I cannot believe we made this show! I stayed up for 66 out of the 72 hours we spent in Vegas. The whole thing, the enormity and the gravity of the hiatus and of the weekend hit me/us like tons of bricks during the late night Les Claypool show at Mandalay. I left somewhere after the 2nd set started and before the Oysterhead reunion. I needed sleep and m&ms- which I procured in the bowels of the Mandalay- after briefly regaining my conscious self during the walk out. Even now, I can't fathom waking up and going for it again for 9/30/00. The Walfredo, Curtain With, Timber, Bag, Mockingbird and Emotional Rescue were the Steak Diane of the day.

What to do on the next day? For one, get on a plane and struggle out of McCarran Airfield. We bobbed, weaved and tip winged our way out of Sin City and into the friendly confines of Sky Harbor in 45 long, harrowing minutes. I looked across at our seat mates (must've been Southwest Air because we were facing each other), and we both, eyebrow raised, questioned our ability to make it out of the battleground turf of Vegas. The same place that produced a dozen bustouts, a narration, a duel and late night reunions.

However, we can't let that stop us. Arriving in Phoenix and driving 10 minutes to my girlfriend's apartment was divine. We reminisced over Vegas, ate some takeout, took a nap and then started to recharge for a never-miss-a-Sunday-show Sunday show. The place was 1/2 sold at best. We had 11th row DFC and the crew that had chosen driving over flying were in rough shape. That said, we had 20 PHX people in a couple of rows surrounding. Reunion time!

First Tube started it off and it was it's typical screaming future wailing music self. Good stuff.

Wolfman's was fine, if forgettable, too lax for the weekend past, too pedestrian for the moment.

Beauty was kind of the kick-in-the-pants necessary. The "I don't care if you've had 6 hrs of sleep in three days this bluegrass will get you up." Go ahead hit me with the breakup songs. Pour some salt on the wounds, Phish.

I was wearing the Vultures/LA Dodgers shirt-and yeah, sure Trey looked at me in the moment before and then they played it. I'll buy that theory. Either way I was jumping for joy! Vultures! Brooding, evil, peck out the skulls of the freaks who didn't take naps.

The Llama...I played along and slapped the friends who didn't fly back to PHX as instructed by Trey. What a surreal, wake up from the dream of Vegas moment.

The Jim, maybe Gypsy Queen, but I had full on Free Thought/Mozambique running through my headfull.

I think I just sat at the break. It was my last break before the REAL break of the hiatus.

Piper went strange quick. I remember a brah in the section after the show saying "no man, they were saying God forgets." Ugh. The segue into Circus was buttery.

The Camel Walk was the best ever.

Bowie had Trey falling down and Page playing the ending chords. Weird.

Waste. Off I go for the next two years. Thanks, Phish for the whole thing. What a thing, this is and was.

I drove home to my apartment in the western part of town, woke up and went back to work in the morning raising money and relating publicly to people like nothing had happened, not the Kid Rock thing, not Forbin's, not the plane ride and certainly not the Piper>Guy Forget>Circus as the normal, everyday folks don't want any part of that. But I did, and it was lovely.

It's not a full rendition like some earlier versions, but this version of Jim definitely has a bit of a "Gypsy Queen" vibe in the last few minutes.

My 50th show and last of 1.0. I was pretty tired from the 2 previous crazy nights in Vegas but upon relisten this really is a Grater show. Guy Forget debut, finally after all those soundchecks. I remember being in the concession area listening to Roses are Free and my buddy Vegus dropping a golf ball size chunk of hash and 3 rowsof people looking for it.... We found it! i like this venue, saw them there in 97 as well.

It should be included in the show/setlist notes that for a good 5 minutes in the Guy Forget jam, Trey played on mini-keyboard. Insane Piper->Guy Forget though, one of my all time favorite Pipers. This jam was completely owned by Fish though, he really glued this one together.

I never knew Guy Forget was pronounced "gee forjay" until now. The more you know.

They really played the hell out of First Tube in '99-'00. Who could blame them though? It's a great opener/closer. Wolfman's is a fine 2nd pick and has a nice little standard peak in it. BOTT is played again to its standard effectiveness. They also played the hell out of this one in '99-'00. Beauty of My Dreams, another late 1.0 favorite, is slotted in next. Phish always seems to have a few rotating bluegrass tunes they love to play at any given moment. Vultures is given its last pre-hiatus performance and it's mostly good. Trey breaks out the acoustic for The Inlaw Josie Wales. Honestly, I'm digging the flow of the set so far. Nothing spectacular but good song choices even if a lot of them have been played to death at this point. Semi-rarity Billy Breathes comes up next... and for some reason I'm fine with two ballads in a row. Llama gets the energy back up and features Trey introducing the band and then telling the audience to slap each other's foreheads. The joke doesn't land for me. Page croons one last time for the era with Lawn Boy and the set closes with a good Runaway Jim.

