[Prologue]
In early 2000, Phish seemed to be at the apex of their
career. We don’t need to say anything further other than Big Cypress and
we can move on. This achievement seemed to leave the band with a sense they had
nothing else to prove. Intentionally or not, their ascent during the course of
the 1990s seemed to peak here, as 12/31/99 changed into 1/1/00. Though the band
would release a new studio album and embark on a few successful-as-ever tours
during the new year, something put it in Phish’s heads that it was time to take
a break. No, a hiatus—don’t worry, they weren’t breaking up!
Or maybe they were?
Maybe they should have been. Seeing the zombie-like way the
band looks in the Live In Vegas DVD (filmed 9/30/00) it makes a lot of
sense when you learn the band said for the last week or so of the Fall 2000
tour leading to the hiatus they weren’t sleeping much and (likely, but
speculation) doing a lot of drugs to help them through. Not every show on this
Fall tour is as bad as you might expect from that, though overall this tour is
generally mixed. Even given that standard, picking night one of their Vegas shows
from this tour was an odd choice; outside of playing some rarities and the
narration explaining the hiatus during Colonel Forbin’s Ascent > Fly Famous
Mockingbird, there isn’t much compelling unless you really like mid-tier
versions of ‘Timber’ and ‘Twist.’ I guess I’d rather have it than the other
Vegas show, which has the loathsome Kid Rock taking up a chunk of the second
set and encore. But really any other show on the Fall ’00 looks more
appetizing on paper, including the show preceding the one we’re about to get
to—10/6/00 saw Bob Weir sitting in on the encore, which is inarguably a better
idea than Kid Rock. Anyway!
Looking at the setlist for 10/7/00, it’s striking how
there’s no show notes whatsoever beyond “this was Phish’s last show until
12/31/02.” For what could possibly have been their last show, it’s almost
admirable they just went out there and played the best show they could as if it
was any other night on any other tour. Nothing on the setlist has an air of
special-ness to it, and there’s no mention of the hiatus (though there was some
non-verbal acknowledgement: the pre-show music concluded with the Rolling Stones
song ‘The Last Time’ and the post-show music started with ‘Let It Be’ by the
Beatles). While the setlist does have a bit of a “greatest hits” feel to it, at
the same time it isn’t so out-of-place for the shows they had been playing for
the past couple years. Hell, nothing screams ‘99/’00 era Phish so much as
having ‘First Tube’ as show opener and ‘Meatstick’ deep in set two!
But still! Look at the big picture. Were one to attempt a
list of most iconic Phish songs, you’d absolutely have to include things like
Mike’s Groove, ‘You Enjoy Myself’, ‘Tweezer’, ‘Bathtub Gin’, ‘David Bowie’, and
‘2001.’ Naturally no Phish show could include every fan favorite/staple
song, unless you want a show with two sets that have no jams at all. But I
digress. There had to be some palpable sense within the band that, like
the Stones song says, “this could be our last time.” Why else would they save
‘You Enjoy Myself’ for the encore here? It’s such an obvious choice that, like
when they returned in ’09 with ‘Fluffhead’, it feels downright mandatory.
[Digression/Prologue Continued]
I find myself thinking of Freaks & Geeks and Firefly
when I think of 10/7/00. And I find myself thinking of ‘what if?’
timelines. In some alternate timeline Phish did permanently end in 2000, just
as in our timeline both of those beloved shows ended after one season. Now,
obviously Phish weren’t only around for one season, errr year, so there’s no
question of their musical legacy even if they had ended in 2000. Yet like those
TV shows I think fans would have continued to beg for a reunion. In some sense Firefly
fans got a taste of this with the Serenity movie but it can’t help but
feel like a tease with the way it abruptly had to provide both a further story
for the characters and bring the story threads introduced in the sole
season to a conclusion. Also, Joss Whedon will always be a fucker for killing
off Wash, but that’s neither here nor there.
