It's entirely possible that 2003 is an even more divisive year than 1996. There's a compilation of 2.0 jams called "The Oxy Yearz", and the name is significant on two levels - both the insane drug use that permeated the band and the scene during 2003-2004, and the (obviously related) dark, unsettling jamming style the band adopted during the time. Anybody that thinks 2.0 isn't worth listening to is missing out on a LOT, obviously, but they may need a stronger constitution than required for most Phish shows to handle how dark Phish could get (see: 7/30/03's Twist). The IT festival is pretty much the definitive 2.0 show(s) for that reason - an entire year compacted into 6 sets chock full of nasty, gnarly jamming all throughout, the nobody's-looking-right? haze of the soundcheck (black sheep brother to the fabled 5/26/11 Waves soundcheck), and the pure insanity of the Tower Jam. In a way, it can be an easy year to appreciate, but a hard one to love.

And then there's 7/15/03, which...

But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. The first set starts off with a fine triptych of songs, then...well, let's just say none of the songs I play are exactly my favorites, but it's a first set, so that's no big deal, and the first review posted here explains the balladry pretty well. But there's still time left in the set, and Phish use it well by giving us a very good, if not top notch, Mike's Groove. Mike's locks into a mid-tempo jam that might be considered prototypical 2.0, never heading for the stratosphere but still plenty full of dynamic Trey playing (and Page really going elbows-on-keys flashy style on the organs). Hydrogen is just fine, and Weekapaug also delivers a fine jam that stays in low throttle but delivers some thrills. You won't reach for this the way you would 7/17/98 or NYE '95 or any of the great Mike's Grooves, but it certainly helps raise the level of this first set.

Then comes the second set, and one of the best one-offs ever: TAB mainstay Mr. Completely, a quite good rock number that deserved more than one outing from Phish. And from that Mr. Completely comes 30 minutes of high class jamming, Trey wringing some outright fugly notes out of his guitar as the band keeps pace with all the noise, picking up and slowing down the tempo at will, Mike & Page in particular doing some real work in the middle section as a hypnotic, claustrophobic funk(!) groove emerges, not as razor-sharp as '97 (though what is?), but compelling all the same (and eminently danceable). Trey starts throwing in some sharp, stabbing guitar lines, and the jam opens back up nicely for some sweet rock heroics.

Then things get weird. From out of nowhere the group rolls into a deliberate, grungy Low Rider, Trey working his effects pedals, the group churning out a very cool instrumental version. The jam peters out, and the band charges into BBFCM, Phish's goofy version of a hardcore song (to me, at least), before segueing into a weird, too-fast Buried Alive (managing to make it sound just as ugly as BBFCM, in a good way, of course), then jumping right back into BBFCM, which leads to Ha Ha Ha for a grand total of 30 seconds, then *jumping right back into BBFCM*, from which out of the muck Mr. Completely triumphantly returns for a nice mini-jam that leads into Spread It 'Round. Then comes a very strong Walls of the Cave, Mike dropping bombs aplenty, Page giving us even more sweet organ work in a particularly busy jam. Golgi > Slave is a nice way to close one of 2003's best sets, a segue-fest on the level of any of the crazed 1994 Tweezers, but with a darker, less goofball innocent feel.

Which then puts this show in a weird spot. In a way, it's almost a man without a country, a big goofy show in a year where goofiness was in short supply, that has little to do with the style of playing that surrounds it. If you want a show that shows you what 2.0 is all about, you'd best look elsewhere (I point you again in the direction of IT). If you want a great, thoroughly enjoyable show, you've come to the right place.

(Published in the second edition of The Phish Companion...)

