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I attended this show, the previous night, and Chula so it will surely affect my memories and attitudes about the first hiatus. Buy it, but don`t expect to be blown away by jam after jam after jam. It wasn`t that type of show at all. Needless to say, Phish was hanging it up, and since May, they had been playing their hearts out all summer. They exploded in Vegas, and if you want to see that happen, buy the DVD.
Too much anticipation leads to disappointment, and many thought "Abbey Road" would be covered. Three Sets... etc. I think that Phish came out and _didn`t_ play Harpua made some ... dejected. Of course there are lots of people who find Phish doesn`t sprint at the end. Some of the greatest shows are often 3 shows before the last show of the tour...
Either way, this was coming out solid, and playing throughout the show with conviction and desire.
The weather was a fantastic, cloudless October day in California, end of summer (so to speak) and all the giddyness of a beginning new year, and the Northern California optimism that exists. Shoreline is a beautiful Ampitheatre, and it effects the shows. The previous night was quite good and many were still high about that show.
The reason I mention this, is how quite optimistic everyone in the band seemed to be also, as well as all the fans. People throwing frisbees, having great times, but very very calm also. The vibe in the seats wasn`t fist pumping, but just smiling alot.
(Note: I believe West Coast shows are a real blast, and I`m from the midwest. I really have come to dislike how much more drinking (drunkeness and rudeness) there have been on the East Coast shows I`ve seen lately. I think this "CalVibe" contributes to the more laidback vibe of these shows too. Not the exhaustion or laize-fair attitude of Phish later like at Coventry. When Trey starts getting drunk at his own shows, you know it`s over... or should be)
The show never reached frenetic proportions during any of the songs. So I won`t comment too much on all the different songs.
But I will comment on this Bathtub Gin, as it is one of my favorite Gin`s of Fall 2000 actually. Mostly for the way that around 5:00 -> end Trey stands aside (he was stage right) and this is mostly a Mike`s Gin with a very strong baseline and groove. It`s got a really great groove to it, without being the `97 funk sound. One of the most interesting Gin`s of the fall in my opinion. Hitting around 6:00 was when the sun was going down, and the place just looked great. Quiet, grooving and nice.
Glide and My Soul are unremarkable.
The Twist is unremarkable, and the Tweezer is definitely solid.
But in the end for me, the show is about the sun going down during Gin to a cloudless sky, quiet audiences, and how happy everyone seemed to be, even though many knew this might be the last time to hear Phish. It was a very surreal moment. The moment of the night for me.
Thanks for that great shows Phish. I went to another 28 shows after the Hiatus, and some were great (2nd night Deer Creek 04) and others were almost poor, but I will always have this quality memory of ending in a great way.
Thanks for playing for us.
"Who is this Phish, and why do they have all your money?"
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I recently downloaded this show because I had this show on tape and was interested to see if this show would sound better on cd. Well I must say the sound quality is much better, but it still didn`t bring the life to this show that I thought it would. Yes, the setlist is great and overall this show is slightly above average, but this show is a perfect representation of the mindstate of Phish at this point and their state of mind today. The first set starts off promising with the first tube>mike`s groove, but once they get to bathtub they seemed to run out of steam especially Trey. They finish off with a nice my soul and carry that momentum into the second set with a nice Twist>2001>Tweezer, but once again lose direction. A 20+ minute YEM encore is always a treat, but something seemed missing. My feeling when listening to it was that Mike is continually trying to keep things going and moving toward something greater, while Trey just seems disinterested and uninspired until finally there is nothing left to do but end it. This is what I mean by this show representing their state of mind then and today. While Mike wants to keep things going, Trey just wants to end it. As a veteran of close to 100 shows since 1995 it broke my heart to hear that they were going to break up, especially since I moved to Japan in April and won`t have the chance to see them one more time, but after attending the majority of the shows post hiatus I felt that it wasn`t going to last forever. Yes, there were some great moments, but mostly their playing I would say was uninspired. Phish on a bad night is still better than most bands on a good night on they could play forever if they wanted to, but if that spark isn`t there anymore why push it. I`m thankful for all the great times Phish has given me and I finished my phish career with some great shows in Miami. Thanks Phish.
