12-30-03 - American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL

please review the show, not the other reviews....

Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2004 12:43:51 -0700
From: eric tipton 
Subject: Phish review 12/30/03


12/30/03 American Airlines Arena - Miami, FL

      1: Wilson, Sand > Shafty -> NICU, Weigh, Cities, Strange Design, Scent of a Mule,
      Bathtub Gin > 2001
      2: Tube -> L.A. Woman > Birds of a Feather > L.A. Woman, Makisupa Policeman -> P-Funk
      Medley, Makisupa Policeman > Touch Me, Down With Disease
      E: Contact, While My Guitar Gently Weeps
      Notes:
      Set 1: "Wilson" was unfinished. For the record, Earl Hindman, the actor who played
      Wilson on TV's "Home Improvement," died on Monday 12/29. "Gin" had "Show Biz Kids"
      (Steely Dan) and "After Midnight" teases. In the second verse of "NICU," Mike played
      the bassline from "Shafty." "2001" included a "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" jam
      (with some of the lyrics sung), as well as teases of "Bathtub Gin" and "Sand."
      Set 2, Pre-Funk: "Tube" was reportedly played after Trey found a frisbee labeled
      "Tube" on the stage when returning from setbreak, which he flashed to the other band
      members and the front rows. "Tube," about 12 minutes long, was unfinished. "L.A.
      Woman" is a Doors cover, played for the first time (although it was soundchecked on
      4/17/93 and teased in Possum on 5/17/92 and 5/30/93). Additionally, the first part of
      the "L.A. Woman" jam (before "Birds") had notable elements of "Timber Ho." "Birds"
      included a jam on "L.A. Woman." The keyword in "Makisupa" was something like: "we
      were going to have Fish sing 'Touch Me,' but we didn't have the horns and we've
      forgotten the song." Then Trey paused and said, "since I got your hopes up, maybe
      bringing out P-Funk would make up for it."
      P-Funk: Then George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic emerged to accompany Phish
      through a 20-minute jam that touched on several P-Funk songs and lyrics. This medley
      reportedly included elements (roughly in order) of a rap on the theme "Booty Ain't
      Nothing But a Butt," "Get Off Your Ass and Jam," "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off
      the Sucker)," "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)," and "One Nation Under a Groove."
      Clinton riffed on the chorus from "Get Low" (by Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz). During
      the jam a boy (apparently in his late teens, possibly with Down syndrome) appeared
      onstage, dancing next to Trey. He may have jumped on the stage uninvited, because
      security (Carini?) came out about a quarter into the jam to escort him away. Shortly
      thereafter, Trey himself walked off the stage after them, and returned to escort the
      boy back to his original position on-stage. The boy resumed his dancing next to Trey,
      who got a noticeable kick out of how much fun the kid was having. At one point, Trey
      even seemed to indicate to a cameraman to tape the kid dancing -- he pointed to the
      cameraman, pointed back to the kid, and seemed to make a "film him" gesture. The boy
      remained onstage throughout the remainder of the P-Funk jam, and walked off with
      everyone else at its conclusion. At the end of the P-Funk jam, Fish was left on-stage
      alone playing the vacuum. Fish then exited, leaving the stage empty for a minute or
      two.
      Set 2, Post-Funk: The band returned and re-launched into "Makisupa." During this
      return to "Makisupa," Trey said that to prove having P-Funk sit-in was better than
      having Fish sing "Touch Me," Fish would now sing one line a capella. Page played the
      intro of "Touch Me," and Fish then sang just the first line. "Touch Me" being the
      second Doors song played at the show, it may be relevant that Jim Morrison was
      prosecuted for allegedly exposing himself on March 1, 1969 at Miami's Dinner Key
      Auditorium -- not two miles from the American Airlines Arena. "Contact" had a
      different (unidentified) last line, possibly something about "L.A. Woman" ("L.A.
      Women make my funk the P-Funk" ??).