Freaks & Geeks and Firefly will always
have the feeling of unfinished journeys, and similarly I suppose Phish would
have if they ended in 2000. 2.0 may be the most controversial era in Phish’s
history but in terms of the finances, they were as successful as ever—the
hunger for more Phish was still there. In terms of the music, some would argue
the legacy was a bit tarnished by the way the band came to an end, so keep that
in mind next time you wonder what season two of either of those shows would’ve
been—who knows, they may have been terrible or a mixed bag that made you wish
the shows had ended after one near-perfect season. So, anyhow, I find
myself thinking about those TV shows when I listen to this show, because while
the episodes of those shows we did get were anywhere from good to great, you
had to believe they had so many more, and possibly better, episodes in them. Had
Phish ended in 2000, you wouldn’t see anyone doubting their legacy, true—but
you also know they had, and would continue to have, better shows in them.
And in that regard, 10/7/00 feels like the last episodes of
both those TV shows: enjoyable but far from the best, leaving you wanting more.
[Set One]
First Tube- Certain songs just sound right to me from
certain eras, and ‘First Tube’ will always be associated with the loop heavy
‘99/’00 era of the band. Much like spiritual predecessor ‘Buried Alive’, it’s a
great set opener every time out—unlike that song, it’s also great as a set
closer or encore song. Trey in particular seems to love playing this song these
days, and it’s kind of fun that one of the songs I really liked from the Austin
City Limits performance opens their last show before hiatus. Not much else
to say here—this song always kills it.
Mike’s Song- Breaking out the heavy artillery early. One of
those “yeah I guess so” > style segues in from First Tube. Immediate Trey
loops during the early Mike-led jam. I’ve definitely heard some great Mike’s
but for some reason I always associate this song with having good type I jams
but never close to being the jam of the night let alone the tour/year. I’d for
sure be more hyped in person than I am when it comes up in shows listening at
home. Around 7:45 it goes into a rocking Trey-led jam with Page going bonkers
on organ to back him up. Nothing else to note. Again, like normal with Mike’s
for me—it’s not a bad jam but it doesn’t really go anywhere. We head into space
after another run-through of the main riff and almost immediately go into I Am
Hydrogen.
I Am Hydrogen- I do like the standard Mike’s Groove, always
kind of felt like an inverted Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s
Tower with the middle song being chill and gentle instead of chaotic and
intense like Slipknot!. Very standard version of this song.
Weekapaug Groove- How can you really go wrong with this
song? Page gets active around the 3:00 mark on piano leading into a quieted
down, more rhythmic jam section. Mike starts throwing around some bass bombs as
Trey sounds a bit like he’s whipping the band along. I don’t know what it is
with Weekapaug’s from the late 90s era but they always seem to go back into the
main riff part of the song just as they’re threatening to go out there into
type II territory. Even by the standards of other sub ten minute Weekapaug’s
this one is satisfying but forgettable, lacking any meat on its bones.
Lots of crowd chatter between songs here on the official
release. Fishman hits a couple things as the band seem to chat for a minute or
two.
Fee- Hey, it’s Fee! Always a fun song. I think I prefer the
ones where Trey uses the megaphone but it’s not a deal breaker. This song will
always make me think of my very first girlfriend, who wasn’t a huge fan but had
dated a guy who was and had a left-behind copy of Junta as a result. I
think this and ‘Contact’ were the only songs she liked outside of the funky
ones. But I digress. The end of this one is jammed out a bit, kind of reminds
me of the Flatbed Jam from the Clifford Ball or the amazing, underrated ‘Round
Room’ from 2/16/03. Like a lot of jams over the course of the show, I wish it
had gone on longer and continued to go deeper out there though it is definitely
up there for jam of the night as it stands.
