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Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Today’s guest, Matt Hoffman, takes us back to an instant classic: December 2, 1997 at The Philadelphia Spectrum, the first night of a 2-night run that has since been released officially by Live Phish. The fall 1997 tour has been reviewed on this show before on Attendance Bias…and basically any other conversation about Phish, but today’s discussion focuses more on the micro–this specific show, and Matt’s experience seeing the band for the first time at a career peak.

By this point of the tour, Phish was a well-oiled machine, and Philadelphia was as close to a hometown stop for Trey as the band would get at the time. Donning a Flyers jersey for the show, Trey and the band would offer up a setlist full of fan favorites, including a 7-song 2nd set, 5 of which appear on the Phish.net jamcharts.

Meanwhile, there is a particular Philadelphia flavor to this conversation, as Matt grew up and still lives in the Philly area, so keep listening as we join Matt to talk about the Mann Music Center, cover bands, taking naps, and more as we discuss Phish’s show from December 2, 1997 at The Spectrum.