 

Wilson:

Based on this opener, you know the band intends to have absolutely no letdowns from the
previous night^Òs throwing down. From the opening chords everyone in the house recognized
it and the chant of Wilson sent chills down my spine. This Wilson get especially dark and
chaotic with Trey really ripping it and then back into the "Well you got me back
thinking^Å" I personally love that line and I will tell you why. Every time I hear Wilson
at a show, I listen for that lyric for the sole purpose of summing up my feelings for Phish
on that given night. "Can you still have fun" is the line I really take to heart. Tonight
it pumped me up like ^Ñroids in a pro wrestler. Indeed I can still have fun so let^Òs get
crazy tonight shall we? No ending to this version with yet another incredible setlist from
Phish ->:

Sand:

I had been calling this so I was really excited. I like many of you, got entirely too sick
of this song back in ^Ò00 and felt Phish was a justified in shelving it. It really needed a
rest, every version seemed very similar. Same old trance groove night after night. I am
cool with it every ten to fifteen shows, but definitely not every, say 5 shows. So when
Mike^Òs opening notes hit me, I was ready to rock. Cool spacey interlude between verses
from 1:15 to 1:25. Out of the box this Sand builds and builds, around 7.5 Trey is shredding
it. Just what I wanted to see from Sand, little to no trance, all rock n roll baby! At the
end I thought they were teasing "I feel the earth move^Å" but instead it^Òs better than
that, it turns into a fast paced Shafty!!!! OMG fuck yeah, it is so on^Å ->

Shafty:

Well, I had not seen it since 4-5-98 when it debuted and turned me (at the time at least)
into a blathering idiot; it was so freaking good. So when I realized I was about to hear it
again, I freaked pretty hard. Sick! Extremely brief Shafty into ->

NICU:

This segue brought to you by the skinny guinea. "Back on those days when my life was a
haze" gets a huge cheer from the crowd, funny stuff! Trey struggles a bit with the chords
after those lyrics. Nothing new. Nice nod to Shafty by Mike playing on it for a bit. "Float
w/ the Cactus^Å" gets another huge cheer. The crowd, like the two nights that came before
is just as into it as the band is ^Ö the energy from the Phishheads from all four nights
could have lit up the city of Miami. It was a wondrous thing to be a part of.

WEIGH:

OMG what the fuck has got into the band. Unreal. Apparently a Weigh sign in the crowd
spurred this on. What I want to know is if the band had been practicing this. Looking past
a couple of minor difficulties in the intro, the rest is suprisingly tight considering how
hard this must be to play. Huge props to the band for playing this! It takes a lot of balls
to play a song like this after shelving it for so damn long. Bravo Phish, I am impressed!

Cities:

The hits just keep on coming apparently! So I guess the boys were enjoying their stay in
Miami! I know I was and proceeded to cut a rug. Very groovy stuff lasting almost three
minutes before the last chorus. Unfortunately this Cities is over after the chorus, I was
pretty disappointed in this.

Strange Design:

Good work Page. Although I thought his vocals were off at times, but oh well. Sorta-segue
into ->

SOAMule:

Sweet! Great job of jacking the energy right back up after Design. Great solo by Page to
head into the duel. Huge buildup to the whole klezmer jam segment part. Good yet relatively
standard Mule.

Gin:

Oh baby! Seeing as how Gin was the jam of ^Ò03, I was very interested to see what this had
in store for Miami. Nice job by Page pounding the crap out his baby grand to open it all
up. Bit of a Breeders Cannonball tease by Trey at 4:48 I thought, albeit very brief. The
jam segment started out very playful with Page and Trey exchanging some cool licks between
one another. Trey really stays on top of this one and never lets it get away, it^Òs his
baby throughout. At the 9-minute mark he is really going to town, soloing all over the
place. Page gets more into the act around 9:40 or so, jamming right along with Trey. At
10:50 Trey changes the pace up a bit with the help of Page, hell I thought they could have
jammed on Mr. Cab Driver (Lenny Kravitz) for a bit there but to no avail. 11:40 sees Gordo
leading the band down a funkier avenue than what has come before. Page follows suit and the
funk theme appears here to stay. Great jamming right here and then Trey pulls up short.
What^Òs this? 2001 potential? Spacy, spacy,
spacy^ÅWooooooooooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooooo! ->

2001:

Fish and Mike lead this segue, just gorgeous! Again, another flat out incredible segue. I
cannot continue to repeat how impressive the band^Òs segues were throughout this run. They
were so hooked up with each other, so nice to see. Communication is the key people! Nice
Gin run by Trey at 2:45, gets a little rise out of the grooving crowd. 5:57 nice Pfunk jam.
At 6:35 Trey starts in with some of the lyrics, very cool! Mike^Òs bass throughout this
part is just liquid sounding, so funky. Right back into the climaxing of 2001, seamless
jamming. Very sweet 2001. I am trying to remember the last time I saw them play a 2001 to
end a set One. It happens basically never. Very creative and kept us all on our toes.

