It’s always fun to dig back into your old home videos and recall fond memories, but it’s even more exciting when those home videos happen to feature the soundcheck from famed Phish festival Big Cypress on December 29th, 1999.
In a video montage uploaded to YouTube last week for the first time, we get an on-the-ground look at the Big Cypress soundcheck, which took place just two days before Phish rang in the new millennium with a midnight-to-sunrise marathon performance.
As Clint Haller, the fan who uploaded the unearthed Big Cypress soundcheck footage, tells Live For Live Music, “It was from our ‘home video’ Big Cypress road trip tape. I respectfully edited out the non-music stuff. Even though it’s shaky, it is still a cool glimpse of an important moment in Phish history.”
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While the footage doesn’t provide much in the way of visuals, the audio doubles down on the nostalgia factor. From intermittent shots of the gang’s steadily-disappearing bottle of Jägermeister to venue staff milling around on horses and ATVs to the banter of a group of giddy fans figuring out how to use their camcorder (and even some bonus drum circle content at the end), the video makes you feel like you’re there with them—hanging with friends in a Seminole swamp at the end of 1999, preparing to witness what would become a legendary Phish weekend.
As one of the fans can be heard exclaiming at the end of “Ginseng Sullivan”, “God damn, this is going to be a phat couple days.”
“It’s gonna be too phat,” another confirms.
Too phat, indeed.
Watch the Big Cypress soundcheck video below. If you’re still feeling the Big Cypress nostalgia, check out this in-depth diary of L4LM contributor B. Getz‘s experience at the iconic December 1999 Phish festival here.
Phish – Soundcheck (Partial) – Big Cypress – 12/29/99
[Uploaded by Clint Haller, Filmed by Emily Bobb]
Setlist: Phish | Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation | 12/29/99
Soundcheck: Jam, What’s the Use?, Ginseng Sullivan, The Ballad of Curtis Loew, Quinn the Eskimo, Timber (Jerry The Mule), Jam