Am I wrong in thinking that this show has actually become somewhat underrated over the years? My ever-diminishing memory tells me that this show used to be considered one of the greats of not just 1997, but all of Phish's live catalog; these days, thanks to the spreadsheet and the new Hampton/Winston-Salem box set, I imagine this show probably slides out of most peoples' top 5s. Maybe I'm wrong, I dunno.

At any rate, I still consider it one of the best 5 shows of the tour; it's definitely one of the few shows where both sets are great the whole way through. The second set reminds me of 12/11/99, in which none of the songs are "best evers", but all of them are very strong versions and the setlist flow is absurdly good (particularly the way the Wolfman's jam ever so patiently slides into Boogie On - you'd think they'd been doing that segue for *years*). The first set, on the other hand...if there was a segue that could top that Wolfman->Boogie On, it's the silky-smooth AC/DC -> Psycho Killer transition, one of the best show starters of a tour that specialized in nasty show starters. And the rest of the set keeps up with that remarkable start, peaking with the fierce funk workout of the Tube Jam.

@waxbanks referred to this show's "retro-dufus-turned-pornstar-goodtimes", a description that I just love. It's not the deepest show of Fall '97 (that's 11/22), or the one with the best set (that's 12/6, of course), but it's probably the most fun show of the tour - the Hampton Comes Alive, so to speak, only instead of goofball covers we have cow-funk sprayed all over our ear holes by a band at the peak of its powers. This show is one of the greats.