Phish 2/21/03

 

As we enter the middle of the Winter Tour ’03, we’re arriving into truly unknown territory for me. I’ve never heard any of the shows from this one through 2/25, and that’s exciting! Coming off the last show the band and audience must’ve been pretty exhausted, and the 6ish hour drive to get to Cincinnati from Rosemont may not have helped. Whether these factors will come into play during this show, we’ll see!

 

Set One

Well, you can certainly tell that the band is carrying on the high energy “we’re coming for ya!” energy of the last show with the opening salvo of this one! We get a somewhat predictable placement of Wilson as show opener, but I don’t say that as a bad thing. Mike seems to really be on a mission to get his bass in the foreground this show, turning up his volume and using a bit of overdrive/distortion to give him a stronger tone especially during the first part of set one. After a quick > we immediately head into Frankenstein. For whatever reason my Phish listening habits the past year or so has seen me avoid Phish’s cover of this song, so when this started I was like “oh yeah, that’s right, they do play this, huh?” During Wilson and this song, the band is going absolutely nuts with loops and noise during the break portions of the songs.

There’s about a minute or so pause until Mike starts playing the Down With Disease intro, though it’s not the usual kind he does, more like he’s scraping his pick up and down the fretboard before turning on the usual windy effect. At 1:10 when Trey sings the first set of lyrics, I swear he half-burps during it. This DwD jam starts off in the usual upbeat type I mold, with Trey soloing a bit and then stepping back to let the others play, and then soloing again some more himself. Around 7:00 we start to crest the hill. Trey drops out entirely to play with some loops that never seem to arrive as Mike and Fishman keep the groove going. Page on keyboards now; Trey patiently rhythmically comping in the background. Around 8:30 the band seem to be in a holding pattern, as though no one can think of a way forward. At 10:25 Page gets on the clav as Trey continues to hold back and noodle around in the background. This is one of those rare jams where my attention wanders to Fishman more often than not because not much else is happening. 13:00, Trey keeps threatening to do full 2.0 shoegazer guitar but it mostly results in a loop and some noodley pitch shifter playing. Eventually it seems like Trey realizes this jam isn’t going much of anywhere and tries to bring things back into high energy rocking focus by coming back to life and soloing. Page and Trey both do their best to make this ending high energy and fun but it’s hard for me not to feel like this DwD was a non-starter that reminds me of some of the lesser ’99 jams that mostly stay in the same style for minutes at a time. Anyway, they bring the song to a close so it’s one of those weird/rare DwD’s that is not left unfinished and doesn’t either segue into or out of another song. Very strange.

Lifeboy follows, a quite strong version indeed, with a long guitar solo from Trey—there’s a reason this is a nine minute version! There’s a sort of half-assed > segue into Boogie On Reggae Woman that Mike starts up seemingly out of nowhere. As you might expect, Mike dominates this version from the jump, to the point they even do a stop/start Mike bass solo towards the end. This may not be a lengthy jammed out version but don’t sleep on it, it’s one of those times Mike is basically leading the band and he kills it. As the song peters out you wonder if we’re heading for a segue, but no. There’s a full second or two pause before Trey starts up Run Like An Antelope. I will say that I think this is the best Antelope of 2.0 so far, though it’s somewhat because of Mike and Page pushing Trey to go to a higher peak that he seems to want to. Antelope is sadly one of those songs I agree was universally stronger during 1.0, there’s just an intense precision that Trey needs for the peak that he can’t seem to nail most of the time post-2000. Keyword is Spliff. After this, you would assume the set was over. Instead, we get a well done, albeit oddly placed, I Didn’t Know. I don’t mind vacuum solo songs or Fishman antics, I simply wish this wasn’t a set closer. Just leaves a weird energy in the air. Reverse the order of this and Antelope, this set flows much better.

 

 

Set Two/Encore

Woo, Mike’s Song to start a second set is usually a good sign! Jam starts out in the typical way, with Mike pounding out the bassline while Trey and Page trade riffs. I’ve been on record as saying that, while I appreciate Mike’s Groove and would dig seeing it live, it always feels underwhelming as a segment for jamming. When was the last big type II Mike’s Song or Weekapaug Groove? I always see it on setlists and I’m like “oooh nice” but then I get through it and it’s almost immediately forgotten. This Mike’s Song at least has some excellent playing from Trey around the 7:30 mark. By 10:00, Trey’s tone has gotten swampier and more distorted though not quite to full shoegazer mode. Trey eventually retreats but the typical Mike’s Song jam continues without him. He starts piling on loops towards the end, because if you can’t think of anything interesting to play, just fall back on unearned walls of sound! See, when people say they don’t like 2.0 Oxy jams, this Mike’s Song is the kind of thing they mean. It’s just the band throwing out a bunch of random sounds and textures without much thought or care or interaction with the other members. Fishman seems to want to give up the ghost and stops playing for awhile while Trey’s guitar has a feedback sounding loop going.

Setlists give a -> full segue into Free but this is bullshit. Only Trey’s loop was going and it ends as soon as he starts playing the Free intro, so this is a solid > style segue only. Anyway! The Last Free, from 2/15/03, really surprised me with how commanding Mike was during the jam. Around 4:40 Page starts playing some weird techno sound on a synth or something I’ve not heard before. Mike is still leading the jam like last time, though Page is making a case for letting him do it! Around 5:30 Trey and Page play rhythmic comping and the jam gets even funkier still. Around this point in the jam I was starting to get the feeling we might be taking this Free out for a rare type II spin, but alas, no. That said, it’s almost a tossup for me between this and the 2/15 version. This song is probably never going to become a jam monster but it’s often a pocket of some hot playing with Trey stepping back more often than not. I again deny a segue here, to these ears I don’t even hear a > between this and Waste. It’s interesting if you go and look on Phish.net the times this song was played, starting off very common during 1996/1997 and as the years go on, making less and less frequent appearances. This Waste is really well done, leading me to fear this is going to continue to be one of those weird shows where the ballads are played with more energy and imagination than the jam songs! Page delivers an ace, classy as fuck piano solo in this version; Trey follows with his own solo, albeit the triumphant bliss jam kind of solo.

