This is the Phish sound I love. They come out after a rain shower in GIN, this one starts out slow and then Trey just adds layer of layer of gooey, stringy texture to the song. It is that 1999 tone that is so beautiful and thick. The song winds down, and the band plays a few newer numbers, very patiently, with some odd noises in the dead air between the songs, like new toys being sounded out. The Maze is amazing, not a raging one, but a beautiful expose on tension and release, complete with a bathtub gin jam.

Set II gets off to a great start with Coil > Free. This Free needs to be heard to be believed. Like the version on 7-31-98, this groove is THICK. Also of note in set II is the debut of Bug and My Left Toe, an ambient masterpiece that sounds so good slicing through the Kansas sky.

Check this show out when you have some time to sit down and listen closely, it will be rewarding.

That PBR review may be the most pointless review I've ever read, put the booze down and let your mind be freed by the Stash

Too cool for the noob friendly encore, too drunk to pay attention to the show. Sweet

6/30/99 SET I
The Bonner Springs, Kansas show opens with a BANG! A huge Bathtub Gin with full band exploration and an ambient jam that enveloped the venue in a haze of mixed rhythmic signatures, gorgeous varied loops, and beautiful themes from Trey on guitar and Page on the baby grand piano. This Bathtub Gin ambient jam never goes fully off the edge of the world into polyphonic disarray, but seems to bridge the melodic jams Phish is known for crafting through its live improvisation with the new backdrop of fuzz, feedback and "wall of sound" alien effects from Page. The last 7 minutes of this Gin Jam are truly mesmerizing. Standard set filler gets us to a strong Maze with Trey using his drone based feedback loop to build the transitions and backdrops throughout the song. A nice touch using this new ambient style, but no full blown out jam. The Limb X Limb that followed Maze has a lovely melodic jam with some beautiful solo work through the jam and back into the coda. Quite lovely touches by Page and Trey at the end of this nearly 12 minute LXL, but nothing remotely close to the ambience of the Bathtub Gin opener.

6/30/99 SET 2
Opening with a Squirming Coil seems a bit strange, but was clearly meant as a warmup for what was to become a set full of the band's new ideas into sonic exploration. The end of the Squirming Coil piano solo culminates with a feedback buildup and the sonic texturing that Trey had been using throughout transitions in the first set. The buildup bled into a monster Free that carries the same feedback touches throughout the intro as Trey pushed the band to carry that new spark throughout the set. The superb Free jam that emerged found Gordon and Fishman providing a strong backbone and beat for Trey's droning and feedback loops on top of Page's alien landscapes. While the bass and drums steer the beat away from complete ambient bliss, the work of Trey and Page to pull the psychedelic backdrop to the forefront creates a Free jam that is jaw dropping. The set rolls on through a seque-fest of Birds of a Feather > Simple > Swept Away > Steep > Piper with various ambient flourishes to carry the torch until unleashing the first ever My Left Toe. This 9+ minute MLT (a track originally recorded at 4min 47sec) is a gorgeous ambient musical display which Phish crafts with reckless abandon and intense precision. A culmination of three years worth of work on the Siket Disc, and finally an opportunity to display this new masterpiece has resulted in near perfection. While vastly different than any song publicly played by Phish in the past (at least any song with an actual name), MLT evokes amazing images and emotions in a musical onslaught to every nerve and every synapse. It both attacks you and lifts you floating to the heavens. At the time, many Phans were unsure what to make of this new style and direction, but upon further review it is clear that Phish was developing a genre perfected by bands like Radiohead years later. Listening to the show again on Phishtracks.com, it is evident by the crowd reaction that Phans are blown away by the new song and an almost unheard of late second set stunned silence falls over the crowd... Page breaks the silence to announce unceremoniously, "that was the first song off our new album, it's called My Left Toe." A nice Stash with a slightly ambient jam at the end closes out the show, as a casual fan friendly encore wrapped up the evening.

All in all a terrific debut for Phish in 1999 and a sign of the amazing things to come for the band in this oft overlooked, but seminal, year of creative exploration in music.

One of the most beautiful Stash jams i've heard, appropriate as a soundtrack to a romantic candlelit dinner. Great Mike bombs in Free! We all got drenched in a pre show storm, BTG was a perfect choice.

This show starts with a load of steam. Kicking off the show with Gin is clearly reminiscent of summer 98' and it is a great opener although does not hit those lofty bells Riverport and Ventura hit. The rest of the show is an above average summer warmup show. Throwing some debuts out and getting their feet wet.

6-30

Phil and Friends (w/ Trey and Page)+ Classic TAB (tour debut) = 6 months of no Phish...

