12/29/94 @ Providence Civic Center w/Rob Murray

Attendance Bias

Hi everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Today’s guest is my friend Robert Murray. When Rob first reached out to me, he had a novel idea: he knew that I already spoke about the epic performance of David Bowie from December 29, 1994 in Providence with Tom Marshall. But Rob thought that the Providence show deserved its own full episode, even without the David Bowie! I had never revisited the same show twice before, but I thought that Rob’s idea was creative enough to work–everyone knows the “Providence Bowie,” but what else happened that night? That’s what today’s show is for.

And once we started putting together notes for this episode, I knew I met my match; normally, guests are a little taken aback by how much I write to prepare for an episode. But Rob outdid me! When I sent him my half of the notes, the document was about 14 pages. When he was done, it was 28 pages. Our conversation was just as cheery as the notes. If you’re a severely jaded vet and can’t stand when fans gush over just about everything Phish does, you may want to fast forward through this episode. Rob and I have a lot of good things to say about this show. The word “perfect” gets thrown around quite a bit, but when you’re talking about the 1994 Phish holiday run, it’s justified.

And one last note about that: this episode has a pretty long running time. That is largely due to the number of music clips included in the conversation. Once I started listening back, I couldn't help myself. This show is just so good that it became more difficult to decide which songs NOT to include. But enough from me–listen for yourself as Rob Murray and I discuss Phish’s performance on December 29, 1994 at the Providence Civic Center.
Audio used in today's episode
12/29/94 "David Bowie," with Tom Marshall