After the song ends we enter into a minute and a half or so of between-song ambience into 2001 including Trey quoting Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring with Page eventually following along. This intro as a result is drawn out but not in the expected space funk way we’ve become accustomed to. Around 1:20 on the official LivePhish version you can hear Trey talking to someone on stage, with some possible yelling from an audience member or one of the band yelling just outside of the mic’s full ability to pick it up. This 2001 intro is noodley and unfocused, as though the band are giving each other ample time to try out whatever they want to do. Trey treats us to some lightly distorted, chunky comping before Page drops the organ melody and Trey instantly starts the main riff. Around 5:30 Trey is playing some dissonant feedback sound off and on but quickly stops. Mike and Page take this one over; around 6:08 even more stage banter that the mics are barely picking up, sounds like maybe Fishman and Trey? I don’t really know how better to explain it, this 2001 is simply all over the place in a frustrating way. If you had this on in the background you’d still enjoy it, sure, but as a jam to listen intently to, it’s too many ideas that are introduced and dropped quickly. 8:35ish we get a half-hearted attempt at a Stash quote from Trey, who soon gives up and brings this odd duck of a 2001 back around for another run through of the main riff.

Ironically I might give them a -> for this segue into Harry Hood, because I didn’t see it coming and it sounded somewhat fluid to me. Trey is very noodley in this Hood intro, but will this version be as bizarre and type II leaning as the 2/15 one? Well, Trey sure loves playing with his loops and this intro is bordering on a normal 2001 for how they take their time jamming around before the proper main riff/chorus comes in. Those who wish Hood had some variance would do well to seek out Winter Tour ’03 Hoods, apparently! We’re in full on Weird Hood territory again, folks. Well, at least in this intro part. Once the normal Hood kicks back in, we get a well done but standard bliss jam Hood buildup ending. Until about 13:00, that is, when the bottom drops out and we start to build back up again. Not sure if Trey was trying to see if Mike and Page would go in a different direction or what. Anyway, Hood ends and we’re into a quiet, uncommitted ambient jam that peters out completely. You can faintly hear Trey(?) call out for All Of These Dreams, and that’s what we get. While I love this song, this is already the third I’ve heard in 2.0 and so could’ve done with a different ballad. Trey is really straining to sing this time out, it sounds, well, bad. Again, the solos from Page and Trey are excellent and well considered, but that’s not the kind of playing I fell in love with Phish over, y’know?

Sensing, perhaps, that this second set wasn’t turning out any big jams or otherwise interesting moments, they kick into Possum as a late second set pick-me-up. What can you say about Possum other than it’s a consistent high energy showcase for all of the band’s chops? I don’t think I’ve ever heard a truly great Possum because I’ve never heard one that struck me as half-baked or average! It’ll always remind me of my first show, and how even though it was the final song of the encore, people dug deep and were dancing their asses off all over the place. Much like the first set, you’d assume Possum was the set closer, but instead we get a > into Cavern. Another song that always delivers but rarely is anything special. Trey’s vocals sound strained and tired, and he drags behind the beat a couple times. Almost feels like Page steps in to help him through, too. Big fuckoff ending with tons of loops and sounds and noises; where was this kind of stuff during the jams, boys? We get a Wading In The Velvet Sea encore, which isn’t the worst choice for an encore but as the ONLY encore song is really leaves the show off on an energy level that is the opposite of how it started. As most of this show was high energy but lacking deep jams, I’d have preferred they saved Cavern for coming after Wading.

 

 

Overall

Looking back over my notes for this show, and what I wrote above, I almost feel like I’m simultaneously being too easy and too hard on this show. Set one has good playing throughout but the only real jam, outside of a mostly good but standard Antelope, was Down With Disease, which I thought was listless and never found a direction to go in that produced anything memorable. Set two would go on to be a real letdown in my book. Other than a directionless, standard Mike’s Song jam and a reappearance of Weird Hood, where’s the improvisation? You might look at this show’s setlist and think I must be crazy, but I think regardless of the high energy playing in the first set, consistently great soloing during the ballads, and another excellent Free in the second set, there’s literally nothing about this show that excites me to listen to it again. It’s the sort of show I’m sure people had a great time with in-person, but if they bothered to listen back to it at home with more objective ears, I don’t think anyone could credibly argue any song from this show is even a top 30 version.

2/21/03 is the first time that I haven’t added one song to my 2.0 highlights playlist, and while that doesn’t mean it’s a 1 out of 5 automatically as a result, it’s without a doubt the weakest show I’ve gotten to thus far. I can’t in good faith proceed in this retrospective review series if I don’t give this one a 2 out of 5.

 

[Highlights]

Set One: High energy playing throughout

Set Two/Encore: Free, Weird Hood reappears

Phish 2/20/03

 

Another day off, another change of city, and we’re in Rosemont, Illinois. As we enter the halfway point of this tour, it’s clear that the band, while not as spit-polish clean in the composed sections, has finally found their footing in terms of jamming. We still have most of the 2.0 juggernauts to go but this show, even more than any before, has the deepest jams I’ve seen in this project to date. Yet…do deep jams always equal great jams? Let’s find out. Sorry, that was low energy.       LET’S find OUT!

 

Set One

Rift > Rock and Roll to get us off to a high energy rocking start! A shame Rift has Oxy Trey in full effect, though, with some sloppy joe playing that leads him to redeem himself with the solo and with his performance during Rock and Roll. I’ve gotta be honest, this cover is ok but it’s not one I would’ve picked for them to keep in the rotation after the Loaded Halloween set. Now that I’m not an alcoholic sadboi Loaded is actually my favorite Velvet Underground album, though I’d have pinned ‘Train Round The Bend’ or ‘Lonesome Cowboy Bill’ as the Phishiest feeling to keep in rotation. But I digress. This Rock and Roll has valiant efforts from Mike and Page to keep up but Trey is determined to steal the show, pulling out his usual bag of Machine Gun Trey tricks. Not saying they aren’t effective…simply that if you’re looking for the jam chart Rock and Roll’s, this ain’t it, chief. “It was alright”, indeed.

