White Whales

7/11/00, Noblesville, IN, Deer Creek Music Center

SET 1: Ya Mar, The Moma Dance, Uncle Pen, Drowned, Chalk Dust Torture Reprise > Chalk Dust Torture, Theme From the Bottom > Cavern

SET 2: Also Sprach Zarathustra > Down with Disease -> Moby Dick > Down with Disease > Runaway Jim -> Moby Dick, Back on the Train -> Moby Dick > Back on the Train, Harry Hood > Moby Dick, Hold Your Head Up > Terrapin > Hold Your Head Up > Moby Dick > Hold Your Head Up, Character Zero

ENCORE: First Tube > Moby Dick > Chalk Dust Torture Reprise

Listen

There are many reasons why Phish occasionally goes cuckoo. Back in their road dog days, slap-happy shows usually showed up deep into lengthy tours, when the doldrums of endless bus rides erupted in a tornado of inside jokes and segues. Similarly, the occasional urge to dive deep into the catalog and play a bustout show tends to come with silliness, given how Phish rarities skew towards the absurd. Occasionally, they’ll distract themselves from the anxiety of an upcoming holiday with some wackiness, or celebrate getting past a high-expectations show – punishing any fans who skipped those surrounding dates. And yes, sometimes, the substances hit just right.

But all these motivations can be traced back to a common source: the need to release a build-up of pressure, whether externally or internally generated…or both. Summer 2000 isn’t a particularly long tour – only 18 shows over 3-1/2 weeks – but with the Farmhouse promo and Japan preludes it’s been a long year already. So with only four dates left in summer (plus one more television recording), Phish were due for a night of lunacy.

The middle of a three-show run and a Tuesday in the Indiana cornfields was the right place for it too, keeping the number of potentially confused casual observers low. But Phish takes their time getting started, deking the crowd with a very normie first quarter. Even Drowned is less of a surprise, reporting back for early-shift jam duty after the instant classic hard-rock Halloween pairing in Holmdel. This one harkens back to the Drowned before that, maneuvering after the initial firestorm into a jaunty jam that recalls the wee hours of Cypress. But instead of bringing back After Midnight, it lands in something even more unlikely.

You could argue that Chalk Dust Torture Reprise is one of the ultimate Phish bustouts. It’s not the rarest Phish song or the one with the longest show gap, but it has only appeared in five shows across 30 years – a locust-like hibernation cycle. It’s one of the more confusing songs in the catalog, a “reprise” that doesn’t sound anything like its source, played tonight before Chalk Dust proper and often in shows with no Chalk Dust at all. And it’s actually…a pretty good song? Even if it’s merely a fragment, it’s catchy as hell, with the earworm power of a TV show jingle. With a little sprucing up, that power-pop melody could have been Phish’s elusive hit – so of course it’s just an obscure sequel song played once every 350 shows.

Still, CDTR would only be a brief blip of goofiness in this show were it not for the second set, when the levee of professionalism breaks. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s six performances of Led Zeppelin deep cut “Moby Dick” in one set, with a few more teases sprinkled around as well. And like Chalk Dust Torture Reprise, it’s a Matryoshka doll of inside jokes and classic rock lore that would only make sense to the deepest Phish sickos (of which there seem to be plenty present in Noblesville).

Zeppelin’s “Moby Dick” is something of a throwaway instrumental near the end of their second album, a gnarly blues riff that clears out after a minute for drummer John Bonham to solo for three. It was better known for its live performances, where Bonzo would stretch out his spotlight segment into the double digits. That made the song – and Robert Plant’s iconic echo-y intro – classic rock shorthand for the drum solo, whether you consider it a cliche or a sacred ritual.

Phish, in their postmodern way, is toying with this reference, paying tribute while simultaneously taking the piss. And they’re also trolling one of their own: Fishman, who adores John Bonham but abhors drum solos*. So the joke, as it was in previous appearances in 1993 and 1997, is that they tee up the solo and Fish plays a really short, bad one; in the case of The Roxy, it’s even on the vacuum instead of the drums.

But when you do the joke six times, does it turn into bullying? They all seem to be ganging up on poor Fish – Mike suggests the riff for the first time in Disease, even Page gets in on the fun, deadpanning “You guys like Moby Dick?” after the third round. At least they get to turn the tables on Trey while Fish, playing the role of “Russell Crowe,” is out front for Terrapin. The gag eventually overwhelms any other purpose for the set, as each song becomes a puzzle to figure out how to navigate the jam into “Moby Dick” and, sometimes, back out again.

It is undeniably fun, especially when they tie it all back together with a Chalk Dust Torture Reprise Reprise in the encore. But with the shadow hanging over 2000, maybe somewhat retroactively, it’s got a mean streak too. Instead of the anything-goes delirium of other bonkers Phish shows, it keeps circling back to poke at the same ticklish spot, directed at a particular member. Maybe Fish took it in stride, maybe he was seething by the end like when they play HYHU a few too many rounds. Regardless, if the purpose of the occasional silly show is relieving pressure, this one doesn’t seem to quite clear the air.

* - And thank god for that, I’d never survive listening to Drums segments in all of these shows.