Velvet

It ain't over!

Stardate 030909 Went to the show fairly early again today as well. I have yet to mention that the weather has been perfect, short sleeves and summer for three days straight. We intended to eat at Hooters (my first time), but when a twenty-one year old kid who is squeaking by life on nothing more than the vaguest and most fleeting aesthetic properties blatantly asks me how much money I will give her if I want to be seated in a restaurant, well I go somewhere where the staff knows how humble they should be. Plus a McDouble is only $1. We found the actual parking lot today, and found it to be quite happening after all. It's nice to see people branching out, but really, who is going to trust lot sushi? I got some free beers and we left the lot to join phorbesies friends in line. We got inside in fairly short order after the doors opened and opted for a view from higher up than the previous two nights. I was fully anticipating another balloon drop tonight, and noticed an extra, 22nd balloon suspended from the ceiling, also with it's own dedicated lighting. As the lights dimmed for our third time 'round the band launched into Sanity and the extra balloon remained illuminated. As the band played under muted lighting, the focus turned to the dangling orb which was released unto the crowd at the end of the song. With Wilson and ACDC Bag the celebratory feeling of the first night returned; the crowd knows the game is definitely back on, and that what we are witnessing is the end of the beginning - a beginning that may have no foreseeable end. It sounds like there might not be any more last Phish shows announced, and the crowd is psyched. I got the Maze I've been waiting all weekend for, followed by Mike singing George Jones' She Thinks I Still Care for what I assume is a first time played. The Maze jam even had a classic Trey guitar peak circa 1996. Another monstrously long first set closed with Page front and centre on keytar for Frankenstein. The second set seemed to show the band stretching out a bit more, and I'm surprised that Koruda managed to kick my ass all weekend and still have some tricks up his sleeve for the last night. He even had me looking forward to the inevitable 2001. The set-ending Slave seemed an homage to the drive home we all would soon be facing, even more when they opened the encore with Contact, dedicated to Fishmans dad who was celebrating a birthday. Am I the only Contact lover? It was the first Phish tune I heard (well, that and Golgi), and it's one of the jazzier ones, plus it's a grand musical joke, complete with punchline and all. I was actually hoping they would end it then and there, but I had forgotten about Tweezer Reprise, and I had forgotten how badly I wanted them to drop those giant balloons onto the crowd again. Both happened, they even dropped the outer ring of balloons too, and while I was pleased that they made the effort to get stronger balloons this time so they wouldn't pop upon hitting the crowd, I was quite dissappointed to see audience members purposely popping them. Serves 'em right that when the balloons burst they would shower people in latex dust. (Like c'mon people, Phish & Co. went to a lot of effort and expense to do something unique, fun, and useless, namely art, and that should be respected and partaken in. Hey, it didn't ruin my show or anything, don't get me wrong, I'm just sayin'.) Outside the crowd was slowly and happily dispersing. All can rest easy that their favourite band has worked hard to come back in style, and for a reasonable price I might add. For a band of Phish's stature to be charging $49.50 for these shows is admirable. Nobody woulda blinked at $69 a tickat, and that would have netted over $800,000 more over the weekend. And Phish earned their money. There was no shortage of rehearsal and energy put into their return, and I think the fans realise it and appreciate it. I'll call first night, second set as the champion of the weekend, with tonight's first set as second place. Overall the weekend was a great show sandwiched between two unbelievable shows, though I would accept many arguments to the contrary. Bottom line is Phish will get return business from all comers over the last three nights, that much is sure. They worked hard to meet expectations, and they surpassed them. All in all the band delivered a spectacular pile of music and (with the help of their fans)sponsored a helluva good time over three nights in Hampton, and they proved that they can be at least the band they once were, perhaps even more But most importantly, Trey, Mike, Page, and Fishman (and Chris) left little doubt that we may all have Phish as a permanent distraction again. Again. And the fans seem willing to keep up their end of the bargain. Welcome back everyone!