Guyute is…look, you read what I said the last time. I’ll just add here that I’ve never seen a Guyute get segued into or out of; it’s a lead weight that brings a set to a crashing halt each time, for good or ill. Driver is a fun not quite ballad, the lyrics give me a They Might Be Giants feeling, maybe that’s just me? Waves. Ok, now we’re starting to open up the jam jar. Out of the crop of new songs off Round Room, this and Seven Below had the most obvious jam potential to my newbie Phish ears back when I started listening in earnest in late 2003/early 2004. Anyway, this version is shorter than the debut from 2/15/03 but I actually like this one more. Page and Mike, as they have been this whole tour, are playing their asses off, and the times during jams tonight when Trey lets go of the reins lead to some incredible jamming. Anyhow! This Waves doesn’t deviate from the studio version but has the energy and interplay that can only come from a live version; hell they should’ve waited a year and put out Round Room Live on the anniversary of Round Room’s release date with all live versions. But I digress. As would become standard, Waves is brought back around and finished up with another run through the chorus, and then some eerie/calm vocal refrains over some spacey ambience that will either lead into a jam or a segue into another song. This one doesn’t leave us hanging too long as Trey emerges from the interstellar muck with the Simple riff.

Now, OK, I think someone screwed up the lyrics at one point. But this Simple has to go down as an all timer. And by that I mean, version of the song and as a jam in general. While it has those dark/spacey Trey-trying-to-replicate-My-Bloody-Valentine moments we associate with 2.0 type II jams, it also feels a bit like some of the best 3.0/4.0 style jams that move between different sections and styles almost as if the band is composing a multi-part song in real time. I will never forget hearing/seeing the 10/11/23 Ruby Waves aka Dayton Ruby Waves in person, and at some point wondering if they had segued into another song I didn’t know. But I digress yet again! This Simple, though starting off like most modern non-jammed Simple’s with a slowing down/quieting down mellow jam, starts to hint at its true attentions around 6:45 when Fishman starts up a new drum groove and Page and Mike keep pulling Trey further and further away from ending the jam. By 8:00 it’s clear we’re in for it, lifting up to the heavens on a beautiful, soaring jam that reminds me of a less serene, more melodic version of the Flatbed Jam from The Clifford Ball. 9:15 finds Trey using his pitch shifter to play in the upper register as he’s wont to do during spacey jams. Page gets nasty on the clavinet around 9:40 while Mike and Fishman boom and rumble in the background. Trey has all but disappeared into loop territory by now as Page can’t decide between piano or clav. Lovely little melody from Trey around 11:20 that’ll get stuck in your head. Mike starts using his super reverb bass domination effects pedal around 11:50; Page jumps on a synth and does droning, rising sounds. We’re in full on space jam territory now boys, almost as deep as 6/14/00. Right as I say this, Trey-trying-to-replicate-My-Bloody-Valentine starts up in full effect. At first the rest of the band doesn’t know quite what to make of it, so Mike doubles down on his bass effect and gets reverb sucked into the vortex being made by Trey and Page. I fear for the people in person who were tripping when this switched from a pleasant ‘99/’00 ambient jam into a hellacious shoegaze portal. By 14:24 Trey has returned to the pitch shifted loops but it’s all being swallowed up in a maelstrom of sound, texture, and noise that can only be described accurately as psychedelic as all fuck. I can see how hearing this in person, with imperfect acoustics, could just sound like a mess of incoherent noise, like some contemporary reviews were saying. That said…listen to this fucking thing! The last two minutes alone is more interesting than the best of the jams during the NYE run, shades of the 4/2/98 Twist and the 9/29/99 2001.

After that space/time matter/anti-matter explosion, you’d be forgiven for assuming they were going to give us a short Gotta Jibboo; maybe 10ish minutes total, bit of a jam, get in get out, that kind of thing. But nope, whatever was powering Phish tonight had only had its first of many fission flashes. I know a lot of 1.0 fans prefer the old ‘99/’00 Jibboo’s which mostly kept the same funky groove and had Trey loops and Mike pounding it out front and center for 8 to 15 minutes, and while this one is largely following those blueprints for a couple minutes it eventually turns into more of a rocking Trey led masterclass in type I Hose. Think the 6/14/00 Back On The Train in terms of everyone locking into a groove and responding to each other and playing their asses off, but making it sound effortless. Was it Bruce Lee who said, “be like water”? Anyway, around 7:40 Trey starts playing a super high energy, uplifting guitar melody that reminds me of the 7/6/98 Ghost, and round 9:30 it’s reminiscent of the post-Suzy Greenberg jam on 9/14/00. At this point Machine Gun Trey takes over and absolutely scorches Rosemont to ashes; you can barely hear Mike and Fishman trying to keep the groove going so Trey doesn’t fly off into the stratosphere.

At 12:00 Page starts trying to take over on piano, and Trey responds by stepping down a bit and playing more raw guitar tones in lower registers. Page jumps on the funky, funky clav for some fun wailing as Trey keeps a lockstep groove bubbling with Mike and Fishman. Thanks to Page we get increasingly funky albeit with a Hendrix-ian distorted, raw texture instead of typical ’97 wah-wah action. By 15:00 Page is back on piano and Mike tries to bring us back to the Jibboo bassline and melody as Trey resists and croaks out guttural guitar lines. So by this point in set one we’ve gotten a full space/ambient jam, a dark/evil 2.0 jam, a kick ass Trey-led Hose jam, and a funky grooving jam, what else can they do? Jibboo just keeps going and going…until it doesn’t. Perhaps sensing they need to save something for set two, Trey eventually gets back on the Jibboo bus and we bring the song to a normal ending, albeit a huge peaking one and a triumphant capper to an astounding 38ish minutes of music (counting Simple, duh) to end the first set.

 

Set Two/Encore

As if to leave no doubt the kind of mood they were in tonight, Phish open the second set with a dependable workhouse: Tweezer. While the general pace of the composed section is classic late 90s, they waste no time in establishing that we’re in 2.0 now with the ranges this jam goes. (No, it’s not as good as the forthcoming one, shut up, we’ll get there!) Trey is busy fucking with his pitch shifter loops so Page and Mike pounce on the jam around 5:35. Other than some faint loops, Trey must be adjusting something because he doesn’t play anything until 6:00ish. Around 8:00 Page is on the clav and organ in turn, while Trey is steering them further into a somewhat standard type I Tweezer jam like you might hear in 1996…until just after 9:00 when Trey starts to add some extra grit to his tone. Mike goes deep to get just below him. Page is on what almost sounds like a Fender Rhodes around the 10:30 mark but I think it’s just a keyboard/synth. Soon Trey starts to do these patient, spaced-out-by-a-few-seconds single note growl/moan sounds. This section stagnates with not too much development as Page tries out some different textures indecisively. It’s during some of these 2.0 jams where I can’t tell if Trey is just in his own world or he wants to just play in the background with guitar noises. Mike and Fishman try to add some momentum and by 15:00 we’re finally hitting on something interesting, with Trey making these weird slide guitar-ish sounds as Page follows him into the tornado. Still not finding their purchase, they gear up into a rocking jam that Trey takes center stage for. We get a fun and well done yet standard big rock Tweezer reprise feeling ending (but not Tweezer Reprise feeling) that feels to me like it should’ve been in the first set’s Rock and Roll to give that more meat but eh, whaddya gunna do? After a final run through of the Tweezer riff they do a slow down, slowly falling apart sounding ending which I vaguely remember being how early Tweezers ended.

