PHISH, FRIDAY 07/25/2003
VERIZON WIRELESS AMPHITHEATRE - CHARLOTTE
Charlotte, NC

The drive from Deer Creek was an especially long one. We dropped Eyesoftheworld off at the Indianapolis airport on 7/24. Two of my friends from Denver that were also doing the whole tour joined our group so that meant there were 4 people in my car - packed to the hilt to say the least. I got my first shower in 7 days, for that I was very happy. Dirty hippy indeed! We stayed in a motel on the border of West Virginia and Virginia on the night of the 24th setting ourselves up for a 2.5 hour drive to get to the venue. Just like my experience in 99 at this venue, getting in is a b****. We met up w/ djancy75 at a gas station and carpooled in w/ him. I think we got on lot around 5'ish after sitting in line for at least an hour and a half. What is it w/ this place, why does it have to be so difficult to get to lot? I don't get it and we would have the same issues a couple days later in Raleigh. Get your s*** together North Carolina, I need 4 hours of good lot time, not two!! Chilled in the lot w/ my crew, djancy75’s crew and eventually met up w/ the ATL/VA crew; hommy, spcwrnglr and met: bina_j, swright, Freedawg, CBD and I know I am forgetting at least one person that I talked to for a bit sorry! Also, ran into nestamarley and his girl whom I had not seen since Bonner Springs, so we caught up a little bit. I was by myself for this show on the lawn. Charlotte has metal stands in front of the lawn, and I plopped myself down in the second row DFC. Best place to be if you are stuck on the lawn. I had a lot of the row to myself so plenty of flailing around room for yours truly!

SET 1: Funky Bitch: 'Bout time we got the Bitch! Nice and rocking. >

Chalk Dust Torture: Very jammed out, almost 12 minutes. Unfortunately, there was barely even a climax at the end so that threw me off a little bit.

Two Versions of Me: At least it wasn’t in the middle of set two. I grabbed a beer and got back in time for…

Bathtub Gin: Nice! Jamming Bathtub here, easily the highlight of the first set for me. Around 11 minutes Page and Trey really lock up well and play off each other very nicely. I don't remember having a problem at the show hearing Mike, but listening to the soundboard right now and I can't hear him at all during this thick jam, what's up? At 14 minutes the jam slows up a bit and features some nice playing on Page's part. Trey hits up that crunchy guitar tone at 15 minutes w/ Page funking away behind him. At 15:30 he hits this really melodic theme - very serene. Trey returns to original theme at 17:49 and the band follows very smoothly. Excellent Bathtub - not as good as Shoreline but better than Alpine's. After the show I found out a member of our crew got arrested for smoking down during Gin. Total undercovers that looked nothing like "cops". Be careful in Charlotte!

Limb By Limb: Shared an attitude adjustment two beautiful North Carolina girls behind me. If either of you two happen upon this, will one of you marry me? Nice build up in this Limb that explodes at 9:45. Smoking LxL.

Back on the Train: Second of the tour. Much improved over the Bonner Springs version which was quite sloppy and tentative. It's no Nassau but it's a good little funky jam that I had fun dancing/flailing too!>

Horn: Standard, pretty darn tight. >

Golgi Apparatus: Standard and tight. >

Character Zero: Beer run. Beat the set break traffic and enjoyed watching the hippies get their headbang on. Gin. After the runs at Alpine and Deer Creek you can see the band is doing its best to dial it back up to that energy level, but it never got there during this first set. Sick Gin though.

SET 2: Drowned: At the opening notes of this, I just started going ape****. I hadn't seen this since 10/5/00 and just love it when Phish covers this classic Who tune. This Drowned would not disappoint at all. There isn't anything too wild and crazy about this Drowned but is surely never gets boring by any means. It is always a treat to hear this tune I think, especially in the all-important second set opener slot. Trey catches a really nice groove at 11.5 and rides this into a killer segue ->

Kung: Again, I am going ape shit at the intro to the lyrics. May I take this opportunity to say that what they played behind the lyrics is some funky a** ****! Crunchy, crunchy chords from Trey here, you must get this on disc and listen to it yourself. A lot of people around me seemed to have no clue as to what this was which makes it that much more exciting! Classic Phish, wacked lyrics and intense all the way through. Fishman was having a blast w/ this! Absolutely loved it! ->

Twist: Good version and it keeps up the sinister feel that Kung managed to create. ->

Heavy Things: Amazing segue here people. Even though I cannot believe this gets mid second set placement, my jaw was on the floor purely because of the smooth segue.

Harry Hood: Nice! Very typical Hood up until 12:20 when Trey takes it into a new and exciting space. Much edgier than what you would expect from a "normal" Hood. Until the Vegas Hood, the last thing I expected from this song was for it to make a left turn past 10-12 minutes and see the band take it for a spin into space. That's what they did tonight. As a matter of fact, I have written next to Hood on my setlist that it "lost me. Certainly is not a bad thing, it's something I look for in a Phish jam, like one of those times where you think to yourself "What the hell is this song again? Oh yeah, it's still HOOD!" At 19 minutes it gets really quiet, and I was expecting it to segue into something. Nope. One minute later Trey and Fish urge the band to put their collective feet back on the gas pedal. Again though it meanders back to space, really quite psychedelic. 26.5 sees a slow progression back to ending theme of Hood. After all that craziness that preceded it, I was really expecting a much better, bigger build up and climax but this when came and went like a whisper in the night. Oh well, this band is not afraid to take chances. After the feel good part, they jam a bit until Fish busts out the high-hat; segue into >

David Bowie: Never saw this coming after what preceded it, thought they were done. Beginning is a tad rough. Nothing like Phoenix thankfully. Big time Tweezer tease by Trey at 10:20. The ending coda is long and stretched out and is finally done at 15.5 minutes. Good Bowie, but not as good as the heater from Alpine a few shows ago.

ENCORE: The Star Spangled Banner: I could have never called this! I really thought that they sounded very good on this. By the time this was over it was 10 after 11pm so I thought for sure they were done.

Bug: Not done by a long shot! I was really surprised when they played this in regard to the curfew issue. I really, really like Bug in the encore slot. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The lyrics to this tune hit home for me.

Replay Value: Bathtub Gin, Limb by Limb, Kung, Harry Hood

Summary: Great way to end up this evening in Charlotte. Very jealous of djancy75's front row seat! Atta boy! Our friend that was arrested was ticketed and let go but has to return to NC sometime in September I think to go to court. He said there were quite a few people that had fell prey to the same type of undercovers. I have seen plenty of undercovers in the lots before but never seen or heard of them being inside a show. IMO that is just way to over the top. Onto Atlanta and ridiculous 7th row DFC seats for me and Tony courtesy of LMSYEM. I would rate this show as a 4.2 out of 5.