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Kanada Kev

By Kanada Kev
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Velvet Rookie

Velvet

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With barely two hours of sleep to our name, we arrived at the Ottawa airport via expensive taxi at 5:20am Friday morning, entirely early for our 7:40am flight. Extra special early it turned out, as our flight was gonna be two hours late and make us miss our connection to Palm Springs, where we were booked on the 2pm shuttle to get us from the airport to F8. The attendant assured us that we had been rerouted to the next available possibility, which had us arriving in Palm Springs Saturday afternoon! We switched into Amazing Raceâ„¢ mode and somehow got our asses to LAX by 2:20pm local time Friday. We made friends with a lovely United Airlines agent named Terri Allen who was absolutely wonderful, but nevertheless unable to get us to Palm Springs. We found the Valley Music Shuttle dudes and they seemed to be riding a balance of organization and chaos that fell into our immediate favour. They were a-ok with switching up our reservation and we ran ahead and caught the 2:30 bus at 3:30 and it left around 4:30, after utterly inexplicable delay.

The bus was a fun collection of heady dudes and dudettes, a guitar got pulled out and we passed the hours of LA rush hour traffic quite well together. As we approached Indio it became apparent that time was at issue if we were going to arrive and set up camp and get to the show before the first set. Well, the non-English speaking bus driver got lost and ended up at a gas station asking for directions in some foreign tongue, we all went in and grabbed cases and cases of cold beer and the ride turned up a notch. The show started and we all commanded that the driver turn up the radio and he kept turning down the radio to try and figure out what we were saying. I personally pounded about six beers in ten minutes out of sheer anticipation, gnawing frustration and pending vacation elation.

We finally found the festival and got everything off the bus and found out we were at the wrong place and put everything back on the bus and found the right spot and then all the Valley Music Shuttle official dudes (whom the bus driver was not) were fantastic and apologetic and whisked us all and our gear off on a stretch golf cart to a place nearby where we could pitch our tents. I pounded some more quick beers and threw up the tent. The Valley Music dudes drove us as close to the stage as they could get us and we made it in for the last song of the first set of F8.

“velvet and phorbesie, as winners of this leg of the Amazing Raceâ„¢ you have won seven sets of Phish.â€

I was sad to have missed Stash and Poor Heart, but I’ll hear those songs again I’m sure. We both remarked that if there was one set to be missed from the weekend it would be this one, and I think that turned out to be true.

The second set was great, the crowd was pumped and the venue looked amazing. Not a cloud in sight anywhere anytime, the mountains ringed the big sky and the pancake-flat pitch that held the main stage area was littered with palm trees on every side. Why the hell would anyone have a festival on the east coast when you have this for an option?!? It was truly an oasis in the desert, and for the estimated (by me) crowd of 42,000 there was space and sight-lines galore.

The stage had a big-screen on either side, and it was obvious from the get-go that this was being taped for some official release – I heard IMAX – the video just looked sooooo good. There were tons of angles and cameras, lots of boom stands including a huge one near the sound board, all in HD; it was totally pro. CK5 had a rainbow of lights aimed at 140 palm trees filing away from the stage in infinite perspective to the left and the right, and it looked just amazing. I often find myself in awe of what Kuroda brings to this band, and he went all out again this weekend, including having the best Phish visual gimmick ever to close the first evening with a floating glowing golgi that was utterly impossible to stop gaping at in wonder. The eye candy was killer all around, and when you glanced away from the stage you saw the wondrous works of art that decorated the field. Fire-spewing towers of twig formed a semi-circle outlining the main viewing area, and beyond that were a myriad of interesting art installations.

Explorations had to wait for this old man though, after an arduous day of sleepless travel and lacking in any serious nutrients I was on the verge of collapse so I went back to my tent and spent the night shivering myself awake again and again in the cold desert night, too lazy to dig out my sweater.

Ironically, there is no sleeping late when you’re tenting in the desert; when the sun comes up it comes up hot. Unzip the tent door to see a wash of untainted blue sky and placid palm trees amid a horde of hippies doing their morning stretches and packing their first bowls of the day. Found a quarter in short order and pleased with the quality and the west coast pricing I follow suit. We found ourselves camped in Exile On Main Street and after a walkabout I was happy to see that each campground had a water/ice station and a general store but for coffee and eats a heartier walk was called for.

We walked up to the onsite farmers market and checked out Shakedown Street in Electric Ladyland campground. Got a coffee and decided to look into posters. I checked both Dry Goods locations and found nothing but hot midday sun multiple hour-long lineups so I bailed and relaxed at the tent. No posters for me this weekend at all. I can barely forgive myself but I saved myself sunstroke and a couple hundred bucks so I guess I’m alright.