Out of the feedback of the Tweezer ending, we > plop into Punch You In The Eye. Huh, another strange setlist placement on this tour. Anyway, it’s PYITE! It rules. Next! I’ll give them a quick, half-earned > segue into Fast Enough For You, which is the perfect cool off placement after the god damn jam gauntlet they just threw down between the end of the first set and now. Good vocals tonight, great Trey solo—but isn’t it always? I call malarkey on the notion there’s a > into Seven Below, they definitely fully end the song and then Trey takes half a measure or so to start the riff. Sorry, not having it. Right out of the gate during the jam, Mike and Page jump out front as Trey muddles around in the background. Page again can’t seem to decide between piano or the clav. Around 4:45 I feel like the tempo has increased and Trey is coming to life as well. Man, pay attention to Page around 5:30, dude starts fucking killing it on piano. That’s really one thing I notice more often in these 2.0 shows, the other band members seem to really assert themselves a lot more. Page on the clav soon with Mike wandering all over the place in the background, half melod/ half whirling dervish. Around 7:30 it almost sounds like everybody but Fishman is soloing at the same time yet somehow playing together too, it’s crazy. Page throws organ darts across the room around 8:15 and goes back to piano. We continue our way into what feels like a super high energy Bathtub Gin jam, and Page going absolutely apeshit on piano sure aids this feeling. Trey drops back to some funky rhythmic comping around 10:55 as Fishman brings the Seven Below drum beat back around. Mike seems to be splitting the difference between the original bassline and just jamming.

Before we’re know it, we’re in a funky jam that reminds me of the segue between Piper and Gotta Jibboo from 6/19/04. (Oh, we’ll get there!) Well, I have to say, I certainly wasn’t expecting a 2.0 spin on a type III aka porno-funk/cow-funk jam, but here we are! There’s a huge building crowd cheer around the 13:00 mark, I assume either a new cool lighting effect or the crowd settling into how insane this show has continued to be. By 13:42 we’re so far into blissful Hose funk jam territory I’m amazed more people don’t talk about this jam! It’s up there with the aforementioned 7/6/98 Ghost for “you have to hear it to truly get it.” We just keep grooving along on the Rosemont funk express. Actual Trey ’97 style wah-wah at 15:00! Man, not that the 2/16/03 version was remotely bad, but this version sets such a ridiculously high bar I’ll be curious to see if future versions top it. I can’t imagine what a dance party it must’ve been; by the 16:00 mark of this jam I would’ve been exhausted.  We’ve slowly entered into a more abstract, spacey jam by 17:15. Mike’s got his super reverb bass effect going for a while. Fishman is kicking up some fun new grooves in the background and Mike responds in kind around 17:50 as we head into proper fucking space funk territory. 18:45 stop start jamming for a few bars and then a building spacey jam that resolves itself like a cloud passing back into the sunshine and you blink and you’re back in Seven Below and they close it off. If I were in person by this point of the show I’d probably be beyond words and just grinning ear to ear and dancing.

Pebbles and Marbles follows after a minute’s brief respite. OK, now they’re just trying to kill us! I’m almost praying for it to turn into a super mellow ambient jam instead of the set ending rampager it usually is. Trey seems to be enjoying playing really loud and noisy around the 6:50 mark, nearly drowning out Mike and Page entirely. Page again switches between clav and piano as if he can’t decide what to do. Meanwhile Trey himself can’t decide between actually jamming or just holding sustained noisy sounds. Around 9:40 it sounds kind of like what I assume O Sees playing this song would have their jam sound like. Trey’s attempts to reproduce Loveless on his own give this jam a very claustrophobic, grindy, noisy quality you’re either going to dig or hate. Mike is very active starting around 11:25 as if he, Page, and Fishman are trying to push the jam somewhere further. Trey keeps dropping what sounds like crashing stars or meteors from the sky for a few seconds before he snaps out of it and goes back to shoegaze guitar. In fact, yeah, call this the Rosemont Shoegazer Pebbles and Marbles, it’s intense as any other dark, deep type II 2.0 jam. Right around 13:50, through the wall of noise I can hear Trey starting to play the main melody and the band soon gets back into step with him as the walls of sound dissipate.

You know the part in Pulp Fiction where Mia Wallace does the bump of cocaine in the bathroom of the 50s diner and she pops up into frame and mutters “god damn, I said shit, god damn!” or something like that? That’s how I feel after this set. There can’t have been anything left of the crowd after this jam, just a simmering pile of goo.

Encore is 3 songs, fuck yeah! Golgi Apparatus, always welcome, and I don’t think Trey really flubbed up once. Eh but after these sets I wouldn’t count the flubs in this encore anyway! A pretty, well played but shortish Anything But Me soon gives way into, what else, Tweezer Reprise! (There’s no > between them like setlists say, nope, not even close) Sheesh, how was anyone left alive, audience, band, or crew, after this show? Mike’s bass bomb during the opening of this had to have destroyed someone’s pacemaker and caused another person to be cured of arthritis. Huge big noise ending with tons of loops and effects and insanity at the end. I think I just developed and then was cured of arthritis listening to that.

 

Overall

Looking at the setlist for this show, you might think it’s a pretty average one for the era. But there are fully five songs with long, intense jams to the point that Tweezer, motherfucking Tweezer, is not in the running for the top two jams of the show. What this show lacks in excellent fluid segues and rarities/covers it delivers in the jamming. For 2.0 this show is an embarrassment of riches the likes of which we hadn’t seen in 2.0 thus far.

