10/31/95 @ The Rosemont Horizon w/ Jamie Boldt

Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Today’s special guest is Jamie Boldt, and boy, did he pick a winner to review today: 10/31/95 at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago, Illinois.

Regular listeners of Attendance Bias will note that The Who was THE band for me as I made the transition from classic rock and alternative radio in my early teens to exploring the world beyond the corporate record stores and Top 40 radio. To say it another way: before Phish, there was The Who. As you’ll hear Jamie and I discuss in just a little while: it was a major turning point for me when I found out about this Halloween show. 

 In the bigger picture, this was Phish’s 2nd Halloween musical costume. After the unmitigated success of The White Album Halloween show in 1994, the band chose to go a different route, playing a huge venue in the midwest, and choosing a relatively obscure album that required additional musicians. But there’s more to this show than the musical costume; the first and third set are masterpieces that stand on their own.

Jamie chose to discuss this show for a number of reasons, and one of them is that he wanted to get my take on the convergence of Phish and The Who. While I am the host of this podcast, and I get my thoughts in there, Jamie is the guest and we get to hear what it was like to witness this epic show that continues to live on the top shelf of Phish history.

So let’s join Jamie to talk about Greenwich Village, mod  culture, and Jon Fishman’s relatives as we discuss October 31, 1995 in Chicago.