One of the things we all love about Phish is their ability to surprise. That effect was in full force on this day in 2000, when the band took the stage at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. The Vermont four-piece opened the show with the debut of “Come On Baby, Let’s Go Downtown,” a tune originally written by Danny Whitten (the original guitarist for Crazy Horse) and made famous by its appearance on the 1975 Neil Young album, Tonight’s The Night. To date, after its debut on September 23rd, 2000, Phish has only ever played it one other time—a week later during the group’s performance at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on October 5th of the same year.
Fortunately, you can watch a video of Phish debuting their cover of “Come On Baby, Let’s Go Downtown” below.
[Video:Â romanb99]
“Come On Baby, Let’s Go Downtown” was built through to a nicely jammed rendition of “The Moma Dance,” which you can also watch below.
[Video:Â romanb99]
After “Frankenstein”, the band broke into a first-set “Halley’s Comet” for the ages, taking the funky tune past the fourteen-minute mark with some excellent jamming. Dig the video below.
[Video:Â telekinetica]
The video footage from Phish performance at the Allstate Arena back in 2000 continues with this great first set-closing version of “Stash.”
[Video:Â telekinetica]
You can also check out the full audio from the show, courtesy of fromtheaquarium. The band really dug deep in the second half, playing “Tweezer” with a rare die-down ending and also taking “Piper” deep into funk jam territory. The full stream and setlist can be seen below.
Setlist: Phish | Allstate Arena | Rosemont, IL | 9/23/00
Set 1: Come On Baby, Let’s Go Downtown[1] > The Moma Dance, Frankenstein, Halley’s Comet > Fee > Stash
Set 2: Birds of a Feather, Tweezer[2] > NICU > Scent of a Mule, Fast Enough for You, Piper > Character Zero
Encore: Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise