12/10/1999 was a very interesting night. I scored two tickets from my sister who was going to the next night but couldn't make it out to the first show in Philly. I ended up going with my friend Mike from Rutgers because he had a car and had never seen Phish before.

We sat on the second level right behind the stage and it was pretty amazing to watch a show from that perspective for the first time. I couldn't believe how big some of Kuroda's lights were. Tweezer opener- HELL yeah! Uncle Ebeneezer meandered to a standard but good Bouncing Around the Room. I'm a big fan of the Horn guitar outro and this one suited me just fine. Heavy Things, Dogs Stole Things, and MMGAMOIO pushed through the first quarter into the second quarter. Roggae was psychedelic and serene. Birds of a Feather brought the pace back to the set, Guyute has always been welcomed, and Loving Cup brought the set to a close.

Gotta Jibboo opened the second set for the first fifteen minutes with a type-1 jam. When Jibboo concluded the rolling toms signaled the beginning of The Wedge, which I was very happy to hear. The pace of the second set was building as the striking hi-hat indicated David Bowie had arrived. The Bowie took a strange type-2 turn in the outro jam and suddenly became reggae. I did not see this coming at all. Have Mercy slowed down the momentum that the Bowie had built but it was played well. At this point Phish decided to take a turn to the ridiculous as the HYHU emerged and Trey jumped on the drums. Fishman did his best impersonation of Neil Diamond during Cracklin' Rosie as he ran laps around the stage clashing the BAH cymbals over his head. Twist followed up after all the theatrics were over. It was a slow groove and did not really "bring it" like the end of a second set should be brought. The same could be said about the Waste closer. I was a little disappointed with the way the end of the third quarter and fourth quarter went down but the Ride Captain Ride encore is what stands out the most to me about this show. I loved hearing that song and this version remains the only one that I have seen.

Leaving the show is what also stands out to me about this particular night. Anyone who has ever been to a Phish show in Philly or Camden should expect to find a fair amount of balloons in the parking lot afterwards because that's just how it is. Anyway, this night was a wet, cold December night. It wasn't raining when Mike and I were in the car line leaving the lot, but everything was wet and damp. We stopped in front of these two dudes standing on the hood of their car, both with a bottle of beer in one hand and a balloon in the other. The one guy was dancing but he slipped and amazingly fell off of his car. The first thing that hit the ground of the parking lot was the bottle and it shattered. The next thing that hit was the dude's arm as it slammed into the broken glass. His balloon sputtered around in the air above his head and deflated. I was shocked at the scene of this and I was suddenly driving away. My buddy had not seen any of this happen and made a right out of the lot. I saw other people coming to his aid from my window so I didn't feel too bad for not directly helping the situation.

About a week later I ran into a friend from my hometown that was at the show. He told me that he had a great time except that one of the guys that he knew at the show fell off of his car and cut his wrist. He had to get stitches. I couldn't believe it! I told him that I saw it happen as I was leaving the lot. The guy turned out to be alright when it was all said and done. The moral of the story is don't stand on the hoods of wet cars with beer and balloons because it leads to no good.