Bathtub Gin- Another classic banger. Page always wakes me up
with his entrance when I’m listening on headphones stoned and starting to drift
off to sleep. Standard until the jam segment—Mike seems to be leading
melodically, and man I always forget how perfected his bass tone was at this
time. It’s so buoyant and loud/centered in the mix, I love it. (I got some new
headphones to help me properly appreciate the music for this series and this
jam is making me so glad I upgraded beyond cheap earbuds) Page and Mike start
listening to each other as Trey mainly stays in the background playing simple
accompaniment. Around 6:20 Page hits upon a cool melody that drives the jam
forward with Fishman getting harder on his cymbals. Trey soon starts to work
his way toward playing some responses/leads, getting us into a classic
spiraling, arpeggio-ish line from him. Man, has there ever been a bad Gin? The
band continues to coalesce around a typical but enjoyable bright/melodic jam
led by Trey. Around 10:20 Trey plays a few bits that combined with the overall
feel of the jam almost sound like he’s searching for a way back into Weekapaug.
Things start to quiet down and the band just kind of peter off and I’m left
with that “satisfied but not necessarily impressed” feeling of a jam that never
fully achieves liftoff. Like Weekapaug somewhat of a safe, short version.
Glide- It’s Glide! A song that is perfectly mid-tier; I
neither love nor hate it. Always felt like a half-measure between the heavily
composed/musically complex songs and simpler/wackier songs like ‘Contact’ or
‘Wilson.’ A little bit of fumbly-bumbly playing from Trey in the intro, a sad
portent of things to come in a couple years.
My Soul- This for me is one of those songs that gets you
hyped as fuck when you are there in person yet I have to confess I find it
boring and rote when heard multiple times on the same tour when listening
through at home. It’s not the song’s fault it’s basically the same thing every
time out; I simply can’t get too jazzed about it on tape.
Set One as a whole was good. A solid first set by the
standards of its era, some jams and stacked with classics but nothing that I’ll
remember a week from now other than the short jam at the end of ‘Fee.’ At just
over an hour I’ll say it felt longer than it actually was.
[Setbreak]
For this section I’m going to very briefly write about
something else I’ve been enjoying outside of Phish, and not necessarily just
music outside of Phish. However this time I am going to go with music! After
Thanksgiving weekend at my in-laws I was driving home Saturday night and felt
like listening to some dark, atmospheric music and after a revisit of
Interpol’s Turn On The Bright Lights I was struck with a taste for Disintegration.
True it’s perhaps better as a headphones album but I’ll be damned if it didn’t
hold up in the car, too. A perfect combination of emotive, gothic post-punk and
dreamy psychedelic effects. Trey Parker and Matt Stone said it best: Disintegration
is the best album ever! (Not really but it’s fantastic)
[Set Two]
Twist- After hearing the recent archival release of
11/14/97, it’s hard not to compare this version to that unsung gem. In general
I’m most familiar with 2.0 and later versions of this song, so hearing these
more languid jammy/bluesy intros to the song is still fresh to me. (Sidenote:
bring back the long ‘Piper’ intros!) Anyway, the jam never really goes anywhere
beyond a typical type I, kind of like the equally “meh” version from 9/30/00.
As the song ends we go into some 2000-era Phish spaciness, with cool reverb
effects on Mike’s bass. Just as I’m starting to think we might be going into a
6/4/00 lengthy ambient ‘Twist’ jam with plenty of meat on it they > into
2001.
2001- As with the ‘Bathtub Gin’ from the first set, this
version is satisfying but unimpressive. It doesn’t do anything more or less
than the standard late 90s style 2001’s. I’m not really feeling the set
placement either—usually this song is better as an opener or a closer.
Otherwise it can kind of act like a mood on-ramp or off-ramp, allowing the flow
of a set to pick up steam and get more fiery or to gearshift down into
something more slow, funky, and potentially spacey/jammy. Again, this one isn’t
bad, it’s simply nothing interesting: like usual for this time, Trey uses lots
of little keyboard and guitar loops throughout that are easier to pick out on
headphones, and Mike sort of leads the jam section around the 7:30 to 8:00
mark. There’s some nice band interplay for a minute or two but again…nothing
special. Loopy, somewhat clunky > into ‘Tweezer.’