Utah was f*cking hot! It was comparable to Phoenix. My brother and I made our way past security a little after six and found our seats in section 102, Row H (sick, sick seats...center stage, about 8 rows back). I saw David "ZZYZX" Steinberg hanging out around the Comcast trailer and later heard that he posted to rec.music.phish to say “what's up”. On a side note, I saw him dashing back to his seats after the show because he forgot his cape. Hope you found it, David.
This show was empty. Even as 7:30 p.m. rolled around, the venue had not completely filled up and the lawn was nearly empty. My brother mentioned that he was surprised that they were selling posters at this show and that perhaps something was up. He was right.
After seeing the Gorge, we didn't know what to expect. Having seen Phoenix, Chula and both nights at Shoreline, I can honestly say that the first set, first night of the Gorge was the weakest set of the tour. Now, there is no such thing as a bad show/bad set of Phish. I lap it up. All of it. I'm not
being critical, but after seeing the boys five of the past six nights, you can tell when it's flowing and when it's not. First night of the Gorge was not.Second night of the Gorge brought it back, but we didn't know what Utah would bring. It was either going to blow us away, or it was going to be a "Friday” opener into “All of these Dreams" type of show.
Anyhow, from what I could gather, most in attendance at this show seemed like locals. There were a few of us who were on tour that I had seen previous nights, but for the most part, it seemed like lots of people were at their only show of the tour. The scene inside reflected this. Not to dis the Utah scene or those who were there that are really into the music, but when the shit was going down in the second set, those immediately around us were completely oblivious to what they were seeing. Here I am losing my shit that they're playing “BBFCM” -> “Buried Alive”, and the yahoos next to me are just kind of looking at me like "What? why are youjumping around?".
To those of you wondering why there was a slowdown in the first set (i.e., “Two Versions of Me”, “Secret Smile”) the stage at USANA faces west and I saw Trey lean over to Page and say something like "let's play this while the sun is going down." This would have normally all but killed a set, but the “Mike's” that followed equaled redemption.
The second set speaks for itself. Listen for yourself and imagine that you had no expectations going into this show other than just a normal, tremendous Phish show and look what you got. I walked away shaking my head, not believing what I had just seen. The whole next day I thought about turning around and driving the other way to Kansas as opposed to back to California.

Such a fantastic and memorable night.....we had made the loop from Cali to the Gorge and it was a push to get to Utah. Law enforcement was thick and the state police were taking digital photos of most of the cars coming into the lot...whatever, just utah I guess.

Seems like a lot of people I saw at other venues earlier in the tour skipped the one night stand in Utah....they missed the boat. The AC/DC bag was one of the hottest I have ever heard....laser beam intensity....a fantastic mikes, and the hydrogen brought a tear to my eye. Sweetly played and at that moment it seemed like the whole nasty drive from the gorge to Utah was worth every mile. The whole second set was like a big theme set... BBFCFM and Mr. Completely all twisted up...the low rider was a nice snack in there too. A fantastic multi-state journey with fantastic friends, and I am glad we put in the effort to hop down for the one night stand in Utah. Doesn't surprise me that it was a livephish released show....good things happen to those who pay their dues.

I am quiet certain there are a fair amount of you out there that are quite familiar with about 35 minutes of this show, rightfully so. Those of you not quite familiar with 35 minutes of this show... what the hell are you listening to? But I digress. Let us saunter onward through Summer 2003!

I believe this show to be highly unique. Well yes, all Phish show are unique. Perhaps a better word is compartmentalized. What I mean by that is some shows flow, some have peaks and valleys, so are kinda meh, and some are all-stars. This show fits none of those criteria. Each song, in and of itself, is well preformed, with a couple mind-blowing outliers. Each song can exist without a specific placement in a set, or flow/feel of energy. It's weird really. It's like, this would be a great show to give a noobie who has never listened to Phish. It highlights a lot of their magic, showcases much of their energy, and is more or less "easy" to listen to because one need not understand the flow, context, or intangibles of the show/atmosphere to "get it."

AC/DC Bag opens the show with nice shot of energy. Cut from the same cloth as 7.9.03, this one grows and builds nicely, albeit not mind blowingly, but still provides a great amount of focus and dance for the #1 selection this evening. To be completely honest, I can describe the first five songs of the set with that exact same sentence. All jams were well-performed, seemingly independent and not-connected, but still delivering the goods. In a word - nice.
Seriously. Not out of laziness or lack of interest, "Nice" can describe Bag through Poor Heart. And skipping the swing-and-a-miss pairing of Two Versions of Me and Secret Smile, "Nice" can describe Mike's Groove as well. It's almost like this was a live compilation, like A Live One, where a bunch of good versions of songs were meshed together into an "album" .. except this was a live set. It was weird and nice to listen to - meaning, it's not that it didn't flow, but each song was almost compartmentalized within itself. Being great in the moment without taking into consideration the before or after. A strange, but good, set to listen to. A good set of good Phish, but almost boringly so... and I don't say or mean that with a negative attitude. All and all, a pretty good set filled with many pretty good versions of songs. Nice.

