The Island Tour, 20 years later - April 3, 1998

If it happened now, I would probably prefer to stay overnight in the Uniondale, N.Y., area, for a two-night stand of Phish at Nassau Coliseum, but two decades ago, we crazy kids decided to drive the 60 miles from New Jersey, drive back after the show, and then do it again the next day.  I was still attending university at the time, so maybe I had to get back for a Friday class; but I honestly can not remember.

My ticket stub from the second night of the Island Tour. Section 103 - good seats!

Things got off to a much better start on the second night, with outrageous jams in "Mike's Song" and "Weekapaug Groove", and a strange placement of "Old Home Place" sandwiched in between. Listen closely to the "Weekapaug" jam and you can briefly spot the now-familiar chords to "Mozambique", which would make its debut with Trey's one-off band called 8-Foot Flourescent Tubes a couple of weeks later, though the (assumed?) title at the time was "Free Thoughts".

Slowing things down afterward was the only thing that made sense and "Train Song" did the job nicely; but "Billy Breathes" was mangled so badly that it is a minor miracle that Trey managed to make his solo soar, literally at the last minute. The other highlight of the set was a well-executed (though not earth-shattering) "Reba".

While the '80s songs dominated in the first set, the entire second set makes a good case for why the four-show Island Tour made it into the Phishtory books and was given the full official-release treatment.

After two go-rounds with Ween's "Roses Are Free" in December of 1997 - that rocked harder than, but did not stray far from the original - the third time was the charm as it was given the full Phish treatment for a whopping 28 minutes; and it was not only lengthy, it was fascinating, with excellent interplay between the band members. Keeping pace with the magic that was made in the celebrated fall of 1997, the consistent grooves were fun for the dancing legs, but there were enough change-ups to keep it interesting for the ol' ear holes. It seemed to herald the beginning of "Roses" as a new jam vehicle but, sadly, the song reverted right back to a five-minute rocker after this, with the exception of the epic 35-minute version at dawn, near the end of the all-night 12/31/99 show. That show still remains in the vaults, though, so this Island Tour performance the only officially released version with an extended jam.

Also particularly notable was the relatively new "Piper" that followed "Roses". More of an excuse to jam than a song, it was obvious that the repetition and acceleration would build up to a climactic frenzy. The surprise came on the back end. The outro that has now been long abandoned, but was usually less than a minute even at the time, turned into its own extended jam that lasted even longer than the front end. And as the music finally wound down into a lovely piano solo, Page segued into a "Loving Cup" that ended with a fan jumping up onstage only to get taken down by Pete Carini (crew member, and he of the famed "lumpy head").

Because Phish shows are always of-the-moment affairs, the band used that to power a musical theme, singing, "Carini's gonna get you..." throughout the intro section of a "Run Like an Antelope" that soared into its climax, ending one of Phishtory's historic four-song sets.

But the fun did not stop there. For an encore, the band played "Carini" (natch) and called its titular subject onstage; and then proceeded to play "Halley's Comet" (surprising for an encore choice) which led into "Tweezer Reprise".

As it is, "Tweeprise" is a surefire rocking way to end a show, but playing it in a rare three-song encore and without actually having played "Tweezer"? Well, that is an acknowledgement some awesome stuff just happened.  We left feeling thoroughly satisfied.