Phish

Sound Check

• The Sloth  >
• Possum

Set I

• I Didn’t Know
• Golgi Apparatus
• Alumni Blues  >
• Letter To Jimmy Page  >
• Alumni Blues
• You Enjoy Myself
• The Lizards
• Take The 'A' Train
• Sanity
• The Divided Sky
• Fee
• Good Times Bad Times

Set II

• Wilson
• Fluffhead
• Suzy Greenberg
• Icculus
• Colonel Forbin's Ascent  >
• Fly Famous Mockingbird
• The Sloth  >
• Possum
• Contact
• Big Black Furry Creature From Mars
• Foam
• David Bowie

Encore

• AC/DC Bag
• Fire

While they’d played the Boston Harbor in 1986 and a couple Alston shows in 1988, this was considered Phish’s 1st major Boston show. After running into problems booking a relatively unknown band into The Paradise (capacity 650), John Paluska and co-manager at the time Ben Hunter, rented the room for this show. Tickets cost $5 and Trey designed the “Move Your Mind & Body with PHISH” flyer using stick-on letters added at Kinko’s. John and Ben promoted the show vigorously, but ultimately friends from Burlington Tom Baggott and “Brother Craig” saved the day.

Tom and Craig rented a Greyhound bus to bring Vermont fans from Burlington to Boston for the show. The gig completely sold out, reportedly leaving hundreds of confused fans shut out. Fish played a trombone solo during I Didn’t Know. Take The ‘A’ Train included teases of The Flintstones Theme and Sanity was the (1st known performance of the) fast version. Before You Enjoy Myself, Trey welcomed his mom, who had traveled “all the way from Ireland” to the show. After You Enjoy Myself, Trey announced, to satisfy someone yelling for Minkin, that indeed there was a Minkin (canvas backdrop painted by Mike’s mom Marge) hanging behind the band and that Minkin was in attendance. This led to a brief tease of Minkin vocals before The Lizards. Del Martin recorded this show as part of his work for Phish, although the tapes in the archives were from John Paluska and Joe Tonetti. Del’s notes called this “The Big Gig.