The first set of the day was early. It was fun to have an afternoon set – the sun was hot but not unbearable and the band was rockin’. I assume the band spaced the sets out so there was plenty of time to get back to camp and get yer Hallowe’en on, so that’s just what we did. We started drinking in earnest and checked the finishing touches on our costumes – three weeks in the making, my lovely and I were going as Great Googly Mooglies, outfitted in formal attire that we had painstakingly covered the front of in googly eyes (interesting fact: the ‘industry’ calls them wiggle eyes), and I mean thousands upon thousands of them. We made nifty ocean sounds when we walked and turned quite a few heads along the way.

By mid-afternoon it was impossible to avoid the news of the handbill announcing Phish’s choice of covers for the evening, Exile On Main Street, with horns and Sharon Jones, and I was pretty excited as we joined the throngs of costumed peeps heading to the show. There was a bit of a crush getting through the gate for the Hallowe’en set, but that would be about the only time I waited for almost anything all weekend. The millions of beer lines were usually fairly sane and there was a ton of food vendors that made it easy to get a quick bite if you weren’t too picky. The water lines were a bit long sometimes but it was forgivable because it was such a great system; buy a Phish water bottle for $10 and get it filled all weekend long with fresh filtered water, and they were pretty fast about it too. We found about the best deal pound for pound on the food – chili cheese waffle fries, about a kilo of sour cream dollopped goodness for $5 – mowed down and got in place for the set.

The Set.

Wow. First came the best music related video montage I’ve ever seen and then the band came out of the gate full speed ahead. They did not fuck around. The horns sounded fantastic, everything was amazing. I wanted so badly to be double-fisting beers but couldn’t tear myself from the stage. Torn & Frayed was stellar, just the four of them and I betcha that’ll be the song that sticks, and I was happy to see that whoever wrote for the Relix daily onsite paper agreed with me on that the next morning.

Both backup vocalists were great, and the set could be described as nothing but a success top to bottom. Okay, Fishman wasn’t the best choice for vocals on Sweet Virginia and Trey was reaching a bit for Tumbling Dice but the heart was all there and really it was more about how the whole group sounded together, and dear lord it sounded good. Not even the most jaded tour snob could shoot down the band’s performance of Exile.

The third set of the evening was fuelled by the excitement of the whole evening and though a bit short in time, was nothing short of spectacular. The YEM vocal jam was ethereal under a wide desert sky. And one thing I can guarantee you all: There will never, ever be a Suzy Greenberg that comes anywhere near to touching how amazing that encore was. The horns and the singers were back onstage and the energy of the whole fuckin’ thing, I mean the whole fuckin’ nailing down Exile thing and having the California fest come together and even the whole damn successful comeback tour, I mean all that fuckin’ energy culminated into three chords of simple rock and roll bliss, and I can’t tell you how glad I was to have been there to be a part of that.

I’m still shaking my head that Suzy fucking Greenberg was the musical highlight of the weekend, but it was; it was really that good.

I was again too tired to rage and again up with the sun on Sunday, but I was still unable to get onsite early enough to avoid an insane coffee ‘n donut line for the acoustic set so I skipped the snack. I don’t know who wasn’t thinking when they came up with the idea of playing at noon outside in the desert, but it was someone. It was blistering hot outside as we all hunkered down for some acoustic Phish. The band was lined up backwards, Fishman, Mike, Trey, Page left to right, and perched on stools they led us through a mile of songs played pretty much straight up, only on acoustic instruments. The set had mellow leanings to be sure, and that was good, if they had us raging in the hot sun I think I woulda passed out. As it was, we all swung between sitting and standing, sometimes I’d sit when everyone stood just to get the shade, and though they obviously didn’t spend as much time working this set out as they had the Exile set, I was still plenty glad to have been there, it was a damn good pile of music.

The rest of the night was a face melting string of rock and roll from frankly one of the best bands out there. Everyone seemed pretty bloody happy to be there and we all got down to our collective favourite band together.

The evening turned into a challenge to stave off exhaustion and drink and smoke everything that was left while slowly packing up gear. About a half-hour before we got our 4am shuttle to the Palm Springs airport a guy came by looking for papers and someone with rolling ability, as he had an eighth he had to get rid of before his flight. We Phish fans do like to help each other out when we can so I ended my weekend with a mini smokathon with a dude named Gravy before making the smooth air-flight transition back to normalicy here in Ottawa.

What I really meant to say was: Way to go Phish, that was a great freakin’ time, and probably the best run festival I’ve been to.

