[1] A Love Supreme tease; unfinished. [2] Sung over an atypical jam that bridged Birds and Heavy Things. [3] Trey improvised a verse noting: “There's no song about Paul Languedoc, and there's no song about Kuroda; there's only one about Carini, and his lumpy head!" Trey then jokingly talked about the Meatstick Dance being a fad in Japan; the band subsequently sung a verse in Japanese. [4] Lyrics altered to reference Tokyo, the Meatstick Dance, and sushi. [5] Meatstick teases in the intro.
Notes: Birds contained a tease of A Love Supreme and was unfinished. Catapult was sung over an atypical jam that bridged Birds and Heavy Things. This gig featured an eventful Meatstick: Sofi Dillof made a guest appearance for the Meatstick dance. Several fans ran on stage and were chased off by Pete Carini and then by Bart Butler, both of whom Trey thanked. Trey improvised a verse noting: “There’s no song about Paul Languedoc, and there’s no song about Kuroda; there’s only one about Carini, and his lumpy head!” Trey then jokingly talked about the Meatstick Dance being a fad in Japan; the band subsequently sang a verse in Japanese. The lyrics to Cities were altered to reference Tokyo, the Meatstick Dance, and sushi. Antelope included Meatstick teases in the intro. At the end of the second set, Trey thanked the crew (particularly Carini, for being a good sport). Trey mentioned how much of a “home show” it is for the band to play in Holmdel, and led one final Meatstick tease.
There was a half-assed attempt to recite Destiny Unbound from the crowd as they walked out for the second set. This had been planned I believe by phish.net ( I def could be wrong) well before tour began. Anyways, the Destiny would have to wait a couple more years but the Birds that followed was $$$ as well as the rest of the second set. I remember reading an interview with Trey after tour where he claimed this show to be is favorite of 2000. Drowned>RnR is the best segue I've ever seen live. Very energetic and continues through set 2. Absolute ROCKING SHOW. 4.5/5 Feel feel feel feel the HEAT!!!
Set 1 (which is pretty short by Phish standards) gets off to a reasonable start with Funky Bitch and a pretty good Wilson, then shifts to another level with a very good Limb by Limb that climbs the (Type I) jamming ladder and hits a huge peak at the 8:30 mark, cools back down, then peaks again at the 11:30 mark before returning to the main theme. Then comes the set's big moment - a Drowned that gallops along before hitting a quiet, repetitive groove, almost like the jam is gathering itself, before launching into a major-chord jam that, like the jamming chart says, will remind you of the more pumped-up Gins in Phish's history (although one wonders about the fact that they played a very similar type of jam in, yep, a Gin the previous night). Still, it's a fine jam worth hearing, and the jam segues very easily into Rock & Roll, which is a strong way to close a very good 1st set.
The Birds that starts Set 2 zips along for a couple minutes before Trey leads things into a more relaxed range (I *guess* it sounds like "Acknowledgment" from A Love Supreme, but the resemblance is pretty slight, and I say that as somebody that thinks it's there in the 6/3/11 DWD), then the jam briefly heads into major-key ground again before getting dark and grimy, Trey adding some interesting effects with either his guitar or (more likely) his keyboard, Mike taking over the jam and walking his basslines through the electronic muck. The band then rolls into Catapult, keeping the darkness going while Trey builds some loops, then Page steps to the forefront as the jam starts dying out before Trey starts up one last loop...which serves as the bridge to Heavy Things. Heavy Things is fine, but that bridge between the songs is pretty neat.
Sand then brings things back to a darker zone; a good chunk of the jam is pretty boring, Trey dicking around with his keyboard while the groove just goes on and on to the point where it sounds like a backing track, but then Trey gets back on the guitar and piles on some nasty noise to save things a little. I do like this style of jamming a good deal, and I like Sand as a vehicle for that kind of jamming, but this Sand didn't hit my sweet spot (compare it to the 12/8/99 version, which explores a lot of the same areas, but at least the whole time the band, specifically Trey, is *doing something*, and the jam builds pretty well - here, the jam just goes, and then it's back to the main theme). Meatstick is Meatstick - I could just be a bad fan, but they ALL sound the same - and I find myself losing interest, but Cities and Walk Away perk me back up, and then comes a peppy Antelope, played with late-90s minimalism but at mid-90s speed (I do love Page's Antelope piano playing); it's a reasonably good Antelope, if not in my personal pantheon or anything. The rest of the show is standard stuff.
Final thoughts...gosh. The first set is probably the best set of the 6/28-29 run. The second set has a very good jam, a nice Antelope, and everything in between is just not that great IMO. Still, the first set is enough for me to rate this show higher than the day before's. Drowned/R&R is available in SBD, so seek that out at the very least.
