The aquarium stage set up made 93 feel like the official start to Holiday Tour. We saw 12/31/92 but not that whole run. 93 was the start for me seeing every holiday run in their entirety up until/including Miami 2003.

This run was full of great music and heavy snow storms. It says Bender “Arena” but it was more like a GYM. Outside there huge line of hot chicks scantily dressed in a snowstorm. The energy of the room was glowing. It was still the era of “Phish is my dirty little secret” for those that were there.

The first set was pretty sweet. Peaches was the obvious theme of the whole tour due to Zappa’s recent passing and his impact on Trey/Phish. Peaches was a great way to start the tour. Melt was hairy. A bunch of twists and turns. Trey’s guitar sounded vicious. Esther is always a treat with a dark, floating trey solo at the end. But the song of the set was Possum. Totally broken down to start the jam, Phish build it up slowly in an erotic way. The buildup runs into Kashmir which is the closest thing we had to Zep especially at the time when Fish was an animal. Trey hit the high notes over and over, the white lights were blazing, Trey drooled on his guitar, I drooled on the paint for the opposing team’s hoop. Set break.

2nd set standouts are YEM, Fast Enough, and Hood. With YEM being the natural jam of the night. Trey’s leads were perfect. The band backed him up. Tension-Release all over the place. Couple of Gamehenge Tunes with Lizards-) Sloth. Fast enough helped me come down a little with a welcomed slower pace. Passionate and skillful solo at the end. Hood was really good too. The intro was tight. With Simpson language. Trey’s finishing notes were clean and emotional.
It was a solid tour opener. We went to the car pumped to drive to New Haven.

I won’t review the Cumberland/Worchester shows since everyone knows they were 2 of the greatest of all time. Phish built up to those with Bender/New Haven. It felt Holiday tour 93 was one long 4 day show. They are legendary for a very good reason. Pure Shred. We followed the band’s tour buses up the turnpike through the snow storm chasing live music history.