In honor of the 20th anniversary of one of the greatest Phish runs in the band’s history; The Island Tour, I decided my first Phish show of the day would have to be my favorite from those magical four nights. In the spring of 1998, Phish embarked on what would be known as the “island tour”. A short four-night run of two shows in Uniondale, NY and two shows in Providence, RI that would contain some of the most intricate funk jamming we have ever heard them produce. Coming off of what would be their best tour and unanimously best overall year in 1997, the island tour was set up because the guys just couldn’t wait until summer tour and wanted to get some playing in instead of sitting around and waiting. These four nights would live on in Phishtory as some of their best playing, with April 3 ranking in at their tenth best show on Phish.net, as voted on by their fans.
The show starts out with a “The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony”>”You Enjoy Myself”, a song that doesn’t see the beginning of a show too often. This YEM is classic Phish as they set the tone for the night off right by carrying the energy from the past three shows into this one. Set 1 is layered with funky jams, which had been their theme for the past year, as we hear a heavy influence from The Talking Heads within their jamming. We get this influence head on with a cover of “Cities” that always gets the crowd bouncing. Split Open and Melt closes off Set 1 with a solid performance as always, as it contains all the elements that make Phish great, some composed playing, an acapella section, and a jam which can go any direction.
Set 2 starts out hot with an absolutely stellar Down with Disease; a song that they could do no wrong on in the late 90s. After that, we get a Ya Mar, which is a cover song that they love to take to outer space. Trey has a moment during the transition into Prince Caspian where he is stealing the show with his quick, quirky guitar riffs that the rest of the band lets him take the lead on. The playing here may scare away an irregular listener, but is beloved by Phish’s devote followers. You can just hear him get in the zone and take us from song to song with his creativity. The Maze>Shafty>Possum are three perfectly placed songs that transition into each other well in this set which leads us to my favorite moment of the whole run, the slow and ever so funky Cavern. I would recommend this Cavern to anyone who wants to hear not only Phish funk, but just some good funk in general. “I started this funk groove because we can’t end this whole thing without a little bit more funk, since that’s kinda been the theme”, Trey says as they groove for the next eleven minutes on a song that has never been played this way before. A perfect way to end a perfect run.
This is not only one of the best shows of 1998, this is one of my favorite Phish shows of all time and is one I listen to on a weekly basis. I would recommend this to anyone just starting out on Phish, not only for great jams, but for a piece of their history as well.
Rating: 10/10
Setlist: (phish.net)
Set 1: The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > You Enjoy Myself, Theme From the Bottom > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > Bathtub Gin -> Cities > Sparkle > Split Open and Melt
Set 2: Down with Disease[1], Ya Mar -> Prince Caspian > Maze[1] -> Shafty[2] -> Possum[1] -> Jam-> Cavern[3]
Encore: Bold As Love
Colors In The Void 
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