Phish Selects Zepp Osaka Show From 2000 Japan Tour For Live Archival Release

Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro took over the SiriusXM Phish Radio airwaves yesterday for a special episode of From The Archives featuring tracks from the band’s June 16, 2000 concert at Zepp in Osaka, Japan. The complete official recording will be released this Friday, June 30 via the LivePhish platform and app.

The show at Zepp was the seventh and final performance of the quartet’s lone tour of Japan. Highlights included a rare jammed-out version of “Limb By Limb” to open, a euphoric “Reba” as the penultimate song of the first set, a majestic 26-minute “Runaway Jim” that started the second set and gave way to a top-shelf “Theme From The Bottom” as well as the beautiful “Harry Hood” closer.

Dave “Mr. Minor” Calarco documented his experience at each show of Phish’s 2000 Japan Tour for JamBase. Read what he wrote about the Zepp Osaka concert played by guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman and keyboardist Page McConnell below:

As people gathered on the waterfront at the outskirts of Osaka, there was a sense of bittersweetness, as this amazing run of shows would be ending after this one. An overall surreal week was coming to a close in the Zepp Club of Osaka, its Tokyo counterpart. The venue, located far outside the main area of Osaka, was designed just like the Zepp Club in Tokyo, yet was a bit smaller in size, and had a carpeted dance floor instead of the hard tile in Tokyo. The carpeting seemed to give the club a bit more intimate of a feel, and the show was far from sold out taboot. With plenty of room to move and dance without any real crowdedness, everyone was quite excited for the tour closer, and was expecting big things to close a week of extremely hot shows. Because the last train back into central Osaka was at 11:38 pm, the band took the stage right around 7pm, the earliest of the week.

As Phish took the stage to thunderous cheers, Trey leaned over and began to sing the openeing of Limb by Limb, which ironically closed the first Zepp show! This one however was in a different league altogether. This Limb was an extremely improvised and much longer than usual, passing through some amazing sections on the way to an intense climax. The uplifting and spiritual feel to the Limb jam set the tone for what would be a very thematic show featuring happier, more uplifting and delicately intricate Phish jams. This Limb was truly bistering and set an improvisational standard for the jams to follow. Following a great rendition of Sample In a Jar, Phish bust out an extremely energetic version of First Tube, which was tight as hell! One of the more climactic versions ever, due to the overwhelming energy level of the room and some amazingly tight grooves, Trey led the band and the crowd alike to the moutaintop, and as he looked over, the band dropped into the beginning of Golgi, juxtaposing one of the more climactic new school songs, with one of the more climactic old school songs. A great combination of these two Phish anthems had the crowd in the palm of Trey’s hand as they began an unrecognizeable bluegrass intro.

Within a minute, they began to sing the lyrics of My Sweet One over this groove, and all of a sudden they were involved in the first performance of the song since New Years 1997-98. A short Bowie tease with Fishman beginning the cymbal hits gave way to the beginning of Reba, another classic Phish jam that had not surfaced in this Japan run yet. This Reba was truly amazing, and the Japanese crowd was treated to an outstanding sounding extended Reba improv session. Trey played immaculately over the bands mellow, yet building grooves, as the Reba moved into some seriously dancy territory. The crowd was SO quiet during the duration of the jam, it was a sheer pleasure to experience! (MM note: You American jam disrupters, with the talking and the clapping, should take a lesson from these unbelieveably respectful Japanese heads who realize how privleged they are to be in front of the Phish!)

This Reba was the clear highlight of the set as they even finished the song with the whistling section. A raging and groove based Character Zero closed the set. Watch for the Zeros this summer in America as the band has been really blowing up the last few versions. Check out some real Hendrix-style grooves eminating from Trey’s ‘doc, and get ready for some full on dance music!

The weather outside at setbreak was beautiful. A cool breeze blew in from the water as people were allowed to leave and re-enter the club during the intermission to have a drink, puff a smoke, or just chill. (Another perk of these international club shows!)