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dancingbear Newbie

dancingbear

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well i do not have the vocab and writing abilities velvet does...but here is a brief summary.

pretty awesome stuff.

first show-the band imo never really clicked. everything seemed like a struggle and overall i would call it 'fair'

second show- first set was very good. exile highlights were shine a light and if you like loving cup normally check this one out. good yem in third set. great suzy. i think they did one with horns at arrowhead ranch 91 as well, and this version rivals if not tops that one.

third concert- acoustic set-nice.

second set-gotta jiboo, heavy things, and undermind highlights. yes, that right i think heavy things and undermind were better than reba.

third set-fav. of the w/e. maze and theme were way up there, with the page ripping up maze. so if your a page side rage side, kind of peep check it out. the esther encore was actually very enjoyable and neat, and changed me to being a fan of the song.

my wife and i did the sun valley music shuttles to and from the show..and i gotta say they were amazing. we never waited more than ten minutes between getting to the shuttle stop and havving a shuttle leave...and all but one time was within five minutes. props.

only complaint is i wish they didnt announce 'cool' stuff. but i guess ticket sales were down so they had to. i mean before you went to a show you might of heard of them handing out coffee and donuts after the fact and would be like wow thats cool. kinda more the if you were there then you got it thing.

big thanks to phish!

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RUSTLE Newbie

RUSTLE

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WOW... what can I say that hasn't been said already?

all in all it was an amazing experience, the music, the art, the overall vibe. we didn't camp - which to be honest felt a little removed, but, i enjoyed sleeping in a bed, and going out for breakfast - palm springs has some amazing breakfast joints.

listening back through the show now and its blowing my mind all over again.

anyway, i am speechless, had a great time. here are some shots from the trip; http://www.flickr.com/photos/43290964@N06/

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peipunk Newbie

peipunk

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Well I suppose I could chime in with a little bit of my opinions...I am not going to say much about the first day, I thought the playing was solid but not super inspired to be honest. I was not interested at all in the Character Zero encore.

The second day afternoon set was a step up I thought; I haven't relistened to either it or the first day again yet so I will have to check them out. Then...

The Exile set made me so happy, it was unreal; I forgot how much I loved that album. I honestly thought it would be too good to be true. And then when I saw that it was the one, I was afraid they wouldn't pull it off very well. I was wrong! They obviously put a great deal of effort into it, and the horns and Sharon Jones and the other female singer were amazing. I was surprised, I thought the two lowpoints were actually two of the "hits" that are usually highlights of the album; Tumblin' Dice and Torn and Frayed. I think the guitar tones and singing are just so dear to me that I couldn't give Trey a pass, hehe. I think from I Just Want To See His Face on was stellar, Page and Sharon slayed Let It Loose, Stop Breakin' Down was dirty, and of course Shine A Light and Soul Survivor are just such incredible songs, it didn't matter who was playing them to me at that point.

For Mark Tonin: yes my friend, it is quite an amazing thing to see your favorite band play one of your favorite albums! I consider myself lucky.

I missed the first couple songs of the third set (Backwards and Fluffhead) because Margot and I were on the Ferris Wheel......which was cool itself. I threw down HARD after that. Great Ghost jam, I always liked Circus and a super YEM. Suzy with horns and singers was a very vibrant finish.

I missed most of the acoustic set Sunday to drink Bloody Marys while watching football(at a huge screen in the concert area). So sue me.

The second Sunday set was slightly marred by a massive train wreck going into the slow part of Reba...but was quickly redeemed with a great Wedge. I had been telling everyone in my group on the way to the show I wanted Split Open and Melt and 2001 so when I got the SOAM to close the first set, I was thrilled. ALTHOUGH it was not nearly as good as the one they pulled out at Red Rocks, which, until I listen to these shows again, is still my favorite track of Phish 3.0.

The final set was almost a dream set list; Sugar Shack was a nice break after loving the Free, and after not really liking Light, it was redeemed by a great jam. I got my 2001, but it was very short and not very jammy at all. I was fine with the Esther encore, it is a very distinctive Phish song and they executed it very well (maybe a couple minor vocal flubs). To be honest, I don't feel like I need to hear Tweeprise anymore, but I wasn't doing any complaining after that 3rd set.

My biggest beefs with Phish 3.0 are a couple of selfish Trey points I suppose; his guitar tone has a LOT more treble than in the past. Not nearly as much of the old smooth slippery sound. I miss it. The other thing is, would it kill you to lay a couple loops down here or there for 2001 or some other weird shit? There is very very little of the old evil Phish (this is why I love the Red Rocks SOAM). Most "jams" in the songs are not jams, they are rock guitar solos. However, beyond these things, like I have said to people, a bad Phish show is still a lot more fun than any other show I can imagine.

The weekend was VERY well organized and an amazing time. I will probably hold out from any summer tour stuff next year to save up for going to this if they do it again; I hope they do!

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