Phish, Dec. 31, 1999, Big Cypress, Fla. (Seminole Indian Reservation)

"We use to have meetings about 'The LG,'" reminisces Phish bassist Mike Gordon about the idea that most likely spearheaded the jam band's three-day millennium music binge at Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in Florida's southern everglades. "It stands for 'the Long Gig' -- this situation where it was going to be billed as a normal concert and at the end we were going to keep going on for like 48 hours."

He continues, "The original idea was before cell phones, and we were going to say, 'You can't call home! If you want to call home there's a pay phone outside but you can't come back in!' We would have to have food for people and medicine, medical help. We figured that people would go through phases; after six hours it would be boring, then the seventh hour would be incredible and there would be volleyball. We were just trying to make it the craziest extended situation."

The closest Phish ever came to playing "The LG" was its epic eight-hour midnight set -- the final of five played throughout the weekend -- which included the band's classics "You Enjoy Myself" and "Axilla" along with a reprise of the appropriately chosen Eric Clapton cover "After Midnight." "Big Cypress for me was a life peak. I would vote for Big Cypress," Gordon says when asked to compare it to the band's other critically lauded New Year's Eve show, held Dec. 31, 1995, at New York's Madison Square Garden.

"Musically I definitely remember Big Cypress a lot more. Despite all the bigness and hype, we played some of our best music possible," Gordon says proudly. "And at 7 a.m. the new millennium sun [was] reflecting off the grand piano as it was starting to come up -- it's just tough to beat."

Not only did the 85,000-plus Phisheads who drove through the Sunshine State's infamous Alligator Alley get to wig out to the longest Phish set ever played in front of a live audience (according to Gordon), they were also a part of the largest U.S. millennium concert. "I remember in the middle in the eight hour jam where I felt like I did see the back row," the bassist says. "I couldn't literally, but it had this intimacy of being a living room gig. It felt so cozy."