, may be my favorite jam I've heard live 'and realized what was going on'.  Just took me to another world.

6) 8/2/03 - Bowie, just thought it was the perfect end to the set.  I remember borrowing a phone from a guy to call my wife afterwards to tell how much fun I was having  :-D

7) 8/3/03 - 46 Days, just a smokin' jam.  Also, I had set up a kick ass camp area for myself and about 30 friends, which made for a very fun weekend.  Then, ditching the crew as they were too slow and racing down on my longboard, beeming on mushies, to catch the whole tower set.

8/14/09 - I refer you to JJ's comment.

9) 8/16/09 - Harpua, not because it was the greatest rendition but that it was my first since the Went (when I really didn't know the tune at the time).

[Buffalo Budd]

my head-friend Debbie

she sounds like a great friend!!  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

:wink:

You would  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

[susep]

my head-friend Debbie

she sounds like a great friend!!  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

:wink:

oh man she was. :wink:

[redrum]

my head-friend Debbie

she sounds like a great friend!!  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

:wink:

oh man she was. :wink:

[kellerb]

my head-friend Debbie

she sounds like a great friend!!  :hereitisyousentimentalbastard

:wink:

I think I know her.  Proper name Debbie G. O'Downer, right?

[guyforget]

no particular order.  its funny how my first show was 16 years ago and there are quite a few 2.0 and 3.0 moments in here because of friends ive made. 

1. gamehendge 6/26/94 - means more now than it did then

2. midnight 12/31/98, my first nye @ a phish show, first msg, first nyc, first 4 nights at the same venue, etc, etc, etc.

3. 11/21/97 emotional rescue.  first night of my first full tour (though i did skip a couple).  the cliche of dropping out of college and going on tour, and they open with a song called "emotional rescue."   i felt rescued, like never before.   crazy night, spun outta my mind, loops as they walk off for setbreak, 4 song 2nd set.  beginning of something AWESOME.

4.  8/16/97 first day at a phish festival.  mind = blown.  3 friends make a pact to do the fall tour sometime as the sun rises on the next day.  lives were changed on this night. 


5. 7/30/09 divided sky.  red rocks realized.  i didnt get psychedelic high in 2009, and found myself speding a lot of time w/ my eyes closed to avoid distractions.  not this night.  just in awe of my surroundings and really just ecstatic to have been given the chance to see phish at red rocks for the first time in my phish career.

6. 10/31/09 my only phish halloween.  they rocked an album that i never really loved before.  felt good to check off one of the most fabled phish traditions that i had yet to participate in.  wife and i had only been married a week. 

7. 12/2/03 frankungstein, r&r>week4paug>reprise.  i left for this 4-shows in 5 nights run by myself, from an airport in dayton ohio to nyc.  got picked up by a guy named joefats who i only knew from the internets.  phish's 20th anniversary w/ some great new friends that id go on to see almost every show through coventry with. 

8. 3/8/09 sanity - my then-fiancee's first phish song at her first phish show, my first song of 3.0.  she had some cds from the livephish series, the 10/31/94 beatles set, stuff like that, but had never seen a show.  she had no idea that she would want to see 10 more for the year when she walked in that night. 

9. 7/21/99 - mike's song.  dont even remember the song itself.  i had been living in florida for a few months, before getting on the tour in atlanta for the july 4th weekend.  hadnt seen my younger brothers for probably 6 - 8 months.  knew they were going to be at this show but hadnt been able to find them on lot or during first set and setbreak.  gave up searching on the lawn when the lights went down for set 2.  mikes song started.  i start grooving.  sometime i turn around and see both of my brothers sitting down right behind me rolling a j.  i sat down, put my head in my brother's lap and looked up at his face.  he didnt realize it was me until i looked up at him in the face.  we all jump up screaming, hugging, finish rolling those doobs and finish the show together. 

10. 9/17/00 - last pre-hiatus show on the east coast w/ a group of what must have been 30 - 40 people.  killer show. 

[birdman]

 Nice lists so far.

1. 12/31/95- The whole night was perfect. I went into this show knowing they were going to blow the doors off the place, they met and surpassed all my expectations. Total peak experience. After the birth of my kids, probably the best experience of my life.

2.12/31/93 Harry Hood- I'd been getting pretty heavy into the band during my Freshman year at school. This night proved to be a pivitol one  for me; my hobby became an obsession and an addiction. I chased this nights high for years. It was most certainly ON.

3. 10/21/95- Those of you who know me, know my love for this show.