Tweezer- There seems to be this perception among certain
fans that, after a stellar run from 1994 to 1998, ‘Tweezer’ could be a bit more
spotty as a top jam vehicle in 1999-2000. I can’t speak with total authority on
this so I’ll instead speculate that I wonder if it’s more that people don’t
always like the jam style of this era. With my limited authority I will
say the two Tweezer’s I’m familiar with from this era—this show’s and
7/10/99—lead me to agree with this assessment, however. When things really get
cooking you got incredible type II jams on other songs like the 9/14/99 ‘AC/DC
Bag’ or the 9/14/00 ‘Drowned.’ Other times you got the “we did a lot of jams
like this during this time” jams that straddle the line between type I and II
like this ‘Tweezer’ that occasionally have great moments but are mostly
non-starters. For myself, though, I enjoy the sound of even some of the more
aimless jams from ‘99/’00 so I generally like this ‘Tweezer.’ The jam starts
with a very typical type I jam on the ‘Tweezer’ melody and feel, a funk-rock
solo fest from Trey with booming bass slaps from Mike. Page steps up around
8:30 and spurs Trey onward with his accompaniment. At 9:40 Trey plays a
repetitive train-chug like part that quiets the band down, Fishman adding some
great drum fills as Page continues to play something, anything, on his piano a
bit aimlessly. Loops from Trey around 11:10 signal we might actually be taking
this jam out for a proper adventure. Mike and Page soon join in on the abstract
improvisation, with gooey synth-bass and strange, eerie synthesizer/keyboard
sounds. Page or Trey starts playing something that sounds like a plane coming
in for a crash landing and we’ve entered true type II territory. Something
about this last part of the jam, between Trey’s grinding, slightly dissonant
guitar chording and Fishman’s “trying to play a sensible rhythm to something
abstract” drumming makes me think of ’94 Tweezer’s as well as being a bit of a
prototype for 2.0 jams. It’s just too bad that right as things get into a
darker, textural direction the band just sort of…slows to a stop. A bummer of
an ending to what could’ve been a noteworthy jam if they had pushed.
Wading In The Velvet Sea- You have to love a Page ballad. A
nicely done version, and though I feel like some people would say it’s a bit of
a bummer comedown after the underwhelming ‘Tweezer’ but oddly I think it helps
reset my emotions and prepare me for the left-turn of ‘Meatstick’ next.
Meatstick- Controversial opinion time: I’ve never liked this
song. I think you had to be a certain kind of fan who was on tour during its
peak era to really love it. I will say it’s the exemplar of a song I’d love to
see live as a rare treat to awkwardly dance along with the crowd, but on tape
it’s usually a skip for me unless I’m really in the mood or it’s supposed to be
an especially good version (there’s probably a jammed out version, right?). I’ll
be generous and say they do a full -> segue into the spacey opening of
‘David Bowie’; I certainly wasn’t expecting it the first time I listened to
this show.
David Bowie- Another classic Phish song addition to the
setlist. With this song it’s all about the execution of the composed section,
and since I’ve heard too much 2.0 in my time, I was actually prepared for the
couple of flubs from Trey here or there. Somehow I always enjoy this song even
though with rare exceptions it’s the same god damn jam every time. They
gradually build and build and get intense and do the usual tension/release
Antelope-style jam and then jump headlong into the ending segment. A good but
inessential version.
Tweezer Reprise- It’s Tweeprise. Pronounce it however you
want and enjoy. I’m personally of the opinion that they should only play this
song when either the Tweezer jam or the show as a whole warrants celebrating
like this, and in this case I think it’s a bit obligatory. I’m glad it wasn’t
the encore, sort of an oddly fast ending to the set.
