intellectual properties

5 years ago this weekend

(scroll down to read setlists. setlists are only interesting to people who were there, i know, but oh how fun they are to read again if you were.)

Phish 2000 Fall Tour + my 24th birthday.

2 nights in vegas –> 1 night in phoenix —>(we skipped the SoCal shows)—> 2 nights at our home venue, Shoreline.

i would say that yes, 9/29, 9/30, and 10/1/00 were the best shows i ever had (see list). it was my birthday weekend. we were in vegas. phish rocked the house. when phish got done rocking the house we all stumbled back outside into the warm desert night and ran through vegas like a bunch of hippies on acid. then we went to phoenix on my birthday (10/1) and it was quieter and small and we were all mostly sober b/c we’d just spent 48 hours out of our heads in vegas and i remember the smiles everyone had on their faces more than anything.

this was just before i started blogging, and the whole thing is sort of hazy, but i just remember it being one of the very best weekends of my life, and other than the warm memories inside i only have a few photos as a reminder:

phish fall tour 2000
thank goodness they made a DVD out of that weekend; it was the best birthday present ever. birthdays are always points at which we stop and measure and take stock, and i know for me it’s valuable to me to celebrate in meaningful ways with the people i love. it’s wonderful to have memories like my 2000 birthday week as a watermark, and even though sometimes it seems like i’m very much a different person than i was 5 years ago (i know some of you might be like what? phish tour? hippie? when was that?), i’m really not. should i be? are you?

9/29/00 – Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV

Soundcheck: Gingeng Sullivan, Mellow Mood

I (1:02): Carini*, Rift, Frankenstein, Mellow Mood, Wilson > Spock’s
Brain > Bathtub Gin > Character Zer0

II (1:00): Dinner and a Movie***, Moma Dance > 2001@, Fluffhead > jam >
Meatstick****, Walk This Way#, Rapper’s Delight## > You Shook Me
(All Night Long)###

Encore (0:04): We’re An American Band####

* – preceeded by a “Wilson” tease and Trey experiencing guitar
problems, forcing techs to come out on 4 occasions, including one
visit from Paul Languadoc to assess the situation
** – last “Spock’s Brain” 06/24/95 (386 shows) according to ZZYZX’s
Phish Stats
*** – last “Dinner and a Movie” 03/01/97 (237 shows) according to
ZZYZX’s Phish Stats
**** – with japanese lyrics and Mike and Trey doing the
Meatstick Dance
@ – w/ Walk This Way tease
# – Aerosmith cover; first time played; with Kid Rock on vocals
## – Sugar Hill Gang cover; first time played; Kid Rock on vocals; Jon
came out and rapped one verse with Kid Rock; Trey went back on
drums and Jon picked up and played Trey’s guitar
### – AC/DC cover; first time played; Kid Rock on vocals, Jon on guitar
(wearing Kid Rock’s hat) and Trey on drums
#### – Grand Funk Railroad cover; second time played – last “We’re an
American Band” 11/16/96 (266 shows) according to ZZYZX’s Phish
Stats; Kid Rock on vocals; included made up lyrics about the
Mandaly Bay casino

Pre-show music was Macy Grey
Kid Rock had been seen riding around the lots in a golf cart and signing autographs before the show

9/30/2000 Thomas & Mack Center – Las Vegas, Nevada

I (1:27): Walfredo*, The Curtain With, Maze, Roggae, I Didn’t Know**,
Mike’s Song -> Simple -> I Saw it Again, Esther*** > Weekapaug
Groove

II (1:09): ****Timber (Jerry), AC/DC Bag, Colonel Forbin’s Ascent# >
Fly Famous Mockingbird##, Twist > Sand### > A Day in the Life####

