10-1-2000 Phoenix, Arizona

Time to put a pin in these last five show reviews of the 1.0 era. After a weekend of birthday Kid Rock debauchery in Las Vegas, Phish detour to Phoenix (beautiful drive) before the final run up through California before a deserved hiatus. 1/

Trey’s voice is tired & the banter hints the band is still loopy. Musically, S1 subtly captures the sad comedown that can follow a big weekend. It’s a set of singles & doubles, in parlance, but it works, & is super satisfying, & is a good redux for Fall 2000 in general. 2/

First Tube opens. Wolfman's shines thanks to everyone's dexterous, light play. Trey's work in Back on the Train stands out; he's channeling pedal steel vibes. He rewards himself w/ his favorite bluegrass tune, Beauty of My Dream. Vultures continues S1's hazy, daydream quality. 3/

Not as much shushing in Inlaw Josie Wales, thankfully, so the ethereal & half-attentive vibe persists in this effortlessly authentic stretch from Wolfman's to Inlaw. Billy Breathes, one of my favorites, aims to continue, but things get away from Trey a bit mid-jam. 4/

A pause as Trey recalibrates the vibe, changes trajectory, & has Fish launch into Llama. An effects soaked jam as he introduces Page McConnel, Michael Jordan, & Bob Weaver ("there's only one of him"), & himself as the Skinny Guinea, before some wacky crowd instructions. 5/

"I want you all to clap your hands & sing along to this number" is one of Trey's funnier quips. "I'd like you to all smack yourself in the face to this number. And turn to the person next to you, & smack that person in the face. And I'd like you to get naked, etc." What a nut! 6/

Lawn Boy & Jim wrap S1. Page introducing "Michael Jordan" has me cracking up. Whatever got into Trey's fingers during Billy Breathes is long gone, & Jim effortlessly soars across the Arizona sky on our way to set break. Again, I think this is a sneaky great set of music. 7/

Roses are Free is up there with Timber as a S2 opener that always gets me hyped - it's a Pavlovian response to 12-11-97. You know Piper>Guy Forget as fiery bonus content from the Live in Vegas DVD from the night before (it wasn't released until late 2002, before the comeback). 8/

This compressed version of Piper effortlessly grooves its way into Guy Forget's debut (which was only ever fully played one more time, at Dick's in 2011). Trey's "ooooos" at 1:00 mark deliver instant goosebumps & will earworm their way to your brain for days. 9/

This jam is loved by all who've heard it, including me, b/c it feels spontaneous, atmospheric, & has momentum. The questionable verses (per Tom, not me) about dancing on graves add to the mystique. Things settle 6 minutes in, but the space groove (h/t @phishnet) continues. 10/

Fish's vocals over the spare Trey-on-keys groove reminds me of 7-8-99's If I Only Had a Brain, which followed Birds (don't sleep on the S1 Fee>Jam, either). Doing more with less is the name of the game when you're running on fumes, & Fall 2000 doesn't suffer for it, IMO. 11/

Forgot to mention Trey dishes out a San-Ho-Zay tease at 5:37 of Guy Forget (speaking of the Fall 2000 sound). When the Circus Comes approaches Albuquerque in terms of a perfect mid-S2 contemplative cool down. Like Vultures in S1, Camel Walk morphs into an angular thump-fest. 12/

Driver is another (arguably unnecessary) cool down, but you'd be tired too, if you played a weekend in Las Vegas & chased it w/ another show. Bowie has a spacy intro, does the deed, & delivers a spacy outro to finish S2. Waste encore is a low key postscript to a wild weekend. 13/

I'd slot 10-1-00 as a "very good" Tier 2 gig that's on par w/ 9-30-00. Rattling off back-to-back solid efforts as they partied from the Mohave to the Sonoran Desert (Joshua trees vs. saguaro cacti, y'all) is a testament to their skill set, chemical enhancements be damned. 14/14