I’m really switching back and forth between giving this show a 5 or a S out of 5. The sticking point for me is that this show lacks some ingredient to truly make me comfortable giving it the highest tier. If the Tweezer had been an A instead of a B, if the first set hadn’t come to a flow/pacing halt with Guyute and Driver,  if there had been some rarity or new cover, if the playing/lyrics during the composed sections had had less mistakes, if there had been some other X factor to contribute to the total score, I’d give it a S and not look back. As a show for beings who only love Phish for the deep jams, type II or otherwise, this show is an easy S for ya’ll. For everyone else…It’s with a heavy heart (well, not really, I don’t this stuff that seriously) I have to be somewhat objective and say it’s a 5 out of 5. I will say I think it’s a bit better than 2/16/03, for what that’s worth!

 

[Highlights]

Set One: Waves > SIMPLE, GOTTA JIBBOO

Set Two/Encore: Tweezer, SEVEN BELOW, Shoegazer Pebbles and Marbles, 3 song encore including a dynamite Tweezer Reprise

Phish 2/18/03

After three shows that gradually pushed the pedal to the floor, Phish had a day off to travel and recuperate. Other than perhaps 3/1, it seems like this show gets lost in the shuffle of Winter Tour ’03 discussions, so I’ll be curious to see if it’s not that good of a show or if it just suffers by comparison. Taking a look at the setlist you’d sure be forgiven if you thought this was an early to mid 90s show for the first set. Ten songs and no segues to be found! On a personal note, this Denver show took place on my birthday, though this won’t skew my opinion in either direction since back in 2003 I was only beginning to give Phish a second try.

 

Set One

Hard to be mad at a Runaway Jim opener, even as common as it is. It’s always been interesting to me how much it varies over the years, sometimes a jam vehicle, sometimes not. This one is a normal one. Similarly, Twist has only a short jam. At a certain point in this set it feels like they’re just playing random songs. Like, why is The Squirming Coil the fourth song of set one? Odd placement to be sure. As I said in the intro, this set feels like a throwback to the early to mid 90s. There aren’t really any big jams until Walls Of The Cave but everything is played with very high energy and all four members are really giving it the gusto. It’s always great to hear The Wedge, and both Stash and Birds Of A Feather have decent jams, but they’re only that: decent. Walls Of The Cave ends the set and has some type II jamming but nothing that quite sticks with you afterwards. In general this first set is well played and has a lot of variety, but it’s also the kind of set that has no effective flow or pacing. I know some fans don’t mind sets like this, and I’m not trying to hold this set to too high of a standard, since everything is played well. It’s just not the kind of set that sticks with me or gives me anything to add to my list of excellent 2.0 jams.

 

Set Two/Encore

I kind of remember from listening to ’98 through ’00 shows that The Moma Dance never really became the big jam vehicle people were predicting at the time. It feels like such an obvious song to be the big jam vehicle of the funky era of Phish but by 2000 it was mostly just leading to high energy rocking type I jams. So while I may not be 100% correct, I believe this might be the first type II laced Moma, indicating that Winter Tour ’03 would continue to have jams in unexpected places. This Moma is really a lot of fun, from a Dave’s Energy Guide tease to the very Dark Phish 2.0 feel when it goes full type II. I’ll give the -> segue to them though it’s a bit sloppily executed. Limb By Limb follows and while it doesn’t go full type II in my opinion, it does get a bit more experimental and dark-shaded compared to typical versions. I have this lingering feeling like Trey is cutting off the jams before they get really deep this set. This and the forthcoming Carini are good reasons why. After a loose Thunderhead, we’re treated to a somewhat rare set II appearance from Divided Sky. Nothing much to report with this one, it’s well played and gets high energy just like a lot of set I was. Carini, as previously stated, starts to go into full on 2.0 jamming but there’s a moment toward the end where Trey seems to be waiting for a new direction and when it doesn’t come he just starts awkwardly playing the main riff to bring the rest of the band back in line and end the song.

It’s no contest to say the set ending You Enjoy Myself is the best version of 2.0 yet, as well as the true highlight of the second set, and by extension the show as a whole. It features some excellent high energy jam segments where Trey hangs way back and lets Mike and Page take the reins, and when he finally does come in he just wails and makes an already strong YEM even better. Machine Gun Trey had his hands all over this show. The vocal jam is all over the place like usual until someone starts doing something vaguely similar to the “ah-weem ah way” vocals from The Lion Sleeps Tonight and next thing you know they’re just doing a cover of it. It’s obviously one of those unrehearsed covers they occasionally stumble into, so the lyrics/arrangement may not be totally correct. They seem to suddenly realize they don’t know how the song ends and it’s one of those vocal jams that peters out yet abruptly at the same time. Anyway, encore time! We get one of only two encore appearances of NICU (the other is 7/15/22), and this song will never not sound weird to me when it starts on its own and isn’t segued into. Am I crazy? Certain songs just never sound right when started from a full stop; see also Weekapaug Groove and Makisupa Policeman. But I digress. Definitely a loopy encore with Mexican Cousin bringing the show to a close, but hey, at least it’s not another underwhelming one song encore.

 

 

Overall

Taken as a whole, this show is well played start to finish. In fact it might be the tightest show yet in terms of the execution; Trey must’ve really been practicing on the day off between 2/16 and this show. Looking at the first set, it’s fun and has a ton of variety, but it doesn’t go very deep and it has really inelegant flow/pacing. Set two is the jammier set so you’d think it would automatically be better, so, can I shock you? I think they’re both pretty equal. The jams there may go deeper and venture into type II territory though this is one of those exceptions to the rule where the setlist and song runtimes tell the story: it just never gets that deep. It’s almost like a tease, and like I said above, it’s like Trey gets impatient and pulls the plug on the jams. YEM -> Lion Sleeps Tonight is an excellent capper, and the encore is just ok with an uber rare NICU placement.

So there’s a lot of positive and neutralish stuff I’ve said about this show and my feelings towards it as a whole are similarly muddled. Had I attended this show I would’ve really loved the experience; it’s a fun and varied setlist, and there’s a lot of mid 90s-esque high energy playing from everyone, especially in set one and the YEM. However, I think this show is textbook 3 out of 5.

In my preamble to this review series I wrote: “A 3 can be a Phish show you attended and have a lot of fondness for but can admit wasn’t one of the best ever/on that tour/that year.[it] can be a show that has at least two highlights, or at least no real lulls/downsides, but doesn’t make a lasting impression otherwise.” And I think that description is perfect for 2/18/03. This is the only show so far where I had to really debate about adding any jams to my ongoing 2.0 best playlist, and in the end it was just the YEM. I think that says a lot.

