Set 1: Down with Disease, Corinna, Wolfman's Brother > Limb by Limb, Everyday I Have the Blues (w/ BB King), Thrill Is Gone (w/ BB King), Rock Me Baby (w/ BB King)
Set 2: Halley's Comet, Harry Hood, Heavy Things, Twist > Jam >Twist, All of These Dreams, Waves, Sample in a Jar, Chalkdust Torture
Encore: Farmhouse
Highlights: B.B. King, Wolfman's, Hood, Waves and Sample in a Jar.
There was no traffic coming to the show, and we got there rather quickly. While standing in line I met these two guys, and one of them gave me a joint (sprinkled with hash) because he said, "I had a nice smiling face". It turned out that he had been to several of the same Dead shows I was at in the early 1990s, including the infamous Omni, Atlanta, GA show when the Dead opened with Here Comes Sunshine.
Gil, Spider, KK and Rachel found us shortly before the show started, and we got to hang out. Just after 8:06 PM the boys took the stage. Molly and I were sitting in the middle of the upper level, at the center of the venue. Not a bad seat at all for Molly’s third show.
I was calling for a Carini opener. Instead they busted out Down with Disease. From the get-go, I saw that Trey was on, and having a good time. Mike was a little bit louder than the last time I saw Phish (my only complaint about NYE was that I couldn’t hear Mike). The boys had a nice jam out of DWD.
Corinna is a rare tune that they play. Completely unexpected, but a good version. Page’s solo was sweet and made me happy.
Wolfman’s Brother is a tune that I had sort of called (I wrote it down on a piece of paper the other day). I was really pumped at first, but after a couple of minutes I realized that I was actually bummed out. I wanted to hear something different. But a couple of minutes into the jam, I changed my mind. The middle of Wolfman’s had a great jam, and it ended up being the highlight of the set.
Molly called Limb by Limb. I know it’s one of Fishman’s favorite tunes to play, and I fell in love with Limb by Limb during the Japan shows in 2000. The ending jam is always unexpected, and I usually forget that they pull out some funky ass shit, which they did. That was a close second to the Wolfman jam.
B.B. King came out to play the rest of the set. At first I didn’t know who was sitting in. A stagehand pulled out a folding chair and placed it in the middle of the stage, and out walked an older, chubby black dude, with a sleek black guitar. It was B.B. King. I knew it was not going to be just another normal Phish show.
They opened up the B.B. King set with the standard, Everyday I Have the Blues. It was sloppy and unorganized, and it almost seemed the boys were slightly hesitant to do their own thing. It was great to hear B.B. on vocals, his old scratchy voice still kicks my ass. The fifteen-minute version had its moments, but again, it was sloppy.
The next tune was Thrill Is Gone, and I got a Jerry Garcia vibe. I was thinking about his smoky version with David Grisman that I used to listen to non-stop when I lived in Seattle. Mike was the star of this tune, and the bass at the beginning was the highlight of the B.B. King set.
I thought they were going to end the set after Thrill. Phish had clocked an 80-minute set, and I figured that was it, but they boys kept pushing. Parts of the crowd were slightly restless with the B.B. set, and I felt sorry for the nay-sayers, because after all, a Phish show has nothing to do with them… it’s always about the music. Whether it’s a Phish song or not, it shouldn’t matter. And Phish didn’t seem to care. They had a rare opportunity to play with the man who, in some circles would be considered the godfather of modern rock and roll. It was a treat for them and they went with the moment. I admired the fact they said, "Fuck the crowd, fuck the setlist time, we’re playing with B.B. King!"
The B.B. King set was solid, and I didn’t mind the distraction at all. His appearance made the night and show special, and in a decade, the show will be referred to as the B.B. King show, when told by me during the occasionally antedote or Phishy story. A rare special treat indeed. The set ended at 9:44 PM (my time) and the final timing was about 1 hour and 36 minutes. One of the longer sets of Phish I had seen in a while.
Setbreak came and went, and I wandered into the bathroom, and was thoroughly amused by the comments from the guys waiting in line to take a leak.
"Dude, I hear that Avril LaVigne is coming out to play the entire second set."
Snickers went all around the Men’s room, until the guy’s friend replied.
"Dude, I’m sooooo, looking forward to that, eh?!?!"
That’s when I lost it. I also saw the "Mike Gordon look-alike" that I met in Japan. He was standing next to me as we waited to take a leak.
"Hey man, I know you from Japan."
"Yes, you do," he said.
Before the setbreak ended we wandered over to Section 209 to find everyone else. I eventually found Gil, Spider and Rachel and we sat down with them for a few minutes. Gil told me the sad story about how KK lost their smoking apparatus. I laughed, not because it was humorous, just because of the irony of the situation. Eventually KK climbed the steep steps to their seats to join everyone. We got back to our seats just as the lights went down.
I was still hoping for a Carini opener, but I heard Trey playa rift or two on his guitar and I swear I heard a Reba tease. Even Molly heard it and she got excited. Alas, it wasn’t a Reba opener, it was a rare Halley’s Comet. I expected them to break it out in Nassau (the last two times they gigged at Nassau they played Halley’s). It was sweet, and the jam was exciting and dark. One of the funnier moments of the night was in the middle of Halley’s when Trey stopped to play, and quickly bent down to tie his shoe, before he ripped into a jam.
I wasn’t expecting Harry Hood at all either. Since they recently played it at Cincy a few nights before, I thought they’d save it for the Philly show. Nope. Good too, because Hood rocked.
There was a weak glow ring, glow stick war, but that’s OK. The jam out of Hood was sweat, and not forced (like I thought it was on NYE). Molly was excited, super excited. Hood is one of her favorite songs. At a random point in the song I looked over at Page, and at the same time, some kid from the audience threw a glowstick in his vicinity. Page kinda ducked to the side, but kept playing, and all I could think about was Boogie!! And the infamous Boogie glowstick incident at the Nassau show in October of 1999.
Heavy Things was the next song, and I usually am indifferent about this song. Sometimes I really like it, other times I could do without it. But during the show, I was slightly disappointed. It was a solid version, but I had hoped for something else. I got stoned during Heavy Things.
Twist Around was an interesting choice. The Twist parts were OK, but the jam in the middle of it was odd, eerie, tripped out, and obscenely spacey. I loved it.
All of These Dreams was next. Just when I thought they might go the entire show without a new song, but here you go. I know Zobo thinks All of These Dreams is one of the worst Phish songs ever, but I have to disagree. I like it, but not in the middle of that set! At least they didn’t play it as the encore.
Waves... I had hoped they would play Waves! And I actually called it and blogged it too! After hearing Waves on NYE (a personal highlight for me) I got hooked on that new tune. Of course Trey went off, and the song Waves is just what’s it’s about. Waves and waves of Phish just hit the back of the arena and rippled back to the stage and it kept going. The yellow lights (great job by Chris Kuroda) were fun, and set the tone for the high needling frantic energy. As I said Trey was going off, and at 11:26 Trey peaked. He hit his high-water mark.
I thought that perhaps Waves would end the set. But Trey kept it going with an old classic Sample in a Jar. It was high energy and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. Again I thought this would be the end of the set, but Trey decided that he needed one more song. Chalkdust Torture.
Chalkdust is one of Trey’s favorite songs, and I guess he was feeling it that night. It seemed like he woke up a little late, and wanted to pack it all into the last few songs. The second half the Set 2 was all Trey. From the middle of Twist on to the end of the set, he took over and kicked ass. It wasn’t the tightest set, nor the most mind blowing, but in the end, it was splendid.
Farmhouse is an old favorite song of mine since I first heard it back in 1997. The vocals were good, and the lights were the best for this tune. I know Molly was disappointed with the encore, and that’s fine. But I walked away happy (I would have been irked if they played Coil, or something I detest, or a cheesy song from Round Room, like Friday or Mexican Cousin… I enjoy both, but not for an encore!)
The final set time was about 90 minutes. For a total of nearly three plus hours of Phish. Not too shabby, plus B.B. King’s appearance made the night a special event.
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