Fasten your seat belts. Phish had warmed the engine for a good 75 minutes in the first set. We are well-lubricated and ready to drive. You;ll need a fast car with no top, and plenty of legal advice. From Fish's opening drum volley, you could tell something was abrew in Phishland. Even as a debut, the pep and zest of Mr Completely rang and bounced off every corner of the venue, into every ear, and out of every dance move. 13 straight minutes of TAB-on-Steroids Trey-led shred jamming morphed at the 15 minute mark into a rhythm section led dance party. Trey winds down, Fish picks up, and I do believe Page is staring out into the distance, mouth ajar, as he usually does when things get dirty onstage. The level of controversy grows as the dance moves in the audience start to border on pornographic. The band locks in. Trey starts working in that growling 2003 tone. A freight train is running out of track. It builds, grows. Sparks fly as the track is nearing its end... my god. WE HAVE LIFTOFF! BOOM! POW! WHAMMO! NEWT! BORT! Phish just takes off. Holy cow. Tension and release doesn't begin to describe the style the band is locked into for the remaining 10 minutes of the jam. It's just fireworks! Wow! To call it "a" climax would be severely undervaluing the 5 minutes of nonstop fury with which the band was peaking. Then you must considering the grooooooovy funky breakdown and true -> Low Rider. Now this is where the mayhem begins. I wasn't at this show and have no idea what the hell the band was doing onstage - the only way I can describe it is that they were having the most fun game of four-way musical ping pong played with four different ping pong balls. Make sense of that and you'll make sense of this segment of music. Trey leads into a brief Low Rider which crashed into a whacked-out out-of-left-field BBFCFM which collides with Buried Alive (in super sloppy, off key, up tempo fashion) which growls back into BBFCFM which has a full band tease of HA HA HA which is being chased by yet another BBFCFM which eventually gets abducted by the overflying USS Completely which swoops up everything and returns to the musical chorus in truly triumphant fashion! If you read that last sentence as fast as possible after spinning around in circles, you'll have an idea of what it sounds like. Weeeeeeird stuff. Mr. Completely Part 2 fades into Spread it Round and we have time to recapture our brains as the breezy, playful Spread it Round does its thing. Whew. Man. I need a towel. That was nuts! A SMOLDERING hot Walls of the Cave gives us a show-closer fake-out. This version is immense and powerful with a HUGE tension and release-laced peak. Glorious jam right here. Golgi gives us a rousing, anthemic song to go home on... except we aren't done yet! A truly mesmerizing Slave puts exclamation points written in calligraphy to this set and show. A beauty of a jam with some amazingly pretty Trey licks - inspiring and cathartic in their own right - this Slave is a beautifully powerful, and powerfully beautiful way to end the night. An encore wasn't even necessary, but Sleeping Money sends us home on the train with smiles from ear to ear. What a set, what a show!

Must-hear-jams: Mr. Completely!!! (and its ensuing circus), Walls of the Cave, Slave to the Traffic Light
Probably-should-listen-to jams: AC/DC Bag, Ya Mar, Theme From the Bottom, Weekapaug Groove

While the segue goofiness is interesting and worth a listen, the real treat here is the huge initial jam out of Mr. Completely, along with the wonderful rendition of Spread It Round. Easily vaults this puppy into 5 star territory, in my opinion. The rest of the show is pretty solid, too.

The venue is situated just so that the lot is above it. So as soon as they took to stage for sound check anyone who wanted to could watch the check through the chain link fence.

That scents is the greatest scents of alltimes. And it’s a soundcheck!

This show was my first show after the hiatus. And in my opinion, simply the greatest show of 2.0. (Island close second).

The second set alone is a furious blend of fun old school phish sandwiched by 36 minutes of Mr. Completely (which, mind you, people heard plenty of by Tab during the off-season hiatus years, 01-02...)

Please listen. This is mandatory Phish.

In a 4 car caravan of friends super pumped to get to see our only show of the summer, I drove down from Central Idaho with my wife and parked in what seemed to me to be the remains of some sort of quarry. We started partying and a friend broke out a gigantic bag of mushrooms. Naturally, I ate about an 1/8th plus another gram or 2 because it's a phish show. Turns out that was a terrible plan. Once we got inside, I realized these were no normal mushrooms. I started tripping my entire face off waiting for them to hit the stage. They came out, opened with bag>ya mar, and that's when things went right off the rails. We had a nice blanket spread out, and my wife looks over at me and says "are you going to be sick?" That was the clearance I needed to let my stomach loose. I threw up right next to the blanket, apologized to the people next to us, and said I needed some air.