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I was at this show and from what I remember it was quite good. It was the first time I saw Meatstick and it was so much fun. The whole crowd was laughing, dancing, and jsut having a great time. 2001 was epic as it should be, the lighting during this version was great. I`m not a huge Tweezer fan but this one kept me enthralled and bouncing the whole way through. The YEM was awesome, the perfect way to end the show and begin the hiatus. The vocal jam in the end was almost mystical, like an ancient chant that combined the band and audiences souls into one. Truly a great show, flawless, tight and at the same time free and jammin`, it was everything a Phish fan could ask for. As Phish is coming to an end I have only one complaint; no west coast shows on the final tour!!!!!!!! Unfortuantely I have no way to pay for tickets, let alone a trip across the country. Anyhow, Phish is my favorite band and probably always will be. Good luck (even though you don`t need it cause you are all so talented and intelligent) to Trey, Jon, Paige, and Mike and may you be as successful, heartfelt, and honest with whatever you do know as you have been with your music and performance. And if you ever do decide to do some reunion show nobody will think you are some lame nostalgia act or charicatures of yourselves because you are just too damn good and everybody knows it!!!!!!!!
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Shoreline...what a great place to see a phish show. This was the first time I have been to Shoreline and what a time it was. We traved from Missoula, Montana to Phoenix, Arizona to catch the last five shows before hiatus. I have been to 25 shows since 12/16/95 and have logged enough miles to go around the world just to spend an evening in musical bliss. Everyone at the show was grinning ear-to-ear and the vibe could not have been better. It seemed as though everyone there was there for one reason...the music, which is unfortunatley not the way it often goes. On with the show...First Tube is always a good opener, not to hard and not to soft. I love the classic Mike`s>H2>Weekapaug. Straight forward w/o the sandwhich of songs to seperate the masterpiece. Bathtub Gin is always a pleaser with its mellow jams. A really great song to play after a heavy Mikes combo. I was so pumped to hear Fishman start up with Glide. This was the first time I had seen it and it was just plain funny. Set two was, in my mind, why I would travel anywhere just to hear the boys play. Twist>2001>Tweezer was just plain sick. For me, these three songs are in the top twelve. The feeling I had when they opened up with twist is a feeling I think I will never feel again. And then to go into 2001 and then tweezer! I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Velvet Sea, the perfect tune to bring everyone back to planet earth. Its always soothing to hear Page sing after spacey or hard jams, especially Velvet Sea. I always love hearing the Meatstick, and I was hoping for the japenese lyrics. Everyone was smiling and laughing, really great scene. The Bowie was just rockin. This was the forth Bowie in the last five shows and there was a good reason for it. They f@cking rocked! The lights and music at the end of Bowie always makes me feel like I am in inside a dieing machine for some reason. Anyone else? And of course YEM as an encore...how sweet it was and how sweet it is to think back to that show. Nothing but good vibes and great times. This is definetley worth the download, not only for the music, but also for what it represents in the history of Phish. Thank you Phish for creating some of the best memories a human could have. comments: rapidwtr@aol.com
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great night of music. i love the way phish ended the first 17 years of their history. they didnt come out and play prep school hippie, and destiny unbound, or play a complete gamehendge, or play for 6 hours, or cover a whole album, etc... they just came on and played 2 beautiful sets of music. a great night of jamming. the show starts with an energetic first tube. it was very tight. then came one of my favorite mike`s songs, awesome groove, and at the end, it seems like they changed key to go into simple maybe, but then they drop that idea and weirdly start hydrogen. the paug is above average. the highlight of the first set was the bathtub gin tho. what a great version, very blissful, full of energy and jam. the second set is just epic. i mean this twist is just classic, the epitome of jam band. 2001 is next, although this version gets a little redundant/boring after a while. then comes one of my favorite tweezers. everyone is in on this tweezer, mainly type I, but near the end there is some type II to close out the song. i think this type II was actually initiated by mike. this meatstick is average, followed by a good bowie. this is a no nonsense bowie, just straightforward type I jammin, no tension and release or dissonance. i dig this version tho. a rockin tweeprise to close the set. and when they came on for the encore, who wouldnt expect yem? altho this version is far from spectaacular, it gets the job done to finish out a great night of music.