Stardate 030809 A bit of an earlier start to venue with a bagful of beer and a magnum of champagne wasn't early enough, as our plan to leave most of our drinks at a closer hotel room for post-show libation was foiled when we discovered all of phorbesies friends had already gone to the lot. So I hit will call for my Saturday night extra ticket that phorbesie had arranged to sell to one of her friends, the exchange was made and we sat around drinking beers. While at will call I heard Reba being played for soundcheck. I asked the guard to open the door so we could hear better and she smiled at me like I was kidding. Weird. Given that we had brought too much to drink it all and still be able to remember the show, I went on a little sales tour, sponsored by our good friends at "Capitalism Sucks" headquarters. I quickly sold our extra coldies and bought a 1-ie along the way and returned with a brownie taboot. By the time we decided to go in we hadn't touched the champagne so phorbesie pulled off an epic sneak-in, getting the magnum that was about a third of her body weight past security. We found our saved seats in the same basic area and were overjoyed when phorbesie released the cork from the champagne, almost hitting the cieling, from which were hung new oversized balloons. Boy I was hoping they were gonna drop them again. Lots of time for socializing before the show coupled with the fact that everyone was overjoyed with last nights experience lent itself to a nice pleasant atmosphere. The crowd was more relaxed than the first night, and the nervous edge that pulsed through the room on Friday night was replaced with a more familiar, almost regular-show vibe in the room. I took advantage of the extra time inside to find and purchase a couple of Pollacks. I usually don't think much of his stuff, but these are pretty cool posters. When the lights dimmed the crowd roared, but the decibel level didn't touch Friday night, again, this was starting to feel more and more like a regular Phish show. They went with Back On The Train as an opener, one that many were calling as the first night opener. The first set rocked through Runaway Jim and SOAMelt, and PYITE was a joy to behold as the singalong made us all feel like we're part of a happy cult. Though the first set wasn't as long as the previous night, it was still a bit of a monster, as the band seems eager to play as many songs as possible on this opening run. Personally I started to get more and more to the feeling that I used to always get at Phish shows, it really started to feel like they hadn't gone anywhere, or I hadn't. It was shaping up to me to be a regular old Phish show, which frankly is a bit of a feat. The band sounds so good this doesn't feel blatantly like a reunion anymore. The set-closing Run Like An Antelope turned the Mothership into a time machine as we warped backwards a decade or so. The second set lived up to this deja vu as well. They seemed to have decided to play a completely different sort of show than the first night, less celebratory and more back-in-the-saddle. During the jam in Weekapaug Groove the band started to really hit their stride (in a three-night-run sense), and my eyes cast upwards to the ten suspended balloons waiting in vain for them to drop a second time. The short and sweet Day In The Life encore brought me back to the first time I heard it in Lake Placid so many years ago, and further affirmed that the band is feeling comfortable enough to play a normal show for us and not feel it has to overextend itself to impress. Phish is definitely back my friends, this ain't no one-off Vegas revue, that much is now 100% certain. Again, Chris Kuroda kicked my ass. During setbreak I went down to the floor right next to where Chris was. There were these Jersey tough guys there that suggested I move on, but I explained that Chris was knocking me out and I wanted to see a tune from his perspective. They warmed up to me and we became buddies and they shared bowls and we were hugging and such as they kept kicking out all comers. At one point I turned to the lightboard. "Chris!" I yell. Nothing. "Hey Chris!" He turns. "When you landed the airplane onstage during last nights vocal jam you kicked my ass!" He smiled, raised his finger to silence me, gave me a wink and dimmed the lights for the second set. I stayed there for the first song and-a-half, enjoyed the view immensely, and got invited back the next night. The scene was more jumping afterwards and I spent several hours losing and refinding people, until me and phorbesie and moeron and gentlemonkey miraculously ended up together in a hotel room at the Nitrous Inn. Cops were turning over mattresses and opening tanks all around us as we reunited in a room watching the US beat Canada at baseball. I found myself mature enough to resist any and all NO2 and spent my money more wisely on a drive-by pizza. The clocks went ahead and we were still back at our hotel and in bed shortly after 4am. I'm loving the weekend so far. Above all expectations.

