Summer 99 was marred by inconsistent playing both as a tour and within individual shows. In hind sight we now know why. Serious partying before shows permiated the lots as well as back stage. With that being said there is plenty of excellent jamming throughout this tour. This show looks great on paper but unfortunatly doesn't bring home the bacon. The playing here is very sloppy and honestly boring. I am a fan of the layered ambient jams of the late 90's but it sounds like the boys were very high and just couldn't connect with each other. You would think a 22 minute 2001 into DWD would be an epic show piece but here we get aimless wondering. Now thats not to say there aren't some musical high lights. Check out Axilla>Rift and a cool encore with Derick Trucks. Side note: Has there been a show in N.C. where it didn't rain?

The previous reviews are right about a few things; the lot scene, the band's inconsistency really beginning to emerge, etc. But...
I saw plenty of bad shows in '99 and '00 but this one actually ranks among my favorites. It's so swampy and thick. Perfect summer night show. Only other outdoor show from these years i enjoyed as much was the Polaris thunderstorm experience. About 10 minutes of ambient noise before the drop to 2010. My Left Toe ties almost the entire set together. Deep YEM. Make no mistake, the second set was WAY out there, and pretty much an uninterrupted run of intensely psychedelic stuff.
Bad shows aside, this show is exactly why '99 has grown on me over the years. It's great atmosphere music. Their sound was so mindbending back then, and spread across a much larger canvass than they're using now.

Phans are often misguided about Phish in 1999, they call the jams "aimless" and the band disconnected due to drug usage. People are often afraid of what they don't know or understand, and resort to insults and name-calling. Phish did want to continue playing the '97 Funk Jams for the rest of time, they wanted to experiment and learn other styles. Most of 1999 was putting the Siket Disc out as a live performance on stage and is not the result of "rampant drug use" and a band "lost in the party scene." It was being creative with ambient jams and subtle textures. Almost nightly you could hear the band taking risks and getting wayyyy out there... if these shows were payed today, these same critics would be hailing the band for their incredible ingenuity.

Charlotte 7/7/99 - This is the PERFECT ambient jam filled show from the era. Many, many other shows from 1999 have jaw dropping ambient jams and entire sets filled with incredible ambient improvisational jamming, but very few have the complexity and continuity of this two-set apparition from the steamy underbelly of America. Read More: http://phishfarmhouse.blogspot.com/

This was definitely a strange Set II. Those who love bluesy Phish should check out the encore. It rocks!

I totally agree with Frankster. 7-7 and 7-8 were probably the worst shows I ever attended. The band's jamming seemed to have little direction or focus. There were times when the band walked out on stage without a set list and relied on the moment to tell them what to play. Sometimes this worked magically. Not so much on these nights. The lots were marred by nasty vibes and even nastier consumption. This was the only tour I saw needles in large numbers. What's the Use? (which I love) as a second song in the first set? That kinda said it all.

On the other hand, this was the first time I heard Derek Trucks. He made Trey look like a little school boy, shredding through the encore like there was no tomorrow. (Was Trey holding back for the kid?) That goes to show that even at the worst shows I have seen, there were still nuggets of magic.

this show deserves more love than it gets. it starts off slow, and admittedly by the third song "billy breathes" i started wondering if the band was ever gonna shake the cobwebs off.....but once they went into "my mind's....", they finally got things cooking. from that point on, IMO there wasn't a weak song to be heard the rest of the evening. sure, on occasion they meandered a bit with the ambience, but all in all there were much more positives than negatives. derek trucks joining in on the encores was gravy, ending the night with a bang....