12/28/96 @ The Spectrum w/ Scott Mitchell

Hi everybody and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Before we get started with today’s episode, I just want to remind everyone that if you enjoy the podcast, you can show your support by leaving a rating and review of it wherever you get your podcasts. You can also visit www.buymeacoffee.com/attendancebias and donate anything you can to keep the podcast going. Now, onto today’s episode:

When it comes to the holiday run, each show from December 28th to the 31st has sort of developed its own personality; the 28th is the warm-up show, the 29th is the rock and roll show with the most energy, the 30th is the legendary night before the night where the band plays most of its memorable jams, and of course New Year’s Eve, where the biggest shenanigans go down. Today’s guest, Scott Mitchell, the proprietor and operator of PhanDesignz, takes that paradigm and turns it on its head. For Scott, 12/28 is the show not to be missed, and he remembers the one that set that precedent: December 28, 1996 at the Philadelphia Spectrum. 

The 1996 holiday run was split between Philadelphia and Boston–probably the last hurrah of the northeast runs before Phish would, for the most part, settle in at Madison Square Garden to end the year. Most people are probably more familiar with the following night, when Tom Marshall came onstage in the middle of Harpua to sing a respectable cover of “Champagne Supernova,” so I was curious as to what this show meant to Scott when he suggested it for the podcast.

Unsurprisingly, 12/28/96 was the perfect combination of music and life circumstances for Scott to create an unforgettable experience at Phish. The show was, unusually, driven by Page, and included a couple of rarities and weird song pairings in the setlist. More importantly, Scott was getting ready to finish college and was home for the holidays, meeting up with friends who had gotten into the band while in their respective universities, which tends to happen. For today’s episode, though, Scott wanted to focus mostly on the second set of this show, as that’s where the big fireworks happen.

There’s more to it than that, including Scott’s role as the designer and showrunner of PhanDesignz, an online fan art store, and big time Phish nerdery as we go deep during today’s conversation. I’ll let Scott tell the story as we go back to The Spectrum on December 28, 1996.