Ahhhh yes this is what I'm talking about. For those of you who write off 99 and 2000 shame on you. I personally love techno Phish and this show is apex of my affection. This show was a wild one to attend and holds up extremely well on tape. The first set is perfect! Funky Bitch is raunchy, in a good way. Mike sings the shit out of it previewing his stellar play all night long. Wilson is Phish metal at its finest. Limb is solid as usual. The set closeing combo of Drowned>RNR is huge. The crowd was in a frenzy throughout and the boys new it. Classic! After a 1st set like that I was expecting a more laid back 2nd . . . WRONG! Birds is an absolute monster. I won't even try to give a play by play its just too far out there. Towards the end of insanity that was birds they fall smack into Catapult. Beautiful tranisiton while keeping the trippiness. Towards the end of Catapult someone trips a loop (Trey I think) and low and behold they loop right in to Heavy Things. Now now before you scoff at this call give it a listen. The first 30 seconds are accentuated by this digital loop that really sets this version apart from any other. The groove is infectious coupled by the return of the loop 2 more times. Clocking in at over 8 minutes this is by far the best heavy things ever! Sand is just sinister. Mr. Rave meet Mr. funk. Enough said. Japanese meatstick is hilarious, but this is no novelty version. This Meatstick rages!!! Cities is short and to the point as is walk away as if acting as a warm up for Antelope. Above average version for sure. The rest of the show is solid but the first 2 hours of this one is pure Ecstacy! Yet another crazy show at the Alien Mother Ship in beautiful New Jersey.
I didn't get to see as many shows in 2000 as I would have liked to...but I'm glad I caught the two night run at PNC...two of my favorite "go to" shows these days...
Highlights:
Set I: not the longest set...but the one part that stands out is the Drowned...one of my favorite versions...I actually forgot about this...until I listened to it again recently and it raged...great segue into Rock and Roll...
Set II: BOAF...not one of my favorite songs..but a decent version
Sand > Meatsick > Cities > Walk Away > Antelope...absolute best part of this set...defintely worth the listen...
6/28/00 raged! Would 6/29? You bet!!! The entire show had a very Big Cypress theme in my opinion.
Lawn baby! Funky Bitch got the party funky right away, Wilson had us all united in chant and was a good, heavy version. Limb By Limb was over ten minutes and had solid type 1 jamming, building up to some brilliant peaks. However, everyone will remember this show for two things. The first thing is the Drowned>Rock and Roll that owns the second quarter to end set 1. Sick? Ridiculous? Amazing? Yes to all of those adjectives and to many more. Period.
I got rained on during the intermission but it stopped just in time for the beginning of set 2.
I'm sure the chant for Destiny Unbound sounded like "BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH" on stage, so the alarm clock going off intro to BOAF shut everybody up. (The irony is that Destiny Unbound would be played for the first time in over a decade on 2/28/03 out of BOAF). This could possibly be the very first "Angry Birds." It was a monster, like the big, red bird. This version would kill many pigs on the first try and get three stars without a doubt. It even had it's own Catapult attached. The guys from ROVIO that made "Angry Birds" may have heard this version first.
Everyone was THRILLED to hear Heavy Things. Really. THRILLED. I've seen a rubber band. And I've seen a peanut stand. I've even seen a needle wink it's eye. But I've seen just about everything when I've seen everyone THRILLED for Heavy things. Honest to God.
Sand was dark and sinister techno, even darker than the Mike's the night before. It was the complete opposite of Heavy Things, but equally received.
After Sand is when the the second thing people will remember about this night happened. The show took a turn to the ridiculous, but in a great way. Meatstick had memories of Big Cypress rushing back to me, and before my eyes was born the first Japanese Meatstick. Hilarious! Carini was mentioned, Bart tackled a dude on stage, Trey said he wish he could have us all on stage and brought Bart back out, just a lot of fun antics. Meatstick>Cities was fun, especially the Japanese Meatstick references. Walk Away was rocking, Antelope was RAGING and had the little Meatstick tease in the beginning. After that Antelope, the band somehow had enough energy to bust out Frankenstein, (what!?!). Show over, right? Wrong. People can say what they want about Velvet Sea, but this version was once again for us out on the lawn like If I could was the day before. It was beautiful and ended with the Meatstick tease, book-ending the night and referencing the incredible Velvet Sea>Meatstick experience from Big Cypress that we were all still feeling. Trey even spoke again right before the ending, expressing how much he and Page loved playing in Jersey at PNC and thanked the crew. Character Zer0 was a good send off to Hartford, but the main speaker on the lawn blew out and lost the signal, so the lawn experienced a very low and muffled Zer0. It was all good though. Both nights of PNC 2000 were OFF THE HOOK and are must have shows from 2000.