First set thoughts: Picked up where last nights craziness ended. Set one has it all! Rock:
Wilson, Mule, Sand. Gin. Groove: Shafty, Cities, 2001. Bustout: WEIGH!!!!!!!!! Sick, sick
first set! Can they possibly maintain this kind of momentum in set two?

Tube:

The answer would have to be a resounding yes! Oh man this was so freaking funky with some
stop start jamming. It was so nice to look around the arena and see 18,000 people getting
down in unison. At 3:30 Mike takes a throwdown solo eventually joined by Page and then
Fishman (who was a tad off to start it but then righted the ship quickly). Awesome funk.
Words cannot describe how good this Tube is, Trey is just tearing the cover off of it;
dirty! This tune and this version specifically is so danceable that even the geekiest white
boy with no rhythm could get down to it, unstoppable! At 9:40 the tempo is changed up a
bit. Tube goes from being a funkfest into an extremely psychedelic wall of noise, primarily
led by Page. Once again I found myself wondering if they would segue into a What^Òs the
Use. At 12:20 you can hear Trey leaning towards the LA Woman riff. You can tell this was
totally unplanned by the way the entire band approaches it. ->

LA Woman: Trey starts singing the lyrics over the top of that wall of sound and eventually
Fishman brings everyone up to speed. Page seemed particularly caught off guard by the whole
thing but eventually finds a groove about 1:10 into it. It is far from perfect, but the
spirit of playing on the fly makes me love it! At the time I just could not believe what I
was witnessing. Before I got into the Dead or Phish, I was a big Doors fan so this was
really cool for me! At four minutes BOAF is getting teased pretty good. ->

BOAF: Hell yes, bring the fire boys! Actually, I thought this Birds was a bit sloppy, both
the playing in parts and lyrically too. I guess they probably had their minds on what was
to come with P Funk and all. The jam gets relatively melodic around the six-minute mark.
6:31 Trey starts playing around w/ LA Woman again. Fishman gets a whiff and follows where
Trey is heading. After a little over a minute Trey goes back to the BOAF jamming in
earnest, really tearing it up. As soon as it^Òs over Trey kicks in with the "Mr. Mojo
rising" lyrical bit^Å ->

LA Woman:

I was actually impressed with the way Trey changed his natural vocal style up to sound a
bit more like Jim would have. Good stuff! Right back to jamming on LA Woman, I was losing
my marbles at this point. If you weren^Òt there and are listening to the tapes, then yeah
it is going to sound rough around the edges. Even so, you have to give it up to the band
for taking the chance on this whole bit of craziness. My mind was blown at the time and I
am loving listening to this again for the first time and reliving it all. Classic fun
loving Phish. ->

Makisupa:

Yawn, just another tasty segue! ;) Great segue people. Trey goofs on how they want to play
Touch Me but can^Òt remember it nor do they have the horn section. So he ups the ante and
brings out Parliament Funkadelic. That day we spent on South Beach catching some rays in
the sand. There was a plane with a banner proclaiming Parliament Funkadelic playing Phish
aftershow at the Ice Arena. So this didn^Òt completely surprise me, but I was salivating at
the prospect of the potential jamming that could be born out of this collaboration.

P-Funk Medley:

Page starts up Makisupa while everyone gets on stage. The medley begins with What is a
Booty. George just goes nuts on the "Skeet skeet skeet skeet" thingy. Amusing. We want the
funk! Clinton yelling that over and over sounded to me like his vocal chords had just dealt
with a 48 hour howling at the moon binge, he sounded rough. Tear the roof off the sucka:
Not much to say about this. Turn this mutha^Ò out: Raged. -> Fish on vacuum. Pretty
surreal!

Makisupa:

Just like it never happened, they go back into Makisupa. So surreal, I felt like I had déjà
vu! Comical moment when Trey has Fish sing a verse of Touch Me.

