big cypress

Leading up to Phish's next round of shows, Halloween weekend's Festival 8, the band has been releasing archival clips from some of their more storied festival performances. So far they've released ten different videos from their past events, including footage from Lemonwheel, The Great Went, IT, and now probably their most highly regarded festival, Big Cypress. Taking place at an Indian reservation in southern Florida over the eve of the Millenium, Phish performed four sets, with their final set stretching for over seven-and-a-half hours and lasting until dawn. Before Phish opened up their marathon set, they closed their first set of the night with a ripping version of the JJ Cale-written, Eric Clapton-popularized tune "After Midnight," letting their fans know that after the New Year hit, they were "gonna let it all hang out." Recent additions to the Phish Festival 8 The8tre include a version of "Free" from BC, but also a clip of the stretched-out jam leading out of "After Midnight," which I've embedded below. Give it a watch!

With this quality footage, one could only hope that they'd release a nice DVD box set of Big Cypress in the very near future. We can only wait and see, but for now these clips should suffice.