The entire show from note one was surreal; bomb drops concluded every 1st set number, but for Maze when they musically bantered our minds.

My Left Toe from the Siket Disc debuted at this show. Familiarity with the album could best describe the vibe from this 2nd set; and one word: Catatonia

No covers were played.

Each set and the encore led off with a cut from Lawn Boy.

After digging up the dates on the 3 day Freedom Fighter Festival, Buckeye Lake Music Center, July 30, 1999 I was lucky enough to attend, I can say it WAS this show from June 30 I attended during that summer, the only from summer tour 99. Here is what I noticed today. Get Back on the Train was deputed from the Trey (TAB) tour on that day in Kansas !!! After following a high school friend who was driving a white 69 mercedes in my brown 78 volkswagen bus for two days to Kansas before the migrant work we were traveling to in the corn fields of Iowa was to begin, we arrived at Sandstone Amphitheatre, along with a select few, and started drinking some wine! They also dropped Swept Away>Steep which I had in my first show in Knoxville 96, and which they hadn't played since June 30 of 1998, one year earlier to the day at The Grey Hall, Freetown Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark! This might just sound like another over excited phan going on about the music, and it probably is, but here's the thing. I had a dream about a train in 99. I wrote it down in my new dream journal my sister had given me for Christmas before going to see my first TAB show at the Murat in Indianapolis, where as some of you might know, TAB debuted Get Back on the Train. My dream journal begins with its first entry: 1-3/99? I'm riding in a train with many others. Everything is very organized and expected as far as destination. It's the most regular and only right thing to do to stay on the train and go where "it" goes. As the doors open at a stop, I am drawn to leave the train for a reason important to me concerning something? somewhere? outside the trains confine. The doors immedietly close leaving me outside the train. I need to get to the next stop at least though as I thought I would be able to re-board the train. And so I climb onto the front of the train and dangerously hold onto an overhanging bar in front of the driver's window. I motion the driver to continue, which he does. The ride was wonderful, if not a bit tense and/or frightening @ times. I reach where I'm going and I get off the train's front Not riding inside the train turns out to be a unique, memorable, and unmatchable experience. As I get off the train the second time, the others who were on from the beginning don't get there doors opened and I watch as the train speeds off. Some are happy on the train. Some don't know what it's like off the train, and wouldn't know what to do if they did/could get off. Others longingly dwell on that missed opportunity, and wish that they could get off, but just aren't able to. ---- I've never done a whole tour. I try to go see Phish whenever I can. I can honestly say though, when I step back after a tour and see the one or more shows I've been able to attend, they're always the best ones of the run imho. I may get them all written down later and post them here to an edit. It's not like I've seen them 100's of times, but everytime I do, it's really magic. I will add this, since it also has to do with a dream, and Phish. I've only been at a Phish show in my dreams once. The show was just getting ready to start. I was on the floor, GA, back some, maybe close to the tapers. The show started. They opened with Stash. I remember thinking, Yes! I've never heard a show open with this song! It sounds great in the opener slot! I woke up the next morning and remembered the dream clearly. It got me excited and I thought I would get online and see what Phish was doing. I really didn't have a clue if they were in a tour or what! They had kicked off the tour the night before in Phoenix, and had opened with Stash! =)

I was there. I have to agree that I don't have many memories of awesomeness or face-melting music. I drove to the show last minute from Laramie,WY(UW!!!) I blew a tire about 4 hours out on I-70 and while changing the flat a Hi-Po pulled up behind me, got out and asked what the problem was. I told him I had a donut/spare and was ok. He got in his car and away he went. I remember only having a little reefer on me, but still sweet when he rolled on. Amber and I showed up to the lot with maybe an hour to chill. We got drunk on PBR cans and stumbled inside.

It's your typical summer shed. No covered seating that I recall. I remember being happy about the Gin opener; Tube was cool(although nothing stellar) BOTT was fun and I knew at the time, that I didn't know it. That's about it for musical memories from this show. Bouncing> Sample Encore= "Let's go get a burrito!"

Sidenote: The girl I was with had seen some shows(Spokane-Portland 96) but wasn't a regular. Anyways I mentioned we were rockin the "car-temperature" PBR cans in the lot pre-party style. Well we were CHUGGING em'. So we're dancing sometime in the middle of set I and although it was an over-cast day in Kansas, it is still HOT and HUMID. She stops and says "I need to go to the bathroom." And I'm like(casually) "Yeah, we'll go at set break." Well what she meant was is she needed to throw up. Well, she made it to set break and bless her, she mad it to the tarlette to excercise them PBR demons.

Less than 2 stars.

2/5