This is the "one that got away" on me. I was supposed to meet a friend at this show...but I bailed at the last second, it being the holidays and all I didn't feel up to the drive from Atlantic City. She went, though, and immediately called to tell me how I screwed up...badly. You can include in the set list "If I Only Had A Brain" sung by Fishman with a vaccuum solo. That was all my firend would talk about afterwards.

This is a crispy one set recording of what you could call the first night of the New Year’s run of ’89. You can tell there’s a DAT generation in there because of some serious digi-noise that pops up in a few songs. Paul’s mix is unbalanced at first, but levels out with each passing song. The vocals were missing in the mix at times too.

The recording cuts in while Trey is already mid-story about the Rhombus and Gamehenge leading into an average Divided Sky. Fishman is really loud in the mix so far and they are not settled in yet and not locked in rhythmically. Ya Mar was pretty well played and a good Oh Kee Pa>Bag as well after that, though Bag isn’t quite there yet. Lizards gets better each performance, but still had a few off spots tonight. Then apparently Mike broke a bass string and Trey talks on while getting that fixed. The new Lawn Boy is supposedly done by request and it’s a nice cool down before a rocking Mike’s Groove. Mike’s was good, Hydrogen was ok with a few rough spots, and Weekapaug rocked pretty good for a nice way to end this set.

Too bad we don’t have the second set to listen to. It would be interesting to know if the boys warmed up and rocked out a really exceptional second set, but I guess I’ll never know. I'll give three stars for the playing and crispy recording of tonight’s show.

The quality for this show is outstanding. The only downside is that Set 2 is completely MIA.

The set that’s available is well played but is pretty standard fair for this time period. With that said, it’s still worth a listen since it’s one of the best recordings of the year. Highlights: Sky and Groove

The quality for this show is outstanding. The only downside is that Set 2 is completely MIA.

The set that’s available is well played but is pretty standard fair for this time period. With that said, it’s still worth a listen since it’s one of the best recordings of the year. Highlights: Sky and Groove