You Enjoy Myself- Of course they had to encore with this. I
don’t think it’s just the context of it being the last song they’d play
together for awhile but this version feels a little off at the beginning, like
someone is quieter than they should be or maybe Trey isn’t playing some of the
notes, perhaps the momentousness of the song hitting. The ambient/pause section
weighs heavy in the air and lasts, or seems to last, longer than usual. For a
moment or two around the 4:00 mark I almost wondered if they were going to go
into a slow build ‘99/’00 Piper. Anyway, the rest of the composed section proceeds
as normal. As we get to the post-lyrics section Mike begins to really lay it on
with bass bombs, and as a whole the jam gets off to a very funky start, to the
point you could almost mistake this for a ’97 version. Thick, gooey Mike bass
for the trampolines. Page is comping along rhythmically on organs and then
piano as Trey begins a quiet, mellow solo climb around 12:00. This YEM takes on
a bit of a dance party vibe from here, Fishman adding some cowbell hits every
few beats to spur the band on towards a stronger groove. Trey starts to add
some choppy playing as Mike continues to lead the jam, Page sort of
directionless in the background. While Trey seems determined to lower the
energy and peter out, Mike fights for the life of the jam. Around 15:42 we out
of the blue end up with a weird reggae, slow motion funk jam for a few measures
until the jam heats up again. So far this YEM has been enjoyable if a little
unfocused. Mike takes a solo around 16:35 and absolutely crushes it; he’s
largely to thank for this version being anything other than average. Fishman
solo at 17:25; we really are going for an “end of tour” feel, all we need are
band and crew introductions. But, eh, nope, vocal jam. I think I’m more
generally positive on vocal jams than even most other fans are, they’re
definitely better than vacuum solos at any rate, right? This YEM vocal jam is
sadly a disappointment, though; mostly a lot of vocal drones that don’t feel neither
joyful nor melancholic enough to match the feel of the moment.
Set two and the encore I unfortunately have to say were a
bit underwhelming given my expectations of the setlist, especially as it
developed when I did my initial listen without looking at the setlist. Going by
the timings it looks like the set has some meat on it but it kept
feeling like the jams either didn’t fully takeoff or they were standard and
enjoyable but nothing all that special. The ‘Tweezer’ and ‘YEM’ are the clear
highlights and even they weren’t consistently great. The segue between ‘Meatstick’
and ‘David Bowie’ was well done, too.
[Final Verdict]
I really struggled with rating this show. Off the bat we can
eliminate the top and bottom scores since it’s neither of those. After my first
listen I was almost leaning towards giving it a 2 since I never felt anything
was wholly mind blowing or noteworthy, but I think upon a couple more listens
it’s improved to a solid 3. Set one was well played and paced though other than
the interesting short post-‘Fee’ jam nothing rises above average. Set two is the
sort of set that on paper looks like it may have some jammy goodness, and I’m
sure was enjoyable in person, but ultimately never quite gels into either a
coherent set of segues or a couple deep excellent jams. The ‘You Enjoy Myself’
encore, though obvious, is mostly average but Mike’s playing makes it worth
hearing.
So, overall, this show is a decent one. It’s a historical
show with a setlist that looks better than it actually is, yet that’s not the
full story, either. I simply can’t bring myself to give it anything above a 3
since I think I finally found the answer to one of my questions about this show
going into it; namely, why don’t you really hear anything about this show?
Well, the answer turned out to be, it’s an enjoyable tour closer with a
great-looking setlist but nothing unique or above average. When the best jam of
the night turned out to be a short one post-‘Fee’, you know you aren’t dealing
with a 4. As an era closing show it’s surprisingly subdued and forgettable.
[Highlights]
Set One: Post-‘Fee’ jam, average but enjoyable ‘Bathtub Gin’
Set Two/Encore: Solid ‘99/’00-style ‘Tweezer’, Mike-dominated ‘You Enjoy Myself’
