(Originally published on the legacy Phish.net site many years ago...)

I wish I was as put off as I was the night of the Middlebury show. First thing first. The venue was a really cool place, a bit small, but if you hung upstairs there was plenty o space to groove (but you couldnt really see the band). There were lots o great eatables which was very hospitable. But to make a longer stor y shorter, there was potential for a really killer show and after driving a bizillion mph from Boston, damn it, I deserved one. For one thing, the people at the doors were really disorganized and arriving minutes after the start, I was a bit anxious to get inside (not to mention it was colder than a rat's ass up there). I hate to generalize, and for the most part, a great number of the crowd were acting very appropriately, but there was also an awful lot of people who were acting like supreme idiots - astage diving in front of Page during Tela - come on!! During that 10 minute "Wait" song/thing, I felt (and rightfully so) that the crowd was being punished for acting like big dummies. Trey played hockey; it was like we were put in the box with a double major until we learned to cool down. Finally, I apologize to those who were being cool and responsible, but for the most part the crowd was a bunch of frea freakin drunks. Now there are drunks and then there are 'stupid' drunks, and believe you me, there were plenty o big stupit drunks that eve. If I can possibly apologize to the band, I would. Being the last show I cought on the tour, it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, so Trey, Page, Mike, Fish, if you are reading this, you're more than welcome to come to Buffalo and play in my parents' house. I'll cook you a kind spaghetti dinner!