Stardate 030709 Phorbesie and I headed down to the show around 4pm, leaving gentlemonkey and moeron napping in the hotel room. We walked the three or so kilometres to the venue, stopping to arrange a ticket trade for some board members. Phorbesie ran into friends in line who would hold seats for us and we hit the lot for some beer after grabbing our tickets at will call. The lot was meager, but at least it was no Va Beach. We got our beers in short order (two for $5) and walked the lot in about three minutes. We ended up back in front of the Mothership, it's lights just starting to glow and show off the cool architecture of the arena. There was a fountain with art in it; large white blocks stacked in the shape of a huge robot with a simple smiley face painted on it, and two people dressed all in white and wearing smiley-face blocks on their heads were paddling a canoe through the fountain, which in turn was full of floating smiley blocks. We sat on the edge of the fountain with our beers and watched the scene go by. The lineup to get in deteriorated into a crushcrowd almost immediately after the doors opened. People everywhere were looking for trades, with tonight's ticket at a premium. The standard was two Saturday or Sunday tickets for a Friday, or a ticket plus cash for tonight. Everyone wanted to be inside when Phish started all over again. We decided to join the crushcrowd about an hour after the doors opened. That's right, in a thirteen thousand capacity general seating arena, an hour after the doors opened there was still a huge crushcrowd to get in. Phorbesie and I waited about 45 minutes to get in, through one gate and then a second where your ticket would get beeped. It's like they were expecting 600 people. It was ridiculous and completely uncalled for, and it's not like they were putting everyone through the wringer; the security getting in was lax at best. Hope they have that misadventure solved for the next show. Once inside the excitement was everywhere. We found our held seats and scanned the room, which was packed to the rafters with a crowd hinging on a celebration five years coming. When the lights went down...well, you could use pretty much any cliche in the book to describe the surge of sound the crowd made, and it would be an understatement. 'Thunderous', 'explosive', 'manaical', you name it, the crowd went nuts. And well we should. Here we are, the lucky ones that found ourselves tickets to the re-re-emergence after almost five years of what was quite simply one of the best bands ever. The anticipation leading up to the darkening of those lights was enormous, the collective joy in the room undeniable as the band ended once and for all the "what's the opener gonna be?" game that everyone has been playing. The one-two punch of Fluffhead and Divided Sky may have been chosen to show the audience that Coventry this is not. The band is obviously well-rehearsed and if not on top of their game, they are at least prepared to take a good swing at this. You can find the setlist anywhere on the 'net, so I won't repeat it here, and aside from pointing to Stash as a personal highlight in the first set, I'll say that the band obviously spent a lot of time meticulously creating a well-paced and extensive opening setlist for their return. Farmouse slid in well between Suzy Greenberg and NICU and David Bowie was the obvious end of a monstrous set that felt like a set and-a-half. I didn't move during the setbreak - there was no beer run for me as a man in his forties that could pass for a man in his fifties couldn't get a wristband without picture ID. The chatter around me was nothing but positive, with phrases like "The first two minutes beat anything we heard post-hiatus" being tossed around. The crowd that had been surging with excitement was now teeming with satisfaction that the band had done their homework and was determined to blow away all expectations. The anticipation for the second set was huge, and the band stepped up to the plate and delivered. The Tweezer was splendid, with a minimized jam that freed up room in the setlist for more songs. Possum was a crowd-pleasing singalong with it's blissful crescendo shared among 13,004 smiling people. Theme From The Bottom was done so well I finally noticed what a brilliant piece of songwriting it is. Hood brought a tear to my eye and I finally "got" the main lyric. I even resisted going to the bathroom during Waste. Mike was on fire all night and Page often sounded like he was channeling Stevie Winder. Trey wins the award as most improved player. Of very special mention on this opening night is lighting genius Chris Kuroda, who was in control of the visual end of last night's show. Let me start by saying that five years of technological advancement in the area of concert lighting haven't hurt things one bit, and if there is one person involved with tonight's show who wasn't at all rusty is was Chris. The light show has always been integral to the Phish experience, but Koruda was nothing short of brilliant. A fantastic extra feature was the twenty-one ten-foot balloons hanging from the ceiling in two rings, an inner ring of ten balloons and an outer ring of eleven. Each balloon had a light dedicated to it and these balls of colored illumination added so much to the visual spectrum that I really hope they will find a way to incorporate them at the outdoor venues Phish are booked into this summer. After an evening of stunning visual candy Chris really extended himself during the set ending YEM. (I had been wondering all night if the band had bought new trampolines, and to the immense joy of the crowd, they had) It was all so very very good, but the vocal jam was Chris' piece du resistance. The band and their visual director created a symbiotic relation as Koruda inspired the band by so closely representing the sounds they were creating. As he seemed to land a 747 on top of the Concorde above the stage the band finished their offering and left the crowd in almost a stunned silence, as a select few (me and phorbesie included) were able to muster the wherewithal to cheer for an encore. After a barber shop start to the set that cutely included the number of days each of the four have been alive they went into Bouncing Around The Room. And tried something brilliant. I was beside myself with glee as the first balloon dropped from the ceiling. I grabbed phorbesie by the arm and jumped up and down. "Dear lord, they're going to drop all these balloons on the crowd!" I was half right, as one by one the inner ring of enormous balloons dropped on the crowd, and I could only imagine the disappointment when all but one balloon burst almost immediately. I hope like hell the try again, with thicker balloons next time. As the show ended we sat in a bit of a daze. Though a bit rough around the edges the band is obviously well rehearsed enough on this, their second rekick at the can to take a serious shot at becoming one of the greatest bands in the world again. There were moments in the second set where I felt like I was back at my first show again, except there was more than 400 people there and they played Waste. It helped that Fishman was back on Fishman side. That's perhaps indicative of the band's new/old attitude. Humbled after the embarrassment of Coventry they have gone back to where they began in some respects, and they fostered that sort of amazed excitement amongst the crowd. Without a word to the audience the band left the stage bouyed by an unquestionably triumphant return to live performance. Afterwards the tanks were flowing and every hotel in the area was devoid of sleeping occupants. I partied a bit, opting to stagger back to the Hampton Inn in a wearied state of numb pleasure before 3am. The show was so good that I didn't hear a single person mention the chain wreck that was the initial start to YEM. Though he could argue that Fishman through him off, Trey coming in a sixteenth note too late created an out-of-phrase situation that he just couldn't manage to recover from, and likely with hazy memories of Coventry in his head he opted to stop the song and restart it again. The pressure an act like that puts on a musician is great and right or wrong I think it shows how much Trey cares about putting on a quality show. I mean, what if they restart the song and Trey blows it again, what then? Anyway, the fact that nobody was talking about it reiterated that the show was epic enough to instantly set aside such a huge blunder. Good for Phish, and good for the fans. Unlike last time I was here, I'm gonna be sticking around for the next two shows, and I'm happy about it.

