SET 1: NICU > Sample in a Jar, The Old Home Place, Punch You in the Eye, Water in the Sky, Funky Bitch, Horn, Heavy Things, Dirt, Split Open and Melt
SET 2: Gotta Jibboo > Fast Enough for You > Scent of a Mule, Meat, Maze, What's the Use? > Slave to the Traffic Light
ENCORE: Uncle Pen, Bold As Love
It’s surprisingly hard to pinpoint exactly when the band decided to go on hiatus. The spring Doniac Schvice announcing the summer slate of shows said that “2000 is showing no signs of letting up” and the summer edition hinted at a soon-to-be-announced New Year’s run. During his thank you speech at the Radio City show on May 21, Trey signaled business as usual by saying “It really is just a total joy and we feel very lucky and we don’t want to do anything to screw it up, and so let’s just keep this going for as long as we can.”
But when the band was profiled that summer by Entertainment Weekly reporter Tom Sinclair, a break was on their mind: “After Phish wrap this year's fall tour, Trey says, the members intend to take an ‘unofficial sabbatical’ for an indefinite period — possibly a whole year.” The EW feature sets the scene in Camden on July 4th, so it follows that the hiatus decision was made sometime in the month of June. And if forced to guess an exact date, I’d place my marker on this show, where the band sounds absolutely, completely gassed.
“Everybody just hit an undefinable point of exhaustion at the same time,” Paluska told the New York Times three months later, after the final show at Shoreline. And later in the article: ''It starts to feel formulaic for us after a while -- and their whole thing has been to make every event special.”
Paluska also says he’d “been advocating for this for three years.'' But I gotta ask, somewhat facetiously, does the band’s then-manager also share some of the blame? They had the first 4-½ months of 2000 off, but once the touring year starts, the band’s schedule is pretty brutal, with less than a week to shake off Japan’s jet lag before jumping into an 18-show, 25-day U.S. tour. The first four dates required over 600 miles of travel without an off day, and they went straight from there up to New York for another TV appearance (Late Night with Conan O’Brien, two nights after this show). Mike even pulled double duty on 6/23, showing up to Col. Bruce Hampton’s Atlanta gig for a late-night sit-in*. OK, sure, there’s a new album to promote. But it’s Phish! Who cares! People will show up whenever!
The wear and tear started to show in that disjointed second set yesterday, but it’s fully on display here in a performance that just never wakes up. They’re stuck in the blocks the whole first half, playing opener after opener after opener but leaving the cobwebs unshaked. Finally, they try the opposite approach and dive into one of their trickiest pieces, and emerge with a Melt that is at least considered Live Bait-worthy. It’s one of those Phish jams that leans into their fatigue, creating some dreamy moments – like Trey’s slowly-developing melancholy melody from 6:00 to 9:00 – while not really finding any successful follow-through.
They try to stay in that sleepy but compelling zone with the second set’s opening Jibboo, but it quickly loses its balance. After stumbling into FEFY, the trio of Mule, Meat, and Maze keep collapsing down to uninspired Trey solos featuring the annoying “zippy” effect he’s been in love with of late. What’s The Use? is finally revived after 53 shows, but starts off molasses-slow and wrong-footed with Trey immediately biffing the opening notes (it recovers and goes beautifully ambient in the middle; I can’t stay mad at my beautiful boy WTU). Slave closes the set with an appropriate whimper, Trey just playing the chords over the whole jam until they lamely decide enough’s enough and lurch at four different times into the ending. On the video, Trey just takes his guitar off and walks away, leaving the rest of the band to awkwardly bow.
While there have been some visible cracks showing early this year, this show is the first real bomb of 2000. But for once, I’m not going to chalk it up to deeper, simmering issues; based on how tired I am just writing about the Japan tour and the opening long weekend in the U.S., I can only imagine how drained Phish must feel onstage near the end of a month with thousands of miles of travel. I’m fully aware that tour logistics and budgeting favor a tight cluster of shows instead of a leisurely itinerary around the country. But if Japan hadn’t fallen in between the promo tour and the summer tour – or if the U.S. leg had just started a week or two later – Phish may just have kicked the hiatus a little farther down the road…at least long enough to play that New Year’s run.
* - And staying out late with Col. Bruce will never cause Mike problems with Phish, right? Right?
Listening back on this tour I now remember why I was relieved to leave the scene after their hiatus began. The Rock n Roll from 6/23 and even the Antelope from 6/24 show an agressive, locomotive-like intensity that was kind of a turn off. At the time, it wasn’t as pleasing sonically, but listening back 25 years ago it just sounds like drugs, fatigue, and musical miscommunication or ambivalence between band mates. It seemed like everyone in the audience knew what was happening, but a majority of the audience was zonked out as well. The tight gems that surface out of the rubble are rewardsing to hear however. Some of these incredibly transcendent 3rd space jams, both ambient and hard-edged/coke-fueled off-gassing of energy are profound.