| Phish's summer tour 2000 included six shows within a 100 mile radius
of New York City. Lucky me. But it took some serious motivation. Between
June 28th and July 4th, 2000, Phish played two shows at the PNCBank Arts
Center in Holmdel, NJ, two shows at the Hartford, CT, Meadows, and then
another two shows at the E-Centre in Camden, NJ, for a total of six shows
in seven days. Isn't it always worth it? Well, yes and no.
PNC: The two weekday PNC shows involved a full day of work, followed by bumper-to-bumper traffic from the west side of Manhattan through the New Jersey Turnpike. Not ideal Phishing conditions. But Ian and Bob, Phish buddies from the office, and Allison didn't seem to mind the ride. We missed the Chalkdust opener on the first night, but I've seen that tune before. All in all, a fun first night, capped by a fantastic First Tube> Loving Cup encore. I spent the whole second set in the jungles of the taping section with my taper buddy, Jon Pasternak, who later provided me with incredible discs of the shows. For me, though, it was all about the second night. A short first set was offset by its last three songs: Limb by Limb, Drowned> Rock 'N Roll. The Rock 'N Roll provided closure for my friends who missed the second Radio City show, like Doro. The second set was one of those magic sets that make all the hassle worth it. Doro reminded me during the Meatstick that Phish had played it there a year earlier, with a very pregnant Sofi (Page's wife) demonstrating the dance. This year, in the same venue, Sopi, now a mother, did the dance while the band continued to sing the song in Japanese. Continuing in the Japanese theme, Meatstick segued into Cities (with Japan references throughout), and then my first Walk Away in 107 shows. At last! Meatstick, the unofficial song of the millennium, reappeared as teases in Wading in the Velvet Sea and Character Zero. The second PNC show was simply so brilliant that I just had to skip the next show, giving my ticket to a very fortunate Max. Hartford sucks, I was tired, and that night (6/29/00) just couldn't be topped. I know 6/30 rocked, but I just wouldn't have enjoyed myself. So for the second time in three years, I bailed on my brother's birthday show. 7/1 was all right (a few too many repeats), but the whole Hartford experience just let me down. I witnessed a poor guy get dragged out of his car and handcuffed for asking a cop directions. I paid $20 for parking that should have been included in my ticket. Yeah, right. In the immortal words of an unusually irate Doro Globus: "Hartford fuckin' sucks shit." |
| As annoying as the PNC and Hartford shows were to deal with, The E-Centre
shows were pure bliss. July 3rd and 4th, a Monday and Tuesday, were holidays
from work. And what better place to spend the Fourth of July than in a
suburb of our fine nation's first capital of Philadelphia? With Bethy
studying in Padova, Italy,
for most of the summer, I took the next best thing: her younger sister
Chrissy. Together with Ian and Bob, we shacked up in a Cherry Hill Hilton
for two night of a mini-tour.
July 3rd was a wonderful show, and I don't think I've ever seen a more intense thunderstorm. Chrissy and I were sheltered under the overhang, but we still got soaked from the horizontal rain. Those in the lawn looked like they had just taken a bath. Bob's ticket stub, nestled deep inside his thick leather wallet, was practically pulp. Then it was back to the hotel to rest up for the big holiday, the first time I'd see Phish on America's birthday. |
| Waking up on America's 224th birthday, Ian, Bob, Chrissy and I
headed over the Ben Franklin bridge to the historic city of Philadelphia.
We intended to do some touristy stuff, something patriotic, but we didn't
know what. None of us really knew anything about Philly. We just wanted
to be American.
We stumbled across the old town square, with the historic cracked Liberty Bell hanging in the park. There was a ceremonial "ringing" of the bell, which only happens on the Fourth of July. What luck! Descendants of the signers of the Declaration of Independence (little Johnny Hancock) knocked 13 times with a white rubber glove. It was slightly anti-climactic, especially in light of the fact that the finest mullet I have ever seen was directly in front of me, in between me and the Liberty Bell. Amazing. |
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| I owe my appreciation for mullets to mulletsgalore.com.
I snapped about a dozen photos of the fine, fine mullet above, awed by
its majestic, flowing mane. Click
here or on the picture above for more of those images. As good as the
day in Philly was, and as incredible as the concert was that night in Camden,
nothing could touch how that mullet made me feel.
Phish opened the Fourth of July extravaganza with--what else?--the Star Spangled Banner. My first It's Ice in years later in that set repeated teases from the anthem. All the photos on this page were taken from that night. Although Chrissy and I had pavilion seats, the view and the breeze from the lawn just couldn't be beat. A perfect evening capped by fireworks at the start of the second encore, Led Zep's Good Times Bad Times. |
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| Camden may be better known for its prisons than for its Phish shows. We parked in the prison's parking lot on the first night, and we parked on the street outside the prison on the second night. Walking back to the car after the tour was over (for me), Chrissy and I passed a scantily clad woman standing in the street, gesturing up to the prison with exaggerated body movements. She was laughing at the response she got, a few choreographed hand gestures from between bars on a sixth story window. She's communicating with her boyfriend, I told Chrissy. "That's so sad," she responded. I disagreed. I thought it was wonderful how a faithful girlfriend spent her holiday visiting her lover, showing her support. Maybe she even heard the show from the street... |
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