I will say it again, I am SO glad the Palace didn’t even make it to the finals, much less win the tournament. Sorry, my Mitten friends, but that show was good, not great. 
Ed, you be mistaken, big time my boy.
It is def in my top shows, and especially top shows attended.
Yep, Auburn Hills 97 melts faces. Antelope, Gin>Foam, Fee, Maze… and that is only the first set!
OK, I will concede that the first set is great. The second set, while good, has too much of that “cowfunk” jamming for me, Trey just seems to be riding that wah pedal for all it’s worth. That shit’s all great when you’re at the show (which most Michigan folks on the board seem to have been), but on a recording, it just, I dunno, kinda gets old to me pretty quick.
You love Mike Gordon’s playing but don’t care for '97 cowfunk?
Denial is an amazing thing.
Mike Gordon is my inspiration as a bassist (well, I like to think I’m a bassist), but I don’t think the cowfunk is the best example of Mike’s playing. I have a much easier time playing songs like Tweezer, YEM (jam section), Ghost, etc., than I do playing something like Split Open and Melt. In fact, I can’t even play Split Open and Melt. So, I think if you want to see how talented Mike is, cowfunk is not exactly the best place to look. Although I do think his best tone has been achieved out of that Modulus, not the Paul bass.
That being said, I do like the cowfunk sometimes. It’s just that my favorite shows are not the '97 ones with 5 funk jams. I like my funk interspersed with madness. This is all just my opinion though. I know there are at least a couple of people on this website who agree with me, too.
We need a winner by Chicago
And I don’t mean any of these…
I don’t understand this at all. 11/17 wouldn’t be my choice to be here but it surely is worthy. 04/03 is a complete mystery to me…!!
Not only is 11/17/97 not the best show of its year, it’s not even the best show from that tour.
BUT, in its defense, the single greatest moment of my Phish listening for the first-time hearing a version of a song might be that Denver “Ghost.”
^You’re right. There are at least two shows that HANDILY defeat McNix from that tour, and a few that probably do. This tournament displays strong SBD bias!!
I think it’s just a matter of accessibility more than anything. The LP shows are all there for young fans to get in person or online. You have to “work” to get other shows. Like clicking buttons on a keyboard and stuff.
Personally, I love the LP series because it’s something tangible I can see, hold, smell, and taste. I lick the packaging every once in a while. And because of that, I do tend to think some of the LP series are my favorite shows.
/noob’d.
does not compute.
i’m writing in 12/6/97.
I think that 6-18-94 11-02-96 11-27-96 2-17-97 6-25-97 11-22-97 11-23-97 and 12-6-97 easily beat both of these shows. Wow i really disagree with these choices. And all of these are just off the top of my head. haha 
I like that Seattle 96 show as much as the next guy, but I don’t think it easily beats either of these shows.
We all know MI’97 really won.