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As much as it kills me to say this, I was too young to appreciate Phish at this point in time, so I was not at this show. I got into them the summer of 2001, and since then I`ve heard soooooooooooooooooooo much live phish from every period of their career, from Fynnbars in Burlington in 1985 (sick bootleg i got from my bro with a mike`s --> spock`s brain --> star treck theme --> groove) through the college campus days of early 1990`s through the arena rock era through hiatus to present, and I`ve seen 7 shows thus far, ending with the 4 night nye run in miami. I just downloaded this show and it made me appreciate this band more than i knew was possible. at the end of their pre-hiatus career, their last show just shows what promise they have even when they`re creativity is dying off. an AWESOME mike`s song followed by a groovin weekapaug to get the show off to a pumping start. but they prove their musical virtuosity by not just playing the most pumping show of their career. it`s a beautifully balanced show, each set fluttered with a perfect blend of phish`s meliflous serenading balads with humorous and bouncy fun classics with pure f-ing rock and roll. bathtub gin exhibits a bit of all of those components in one song. unreal gin. then glide brings in some humor, followed by a pumping my soul to close out set one. twist is the perfect song to start off this classic set. bouncy, fun, but with a serious undertone in the rocked out jam. followed by a 2001 that will make anyone smile their face off, and then BAM! tweezer shows that they can still find that creative edge and take their music to a new level with a jam that just lets you know they`ll be back. this tweezer is just unreal. so wild and experimental and fishman and trey just proove their respective superiority above any other musician still playing. wading in the velvet sea pretty much makes me cry like a little school girl and i`m not ashamed to say so. that`s what they can do, and i love them for it. page and trey take this one away and leave me speechless, and i wasn`t even at the show! meatstick. of course. mike brings back the funk to the show with this classic. just so funky, so funny, everyone can groove after wiping away the tears from WITVS and just laugh away at this great classic tune. again, perfect balance in the set. then the entire band shows their talent as a group and their talent as individuals as they shine in this awesome bowie. listen to this bowie and just appreciate what these guys pour out at us night after f-ing night. fish, mike, page, trey. each of them is just going off and it makes for one of the best bowie`s you`ll hear. and then tweezer reprise. is there really a better way to end a set? come on, honestly? no. period. the last song before hiatus has to be yem or fluffhead. how about both???? well, yem will do just fine. although not so experimental, that is why they`re taking this break. classic yem and all of them nail it. just sick. get this show if it`s the last thing you do. maybe not one of the best of all time, but they just prove why they`re musically so important. we all have to remember to realize what these 4 guys (and chris and eveyone we don`t actually see) bring to our lives, and how they let us escape reality for a few hours each night and let us drift into...gamehenge? i think so. see you on the road!
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This show is one easy to listen to. It does not get too freaked out and dissonant. It is a good choice to get your friends warmer with the band of all bands. At the same time this show offers great jams and wonderful versions of the songs selected. Everybody gives his best, as if these were the last notes ever played. YEM is great and Trey lets the others do the jamming. He stays in the background. A rather depressive and weepy vocal jam gives the blue crowd the last farewell. This is the end..... (...fortunately it wasn`t!)
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So there I was, just settling into the first set, when BAM...Mike`s Hydro Groove?!!! Uh-oh, hold onto your beanies, you know it`s going to be an all out throw-down of the the best musicians put together under a "big tent." Who could ask for anything different...no Tweezer Reprise encore! YES! That YEM just floored me. I couldn`t think of a better way to say "See ya in a couple years." Definitely a must buy in Nick`s Pick`s Top 5 shows ever seen.
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