Just returned from the mud/coventry

[StoneMtn]

Bouche: is that true? have i been communicating with someone else via these private messages entirely? Who? (I know you're out there.)

[Velvet]

Good luck getting used to this: booche is the guy you met, while bouche is his brother, who you didn't meet.

[StoneMtn]

Okay, now that is just unfair!

[Douglas]

Don't worry about it too much Cory...just call Mike --> Bouche and call Andre --> Bitch (it works for me!!! )

[DevO]

Hey dudes, I am writing to you from Fredricton, NB today.. This town kicks! Anyhoo I had a wicked time at Coventry but I don't have time to write anything else about it, so here is what I just wrote in a group email.. Cutting and pasting.. Can't wait to see a bunch of you at Evolve next weekend!!! Also I am in need of places to crash in Nova Scotia if you are bored and want some visitors!! (hehe)

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We headed down Friday and got into the lineup of cars at about 5pm. It had been raining hard and apparently cars were getting towed into the camping grounds one by one so it was moving really slowly, as there were 70,000 people on their way in! Thanks to Allison's dad, my green van is now souped up with this 2 ft high platform and so there is a futon on top and storage down below, it is a wicked set-up! So Ian and I took shifts sleeping/driving all night long.. Sipping on Magic Hat (tasty microbrew from Burlington, VT) and talking to fans along Interstate 91, and listening to the radio station that Phish had going for the weekend for tunes and updates. To make a long story short, 15 hours later at 8am, Mike Gordon came on the radio to regretfully announce that the camping grounds were flooded and they were going to have to turn people away. Initial panic, then people started parking their cars on the highway and hiking in the 10-15 miles (a lot more in KMs) into the festival. We ended up turning around and getting off at the next closest highway exit and ended up parking/camping in this elderly couples rural backyard, used their bathrooms and everything! The locals were super friendly and were out in full force giving shuttle rides into the festival site down every which country backroad they could find. The festival site was muddy as hell, over a foot of mud in spots.

The last Phish shows were emotionally intense. [if you don't know or like Phish, skip this!] Trey was nervous and sloppier than I'd ever heard him, flubbing most technical parts of any given song - eg. YEM, Glide, Bowie, Free, Stash, Reba. His flubs were enough to make me feel sort of embarrassed for him, sort of like 'come on Trey lets get through this'.. Its weird. Its like I was upset that it was the last show, but at the same time, thank god this is the last show. Page was/is on fire. But flubs aside because that didn't really matter, there was an emotional air to so many parts.. I don't know how many times it popped into my head that "this is the LAST EVER _____". During the last YEM, after the trampoline segment, the roadies were taking the tramps offstage then Trey jumped up and grabbed them and took them over into the crowd and set 'em free, they get passed waaay to the back, never to be seen again. Just sorta like "we won't be needing these anymore". He got back to his guitar and let out the saddest creaking crying wail (on the guitar) I've ever heard. The Wedge was possibly the tighest song of the weekend, very percussive too I might add. The highlight of the weekend's music surprisingly was Velvet Sea (!). It was early in the 2nd set of the last day. (aka set before last set ever). They went into Velvet Sea and Page sings it, right.. Well, he got as far as "I took a moment of my day" and then his voice cracked and went all screwy. At first I was like "oh no, he's forgetting the words!??" but actually Page was crying HARD, he was trying to sing still but couldn't really get any air, it was seriously SO SAD, I was on the verge myself. EVeryone was. It was a hard thing to swallow and I won't forget it. After the song Trey started talking trying to thank everyone but what do you say really, he started crying too! It was fu©ked up. He kept talking but he was crying at the same time, to all 70,000 of us. Gordon came in and said a little thank you and so did Fish, they were able to keep it together. Trey: "We just need to blow off some fu©king steam and play some more music" and then they played an insane Split Open & Melt. Final song of the final set was Slave, which was fitting for me as that was the song that hooked me, where I 'got it', back in October 96. The Curtain (With) for a final encore was a surprise and a good pick in my opinion. Ran into quite a few people down in VT, mostly people from Jambands.Ca : Stapes, Todd (aka Velvet, nero's manager), Blane, FreekerByTheSpeeker, Gentlemonkey, Yo, 3 friend's of Ians from Ottawa), Brie St. Michaels (Westdale girl?), Ben & those other Phish dudes who used to come by 793 all last year (Downey you know who I mean eh), maybe some others. Stayed up past sunrise on Sun/Mon swigging on tequila and sake with Stapes, FreekerByTheSpeeker, Blane and some Phish fans who flew in from Japan. All in all I am so glad I went, one final farewell to a band that was so important to me over the years.

[mark tonin]

Thanks to everybody who posted to this thread and to other threads about Coventry ... I have really enjoyed reading the posts ... it's threads such as this one that really make me appreciate this message board ... people taking lots of time to share their thoughts and feelings in a thoughtful, honest and intelligent manner ...

Peace, Mark