I wandered around the grass for the duration of the first set hallucinating furiously, and vomiting about every 10 minutes. I remember bits and pieces of Saw It Again and Poor Heart. A couple of Salt Lake's finest saw me clearly in distress and started trying to approach. I was with it enough to recognize what was happening, and began weaving my way through the lawn area avoiding cops, barfing, jamming, and repeating the whole cycle again.

Miraculously, I emptied all the poison out of my body, as Mike's was transitioning into Hydrogen and Weekapaugh. Finally setbreak happened, and I made my way back to the group. They had seen the whole escapade and thought it was hilarious watching me evade the cops.

Second set was a whole different me. I was fully back to normal (still tripping face, just not sick). I loved Mr. Completely from the original TAB album, and was so stoked to hear it played by the boys. Obviously, the set progressed into utter sickness with low rider BBFCFM> Buried Alive>BBFC>Ha Ha Ha>BBFC>back into Mr. Completely clear through til the end. As I recall, the Slave was particularly good.

Always a hater on Sleeping Monkey, I was not stoked to hear it for the encore, although it is one of my friend's absolute favorite songs, so he was thrilled.
The night ended with me being wracked with abdominal pains from so much sickness in the first set. I ended up sleeping in the hotel bathroom that night because I thought I was dying. Needless to say, it was not a great first show for my wife. She was understandably aghast at my performance. I've since figured out my correct dosing of mushrooms, which is zero.
Waiting for the lot to empty out after the show, we played some frisbee in the quarry and had a blast. If I vomited near you, or you stepped in it, please accept this review apology, and know that I was an idiot when I was young.
Overall, a great show, and some hilarious memories.

the camping sucked never never camp at west valley it was a 200 x 200 foot fenced in area on one of their parking lots not in use that day. but who could sleep after a show like that

SET 1: AC/DC Bag: Personally, I think anytime you get a Bag opener it means that something is definitely up! This most assuredly was the case on this gorgeous July night in Utah. The Bag was pretty standard and tight throughout. Sweet opener that primed us for the rest of the night. Nice jam! >

Ya Mar: Nice, this is the penultimate Phish summer song for me, so light and happy. Was it just me or did the "Play it Leo" by Trey seem way off? Like the timing was really off? Either way, good Yamar; nothing crazy like the one from IT; just good solid band jamming here. Fishman was really going off on the wood blocks around 5:40 or so, love the wood blocks!

Theme From the Bottom: Sweet!! This is a song I was totally sick of by the end of 96, I caught it at every third show it seemed and it never really changed much. But now that they have scaled it back to once or twice a tour, it makes it much more enjoyable. This version made me remember why I liked this song so much back when I saw it for the first time at the Palace of Auburn Hills in 95. There is so much tension building in this song that when they finally climax it can be quite intense as was the case w/ this version.

Saw It Again: Standard.

Poor Heart: Standard, still the crowd ate it up.

Two Versions of Me: Did they really need to play this again so soon after just playing it at the Gorge? Personally, I liked the Gorge version more specifically because it was segued out of that hot Piper. Still my second favorite of the new tunes.

Secret Smile: Seriously, stop playing this fellas, it's not good unless I am spun to the moon and need a really sappy/slow song to bring me back to earth. TAB, you can have it. Yuck. This was only one of two drawbacks of the whole evening for me.

Mike's Song: Good, solid jamming. >

I Am Hydrogen: Standard.

Weekapaug Groove: Bring the love Mike! A nice jammed out Week that lasted just over 12 minutes. They catch a nice them for a couple of minutes. What a way to close out a romping first set, you could tell that the band really meant business and was intent on showing why you should never ever skip a Phish show in Utah. I mean, didn't people learn after 11/2/98 DSOTM?

Set break: Bill and I spotted Malcolm just after first set closed out and he told us where we could find them, so we moved back into the 300 section on Mike's side where I had a whole aisle all to myself to dance in. Little did I know that I would need every inch of that aisle because I'd be running around like a madman w/ what Phish was about to lay on us!!

