(Photo courtesy of Walfredo.com)

Food, music, music, food. Such is the stuff of life.

There are already rumors about spring tour dates, and if I don't post my thoughts about the New Year's run now, I'm going to lose my chance forever. It was an amazing set of shows, and I could probably write a (very long, very boring to all but the most dedicated phans) novel on them. Thankfully, I'll be brief. Heh. Presenting:

"The Top 10 Best (and Bottom 5 Worst) Things about Phish in Miami, New Year's 2003"

1. Sand > Shafty: It wasn’t just the rarity of these songs, or the seamless segue between them, or even the deep, deep groove so early in the show that made this 20 minutes on 12/30 my top pick of the week. It was the fact that you could tell immediately from all those factors combined that the show that night was going to be experimental, wildly creative, and musically inspired. One of THOSE shows.

I have never had a musical experience like 12/30. THIS is why I see Phish.

2. More Cowbell: If you’ve never seen the SNL skit with Will Farrell and Christopher Walken, it’s worth your time to download it and take a look. We've always thought it was hysterical, and before we left for Miami, M casually mentioned how funny it would be to make a sign and hang it from the balcony on New Year's Eve when we had first row balcony seats. Of course we did nothing about it, but when M mentioned our idea to Matt about 30 minutes before leaving for the show on 12/31 from the hotel, Matt sprung into action and THIS was the result.

(BTW: We got an amazing response to this both at the show - someone walked across the entire arena to give Mike a beer for making him laugh - and afterwards. For jaded Phish fans to say that was the "best sign EVER" is a high compliment. It fit the silly mood of NYE so well. 12/30 was about the music. 12/31 was about the party.)

3. The 13:00 mark of YEM: Mike and Trey switch parts...Mike takes the melody high on his bass, and Trey takes over the bassline. It sounded weird/cool when it happened, but it took a week to figure out what was actually going on. The fact that stuff like this "just happens" in the middle of a 30 minute jam is totally overwhelming to me.

4. Gin>2001: Hot DAMN! these were awesome. Coming at the end of the perfect first set on the aforementioned brilliant 12/30, this closed things out in style. I've heard some awesome Gins this year, but this one grooved immediately. And I mentioned a while ago how much I wanted to see 2001. Chris Kuroda is a fucking genius.

5. Twist>Boogie>Ghost>Free: For my money, this is where they really turned on: second set, second night. The song placement and segues here are spot on. M thinks the Boogie's a little shaky, and I agree somewhat, but it doesn't bother me at all. When they finally stopped playing after Free the entire arena roared. We gave them lots of love for that little sequence.

6. More Dancing Bunnes! We saw them this summer at IT (can't find a damn picture!), and there they were again on New Year's Eve! I am NOT going to deconstruct this.

7. LA Woman: My only complaint about this cover is that I didn't know it better, having not ever been a big Doors fan. It was pretty amazing watching them weave this in and out of the set. When it was apparent that it wasn't just a random choice, that they had really practiced it and planned it, it was even better. Mr. Mojo risin' indeed.

8. Playing Waste, then playing a second encore: This was my 30th show and M's 50th show. We love Waste. They played Waste! (Just for us! I'm sure! Heh.) Then, in a completely unheard of move, they came back for a second encore. No one can remember them coming back for a second encore. Ever. Maybe 15 years ago, but not in recent memory.

9. Heaps of Henrietta: Vacuum 3 out of 4 nights? The man's a maniac.

10. Make my funk the PHISH funk! When a rumor that "George Clinton is in the house" spreads so quickly at setbreak, you know it has to be true. What no one expected is for a good chunk of the P-Funk Allstars to all come out on stage together. Thank GOD they didn't do their classic "let's take over the concert entirely" routine; they just jammed for a bit, sang about their bootys (booties?) and left as quickly as they came. It could have sucked. It most decidedly did not.

And now for the booby prizes:

1. Guyute: God I hate this song. I hate it even more when they can't play it right. Please shelve this for at least a year? Thanks.

2. The HORRIBLE lot scene: crowded, crazy, marginally dangerous and full of the shadiest characters I've ever seen. I know most of that was the size (super small) and the local Miami crackheads infiltrating everything but no thanks, I don't want crack OR heroin, I'd just like a grilled cheese and maybe to look at those t-shirts over there. Horrid.

3. Mike's Song: I love this song. Everyone loves this song. Phish apparently loves this song because they've played it incessantly this year. And while they've finally remembered and can hit the old ending, and there have been some really awesome versions (Shoreline 7/9 and Deer Creek 7/21), it's been a poor year for this song. I wish they could shelve it for a bit and play Weekapaug as a standalone, cause 'Paug's been awesome each and every time.

4. Where the hell was the new stuff? I know there's lots of disagreement over some of the new tunes from this summer, but even the really, really good ones were conspicuously absent. We didn't hear Scents and Subtle Sounds, Discern, Spread it Round, Pebbles and Marbles, Waves, WOTC, or 46 Days! I was definitely disappointed not to hear S&SS and 46 Days. Hopefully they're just working out stuff for the new album and they'll reappear this summer.

5. That weird, weird first set from the first night: How was I supposed to explain that to Rappy? They opened with two closers, then played Tweezer (on the first night of a four night run!), Frankie Says (blech!) was the best song in the set, they played an opener at the end, Fish played the vacuum (so early!), and then they closed the FIRST SET with Tweeprise, thereby ruining everyone's Phantasy Tour guesses. Whatever, boys.

At least they made up for it in spades.