 

[Highlights]

Set One: Everything is well played and high energy but there’s no obvious highlights.

Set Two/Encore: The Moma Dance -> Limb By Limb, You Enjoy Myself -> The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Phish 2/16/03

 

OK I’m going to start this with a spoiler because I can’t contain myself anymore! After an excellent first night in Vegas, Phish would deliver, hands down, the best show they had played in the 2.0 era to this point. 2/16/03 may not be as well-known as 2/28/03 but I could actually see someone enjoying this show more, depending on a few different factors. This is also one of those rare shows where the setlist kind of does tell the tale, with some exceptions we’ll soon get to!

 

Set One

Hearing a bunch of loops and Fishman on the ride cymbal, so is it Maze? No, holy shit! What else can you say to a David Bowie opener?! It was the first in nearly a decade, it seems, but what makes this even more special is the Catapult sandwiched in the middle. Trey is not doing his best during the composed parts, at one point seeming to stop playing altogether and try to get back on the horse, as it were. This Bowie jam, thank god, is one for the ages, with interesting staccato jamming sort of like the beginning of some Stash jams, a Manteca quote around 8:40 from Trey, a non-riproaring Trey mostly playing abstract repetitive lines and letting Page and Mike lead for awhile, a fun Catapult appearance, and a strong ending. This Bowie -> Catapult -> Bowie segment would set the scene for the rest of the show. After a dependable Horn (no segue) and a fun Guyute (still one of my least favorite composed songs but it’s growing on me), Round Room starts up.

It's no hyperbole to say this Round Room jam is one of my favorite jams ever. Ever! It’s just such an insanely unique and interesting jam, with Fishman starting us off on woodblocks and the jam becoming bouncy and rhythmic. Trey mostly hangs back and plays textural stuff as the jam gets more energetic and abstract/dark, with an excellent ending that feels like a storm cloud passing overhead and away into the distant horizon. Sublime! As a bit of a chaser to that magnificent cocktail we get super rarity Golden Lady, played here for only the second time to date. To be honest I’m a very selective Stevie Wonder fan though I will say this one is pretty great and a good fit for Phish, so I wonder why it isn’t played more. Boogie On Reggae Woman is better, ok sure. Anyway. Setlist yet again shows a > where there clearly is none. Poor Heart is up next. It’s fun, almost feels like it’s playing the part of a short high energy song to set up the set ending song. Where I wish there was a > there isn’t one, though. Ah well. Pebbles and Marbles closes out a stellar set one.

 

Set Two

The opening of set two is sure something! “He’s gunna fuck it up! Fishman doesn’t know this song!” Oh Trey, you who live in the glassiest of glass houses, maybe don’t cast stones? Anyway, another rager of an open to set two, with a fucking killer Down With Disease -> Seven Below -> Down With Disease sandwich, complete with one of those rare non-unfinished Disease’s. Enjoyable but standard DwD jam, starts to get spacey before Fishman drops the Seven Below drum beat and Trey picks up on it immediately as the rest of the band slowly gets on board and we hit a near-perfect -> into Seven Below. Despite forming the meat of this sandwich the Seven Below jam doesn’t go super deep before we head back to Down With Disease. Well -> back into DwD I should say. After a big loop ending to DwD we > gently into Anything But Me. This is one of my favorite Phish ballads, so happy to hear it! Especially since my understanding is they don’t play a lot of Round Room album songs because it brings up bad memories for Trey. After a good but not great version we get a minute or so of ambience before Piper starts up. This Piper, often dubbed the Viper (for Vegas Piper, get it?!), is a monster type II beast (not necessarily in a spacey/experimental way though) and is one of the best versions ever. 2.0 really was a great time for this song, as next year we’ll get to the phenomenal SPAC version. But I digress, back to 2003! You simply have to hear this one to get a full grasp but at one point toward the end they start playing the DwD ending/riff but in the musical key of Piper, it’s nutso. Around 19:05 it sounds like Trey is starting up Rift for a few seconds, maybe just a tease? Fishman plays the Seven Below drumbeat as the jam just keeps going. Soon, before you know it, we’re -> to Makisupa Policeman. Keyword was ssssssssssssSpliff. Fairly high energy Makisupa too, some excellent solos from Mike and Page. Trey keeps emphasizing the word “house” in this version for whatever reason.

I’m still not happy hearing so many Character Zero’s on this project so close together. This is actually a pretty good version with a decent solo from Trey, though I do wish if they’re going to close a set with this song they either jam it out a bit or segue into something else to be the proper capper. Anyway, the mood deflates with Friday. Ugh, another single song encore, and a Friday encore to boot. Unlike 1/4/03 version, which had killer soloing from Trey, this one just lands like a wet hunk of sod. Page tries his best but it’s just a meh ending to an otherwise killer show.

 

Overall

Well, 2/16/03 is easily a 5 out of 5. It has some of everything that’s great about this band: insane jamming, fluid and fun segues, a rarity (and a cover to boot!), excellent set pacing, etc. My only complaint is the show ends on a bit of a downturn, as neither Character Zero nor a single song Friday encore are acceptable in my opinion.

On a bit of a side note: 2/16/03 is useful as the kind of show that exemplifies the difference between a 5 out of 5 and my top tier S out of 5. It’s just not quite there in the pantheon of the all timer shows, but it’s still a truly exceptional show and is the best of 2.0 thus far.

 

[Highlights]

Set One: Bowie -> Catapult -> Bowie, ROUND ROOM

Set Two/Encore: DwD -> Seven Below -> DwD, PIPER -> Makisupa

Phish 2/15/03

 

After a surprisingly strong tour opener, Phish rolled into Las Vegas for a two night stand that would further solidify the strength of the Winter tour. While the 2/16 show is well known to me (no spoilers beyond that), I have to say I was surprised how good the previous two shows were. Man, has Phish ever played a bad show in Vegas?