E (0:13): Emotional Rescue@

* – Trey on keys, Jon on bass, Page on drums, Mike on guitar; last
“Walfredo” 02/22/97 (243 shows) according to ZZYZX’s Phish Stats
** – with “Robert ‘Just call me Joe C’” on vacuum; Trey began to
introduce Jon as Robert before Jon interrupted asking that he just
be called Joe C
*** – last “Esther” 08/09/98 (141 shows) according to ZZYZX’s Phish
Stats; Trey flubs the entire last verse of the song, ending the
song with “She died. Dead.”
**** – as the band returned to the stage, the crowd sang “Happy
Birthday” to Trey for his 36th birthday
# – last “Colonel Forbin’s Ascent” 08/07/98 (143 shows) according to
ZZYZX’s Phish Stats; Trey takes the time to thank the people who
have supported them, including the crew (the greatest crew in the
history of music) and to talk about the hiatus and how they’ll use
it to write songs and recharge (so they can come back and play
another 17 years) after these next 6 shows before talking about the
strange dream he had last night that he was sitting in the middle
of a field on a beautiful day, when suddenly he saw from the
periphary of his vision people walking towards him… an army of
people surrounding him before sitting down. One of them took an
apple and handed it to him and explained that they wanted him to
eat the apple as a gift, but he realized he had no teeth… but
then a giant tooth grew out of his upper gum. But you can’t eat an
apple with one tooth. He began to get nervous that people would
wonder why he wasn’t eating the apple and he had a moment of
panic. Luckily, at that moment, the sun flew closer to the sun than
it had ever been in history, and as a result his first thought was
that the earth would burn up, but instead, the earth acted in the
way that a grape acts… it shrivled and turned into a raisin
version of the earth. The ground wrinkled and became mountains and
the people got crushed together into a big pile. Only moments
before he’d been panicking, but being crushed together, he realized
that all of his senses became much more vivid in the way that a
raisin is more intense tasting than a grape… Sounds, emotions,
love… And just as the earth was becoming a much more rich and
vivid place, he found himself in this pile of people. This pile of
people became a groping pile of love and goo and he realized that
Gamehendge is a state of mind and you don’t have to get there
physically. He decided then that everyone needed to know how simple
it was to turn yourself into a seething pile of goo, so he called
upon the Famous Mockingbird to spread the word about this…
## – last “Fly Famous Mockingbird” 08/07/98 according to ZZYZX’s Phish
Stats
### – with Trey on keyboard
#### – Beatles cover; last “A Day in the Life” 07/03/98 (165 shows)
according to ZZYZX’s Phish Stats
@ – Rolling Stones cover; last “Emotional Rescue” 07/28/98 (150
shows) according to ZZYZX’s Phish Stats; song ended with Trey
setting up a delay loop before he and Mike moved to the front of
the stage and began a bizarre synchonized duel involving them
swinging their guitar and bass at each other and around themselves
while wandering across the front of the stage and putting strange
hats on Page and Jon; at one point Trey and Mike put both the
guitar and bass down on the stage and kicked/stomped the stage
beside them to produce more feedback; in the end Trey finally
“defeated” Mike before the band walked off stage

Pre-show music included The Buena Vista Social Club “Presents Ibraham
Ferrer”, setbreak music included Ali Farka Toure from his album “The
Source” and post show music was Patsy Cline “Crazy”

10/1/00 – Desert Sky Pavilion – Phoenix, Arizona

Soundcheck: Back at the Chicken Shack, Ginseng Sullivan, Twist (multiple
times)

I: First Tube > Wolfman’s Brother, Back on the Train, Beauty of my Dreams,
Vultures, The Inlaw Josey Wales, Billy Breathes, Llama*, Lawn Boy,
Runaway Jim (1:12)

II: Roses are Free, Piper** -> Guy Forget*** > When the Circus Comes >
Camel Walk, Driver, David Bowie**** (0:58)

E: Waste (0:06)

* – Trey introduces the band, including Jon as “Bob Weaver”, Gordo as
Michael Jordan and himself Skinny Guinnea; he then encouraged people to start
clapping along while he clapped in an off rhythm before slapping himself
on the forehead; he then told people to slap the forehead of the person
next to them, then have passionate lovemaking sesions…really (it didn’t happen)
** – unfinished
*** – first time played; pronounced “Gee-For-Jay”; Trey on
keyboards; similar to recent versions of “Catapult”; included
lyrics something to the effect of “I never met a man I could not
forget as much as Guy Forget”; soundchecked back as far as
February 1993; a Mockingbird Foundation interview with Dave
Abrahams includes a question asking who Guy Forge is, to which
Dave answers that he’s “Some tennis player guy”
**** – Trey set up a feedback loop, took off his guitar and began
swinging it around while manipulating the pitch using his
foot pedals; as a result Page played the ascending riff at the
end bcause Trey hadn’t put his guitar back on in time

Pre-show music included Lou Reed’s “New York”

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