this started a great midwest sweep from alpine valley, to deer creek, and finally finish in columbus. there were some really good nights on this run, but a strong arguement can be made for this being the best of the bunch. from start to finish, this was a very good show. good setlist, good music...

pyite: in true 2000 fashion, they dug deep into the punch intro. good opener that got the crowd gassed.

nicu: this one folowed punch really well. good straight forward version.

my soul: this one seemed to have a little extra snap on this evening. straight forward but good.

poor heart: ditto what i said for the last 3 songs.

wolfman's brother: this allowed for the nights first real exploration. they did not take it too far, but like everything else in this set, it was a nice tight version.

first tube: trey seemed to get a little extra rowdy on this take. page also got in the mix a little bit here.

llama: good sharp llama... my lord, everything in this set is sounding soooo clean and sharp. high energy too on this one.

guyute: of course, they nailed it!

run like an antelope: huge surprise! i was certain this one would hold out to deer creek; little did we know, we'd get it at the first night of deer creek too. well, the made their first alpine valley antelope count. real nice set closer.

set 2

heavy things: standard warm up stuff.

piper: they really cut loose on this one. trey and page are all over the place before settling into...

rock and roll: their playing in the first set carried over to this rock and roll. after cutting loose in piper, they tightened right back up for this one. high energy, tight playing.

tweezer: this is one of my all time favorite tweezers. trey's guitar solo was outrageous. it hit such a hard climax before dropping into...

walk away: ah, rocking the james gang. page, like in rock and roll, really hits this one vocally. the musical momentum of tweezer is really felt in this walk away.

twist: pretty solid version. it's on par with the one they would play at the next show at deer creeek.

the horse>silent: not really what i was looking for here, but it worked well. good version of a good tune.

possum: always a good closer to get you ready for a decent little drive down to indiana. this version is not as over the top as some, but it satisfied.

enc:

suzy>tweezer reprise: par for the course on this evening, this encore was pretty straightforward but played with a ton of energy and was razor sharp. then it was time to jet down to deer creek to catch phil and friend before phish's 3 night stand....

overall:
I feel that if Phish needed live takes of some classic tunes for radio air play, this would be the show to pull from. the horse>silent, nicu, my soul, poor heart, and llama were all very straight forward but they were all played particularly well on this evening. The second set was killer too. they only really cut loose in a couple of songs, but they just simply nailed everything.

highlights:

set 1
pyite>nicu, my soul, llama, run like an antelope

set 2
piper>rock and roll, twezer>walk away