 

Set One

Good but throwaway Llama opener that is immediately forgotten as Wolfman’s Brother starts up. This version has excellent full band interplay with a jam that is by turns funky and rocking and towards the end, abstract. One thing I keep noticing in 2.0 so far is how much more I hear the other members step up to lead or contribute new riffs/ideas during jams, but also how much Trey has been sitting back and choosing the right times to ‘take over’, so to speak. This Wolfman’s really gets abstract and interesting towards the end, with the 2.0 Trey guitar groan/drone sounds and all, and we get a > segue into Reba (which for some unknown reason I wrote down as Bathtub Gin when I was taking notes). There’s some lyric flubs from Trey but Page steps up and helps recover, as well as some sloppy playing from Trey during the complex composed parts, but what else is new? There’s a strange, hard to explain, almost restless feeling to Trey’s playing during this Reba that makes it worth a listen but not worth being a top tier version by any means. No whistling, man, I forget how rare that is…Next up is a bustout of Life On Mars?, which if I remember right was inspired by NASA announcing back in 2003 that they had found water on Mars for the first time or something. Anyway, it’s an OK cover, not much else to say.

46 Days follows, has a loose jammy intro (even more than the studio version) but ends up being a fairly standard Trey guitar rock showcase. It’s Ice is a sort-of-rarity that I find myself liking more as I get older and hear more Phish, for whatever reason. It’s too bad that this one feels so succinct and off, somehow; the ambient part is rushed, for instance. Setlists say there’s a > into Frankie Says but I don’t hear any. This song is another sort-of-rarity, and always welcome. Another non-segue into Run Like An Antelope, for what it’s worth. Like the It’s Ice, this one also feels off and rushed. Couple flubs from Trey; oddly low energy peak and slow build throughout. Keyword was spliff instead of spike.

 

Set Two/Encore

Waves to open a set is always welcome! Great jam along the lines of the studio version; towards the end they do this extended vocal outro, with ambient/spacey backing getting more intense until a > segue drop into Bug. We’re back to the initial vocals, like with Twist. This ballad has really grown on me over the years, though ironically I think I prefer the ’00 and studio version without the extra set of lyrics (I feel like Phish started out not really caring about lyrics and they’ve overcorrected and have too many lyrics in each song now!). Another > segue into GHOST! First of 2.0, wooo! The intro sounds jammy and uncertain, as if the band expected Trey to do the usual delay loops and instead he was doing the initial ’97 style where it kind of just starts. Trey really hangs back at the start of the jam and lets Page and Mike tear it up. Once he tags in, we get a high energy rocking jam that goes for awhile before we settle into a weird outro segment, with organ washes and repetitive grinding playing. This is a really good Ghost jam but I don’t quite get from it what others seem to, labelling it the best ever. To me it’s a B+ instead of an A version.

There’s a sort of -> segue into Free. I gotta be honest, between Free and Character Zero I’m kind of over both of these songs being played so often in 2.0 so far. Less Billy Breathes, more Round Room, guys! Now, all of that said, this version of Free is FUCKING KILLER! No, it’s not some 20 minute type II masterclass, but it’s a fucking rager of a funk/rock jam that Mike steals the show during. You can either hear him turn himself up or the mix turns him up because he’s playing soooo good. I wish it had kept going but they bring it to a close and a > segue into Harry Hood. I’m officially going to label this Weird Hood, because it is weird as hell. The intro is loosey goosey, not in a “Trey forgot how to play it” way, but in a “let’s stretch out these composed parts of this song and have fun” kind of way. The ending jam segment has what setlists call a “silent jam” (hard to explain but you’ll know when you get there) and even gets genuinely type II for a few minutes before we head for the usual feel good ending. Speaking of feel good endings, this show lacks one. Hey, wait! Let me explain. I really like Sample In A Jar, but if they’re going to play it in the encore, they have to play something else too. These one song encores are a bummer if they don’t give it socks like they did 1/4/03 with Friday. Now THAT’S how you sell a one song encore.

 

Overall

Some of these shows I’ve waffled on the score because it feels like depending on my mood I could go either way. This show is one that I knew the final score of before I even sat down to write this. Oh, I briefly considered giving it a 3, largely because I think the first set lets the full show down. Not that it’s a bad set by any means—that Wolfman’s is really enjoyable, and the rarities are nice if not particularly well played—but it lacks anything truly seismic. Set two really shines, though. I may not like the Ghost as much as others but this set flows really well and contains some extremely fun and raging moments, including Mike tearing down the building on Free and the Weird Hood. Had the first set been stronger, or the show opener and encore been better, we might have been looking at a 5. But in the end this is a textbook 4 out of 5 show if there ever was one.

 

[Highlights]

Set One: Wolfman’s Brother, few rarities/bustouts including Life On Mars?

Set Two/Encore: GHOST -> FREE, WEIRD HOOD

Phish 2/14/03

 

Historically speaking, tour opening shows for Phish are rarely the highlights of said tour or year. Yet occasionally you get shows like 7/15/98 or 9/9/99 where they’re surprisingly strong right out of the gate, possibly because they hadn’t been off the road for that long (in the case of 7/15/98, not even a week off!). No need to keep you in suspense but I think 2/14/03 is overlooked as a fantastic tour opener, and it rings in the true arrival of 2.0.

Set One

This show starts off with a nod to Valentine’s Day as well as a debut cover that nods to their cover story in Rolling Stone magazine before we really get cooking. Chalk Dust Torture lets Trey loose and continues the high energy, focused soloing from the previous show. Then there’s Fee! This version gets jammed out and spacey, including a full segue into Taste (which for some reason in my head I kept thinking was Free so that it’d be Fee -> Free). Trey is a little shaky and inaudible with his guitar playing at the start of Taste but the jam segment is more potent and a bit looser than normal—not at all type II but kept my attention more than the standard Taste. The jam times continue to roll with Bathtub Gin, which I’ve now heard a few times already in this retrospective review series. This is by far the best Gin of 2.0 (so far), setting an immediate high bar for the rest of the tour and year. This is like a modern/2.0 cousin to the legendary Great Went Gin, very fluid and bouncy and uplifting. Heavy Things is in my opinion a real dull thud of a song to follow with, so I was happy they closed with Golgi Apparatus.

