7/1/2000 was my last show of the four night run my sister and I did for summer tour. After the 6/30 show, we had our driving routes through Hartford down, knowledge of the crazy parking lot system, and were even meeting up with some new friends that we had met on the lawn the night before. The weather was perfect, Phish had just killed it for me for three nights in a row, I believe Mike was wearing a neon green sleeveless tee with white slacks, as only Mike Gordon could, and I was ready to leave it all out on the table this night before I had to go back to work the next day.

As with HA HA HA the night before, the Buried Alive opener set the tone and remains the only version I've been lucky enough to see so far. Wolfman's Brother came in at a little under ten minutes and built up a standard type 1 jam to get the juices flowing so to speak. Axilla came through the door throwing punches out of the Wolfman's jam, followed by Poor Heart. This was the first of a few bluegrass tunes we would hear throughout the night which I felt built on the Ginseng Sullivan the night before. A standard good Sample fed from Poor Heart and then went into a short but sweet Tube.

Almost like a nod to the Europe 1997 tour, Beauty of My Dreams added to the bluegrass followed by a beautiful Roggae. I was on the lawn and there were a bunch of white balloons getting bounced around my region, it felt very serene.

If you are a fan of Vultures and have never heard the version from this show, do yourself a favor and check it out. It is the best Vultures I have ever seen and one of the best I've heard. It builds to a tremendous peak and comes slamming down with ferocity. As the Vultures left our bones, the only logical next step was to live beneath the Dirt. We caught our breath before witnessing a raucous SOAM to melt our faces to close the first set. Set 1 didn't feel as crazy as Set 1 the night before, but it was still absolutely solid and well worth a listen.

Gotta Jibboo opened Set 2 for roughly the first thirteen minutes never leaving the groove but remaining in the pocket. Bug put us all in a really good mood out on the lawn and we were having fun. It had high energy and went for eleven minutes. It ended with a spacey ominous tone that clicked off into First Tube. It was the second one I was catching from my run, and I couldn't have been happier about it. I love this song, its Santana-esque tone always hits me just right. It remains my favorite song from the entire Farmhouse album. This was a great version that even Trey was pumped up for.

I was more surprised to hear the second Mike's Song of the run when it emerged from the ashes of First Tube. It was much different than the Holmdel version however, and stayed the course of the "classic" Mike's jam instead of the dark techno from New Jersey. Mike's transitioned to a light and spacey F Major key and Fishman was riding the hi-hit with intermittent snare rim hits. I thought for sure Hydrogen would rise, but I was surprised to hear Swept Away>Steep instead. They were both played very well. From the aftermath of Steep arose the aforementioned hi-hit/snare rim combo again and Hydrogen swept us away in a light euphoria. Mike and Fishman conversed on the Weekapaug intro out of Hydrogen and the light fluffiness was pushed aside to get back into rage mode. I danced hard because I figured this was the set closer and the last breaths of my Phish experience for the summer. I was really shocked to hear Nelli Kane merge out of the Weekapaug jam, but I remembered hearing the tease in the Runaway Jim the day before. I was delighted because it meant the show kept going and it added to the bluegrass theme of the weekend.

The siren indicating Ghost sounded off from the last moments of Nelli Kane and I was filled with excitement. Let me tell you about Nelli Kane's Ghost; whoa, Nelli! Ghost stays pretty straight-forward until it starts picking up speed around the 7:30 mark. At the 9:30 mark it had transformed into a powerful freight train. At 11:00 it was teasing a fast riff from the jam in the 6/28 Bathtub Gin, by 14:30 it was a high speed Lamborghini, and at 15:30 it was a boiling tea kettle. Luckily there was no roof over Meadows Music Theater in Hartford, because it would have been blown off. I think Kuroda hit every button at once because I can't even describe how crazy the lights were. The tea kettle was taken off of the stove so Trey could pour us a cup and thank us all for a wonderful time, and then it was placed back on the burner for one last boiling exclamation point ending! This show undeniably went out with a bang and delivered us all our bang for our buck.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps felt like Trey was telling us it was hard to say good-bye. It was a solid version with a really tight and heartfelt guitar solo.

My sister and I looked at each other gleefully and contently as the house lights came on. It was an amazing run of four shows that remain high on some of my most fond Phish memories. The second night did not have the same kind of magic as the first night, but it was still a great show. Vultures, Melt, and Ghost are all very exceptional, especially Vultures and Ghost.