11-09-96 The Palace, Auburn Hills, MI
1: Buried Alive, Poor Heart, The Sloth, The Divided Sky, Horn, Tube, Talk, Split Open and Melt, Lizards, Character Zero
2: David Bowie, A Day in the Life, You Enjoy Myself, Taste, Swept Away-> Steep-> Harry Hood
E: Julius
My very first Phish show:) That was back when you could smoke in the Palace, I remember after they turned the house lights on you couldnt see the other side of the arena. Got a grainy vid of it somewhere. Think I might watch it tonight.
And the Michigan crew grows. Welcome 
I like the fall '96 set lists. In particular the abundance of Swept Away->Steep. These set lists have a definite 1996 feel. The Split Open and Melt 3 days earlier is definitely worth checking out for the creative ending. I’ll have to listen to hear if this one has any left over electricity.
I’ve heard this show get some flak before, but I personally think it’s a great show. The only way I can see how one would not really like it is for the lack of “type 2” jamming for lack of a better description. Especially compared to other shows on this tour. But I don’t think that makes it a bad show by any means. The audience sounds very fired up on my copy which adds to the energy of the show and there is a lot of really nice tension and release work by the band throughout the night and especially from Trey.
I had seats in the first few rows of this show on the floor and it was awesome. I had never been very close to the stage at Phish before and it kind of blew my mind. I was really high and my Dad’s friend kept slipping me sips out of the bottle of Jager he snuck in that night so I was feeling pretty good. I remember at several distinct points (during the Melt jam, the “whoa-whoa-whoa” part of Lizards, the vocal jam, and the “you can feel good” part of Hood) looking up at Trey and Mike and they just seemed to be towering over me, very god-like 
I think Buried Alive is a fantastic opener and the combo of Buried Alive, Poor Heart, Sloth made for a very fun and exciting trio to open the show. I used to enjoy Divided Sky a lot more than I do now and I was really excited for this early in the show. Trey seemed to be on fire this night and it really showed in the Divided Sky. I really miss him playing this way. A couple of cool short tunes (including a pretty rare-for-the-time Tube) and then a really awesome Melt. they play around with a lot of different textures during most of the jam until Trey finally ramps up the guitar solo to build back into the ending. Not as good as the one from a few nights prior but still pretty darned good. Lizards is always awesome and I kind of had one of those “moments” during this one. Was pretty bummed that the set was over so soon after but hey…I knew there would be plenty of more Phish in my future.
I think this second set is awesome. I love Bowie, and I love a set two Bowie opener even more. Again trey plays around with some texture during the beginning of the jam but builds up a ton of tension over a couple of minutes and then they release into a scorching Bowie outro. I like A Day in the Life okay, but this YEM is a major dance party. It was my first live YEM and couldn’t have asked for more. They funk the shit out of this one for a few, Trey has a nice solo, then the B&D section is just gnarly. This is even one of the few vocal jams I don’t skip over on the recording. I love Taste and Trey has some really awesome soaring guitar runs in here. I’m also a big fan of Swept->Steep and I love following that with Hood. This Hood is awesome too IMO and a great way to end the set. I like Julius okay but it’s a good choice for an encore.
I had a great time at this show and I saw a lot of “firsts” this night. I went to high school in the area and there were quite a few classmates that didn’t really know anything about Phish that went. I remember talking to one the next day and he said “that was the most boring concert I’ve ever seen…all they did was stand there”. I thought (and still think) that that’s part of what makes them such great performers. There are no frills, no theatrics (for the most part), no choreography, no in-depth planning…it’s just four guys playing music. It’s very raw and organic, and I love that. While the light show is relatively large and impressive, it in no means detracts from the music and accents it rather than overshadows it.
Dude, tell Ryan Stoller to shut the fuck up
I went to this show with Ramos and I seriously can’t remember who else…
Ayesha Habib?
I think Lama Fakih?
They were boarders, that’s all I remember…we had to leave Giftorama early or something at Kingswood.
We had those seats from the parents of the chick I had to drive to school…why didn’t we go to this together???
It was fucking Geoff Brethen. Stoller actually liked Phish for a bit there…
I have no idea why we didn’t go together. Maybe because you got those free tickets? I just remember going to Harmony House to get them right when they went on saleand got hooked up. Back before the online scalper and ticket sales days. Thems were good times. I don’t think you went with Ayesha though because all those boarders from Saudi didn’t come until 10th grade and this was 9th grade. Jesus we were just friggin kids
I went with Katie Marker (for some odd reason), my Dad, and Troy.
oh yah… I’m thinking Courtney Reed and maybe Jaime Miller went with us…whoever it was, Big Bob dropped us off and we chilled in the lot and drank hot rum that we bought.
I gotta go back and listen to this, it’s been a while.
Bahaha Jamie Miller!?! Was she booty poppin’ during the show?
whoa whoa whoa… YOU GUYS WENT TO CRANBROOK TOO???
Um…yes.
::wonders who this Mr. Tanas really is anyway::
well that is my name, Tanas.
i’m a '96er. i don’t know/remember geoff, but i’m guessing charles brethen, who was in my class, was his older brother… 
whoa now!
You graduated with John Cooke? His little brother Drew is one of our good friends.
No shits??? Another Prep School Hippie on the Pa???
How long did you go to Cranbrook?
^^You are correct sir. Small world. We graduated in 2000.
i did. we weren’t close friends or anything, but we had several classes together. in freshman english he said one of the funniest things i’ve ever heard when he said “think you better ree-COG-nighs”… had to be there.
yeah, i guess it makes me a PSH… i only went there for the 4 years of upper school. i was an outsider LOL
so nuts man… i totally wouldn’t know about phish if it weren’t for a kid from CT boarding there my freshman year.
I started in 6th grade but was from Macomb Cty so it was pretty weird. We had a kid move here from Philly in 7th grade that brought the Phish with him and that’s how I heard them first. East Coast invasion FTW!
I reminisce I reminisce