11-11-98 , Grand Rapids, MI
Soundcheck: Fish Drum Jam, (some Velvet Underground song), Brian and Robert, (more - ?)
1: Punch You in the Eye, Gumbo*, If You Need a Fool, Sleep*#, Tela, Birds of a Feather, Theme from the Bottom, Julius (1:08)
2: Halley’s Comet, Simple* -> Walk Away, Limb by Limb, When the Circus Comes, Ghost (1:13)
E: Contact, Rocky Top, Funky Bitch (0:15)
*Very slow. #Electric; two minutes long.
i know this will get heat, but this is the sickest Gumbo ever. the deeper the jam got Kuroda went to all blacklights with just some white geometric figure spinning on the screen above the stage. we had mainfloors and were superclose… people were passing out all around me. this Gumbo jam defines 98 phish for me!
i don’t know how it reads on tape, but the choice of If You Need A Fool was PERFECT if you were there, because all these people cashed out on the floor from the Gumbo jam?.. BAM. back to life with that one. pure phish magic.
i’d be remiss if i didn’t mention the PYITE opener… waiting for the show to start i was talking to a couple dudes wearing yarmulkes who drove in from toronto… they raged the opener and so did phish. extended opening groove significantly, and super high energy thru.
sleep was brand new to me and pretty much blew my mind lyrically, tho i was confused by the idea of trey playing a song basically solo.
the energy you could feel slowly spread thru the arena as people figured out Tela was starting is indescribable… you can even hear it on the tape…
this is an all time Birds in my opinion. sure, no type II or anything, but a long and raging and completely dialed in jam.
julius was a great tone setter for the end of set I with a rollicking jam.
just before set II one of my friends passed out and we had to carry him to the concourse. this is so shitty but so Phish… as the medics are checking him out and asking him questions the set starts. when halley’s drops in full band, i remember popping up from crouching on the floor and saying out loud “oh shit they’re playing Halley’s Comet!” 
total douche move, but i just couldn’t help it!
anyway i made my was slowly back to the front during the halley’s jam… it was SO INSANE. i can remember the whole place just RAGING OUT to just the sickest, balls out jam… so long too! it was so surreal and awesome. i wish i could do it justice…
the jam into Walk Away was airtight. really picked the crowd up after the high of Halley’s.
i’m gonna have to relisten to that Ghost.
Contact was a nice memory from a much more meaningful encore placement in 96 at the same venue. still can’t argue with a triple encore 
This first set was fucking awesome. I was driving my Dad’s company car like a bat out of hell from Detroit so we weren’t late to the show and he was freaking out the whole fucking time (my Dad is the guy that drives 2 mph over the speed limit and thinks he’s pushing it) all while Brett was laughing in the back seat. I don’t know how we managed to score a bag as we ran into the show, but it was really good shit and had just enough time to get totally spaced out before the show started. This is, dare I say, the most ‘epic’ PYITE I’ve ever seen or heard. I have no idea how or why the intro sounded so tight but by the time they got to the “HEY!'s” I thought the building was going to explode. If I hadn’t been at the Gumbo from Deer Creek this year I would totally agree with you Tanas about this one being the sickest. I’d say second, but this shit is so good. Everything in the rest of the set just exploded with energy and screaming guitar licks.
The second set was awesome too…not wait, we had to fucking leave at setbreak. I was so fucking chaffed I still won’t even talk about it 
Two other friends I had there said I didn’t miss much, but I think the second set is pretty good, though you have to be in the mood for a lot of ‘emptiness’. Not much tension and release, in fact it’s quite a juxtaposition to the first set.
holy shit dude, thats so mental you were there too and that you had that bummer set 2
like i said i knew my take on the Gumbo wouldn’t be consensus… just somehow this type of phish jam really goes melt for me 
Stupid boarder chicks and their curfew 
Represent!