SET 2: Mr. Completely: As the opening notes rang out, this just sent me into outer space baby! I was jumping up and down like a little kid. Most around us did not seem to have a clue what this was. I never, ever would have expected Phish to play this. Every time TAB plays this bad boy, they jam the living hell out of it so I assumed we would get a 15 minute or so version. Wrong. What lay before us may well have been THE jam of the summer tour. I can't really begin to even explain the places this jam went. At around 14:50 Page really starts to lay down some funky riffs w/ Trey playing some rhythm behind him, ahh the funk! Around 25 minutes or so they begin patiently working back to the original theme of this song. Excellent overall job by the band to be able to bring this back around but wait what was that I just heard?! At around 27:45 or so Trey is repeating a few chords that to my ear sounded like Low Rider. Two minutes later this does come to fruition segueing into ->

Low Rider: Woo hoo! Dare I say this Mr. Completely>Low Rider outplays the Ghost>LR from 2/26. Then at 3.5 minutes, no it can't be, it can't be… ->

Big Black Furry Creature from Mars: Finally at my 67th show I am finally hearing Big Black Furry. Unfuckingbelievable. As some of you may know, our tour partner Lee made a sign for his run from Phoenix > Bonner Springs. I believe this was the first venue that actually allowed him to bring it in and by God did the band ever take notice. Lee, I sure hope you see this and comment on it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. A quick romp through this punk tune lands in ->

Buried Alive: Amazing segue into Buried. At this point I was running up and down the aisle pretty much screaming like a banshee. I have only seen Buried Alive like 3 or 4 times, and I think I'd be fine w/ seeing it every other show I like it that much. This was very short and segues right back into >

Big Black Furry Creature from Mars: OK, holy shit. This setlist is starting to look like something straight out of 93 or 94 with the segues, unreal >

Ha Ha Ha: Good Lord the band is just having the time of their lives and so are we out in the pavilion just eating this all up >

Big Black Furry Creature from Mars: Just when you think it cannot get any crazier segue into >

Mr. Completely: Now that is what I call a sandwich, one that only this band could possibly even think of doing! What got into the band tonight? I still cannot believe they came back from whence they began, and they still aren't done w/ the segueing madness!! >

Spread It 'Round: All of us are pretty much just looking at each other w/ mouths agape at this point. Sounds like a new tune. Just 4 minutes into this I am thinking to myself, this is the worst song Phish has ever played. Well maybe second worse compared to Jennifer Dances. Actually they may be tied! repetitive, soooooo cheesy. Crap. This would be my second and last drawback of the night.

Walls of the Cave: This is another song that I think I would rather hear on the tape’s vs live for some reason or another. This one however really rages but still found me taking a geezer breather in my seat >

Golgi Apparatus: Hell yeah, I saw you! This ticket stub will stay w/ me forever.

Slave to the Traffic Light: Bless you boys! Just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in! This is my second favorite Phish song, just a tad behind Divided Sky and this version did not disappoint. I don't get to hear Slave near as much as I'd like (like I did in '97) so anytime I hear it now it just melts me. This song means so very much to me. I was going thru some pretty rough times at the end of my college career at the end of '97/beginning of 98 - Slave was always the song I would pop in at those times to try and bring me out of the darkness. Enough of that though - this version was pretty solid; a few very minor flubs can be heard but for the most part it's very solid. The wave of emotion I was riding throughout this set climaxed here in Slave. This is the reason I spend so much time, energy, and money on Phish right here. Because there is nothing else that I know of on this planet that can make me feel like this (at least that I know of yet) - no drug, no girl; there is nothing like an amazing Phish show (that for Me) just puts me on top of the world. All that said, this is a below average version.

ENCORE: Sleeping Monkey: Ha ha, nice! I hadn't heard this little ditty in a long time! It made me think back to 12-6-97 when I saw this as an encore also,
Fishman climbing up on his kit and crooning to us all! Gotta love this song and the quirky abandon it has to it. Great way to end the night.

Replay Value/Summary: Mr. Completely is an all timer – absolutely epic jam. Weekapaug I would also recommend. The first 1/3 of set I is solid as is the Mike’s Groove and the second set was a ton of fun. I would rate this a strong 4.5 out of 5. Off we go to Kansas, stopping at my place in Denver to pick up my friend Pat who would see the rest of tour w/ us. We saw the car in front of us narrowly miss hitting a big deer about an hour after getting on I-80. Bonner Springs (holy letdown Phish!) review coming soon. We carried Lee’s BBFCFM sign with us for the rest of the tour as his last show was the next show in Kansas. On the other side was Fluffhead. Tony made it close to the front of one of the IT shows, he got on the big video screen, prompting the infamous Fluffhead chants > Mike said no. True story. He was way up front for this Utah show and was the reason they played BBFCFM. Pretty cool!