This was without a doubt my craziest Phish experience. My cousin and another buddy cruised down from Hamilton, Ontario for the two nights. It's about a 7-8 hour trip. My cousin and I had tix but our buddy did not. He was able to wrangle some in the lot. After night one, we didn't have a hotel so we just drove aimlessly on the interstate and finally said screw it and crashd in my old beat up Ford Tempo. I affectionately still call it the "Phishmobile".

The next morning the car wouldn't start. We were freaking. We slept at a rest stop and so we pushed it around to the service area and there was a mechanic there. We thought it was the starter so he drove to get a new one but it didn't work. He eventually gave up and we towed the car to a mechanic shop and left the key inside the shop drop box. We then had to take a cab to the venue to hit the show. We were several miles away from the venue so the fare was $60. We planned on taking a bus home the next day.

When we got out of the cab, the first person we see is an old friend from back in Hamilton. She was down at the shows with her boyfriend and they had a hotel and it was just the two of them and they said they could take the 3 of us back home in their back seat. SCORE!!!!!

We then proceeded to party and my cousin realizes he lost his wallet. We're right back in the gutter again. We go back to where we got out of the cab and we're checking the ground the whole way. No dice. We call the cab company and she was just dropping off a fare and she had the wallet. UNREAL!!! It cost another $150 for her to bring it back to us. Finally my cousin has his wallet and his ticket.

By show time I was so amped b/c of the shit we just went through.

Set 1 was standard fare for 1999. Nothing crazy until we got to Vultures. Love this tune and I have never seen it since. Stash is my favorite song and when they launched into that, I lost it. After the craziness with the car and finding a ride home from friends when we were miles away from home and the wallet fiasco, I knew this Stash was meant for me. I have never seen this song since and I beg for it everytime I see a show. It seems to elude me. This version may not rank up there with the all time great Stashes but, for me, it is my favourite ever live Phish performance just because of the emotion of that moment. The jam is so dark and spacey and Trey's builds it up just right to a sweet climax that makes me remember that night everytime I hear it.

Set 2 was solid. Glowstick war during the ambient jam to start off was cool and then a solid YEM>Caspian. Bathtub is great as well and the Misty Mountain Hop was great to see. I got the bustout of it in Toronto on summer tour so it was cool to get this one again. Love my Zeppelin. My cousin and I still talk about the adventures to this day and I know the karma was riding high this night. Thanks to the big guy upstairs that made sure we made it back safe after this show.

On an unbelieveable side note, I called the mechanic a few days later. They said it was dirty battery terminals and they wouldn't charge me anything. I wound up taking a bus from Hamilton down to the town outside of Albany (forgot name - 8 hour ride) and when I get to the town I call a cab to take me to the mechanic shop. It's the same cab driver from show night. She said she would have never brought the wallet all the way back and she would have just mailed it to my cousin. However, she looked inside and saw his ticket was in there so she said that was the only reason she brought it all the way back to Albany. Talk about friggin Karma. I picked up the car and drove another 7 hours back that sameday. 15 hours on the road for the day but memories to last a lifetime. What a long strange trip........