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scottieking

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Posts posted by scottieking

  1. Aboard a craft bereft of oar

    I rowed upstream to find Lenore

    Abducted by a bandit or

    A king from some forgotten war.

    I forgot how much I loved the start of this song.....

  2. whatever. The crowd loves flubs.

    The energy of this show definitely has a warm festival dancey feel. I can picture alot of get-down right now.They are tearing into this Wedge right now.

  3. More recommendations:

    BLK JKS - After Robots - Sort of TV on the Radio with African sensiblites

    Attack in Black - Years (by one thousand fingertips) - This album came out a few months ago but is racing to the top of my years favs - think good songwriting, sparce Neil Youngish tendenices

    Black Crowes - Before the Frost - If you ever liked the Black Crowes, you will love this album

    Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns - Start this one on the last two tracks so you don't miss them - Woodhands drummer with a folk duo

  4. It is hard to express what turned this from a concert review into somewhat of a life review but such is the nature of the magic that music holds over your life. Or how hearing the show from the night after the one that you saw could be as important as the one you actually saw.

    Phish’s return was downplayed early on by myself and others at first, large and in part , because we didn’t want to believe that it was true or whether to be that excited, just in case. After all, most of us were there, or at least tried to get to Coventry, that sad place in the mud in Vermont where we had witnessed a defeat, caused by left-over hurricanes of all sorts, and where our heroes were crippled by emotion, by fatigue, by the drugs, and capped a fairly underwhelming return to touring with some of the poorest playing of their careers.

    But that’s all changed, hasn’t it? The band is playing with a fire and competency that hasn’t been seen in a very long time. Repeated listens will determine where this one stand in the overall pantheon of tours or years, but it is clear that they are winning more than they are losing and the MP3 players of the world are filling up with best of mixes and outright full sets.

    So it was my turn last week to tap back into the vein that I had tapped into long ago with a road trip to Darien. From the first second you could feel it, the current that runs under the whole thing, the little micro-world that breathes life into it. It was familiar, I had parachuted into this world before and knew the score. Where’s Shakedown? Drink lots of water, and beer. It is just as important to find people who know the people you are looking for as it is to find the actual people.

    summer09119.jpg

    And yet , it was the old faces. We would have no excuse to see each other but the best excuse, the band that got us together in the first place. People I had written off to that list of I wonder if I’ll see them again, just on the edge of contact. And yet, straight out of my photo albums, there they are. It enhances the whole thing, confirms you are doing the right thing with the right people. And the tour kids, well, it all felt very familiar and modern at the same time. I mean cell phones make it too easy, and yet I wonder, by the number of whispers in my ears if the chemical had finally won the war over the herbal.

    But it was to the lawns for us, after scoring a ride from some more old friends to the venue, finding more and more and more until it reached this bizarre crescendo of the last fifteen years of my life. So many sensory queues to bring back stories, memories not visited in a long time and thoughts of those not standing there with me. By the time the PA went quiet and we got loud, the band was there, ready , smiling, wanting our love back and earning it the old fashion way on a hot summer night. The first set had a little something for everyone.

    summer09131.jpg

    Set One:

    Sample In A Jar

    Dinner And A Movie

    Wolfman's Brother

    My Friend My Friend

    Possum

    Farmhouse

    Sugar Shack

    Brian And Robert

    David Bowie

    Bathtub Gin

    How High The Moon

    Golgi Apparatus

    Some bust outs, some old favorites, nice and long (mmmm Bowie, Gin), and certainly just what someone like me wanted to see for his only show of the tour.

    And this is where the paper meets a detour. It was my only show. Not a first of many, Only. I didn’t think it was going to be that hard. We were heading to Letchworth State park afterwards for a camping weekend. It was still summer vacation. It was nice weather. But something about being in that parking lot with the heat beating down put my brain into gear like a junkie with jones I forgot I had. How can I get tickets to the next show? Wait. Nope. You can’t do that. Or can we? What about SPAC? We’re in NY State. Tickets were plentiful in Darien. Maybe.........

    But no. Not that guy anymore. I do, however, have a great life. And one which is centered not around indulgences but about a fine balance of doing a lot of fun stuff while still floating real life responsibilites. Times 2. I am blessed with a wife who both digs Phish (got very excited for her Bowie) and one who doesn’t feel the need to drop everything and follow the band around just to get that Bowie. We’re a good team and she knows both how much I love it and how much it kills me not to go to Hartford.

    Back to the second set of the show.

    summer09133.jpg

    Set Two:

    Drowned >

    Prince Caspian ->

    Rift

    The Horse >

    Silent In The Morning

    Sparkle

    Run Like An Antelope >

    Suzy Greenburg >

    Fluffhead

    Encore:

    Joy

    First Tube

    Set 2 opener is a make or break and when the piano kicked into Drowned, knowing glances were exchanged for what lay ahead. It was good set. Divorcing myself from my selfish desire to catch that Ghost, the whole set was a old school masterpiece. While the Caspian didn’t make any sense, I loved leaning in and speculating a “Rift†set, being floored by the Antelope which was really, really good, or even the Fluffhead ,

    sounding so crisp and polished, was important to me live and in person. If this show was played in 1994, the crowd would have been over the moon.

    After a grind home through what felt like an endless sea of balloons (was it just me/) and some more comradery at the hotel, it was time to move on. As I watched the kids pack up and head down the road to Hartford, I could only smile and wish everyone safe travels. I had no idea what the show in Hartford was going to look like. Listening to it right now, I’m jealous. I know people have read setlists that I’ve been to and felt the same way. It definitely was the setlist I wanted, but through the miracles of the modern age, I listen to a SBD copy of it, knowing at the very least who those guys were and what they were capable of in 2009.

    And really, that is what this all about. I can’t go on tour anymore, my anchors are sunk in deep. But I can jump in to re-fuel the batteries, the love for the music and my focus firmly on what these guys are doing, show by show. I’m here to praise the power of the one show tour and testify to its healing hands. The boys are back and I can’t wait to get this excited all over again. I hope everyone has fun out in California as my festival streak ends here and hope to see you for some weekend shows in the fall. scottieking Ver 3.0 out.

  5. Listening to the first night of the Gorge just put the butterflies in my stomach for Thursday!

    The wife and me will be riding the rides, lotting the lot(?) and then boogie down in the lawns (unless I trade up)

    Anybody know what cabs are like in the area?

    AND they played Time Turns Elastic tonight in Chi-town which frees up 14+ minutes of goodness for the Lake!

  6. I totally thought this was going to be an advice column.

    Dear AD,

    My wife doesn't get the "big deal" about being a 2 hr drive from the SPAC show on Aug 16th? How can I let her know how important it is to me and that Darien won't be onough?

    Lost in L-Town

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