In just a few days, Phish will break nearly five years of silence with a three night run in one of their favorite venues: Hampton Coliseum. Over the next two weeks few days, we’ll continue to take a little look back at what makes Hampton Coliseum so special to Phish, their fans, and more.
In 1999, Phish came back to Hampton for the fifth consecutive year; this time for two show to close out a short December tour. These would also be the last shows before the millennium ending, Big Cypress shows (that’s a whole ‘nother series of blog posts.) Modi and I went to these together and had a pretty great time (as usual.) The shows, themselves rate as ‘soundly average’ to ‘pretty good’ without really shattering any Earth. Phish held the serious muscle in reserve for New Years.
Here are the setlists:
1999-12-17 Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA 1: Piper, Meat > Sparkle > Gotta Jibboo > Punch You in the Eye, When the Circus Comes, Water in the Sky, Twist 2: Birds Of A Feather, The Moma Dance > Bug, Jennifer Dances, Split Open and Melt, Character Zero Encore: The Old Home Place, The Squirming Coil > Loving Cup 1999-12-18 Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA 1: Harry Hood, Back at the Chicken Shack, Dog Gone Dog, Tube, Heavy Things, Back on the Train, First Tube, The Inlaw Josie Wales, You Enjoy Myself 2: Also Sprach Zarathustra > Sand, The Horse > Silent In The Morning, Possum, Mike's Song > Simple, Weekapaug Groove > Buffalo Bill > Weekapaug Groove E: Ya Mar, Sleeping Monkey
This was not exactly Hampton ’97 but there was some great stuff this time around. First set, first night had a strong “Piper” to open the run, a rockin’ “Punch You in the Eye”, and “Water In The Sky” with its reference to the Everglades where some of us would next be seeing Phish. “Birds of a Feather” followed by “Moma Dance” served as a great one-two punch but (I’m just gonna come out and say it) “Jennifer Dances” sucked the life out of the room. Yep. For those who don’t talk this stuff with me too much (and yet, are inexplicably reading this blog) you have found a Phish song that I hate. Moving along, the show was saved by a strong “Split Open And Melt” and a not-one, not-two but, THREE song encore that closed with an excellent version of “Loving Cup”.
The next night, from the drum shots to open “Harry Hood”, was slated to be a monster. It was a great exercise in pacing with the band being kind enough to give us breaks in between the various waves of assault from such tunes as “Hood”, “Tube”, “First Tube” and a crushing version of “You Enjoy Myself.” That’s just set one! Set two continued the same pattern with strong opening combo of “2001 > Sand” and a broken up “Mike’s Groove”. The mellower material wasn’t weak fluff like “Jennifer Dances” either; they covered Jimmy Smith, hit us with “Dog Log” (aka “Dog Gone Dog”) and the rare “Buffalo Bill”. The encore, “Ya Mar”, which is usually a lighthearted number contained a small tribute from Trey to his recently passed grandfather and was followed by a silly song with potentially stirring sentiment: “Sleeping Monkey”.
Not a bad way to end the last “typical” shows of the century.
As the story goes, Phish played Big Cypress, toured on in 2000 and decided to take a break. They called it a “hiatus”. Phish fans call it “The Hiatus”. The band took some time off, explored solo projects and, when the itch returned, so did they. In fall 2002, Phish announced that they would play Madison Square Garden on New Year’s Eve followed by three nights at the Hampton Coliseum.
Toughest.
Tickets.
Ever.
Add to that my family plans to be in the Outer Banks for New Years and you’ve got a recipe for no shows. Luckily, there was a compromise struck, good fortune to be had and tickets for the third night were secured.
Here are the setlists:
2003-01-02 Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA 1: Chalk Dust Torture, Bathtub Gin, It's Ice, Back on the Train, Round Room, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Stash, Water in the Sky, Character Zero 2: 46 Days > Simple > My Friend, My Friend, Limb By Limb, Thunderhead, Run Like an Antelope, Cavern E: Mexican Cousin 2003-01-03 Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA 1: Tweezer > Theme From the Bottom, Foam, Pebbles and Marbles, You Enjoy Myself 2: Birds of a Feather, Wolfman's Brother, Makisupa Policeman, Axilla, Twist > Free, All of These Dreams, Possum E: Contact, Tweezer Reprise 2003-01-04 Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA 1: Llama, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Roggae, Maze, Anything But Me, Ya Mar, Saw It Again, Bouncing Around the Room, Split Open and Melt 2: Rock and Roll, Mike's Song > Mountains in the Mist, Weekapaug Groove > What's the Use? > Down with Disease > Fast Enough For You, 2001 E: Friday
Amy and I dropped the kids with their grandmother and attended the second night of the run. It was a lot of fun but, in all honesty, it was not the same as before. This impression being somewhat universal, the term “Post-Hiatus” became not only a common reference point to any shows played after the return but also an expression of disdain or, at least, disappointment with the overall difference between the music played before and after the break. On paper, it looks as if we got a terrific kick-down of a show. Only two new tunes with one, being the excellent “Pebbles and Marbles” and several classic songs including a “Tweezer” opener and “You Enjoy Myself”. Sadly, the “YEM” was terribly botched, to the point that Trey stopped the song, apologized and tried again.
Here’s a video of “Birds of a Feather”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbkxvH7lHEs[/youtube]
It wasn’t all bad; it just wasn’t great. The reviews of the other shows were similar. Some parts good, some not so great. Of course some fans (especially younger fans who hadn’t seen Phish before) drank it all in without any question. The good news is that just two months later, we saw a much improved version of Post-Hiatus Phish. They improved and coalesced into a different-than-before-but still-really-good band throughout spring and summer of 2003 but, it didn’t stay that way.
By Spring 2004 drugs and malaise had crept into the band’s life and wreaked havoc on their playing. Just after announcing the Summer Tour, Phish declared that they would be breaking up; this time, for keeps. I had no tickets or time for the Summer tour. My family had planned a Summer vacation on the Chesapeake Bay right smack in the midst of the final five shows and so, I accepted not seeing Phish again, until they decided to spring one more upon us.
Phish scheduled one night in Hampton to begin what was, at the time, to be their final leg of touring. I scored a pair of tickets and permission to skip out on the family for a night and rode down with my friend Ethan for the show.
Here’s the setlist:
2004-08-09 Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA 1: Chalk Dust Torture, Bathtub Gin > Runaway Jim, Walls of the Cave, Loving Cup 2: All of These Dreams, Limb By Limb, Lifeboy, Crowd Control, Seven Below > Stash > NICU, Bug, Contact, Character Zero E: David Bowie
“Lifeboy” was beautiful. “Walls of the Cave” was well played but, if I’m citing a Post-Hiatus song as a highlight in a show that features “Bathtub Gin”, “Runaway Jim”, “Stash”, and “David Bowie”, you know there’s a problem. I’m not sorry I went but I sure wish the entire band had showed up. This show is typical of my impression of Phish 2004: lots of opportunities to do something great, squandered horribly in front of thousands of hopeful and disappointed fans.
And then, for the next four and a half years, Phish was no more.
Coming up: Giddy Fan-Boy Waxes Optimistically. Stay tuned!