As we wait for Phish to reveal details about how they plan to celebrate their 30th Anniversary, we use today’s Full Show Friday post to look at the band’s 20th Anniversary show. Phish honored the occasion in 2003 by performing a run of four shows on Thanksgiving Weekend with stops at the Nassau Coliseum on November 28th, The Spectrum on November 29th, the Knickerbocker Arena on December 1st and Boston’s Fleet Center on the actual 20th anniversary – December 2nd, 2003.
Not only is high-quality fan-shot video of both sets available on YouTube, but there’s also footage of the 20th Anniversary Montage featuring clips from throughout Phish’s career available on the site. Highlights include an outrageous Rock and Roll that opened the second set, arguably the best Maze in the band’s history, a fun take on Ya Mar that nodded to the Banana Splits theme song and deliciously bizarre and quick jaunts through Weekapaug Groove and Tweezer Reprise without the songs that normally precede them. Let’s take a look…
Phish – December 2, 2003 [First Set]
Phish – 20th Anniversary Montage
Phish – December 2, 2003 [Second Set]
Setlist…
Leave A CommentSet 1: Harry Hood > Cavern, Birds of a Feather, Ya Mar[1], Horn > Piper >Anything But Me, Water in the Sky, Down with Disease
Set 2: Rock and Roll -> Weekapaug Groove[2] -> Tweezer Reprise[3] >Frankenstein -> Kung -> Frankenstein, All of These Dreams, The Wedge, Boogie On Reggae Woman > Cities > Maze, Waste
Encore: Bug
[1] The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) teases.
[2] Unfinished.
[3] Mike’s Song lyrics sung by Trey.Notes: This gig commemorated the 20th anniversary of the first Phish show. In the audience, a section of seats were roped off to make way for a music stand. The music stand held a three-ring binder that contained lyrics from the Phish canon, but it did not play an active role in the performance. Ya Mar contained teases of The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana). At the end of Disease, a video screen descended behind the stage. As the house lights remained down, a 25+ minute video was played featuring retrospective highlights from throughout Phish’s career. Before the second set, Mike brought out a tray of desserts and shared them with fans in front of the stage. Highway to Hell was briefly teased by Trey before Rock and Roll. Weekapaug was unfinished. Tweezer Reprise included lyrics (sung by Trey) from Mike’s Song. Appropriately, the post-show house music was the Beatles’ song Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band (which begins with the lyric, “It was twenty years ago today…”).
[via Phish.net]