New Years 2003 - Phish in Miami

What else can be said about the New Years 2003 Miami run other than it was an anomaly in terms of post hiatus shows. The Miami run lives with me everyday actually, so I want to take this moment to acknowledge slight hearing loss in my right ear from the late night Particle show. Miami was a great adventure, with PS, JCT, and yours truly making up the core of the group, and JCT’s “lady A” and “Cowbell King” BE meeting up with us later in the run. We took a nice early morning flight on Spirit Airlines on the 28th to Ft. Lauderdale from frigid Detroit. We took a pricy cab from the airport to North Miami Beach where our hotel was located. I don’t recall exactly what shitty chain hotel we stayed in, but it was pricy for the shithole that it was, granted it was approaching New Years. We did find cockroaches in our hotel, but because it was a franchised national chain, we really had no power to ask for any break. The hotel was located on the beach about 1.5 miles north of South Beach. We would make the half hour walk in the sand down to South Beach a few times while in Miami which was a pretty cool experience. This was my fourth trip to South Florida in a four year span, and I have not returned since writing this piece. I hope for the day that the Phish returns to Miami to rock out the town, but that’s a long shot. Besides, this Miami tour serves an exception to the post Phish era because of the quality of music and the sustained energy from start to finish.
We relaxed when we got to Miami. I think the 28th was a Sunday, and it was slow in the neighborhood. We found a pizza joint open and got a bite.
One of the bigger expenses in Miami was not having a car (none of us were 25 yet so a rental was out of the question), so cab rides cost us every time we went to American Airlines Arena. The drive was always around $15 to $20 bucks as I recall. We headed down to the area around the venue early. There is nothing better than seeing Phish in warm places, especially considering the gray, northern winters my peeps are so accustomed to.
The lot scene was rocking, kinda like Albany. Lots of kids slinging goods, all crammed in a small parking lot, and the trash piled up fast. There seemed to be a lot of extra tickets going around for the first 3 nights. Coronas were hot in the lot.
American Airlines arena is specifically built for basketball, so the shape of the arena is more circular than arenas that host hockey games. There are 3 levels, so there is a good view from everywhere you are. The floor is small in comparison to venues like the Palace. Unfortunately, I didn’t have floor tickets any of the nights, but the quality of the music more than made up for that. In fact, 3 of the 4 nights, we sat on Page’s side, about halfway up in the lower bowl, and we never had problems where we sat. The other night, JCT and PS had 2nd or 3rd row, and I watched them rock out from behind the stage.
Here is the setlist from the first night.

12/28/03 American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL
Set I: David Bowie, Sample in a Jar, Tweezer, Bouncing Around the Room, AC/DC Bag, Frankie Says, Llama, HYHU> Love You> HYHU, Tweezer Reprise
Set II: Gotta Jibboo, Suzy Greenberg> Theme from the Bottom, Water in the Sky, Friday, Harry Hood
Encore: Sleeping Monkey, Loving Cup

The intensity of the entire run was established with the first song. The anticipation and the heat of Miami simmered in the intro to David Bowie. This would be the beginning of one of the best sets of Phish I witnessed (other notable sets include 12/6/97 set II and 8/16/98 set III). I am particularly fond of the Frankie Sez jam. It is one of the darker Phish jams I have heard. Fishman running around the stage for HYHU was classic, and this may be the only first set Tweezer Reprise I ever saw.

The second set was solid, and Friday provided a great time to use the bathroom. When I went out into the lobby, I discovered a lemonade vender who I would solicit throughout the run. The rest of the show was overshadowed by the fantastic first set, but it was still great from start to finish. Not bad for the first night of a 4-night run.
I can’t recall what we did after the show except crashed after a long day of travel and music. The next night we would be even longer as we would also take in Particle at an after show.
During the day on the 29th, we would walk down Miami beach a half hour or more to get to south beach where we ate this diner with a bunch of pictures of celebrities on the wall. This was my 3rd visit to South Beach in almost as many years since I had gone to Florida for Spring Break a few times. We hung out around South Beach and took in the scenery before heading back to the hotel and getting ready for the show.
Like the night before, the scene in the lot was in full force. More Coronas, more stinky hippies…classic lot scene. For some reason, there seemed to be a lot of extra tickets floating around in Miami for the first 3 nights although the shows certainly sold out. Here is the setlist for night 2.