4. 7/8/94 Gamehendge- Once the crowd figured out what was going on....awesome. It poured like hell that day but Phish delivered a huge gift to the local fans.

5. Clifford Ball, Divided Sky- Sometime during Divided with the sky lit with the sunset. Perfect. Perhaps the best moment in Phishtory.

From here the order is fuzzy

6.12/29/94 Bowie- You all know it, you all love it. The ovation after they wrapped it up was astounding. Great energy.

7. 10/29/95 Slave w/ Bela Fleck. Gorgeous stuff here.

8. Lemonwheel 4th set. Such a cool vibe. Intimacy on a huge scale.

9. 12/29/95 Gin. Another monster from the mother of all tours. Man were they just in-fucking-synch.

10.(tough to decide) 5/16/95 Shocked to find myself inside or 12/30/93, duh.

[justjezmund]

3. 10/21/95- Those of you who know me, know my love for this show.

I didn't know but 

[PIE-GUY]

I'm in.

1. 12/30/93 - it's hard to explain how perfect this night was... the craziness of this tour was such blur for me. It's a long story with bumps and turns every step of the way. The only clarity is this second set. I remember every moment like it was yesterday. This is the show that made me a lifer.

2. 12/31/99 - "After Midnight" - at the end of the afternoon set... that moment when the crowd realizes what song it is and just erupts... I have never been more excited about seeing Phish in my life. If you could bottle that feeling of anticipation during this tune you could make millions!

3. 7/02/95 - This was the last two-night stand of the only real "tour" I ever even attempted (missed the first few shows due to illness, but did the rest). This night was the peak of peaks for my Phish career. I've never been higher (in any sense of the word). Pure joy.

4. 7/30/93 - They played back by the snack bar of Starwood Amp. and it was stellar. It was my first time with paper. I spent the entire second set dancing on a picnic table with a cute hippie chick. Two of us on this table with a straight-on view of the band from about 30 yards out over everyone's heads. Basically, Kuroda's viewpoint every night. "I need to do this again, and soon!"

5. 10/14/94 - I started this night against the stage in front of Trey (no rail, just the stage). This place was smaller than my high-school auditorium. I remember watching Trey's fingers from about 5 feet away during Divided Sky and realizing I was hearing the sound directly from his amp, not from the PA. As the first set went on I worked my way backwards. By the time Julius was rocking, I was in the back of the room dancing in circles without a thought of whether I could see the band. From then on, I no longer even tried to be up front.

6. 4/16/93 - The balcony of the McCauley was about 6 rows deep. Someone brought in at least 1000 balloons and started passing them out during the 2nd set. There were so many it was like a waterfall down into the orch seats. The place was just filled with balloons by the time Mike's song started. Trey was batting them with his guitar like a baseball bat. It was insane...

7. 4/26/96 - Jazzfest. We all stayed at my grandmother's house on the beach in Waveland, Mississippi. That house is gone now along with most of the town around it.

8. 03/06/09 - Fluffhead. Do I really need to explain why?

9. 5/02/94 - this was the smallest show I saw. It took all day to find a ticket. I really thought I wouldn't get in. Ended up on the rail in front of Mike all night. It was the last small club show I would ever have a chance to see.

10. 12/30/94 - I have so many memories of MSG starting with the circus at age 5 or 6. It's a really special and crazy building. I was in awe that Phish sold it out (especially considering less than a year earlier I saw a show with like 600 people (see #9)). I was actually nervous for them. Then they come out and start up Wilson and the whole crowd knows the chant! I know it's not the first time the crowd chanted it, but I didn't know that at the time. I was blown away.

[rowjimmy]

In no particular order...

1994-12-29 Bowie. as it unfolded we could tell it was epic. As Birdman notes, when it ended, the response was, well, appropriate.

1999-12-31 Kind goes without saying, right? Slave followed by Albuquerque.

2000-09-17 My first Curtain With and that awesome second set...

1995-06-17 OK. Absence of reality might play into this but the show still hold up. Divided opener, Curtain > Stash, Tweezer > JBG > Tweezer > McGrupp. Pretty sure I didn't touch the ground once from the moment we arrived on the lot.

1994-10-08 First show. Crazy show. I called the Purple Rain.

1995-12-01 Rules your Face. Bowie > Catapult > Bowie, Mikes > Weekapaug, Forbin > Mockingbird w/ Land of Chocolate rap.

2009-03-06 Fluff

1995-12-15 That second set does it for me. Ice > Gin > rotation jam > Mallory > 2001 > Bowie does not suck.

1997-08-17 2nd night of The Went... Dude.

1998-11-20 First show with my future wife.