This show opened up with a 17-minute DWD! It actually sounded like it could go on for another 5 or 10, but Trey abruptly brought the jam back to the main theme. Meat was a most excellent choice for song 2. Slave was strikingly out of place in the middle of the set, which had up to that point been steadily building steam (and it didn't help that this version was short and uninspired).
At one point I was focusing on the stage and trying to get my groove on (where had it gone?) when the person behind me taps me on the shoulder. “Your friend just passed out.” Sure enough, my buddy had collapsed in his seat and his eyes were rolling up into the back of his head. Shit! I shook him a bit to wake him up, and promptly led him by the hand out into the hall and got him some water. The whole stadium had become veiled in an overwhelmingly stuffy cloud of cigarette and pot smoke; this is the only explanation we have for what happened to him.
YEM was easily the standout jam of set 1; Fishman's woodblock was a tasteful compliment to the effortless groove. Set 2 was unfortunately lackluster until Meatstick. Feeling altogether confused and more than a bit lightheaded myself, I briefly left to generously douse my entire head with water; when I returned to my seat, lo and behold, Phish was singing in Japanese (for the second time state-side). The crowd really ate it up. Being a Japanese major at my university, this was especially exciting for me (for the record, their pronunciation is rather atrocious, though no worse than the majority of Japanese bands that liberally throw English phrases into their songs). The fade-out, with much crowd participation, made this version even more special: everyone continued to clap along well into Antelope, which was chock-full of Meatstick teases. And Antelope went on to rage pretty hard.
The final word: given Meatstick and Antelope, this show was above average for 2000 (albeit slightly).