12/29/03 American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL
Set I: Piper, Foam, Anything But Me, Limb By Limb, Wolfman's Brother, Poor Heart, Cavern
Set II: Rock and Roll> Twist> Boogie On Reggae Woman> Ghost> Free, The Divided Sky, Good Times Bad Times
Encore: Waste, The Squirming Coil1

I really have not listened to the first set in awhile so I can’t say too much about it. People sometimes rave about the Piper, an interesting choice for an opener to a show. What I do recall as being amazing was the 2nd set. This was some rocking, funky, solid Phish. The best part is at the 6 minute mark of Boogie On where Trey goes from playing a major cord to a minor and the jam gets darker into Ghost. Then came the FREE. Free was rockin funky and featured some dueling between Trey and Mike. The rest of the show was fitting and included close to a double encore as the band left stage between Waste and Coil.
After the show, we walked through some ghetto parts of Miami (bums sleeping on the street) to a warehouse known as the Ice Palace where Particle would draw a moderately sized crowd for their set of Pink Floyd covers. Knowing how late Particle can go, we didn’t stay for the whole show, leaving at around 3:30am. Yet the first set of music was intense, as were the lights, and the sound was loud. I think we all stood a little too close to the right speaker and hurt our ears in the process, but I danced pretty hard. I liked the setting for the show although things seemed a little sketchy there in Miami’s poor area.
We made our way back to Miami beach and crashed hard.
I believe we ventured down to Miami beach the next day and had a different kind of meal at a restaurant more directly on South Beach. I recall drinking Presidente, a beer from the Dominican Republic that JCT raves about. It is better than a Corona, in fact it’s a pretty damn good beer. I haven’t had one since and I’ve asked at numerous places including Sam’s in Chicago. Someday I will have a Presidente again, and hopefully it will be the same day that Phish returns for another run in Miami.
We made our way back to the hotel and took a quick dip in the hotel pool. The hotel also had an outdoor bar but we hardly utilized it. The hotel was kinda dead, filled with randoms including the most high strung, NASCAR-loving redneck I have ever met (this story later).
I can’t recall if it was this day or the next that Lady A and Cowbell King BE arrived. They were both there for New Years and I think Lady A, JCT’s lady, might have been there earlier. We made our way to American Airlines Arena for the show. Here is the setlist from the 3rd night.
12/30/03 American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL
Set I: Wilson> Sand> Shafty> NICU, Weigh, Cities, Strange Design, Scent of a Mule, Bathtub Gin> Also Sprach Zarathustra1
Set II: Tube> L.A. Woman2> Birds of a Feather> L.A. Woman> Makisupa Policeman> Booty Ain't Nothing But a Butt Rap2 3> Give Up the Funk(Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)> P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up), Makisupa Policeman4, Down With Disease
Encore: Contact, While My Guitar Gently Weeps
First set……wow. Another great set with some great segues. I love the version of Sand, I dig the vocals on Cities, the Mule and the Gin are both great, and the 2001 set the tone for the rest of the show. The 2001 started out conventional until Trey started to tease “Play that Funky P-funk, so I can get funked up” a classic funk line from Pass the Peas, a song covered by Bump my 2nd favorite band and hometown favorite. That jam was worthy of a live feed to the Bump kids back in the cold. Parliament Funkadelic was scheduled to play in Miami that night after the Phish show. It turns out that they decided to show up for the 2nd set and rock out with Phish for a few songs. Honestly, it sounded horrible, but it was still cool to see famous guests come rock it out with the boys. Just to think of all the amazing musicians Phish has played with over the years – Santana, Bela Fleck, Kid Rock, BB King, Son Seals, John Popper, Dave Matthews, Les Claypool – you feel like you caught a moment in time when you are lucky enough to see Phish with a special guest.

The rest of the show was fun, including the Doors teases throughout the 2nd set. Musically, the first set was stronger, but the show was another memorable time of my life. Awe, wasn’t that a happy comment. I feel like Forrest Gump.
I don’t’ recall if we did much after the show that night. Most of us wanted to save up for New Years and long day and night that would be ahead of us. We booked our flights out of Ft. Lauderdale in the early morning on New Years Day.
I didn’t make it down to Miami beach on 12/31/03, instead opting to lay back and chill. In attempting to withdraw money from ATMs in Miami, I came to the realization that someone had charged a huge amount on my credit card, something like $300, to some cable company. I had to take out cash on another credit card just to get through the day. I was refunded (thank BankOne), but this is the only time I believe that I have gotten charges on my bill that I did not authorize.
We made it down to the venue, all 5 of us now, and we got our groove on for New Years. I believe I wore a Wings jersey that night, and got a funny picture with a cut out of George W. Bush. Suspecting that there were going to be posters sold at the show, we got to the venue early and got in line. We sprinted half-way around the venue to get the poster which was pretty cool. I framed the poster, but then traded it for tickets during the summer 2004 tour, specifically for my friends who would come home from New Zealand just in time to see the end of Phish.
I had a great time on New Years, but there were some things (that will remain untold) that sorta pissed me off about the night. Let’s just say I’m not a fan of wooks or drunks at Phish shows.
Here is the setlist:

12/31/03 American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL
Set I: Wilson1, Mike's Song> I am Hydrogen> Weekapaug Groove2, The Moma Dance, Guyute, You Enjoy Myself2, First Tube> Tube1
Set II: Stash, Seven Below, Lawn Boy, Chalkdust Torture2> Slave to the Traffic Light> Chalkdust Torture
Set III: Jungle Boogie3 4> Auld Lang Syne> Iron Man3, Runaway Jim, Simple, Reba, I Didn't Know, Feel Feel Feel The Heat3> HYHU, Run Like An Antelope
Encore: Frankenstein

Phish finished Wilson from the night before. The whole show was great and there were a bunch of people from a local marching band on stage at midnight. Good times all around. Musically, I preferred the other nights, but this was still a great experience.
After the show, we slowly made our way back to the hotel to relax a few hours before our flight. We hung out on the beach, listened to the waves, and kicked back. Everybody else tried to get a short sleep in before we left for the airport, but I chose to stay up since 2 hours of sleep wasn’t going to do much for me. I ended up in the hotel lobby talking to a middle aged, fat and balding, truck driver, in Miami with his family including his 18 year old daughter who had mysteriously disappeared with some dude in Miami and not kept her parents informed. This guy was waiting for her to come back so that they could leave and drive straight through back to Toledo, OH (22 hours away at least). He was pissed off, pissed about his hotel reservation, pissed about what he paid, pissed about another hotel shutting him out. He started to go into a rant about hotel problems he had with NASCAR when I brought up my story about sleeping in a Wal-Mart parking lot after Columbus in 1998. He wasn’t a happy camper, and acted like a know it all, but his anger kinda amused me in the early morning hours, especially after some of the bullshit I had dealt with that night. What a night filled with highs and lows, and it wasn’t over yet.
I went upstairs to the hotel room to wake up PS and JCT to go to the airport. It was kinda difficult to get a cab down there, and the cab drivers were a bunch of Carribean, non-english speaking assholes. Not to knock on folks from islands, or wherever this dude was from. So we finally were able to get a cab to come by and pick us up.
Recall that the cab ride from Ft. Lauderdale airport to Miami on the way in was a flat rate of $40. Since this was New Years, we figured to pay a little bit more to the driver or pay a fatter tip. The first offer he came up with was $60. We told him about the flat rate we had got, but finally we agreed to pay him $60 to get to the airport. PS rode in front while JCT and I sat in back.
About 3/4s of the way to the airport, the driver says something to the effect of “you are going to pay $80.” Of course he didn’t run the meter on the cab, so there wasn’t any way to cite it as a way to shut him up. I responded politely but firmly, “No, you agreed to take us there for $60. We’ll pay you $60.” We went on, and we thought that all was well. A few minutes later, he started getting pissed off again, driving erratically, and threatening to get off the highway if he didn’t pay him $80. He kept messing with stuff in his car as his anger grew. Finally, he reached under PS and it looked as if he was going to pull out a gun from under the seats to threaten us. He never pulled a gun, but we were not going to let this dude take us on some crazy detour when all we wanted to do was get to the airport. So somewhere within there, I told him that we would pay him $70 to shut him up and get him moving. I think JCT and PS were a little more nervous that I was. By that point in the night, I wasn’t going to let some piece of shit cab driver tell me what the f*ck was up. Had he not wanted to take us to the airport, he shouldn’t have agreed to it for the price that he did.
We dozed a bit in the airport and then got on our luxurious Spirit Airlines Flight back to Detroit. We got in and I immediately went to bed, knowing that in just a few hours, my good buddy CC would be waking my ass up to watch the New Years Day bowls, including my alma matter Michigan. Sure enough, after sleeping for about 3 hours, he came a knockin and the game was on.
Phish in Miami was electrifying. The run was one of the best ever in Phish’s history, certainly the best run of the post-hiatus era, and the best jamming since hiatus. Miami was a high point, and a great party overall. Most of the Phish community agrees that Miami was off the hook, not to be matched, and certainly better than the shows in Vegas in April. I want to thank my crew who was there – good people – you guys make these memories, remember that.
Until next time………