Every Curtain I had seen for the over seven years previous to this night, I had always not so secretly been pining for them to slow down the ending and drop into With.
I couldn't fucking believe that they actually did it this night. I dropped to my knees with my hands towards the sky and tears of joy in my eyes.
Absolutely gorgeous. They really did it justice too.

The rest of the show, egh, the first set dies a horrible death after Tube. and the second set is intermittent at best and fugeddaboutit after CEP. But man, I'll remember that Curtain With forever!

after the 2nd night of this run, phish had to do a whole shit load to top the night before, which came hot on the heels of a pretty nasty show at alpine valley. for 5 years, great phish shows just seemed to constantly happen. well this one started off that way....

my friend my friend: the was a great way to get the crowd back in the game. this was a nice sharp version and it got them warmed up for what was to come...

the curtain with: well this was not even on my radar. they ran through the curtain nicely, and everyone was wondering what was going to come out of it. then trey hits those "slow rift" notes... no shit! well this was a shocker. you could tell they had really rehearsed this one, and they nailed it. surely after all that they would slow it down a bit...

TUBE: what a bang bang bang shot to start the show. this was a decently lengthy tube with a nice funky middle section. fish, page, and gordon laid it down. on the flip side, trey got deep into what was my pet peave of this era... the mini keyboard. you have an amazing keyboard player in the band. you are one of the greatest guitar players ever. why the mini keyboard. i was so happy to see thing gone in '03 upon their return. on the flip side, this was one of the better, more irresistable "mini keyboard" jams i saw. very good tube.

heavy things: well, you gotta pump the new album. after not playing it since alpine, this was a given tonight. decent version, pretty sick of seeing it at this point. went to take a leak.

billy breathes: decent slow phish song. i was walking back in the pavillion. i was just happy i didn't miss anything too hot coming back from the john.

Beauty of my dreams: this is one of my favorite blue grass covers they do. very good version.

free: this banged nicely out of beauty. actually a pretty funny transition. this was more on the rocking side of the free spectrum as opposed to some of the funkier versions. gordon was strong on this version none the less.

axilla: axilla kept the rock and roll vibe rolling. the axilla 2 ending dropped into...

coil: nice way to end a very strong first set

set:

birds of a feather: this was a nice tight version. most people expected to hear it tonight since it hadn't been played on the midwest run yet. after seeing the monster at columbus and the boaf>walkaway at the creek the summer before, it was hard to get too amped on this version. there was some nice page/trey interaction though. solid version

piper: this paired nicely with boaf, and the jam had a similar vibe. it was not completely over the top, but phish took the opportunity to really cut loose, as they tend to do with this song. good stuff

cross eyed and painless: here we go! this was still a pretty rare treat at this point in time. the wailed this one; the whole band was in sync here. it was no 11/2/96, but hell, what is!?! still this one really got the crowd gassed and ready to really hammer down the 3rd night of deer creek...

caspain: well shit, here we go. phish occasionally just bones it, and this is probably the most glaring example of their ability to do that. the laid the foundation for a really hot show, and then they go caspian. do people like thi song? really, they do? well, maybe they'll pick it up from here...

meatstick: hmm....

enc:
velvet sea: ok, they boned the end of the 2nd set, let's end it strong. hmm... pretty weak

well, everything up to caspain was gravy, but they sent us to columbus wondering what if they had brought it to end that show. keeps me from saying its the best 3 night run they had done.

highlights: the curtain with and cross eyed and painless

Set 1 starts off so sick My friend, Curtain with, Tube WOW!!! Then the first set drops off a cliff. They did add a Free towards the end of the set some what saving back half of set 1.

Set 2 Great set!

encore: Sucks

PHISH, WEDNESDAY 07/12/2000
DEER CREEK MUSIC CENTER
Noblesville, IN

SET 1:

My Friend, My Friend[1] - Always welcome as a show opener.

The Curtain With: Incredible bust out. Never saw this coming but I did know what it was when they went into the With part. Incredible, soaring jam out of this one. Best ever? Amazing either way and a very cool moment, glad I was there for this. Highly recommended.

Tube: Fun jam! Place was on fire for this. >

Heavy Things: You could hear Trey messing with some of this during Tube so no surprise when they started this one up.

Billy Breathes: Standard.

Beauty of My Dreams: Standard. >

Free: Definitely a good jam here – tons of reverse reverb from Trey. They took this Free for a ride and it worked very well. Would recommend.

Axilla[2]: Standard.

The Squirming Coil: Might be the weakest Page solo I have heard in Coil.

SET 2:

Birds of a Feather: Standard.

Piper: You can hear bits of that effect that Trey had been messing with this summer that became the centerpiece of the Piper at 9.27.00. Outside of that, this one is pretty much average.

Crosseyed and Painless: Had been chasing this forever and was utterly thrilled when it started up. The ambient space jam the last 5 minutes are exceptional. Would recommend! >

Prince Caspian: Standard. Hated this placement. >

Meatstick: Standard. Hated this placement too. Trey mentions the 7k ticketless outside. “See you at Deer Creek next summer for our 7th straight summer” Yeah, not so much. Anyway - It’s like they just gave up after C&P.

ENCORE:

Wading in the Velvet Sea: Wow. Seriously? If I wouldn’t have been going to Columbus I would have been really bent out of shape. What a weak way to end this show.

Summary: Weird show, really weird. Thought we were in for a heater after the first three tunes of the first set but after that it was almost all downhill. Birds and Piper were fun but nothing to really go crazy over. Crosseyed was awesome but they totally mailed it in after that. Ugh. The rating of 3.809/5 (>50 ratings) from Phish.net seems deadly accurate to me.

Replay Value: The Curtain With, Crosseyed and Painless

[1] Unfinished.
[2] Contained Axilla II ending.

My Friend was unfinished. Tube contained Super Bad teases from Trey. Trey teased San-Ho-Zay in Birds of a Feather and Piper. During Meatstick, Trey dedicated the song to the fans that didn’t get into the show. Curtain With was played for the first time since July 29, 1988 (1,184 shows).

SHOW RATING
Ratings are currently offline.
Overall: 3.809/5 (>50 ratings)
JAM CHART VERSIONS
Tube, Birds of a Feather, Piper, Crosseyed and Painless
TEASES
Super Bad tease in Tube, San-Ho-Zay tease in Birds of a Feather, San-Ho-Zay tease in Piper

1st set. Phish
2nd set. sucked.
e: waste of my 30 bucks.

not how i wanted to end a weekend of Phish>Phil and Friends>Phish.
but... better luck next time. oh wait...