 

Set Two/Encore

Something about these setlists is weird to me; I understand opening with My Sweet One to acknowledge Valentine’s Day but Possum to me is always a set closer or encore kind of song. Anyway it serves its purpose well, nothing too remarkable. The energy and especially the jamming reach a new height with Walls Of The Cave. This rare type II version is, along with the first set’s Fee and Gin, the birth of the 2.0 jamming sound. WOTC takes awhile to get there, and it isn’t as focused as future 2.0 behemoths, but it’s by far the best and most interesting jam I’ve heard in this series so far. There’s a fun grinding/chaotic segue into Carini that resolves the jam nicely. Carini is a bit slow and sludgy, though, and Trey holds back on the short jam. All Of These Dreams serves its purpose as a mid-set breather. Limb By Limb, while not an all-timer, has a focused and patient jam segment that shows now that the band has their shit back together they will not sleepwalk through songs. A fun and a bit sloppy Oh Kee Pa slams into AC/DC Bag, which also feels like weird setlist placement, close to the end of set II.

(A quick aside, if you’re wondering what on earth happens: a fan jumps on stage during the composed part of AC/DC Bag and interrupts a lyric to say he loves someone and to either wish them happy birthday or Valentine’s Day; it’s hard to hear. This freak occurrence seems to influence where the Bag jam goes)

Anyway, this one has one of the most unique jams I’ve heard from Phish. This Bag is nothing like even other type II versions like Hampton ’97 or the recent NYE ’23 version, with Trey stepping back and playing mostly just simple patterns and staccato rhythmic playing while Mike and Page try to figure out a place to go. Instead the jam stays in place for a few minutes before getting more quiet and sparse and a full-on segue into Prince Caspian. I don’t know if this is a great Bag but it’s certainly a weird one and a must hear for people seeking out jams that are non-standard. Anyway, Caspian is ok and has a weird ambient ending I haven’t heard before. The set as a result kind of just…peters out. Loving Cup, the final Valentine’s nod, closes out the show with an exclamation point after the weird trail off into ellipsis that was the end of the second set.

 

Overall

I said in the last review that the show was all sizzle and no steak, well, they certainly brought the steak to California for this show! Even moreso than 1/4/03, this show proved that Phish was back and trying new things. For a tour opener it’s incredible how strong it is; this didn’t at all feel like they’re warming up for a night and the jams are still coming. I’ve previously heard about half of the Winter ’03 tour and I can see why some people say it’s very consistent and one of the most underrated tours. 2/14/03 really brought the jams, and the rest of the playing was of high quality, too. The song selection and setlist placement is a little wonky and threw me off at first, though honestly on subsequent listens I like them trying new things like Possum opening a set or a quiet, peter-out ending to Caspian. I’m ALMOST tempted to give this show a 5 out of 5 but for as strong of a show as it is, I don’t think the overall experience quite gets there. The jams, while either nascent deep/fresh 2.0 jams or high energy rocking fun like Gin or Limb By Limb, most likely aren’t going to be among the best versions of the year. I do highly recommend this show, and it’s easily the best I’ve heard in this review series so far, but there just isn’t that X factor that tips the scales to 5 out of 5 or a S out of 5.

[Highlights]

Set One: Fee -> Taste, BATHTUB GIN

Set Two/Encore: WALLS OF THE CAVE, AC/DC Bag jam

Phish 1/4/03

 

Given the extremes of the last show, it was nice to get back to something normal with this one. While I will say that this New Year’s run of shows wasn’t outright bad, listening through them will confirm for you why you don’t see people talk about them. Anyway, 1/4/03 is probably the most consistent of the NYE run, as both sets are well played and feature at least two well played songs/jams.

Set One

This is a strong first set that starts out pretty good and gets better by the end. Especially compared to the previous show’s first set, this one is mostly tight and locked in, with just a couple flubs from Trey here or there. Roggae has some killer soloing from Trey and stands out a bit above the average version. Maze is a typical heater; high energy with Trey’s solo section a bit more droney and holding onto notes than is the standard. Saw It Again makes a rare appearance, but the real set highlight is the Split Open and Melt. This jam more than any other hints at where 2.0 is going with the jamming style, as it’s as intense as the usual Melt but uses more loops and spacey/droney playing from Trey and Mike. In all likelihood it won’t be one of the highlights of the year but as far as 2.0 shows so far, this Melt is the top of the pile and a must listen for 2.0 spelunkers like me.

 

Set Two/Encore

Not in terms of the jamming or anything else except the setlist itself, it’s really stark how set one has NO segues at all and set two is mostly all one continuous set of music. Yet as the saying goes, the tale is in the tape not the setlist. This set is a clear indicator that they’re getting their mojo back. Good but not noteworthy Rock and Roll opener, fairly standard Mike’s with a cool semi ambient ending/outro; full segue into Mountains In The Mist with an amazing Trey solo worth seeking out, sort of quiets down and stops IMO before Weekapaug starts up from zero (this song always sounds so awkward when it doesn’t arrive on a segue) and is a good high energy version that dips its toe into type II toward the end; full on segue into What’s The Use? (which in some ways could be used like I Am Hydrogen in a Mike’s Groove) which has a quiet ambient ending that segues into a rip-roaring Down With Disease, which, while not very experimental and barely over ten minutes in length, has some killer playing from Trey throughout including a cool, unique wah wah pedal loop segue into Fast Enough For You, which like so many songs from this set has an astoundingly good Trey solo in it (legit one of the best FEFY performances); after FEFY the song seems to have ended and the Phish.net setlist says there isn’t a > segue into 2001 but IMO there is one it’s just quiet and lowkey. This 2001 is actually one of the more short and tired sounding versions I’ve ever heard, and the big rock vamp endings mentioned on the setlist notes isn’t as fun or interesting as you’d expect.

Friday encore ON PAPER looks like trash. I can’t stand this song typically, let alone as the encore to cap off a run of shows…but GOD DAMN this is the best version and everyone else who says so is right. Trey was absolutely brilliant with his solos this show overall but especially second set and encore!

 

Overall

After finishing this show for the first time I scribbled “All sizzle and no steak, but it’s great sizzle.” I believe that’s a good summary! This was the best of the NYE run overall. There maybe were some moments especially on NYE itself that were more memorable, such as the jammed out Piper opener and the Runaway Jim -> Time Loves A Hero, but this show actually sounds like a real Phish show and has excellent, energetic playing in both sets. Gotta go with a 4 out of 5. Trey really stepped up his game since the last show but with a few exceptions there simply isn’t anything here that is noteworthy and will be on lists of greatest jams or shows ever from this period.

 

[Highlights]

Set One: Roggae, Maze, and Split Open and Melt especially!

Set Two/Encore: Strong set overall, Trey’s playing/soloing was on point throughout especially on the ballads like FEFY and Friday.