(Originally published on the legacy Phish.net site many years ago...)

Just got back from NYE show... I didn't keep a setlist but they played just about everything you would expect (i.e., no big surprises... I think they had this one pretty much figured out before they hit the stage). Not to say that's bad.. the show was killer! They were really on fire.

The "New Aud" is a pretty cool place, great dance floor, unfortunately no alchohol sales (but you could buy some non-alcoholic brew for only $3.95!!) I was near the soundboard during the first set and the sound kind of sucked, couldn't hear a word being said (what did Trey say during a song break in the first set???)... but after that I moved up front and the sound was fantastic!!!

High points for me included... divided sky (1st set), runaway jim, and the entire third set... the most incredible Mike's Groove I have ever heard. The jam in Mike's song was driving! This was a very sizable chunk of the third set. Forgot 1st encore, second was rocky top (yay!) and then tweezer reprise ended the show.

Wierd points: I thought Antelope (2nd set) was pretty strange, halfway thru the beginning part Trey started doing the end part (y'know the chords where they are singing "run run run run run run run run"), and it was otherwise generally wierd. Squirming coil (3rd set) was pretty strange too, but sweet! And it took about three or four tries to get started on Esther, which was killer (one of my favorite tunes ;-} (And what was that thing Trey was doing at the beginning of Wilson? Some kind of little digital voice thing saying "fuck you fuck you" ... he was getting a big kick out of it).

Anyway, to sum up... hot show, great performance, no skeletons from the closet.