The second set began with a Runaway Jim that stood up to any jam they had played over the past week. Beginning in Jim land, moving out into some very electronic sounding grooves, and then some more abstract grooves, this Jim clocked in somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes and featured some of the most amazing improvisational moments of the week. This Jim is one you will listen to over and over again, the kind of jam where you forget about 15 minutes in what the hell you are listening to because it is so great and out of character! Don’t be thinkning about some of the unfocused longer Jim’s of yesteryear (a la Worcester 97), but rather a seriously poignant, cohesive and powerful piece of music. As you can imagine, the improvisation continued the uplifting and spiritual theme of the show as Phish was favoring the lighter and more melodic side of their sound rather than the dark psychadelia showcased earlier in the week (especially in Fukuoka.) Don’t misread me, this Jim was as groovy and psychadelic as any darker jam, just in a much different way. The depths of this jam even featured a section with Trey leading with some insane mini-keyboard grooves. This is a must hear, and then a must hear again! The Jim slowly oozed out of its murky psychadelia into the opening cymbal hits of Theme From the Bottom.

This Theme was a perfect reflective jam for the last set of tour (a la the last set of summer Tour 1999, 7/26/99 Deer Creek). Yet this Theme didn’t end and go back into the lyrics, but instead, the band continued to build the “wall-of-sound”/ My Bloody Valentine-esque climax and went into a more abstract and dark jam before releasing with the beginning of the rarely played mellow favorite Dog-Faced Boy. The Dog-Faced seem to fit right in with the concept of the set, and it provided a bit of rest after a long period of improvisation. Driver continued this theme before Trey spoke into his mug and begain the opening chords to Slave to the Traffic Light. A perfect set ending, and tour ending jam, this Slave was the conceptual peak of this thematic set, and beautifully climaxed the melodic ideas and concepts that had been presented throughout the show. As Slaves are rarer and rarer these days, each one has become more and more special, and has been generally given the full extended treatment. This was no exception as the jam brought the crowd to a heightened state of happiness and awareness of the magic at hand. Trey appeared focused as ever as he built this slowly weaving jam to the heights we have come to love from this piece of music. As the Slave came to a monstrous close, it seemed as though the set might have been over. Yet just when you least expected it, Phish offered the blues-rocky denoument of Julius, which didn’t necessarily fit within the realms of the show’s aforementioned theme. But Phish does love to showcase Julius at tour closers (again, 7/26/99 Deer Creek). Nonetheless, the Julius featured some cool laid back improv by Trey and shyed from the louder more straight ahead bluesy-rock grooves that are usually prominent in the song. Once again, the show could have ended, but they chose to give the crowd a perfectly placed, emotional Bug to place a reflective and conceptual exclamation point to the show, serving as a perfect end to this exhalting set and tour.

The encore of Bouncin’ and Harry Hood could not have been more classic, and left the crowd, Japanese and American alike, on top of the world as Phish took their final bow to the far eastern fans. The Hood was a tremendous closer to a week of magic, and featured some great interaction between Trey and Page as they built the melodic themes of the jam. An uplifting show from start to finish, the band offered a delightful conclusion to one of the best weeks of shows ever.

With 7 shows in 8 days, chock full of amazing Phish jams, the band turned on an entire country to its surreal improvisational talents and their amazingly powerful musical abilities. As Trey said “Arrigato!” to the crowd for one last time and took a respectful Japanese bow, I could not help ponder the global revolution that seemed to be underway. Uniting people and cultures with their music, Phish’s sacred artform is beginning to spread globally, changing the lives of their adoring fanbase. Tears welled in my eyes considering the sheer power of this thought as I reflected on the true privlege we Phish fans have as a part of the most amazing musical movement to date. As the power of this musical magic grows uncontainable by national borders, I looked into the future where people across the world will celebrate the beautiful and spiritual moments created by this amazing band and community on a nightly basis. I looked at the stage, and then at my friends, and I smiled.

Shapiro’s From The Archives episode previewing the Zepp Osaka release replays today (Tuesday, June 27) and tomorrow (Wednesday, June 28) on Phish Radio. Then, the full show will premiere on Phish Radio this Thursday, June 29 before the official recording will be available through LivePhish on Friday, June 30.

Phish returns to the road on July 11 in Huntsville, Alabama to launch their 23-date Summer Tour 2023. The band, celebrating its 40th anniversary, will play two nights at Huntsville’s Orion Amphitheater. Other stops include Phish’s debut performances at Live Oak Bank Pavilion in Wilmington, North Carolina, a three-night stand near Atlanta at Ameris Bank Amphitheatre, seven shows at New York City’s Madison Square Garden and more. The excursion concludes with the group’s traditional Labor Day Weekend run at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado.

Setlist (via Phish.net)

Audience Recording (via fromtheaquarium)

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Source: JamBase.com