DWD:

As if that wasn^Òt enough for you, they are going to play one of their biggest jam monster
to close it down. Sick. This version pretty much summed up my feelings on the evening,
extremely fuggin^Ò happy that I could say I was there! This Disease just smokes. Trey
creates a really cool wall of sound starting around 8:20 and just builds and builds to that
until he crests that wave at 9:05. But this is far from over, still going off but in a
little different direction. Trey switches up his tone a bit, favoring the ^Ñcrunchier^Ò
sounding effect. By 11 minutes it has dissolved into a very melodic sounding groove. The
next two minutes is why I think this will end up being one of the better DWD^Òs of ^Ò03.
Trey^Òs playing while quite soft, summons up a lot of strong emotions ^Ö at least for me it
did and is again upon further listening. I think Chula^Òs DWD is the best of the whole year
but I think this one may well be a very close second place. Trey begins to drive it back
home at 13:38 with that crescendoing lick we all know and love. He plays upon it, building
and building, create a great amount of tension then releasing back to the chorus. Awesome!

Encore:

Contact:

Haha, sweet! A definite nod to those that had traveled from near and far to catch these
four very special shows. The mid-song funk is extremely deep thanks to Page and Mike. Trey
goofs on the P funk thing briefly at the end of it. But this version was flawlessly played,
nice Contact.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps:

If you can get past the first 3.5 minutes then you will love it. If you cannot do so, then
you won^Òt. It^Òs that simple. I am not one to harp on Trey^Òs vocals all the time. When I
first got into the band ten years ago, it was something even then I took for granted: that
Trey is not the world^Òs greatest vocalist. But he dam sure is one of the best guitar
players and that is what matters to yours truly. Indeed, he made his guitar weep, the thing
was flat out bawling like a newborn calf when it was all said and done. I was pretty blown
away by it!

Second set thoughts: Geez, where do I begin? Just absolutely crazy! Yes some of it was
rough around the edges. But if you are a fan of this sort of thing (i.e. true
improvisation!!!!!!!!!) then how could you not have loved it? I loved it and know that I
will be wearing my discs of this show thin!

à 9.3

Special shout out to Lee Saunders (LMSYEM) who hooked me up with FREE seats with him on the
floor for both the 12/30 show and NYE. You^Òll get yours Lee!! This poor kid woke up w/ BAD
food poisoning the morning of the 12/30 show. Like a trooper, he made it to the show even
though he had to sit down for mostly all of it. I too came down with something similar but
not until New Year^Òs Day. Not sure how you made it Lee, you are the man buddy!

peace,
et

"See the city, see the zoo; traffic light wont let me through."

Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 09:59:05 -0800 (PST)
From: tenenbaum 
Subject: 12/30/03 Dankest Show


Don^Òt ask, but before ^Ó2001^Ô  kicked in, I turned to my buddy and said, ^ÓThe MotherShip
has landed^Ô!!! Little did I know that it actually did!

Every song in the first set was so dank and energetic (Sand jam>Shafty was serious!!)  you
couldn^Òt help but ask, ^ÓHow on earth can they top it^Ô. Well, it was out of this earth
indeed (especially that **SPUN** kid dancing on the stage during the P-Funk madness (Kudos
to Trey for bringing the dude back on stage after security escorted him out!!).

I always dreamed of a day when Phish and P-Funk would come together. Honestly, it wasn^Òt
the FUNKED UP DANKNESS BOOSTY BAD ASS FUNK ASSAULT  I thought it^Òd be, but it was pretty
psych, old^Öschool P-Funk acid style.

LA WOMAN was tweaking with my mind (uhmm, wrong Coast guys?!?!) but I recalled Jim Morrison
getting busted in Miami for whipping it out back in the 60s so
maybe that was the inspiration.

LA Woman segueway into Birds felt like a smack in the face and it was raw!!

I^Òm telling you, last night had moments where you just stood there in awe and disbelief
and remind yourself that it^Òs only the 30th!

So much more can be said! Every song was inspiring and song selection had a sweet flow! Oh
man, the way they chilled DWD down and brought it back up during the reprise was truly
Phish at its best! Must be heard!!

Correct me if I^Òm wrong, but I recall after P-Funk, Makisupa pt 2 was the beginning of the
first encore, then Contact was encore 2 (or am I wrong?). How awesome are these double
encores we're getting!!!

 

Also, can someone explain why Phish is playing indoors when we^Òre all down south?!?! Let's
hope Phish blows the roof off tonight!!!

 

What a show!

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