Roses opens the second set on the right foot but is seemingly cut short in favor of Piper. This Piper is classic '00 upbeat swirling jamming. However, in large part, the jam is dubbed the debut of Guy Forget. This harkens back to the debuts of Meatstick and Simple: when the band sings a melody over a loosely connected jam. It's good I think? If you like the late 1.0 sound there is definitely something for you here. But it does suffer from being a bit overlong in the same groove. Circus gets a stellar segue from Guy Forget and cools us down. Camel Walk gets its only performance of the year here. It's decent. Driver's placement in late 4th quarter I don't mind in theory but this is the fourth ballad of the show so it kinda kills the momentum. Bowie shines as the closer but is ultimately unremarkable. Waste as the encore brings the total ballad count to five.

Obviously Piper -> Guy Forget is the only part of the show worth revisiting. This is the most tired show I've heard in this relisten. It has one highlight that's a novelty at best. The Llama joke fell flat as well. I really hope the rest of the tour is better than this.

After the craziness of two epic shows in Las Vegas, this show feels like the deep, satisfied exhale to the weekend.

I really enjoy the Vultures, Josie Wales and Billy Breathes trio, and the Runaway Jim to end the first set is pretty fiery.

Piper and the jam of Guy Forget is the highlight of the second set to be sure. Fish's patient drumming in the jam holds it together, as mentioned above. Camel Walk is always nice, and Waste seems pretty appropriate here, with just four shows left til Phish called it quits. For a while, anyways.

Good stuff, check it out.

The 7 times ending of Bowie was awesome.
The slapping the person next to you remark was great cause so many people were so hurting from Vegas the 2 nights before. There was a girl sleeping in her seat the whole show. Yes slap the person next you!!!

SET 1: First Tube: Not as much Trey shredding as I am used to. More groove based. Tired from Vegas… >

Wolfman's Brother: Has a bit of that good, ol rageahol, but not enough to get one to revisit.

Back on the Train: Fresh off the hiatus announcement, these particular lyrics were raw for me at this show: “Now I'm gone, and I'll never look back again, I'm gone, and I'll never look back at all, You know I'll never look back again” Standard version

Beauty of My Dreams: Standard.

Vultures: Standard.

The Inlaw Josie Wales: Love this. Absolutely love it.

Billy Breathes: First set is very first set. Trey struggles a good bit with this one. Hiatus looms.

Llama: Trey was likely looking to blow off steam after his BB struggles and ripped this one wide open with crazy effects and sounds. “Smack yourself in the face, turn to the person next to you and smack that person in the face, make passionate love the person next to you” LOL LOL LOL

Lawn Boy: Standard.

Runaway Jim: Build this up to a big peak but unfortunately Trey is all out of tune and sounds bad. The effort is there but the execution is not. Hiatus looms.

First set summary: Outside of the Llama, there is just nothing here at all of substance. The band is still recovering from Vegas. My buddies that I convinced to come with me to Phoenix instead of going home to Denver after Vegas are giving me the serious side eye at this point.

SET 2: Roses Are Free: Great opener, now we are getting somewhere. But, short and standard >

Piper: Rips so hard, absolutely shredded. 7 minute and change version slips into ->

Guy Forget: Debut. Only the most astute fans could have known what was going on here. Whether or not you were in the know, the jam is fantastic and becomes the clear highlight of the show. Here is the link to the history of Phish and Guy Forget, it is quite comical and worth your 5 minutes to read this https://phish.net/song/guy-forget/history Fishman is AMAZING in the 9’s with his work on his kit and wood blocks, you must listen to this! This jam gets way, way out there in the ether with big, big loops. Outstanding stuff if you are into that less is more jamming, kind of sparse and ambient in a few spots in this jam, this segues nicely into… ->

When the Circus Comes: Not a fan then or now really, did not need all this momentum to come to a screeching halt, many likely will not hold this view. Played beautifully though. >

Camel Walk: My first Camel Walk, so I was pumped!

Driver: The start/stop of the momentum of the second set is annoying at this point. Driver deep, deep in the second set? C’mon man.

David Bowie: Decent Bowie except Trey in the ending is sloppy here and there but there is nothing here that I would revisit. Good closer though.

ENCORE: Waste: Not going to lie, I loved this in the E: slot. My buddies that were not continuing on with me to Chula were not amused. At all. Their last song before hiatus.

Second set summary: Piper -> Guy Forget and Camel Walk make this a decent set for me. But outside of that the set is choppy with little flow in the. Coming off of a solid show in Denver and two ragers in Vegas I knew there was a big chance of a letdown in Phoenix. That is what this show is. I would rate this as a 3.5 out of 5. It is rated as a 3.93 on .net, that seems generous. Or I am just a cranky, old man. Likely a little from column A and a little from column B.