Stardate 030609 After the busiest work week I've had in well over a decade that saw me working over thirty hours and waking as early as 7:30am I was very much looking forward to a little time away. I tossed mine and phorbesie's prepacked bags in the bag of the truck, picked up gentlemonkey and moeron and hit the road at 9:30 Thursday night. Intent on driving straight through to the state of ham and smokes I put the pedal to the metal until we got to the border. Four smiling freshly scrubbed faces beamed at the border dude. "Why you going to Virginia?" "To see some Phish concerts." "Oh," the border dude says, "I used to work with a guy who liked Phish. He quit his job to go to some of their concerts. He was a complete stoner." Then he eyes me. "Well, there ya go," I says, all the while repeating my 'we're not the droids you're looking for' mantra. We cruised through. Careful not to speed in the USA I set the cruise control for 64mph and immediately saw the flashing lights on my tail. I failed to notice the 40mph sign. Oops, 64 in a 40 zone. I only lasted a few more hours before handing the wheel off to Mr. Monkey. He did a splendid job, not a single speeding ticket, while I slept like a baby. I retook the helm at 6am and we cruised into Hampton at 10:30. Loaded up on booze and snacks, waited in the hotel lot for check in, ate at Applebees for the first time (vegetarians should abstain), checked in, iced the beer, and finally started to get excited about the show. There are hippies all over the place. What a nice feeling. We still gotta hit will-call and exchange some tickets and get our headies together so our relaxation time is short. The anticipation is building. I very much look forward to the collective joy in the room when the lights go down a few hours from now. I anticipate the crowd will overshadow the band tonight, but I damn well hope I'm wrong.

You people are rabid.

You going to Hampton Mr. Bear?

Exactly the advice I was looking for!

I get jokes.

phorbesie has said several times that she may just have a heart attack when Phish hits the stage Friday and I almost believe her. If she died 'cuz I didn't know how to save her it would put a real damper on the Saturday and Sunday shows, so what does one do to help a heart attack victim?

In Virginia they eat water and have no rollies.

I should say that I really appreciated tipping when I moved furniture. Tips were irregular and indicated true appreciation for a tough job done above expectations.

Virginia is a bit of an alternate universe all it's own.

As I understand it, Gibson is the only guitar company that has a copyright on their guitar body. I believe it goes by a three-foot rule, whereby there must be discernable differences from three feet away. All the other companies have copyrights on their headstocks. Back to the Phish debate.

Tips are for the business owners. The whole concept of tipping allows employers to get away with paying workers unwieldly low wages. If society as a whole stopped tipping, these people would make an honest wage as they should - through their paycheque, (that would be fully taxed, I might add), and the price we see on the menu would be the price we paid (again, with the tax). Why should a waiter's hourly wage be determined by the random tipping habits of their customers when most jobs offer a firm regular paycheque? Sorry to be redundant, but I despise tipping, and yes, I have worked several jobs where I would get tips. Hated it then too (though to a much lesser degree I'll admit).

Disagree.

Now get down to Peru and try sandboarding and report back on which is better! Glad to hear all is well!

I guy I used to play music with went in to the hospital one morning for a problem with his neck. They determined he had flesh-eating disease and they operated immediately, leaving many vicious-looking scars. They say he would have died by nightfall. Quick and hungry disease that is - glad you didn't fall prey. Proves yet again that humans are far from the top of the food chain.

Certainly looking forward to bagochips posting again.

I am soooo jealous. I'm almost positive it would be stupid of me to go to this show, but I oh, so want to.

I'm excited about this tour, that's fer sure.

Ontario attorney general to investigate TicketMaster Last Updated: Sunday, March 1, 2009 | 4:30 PM ET The Canadian Press There's more bad legal news for Ticketmaster, which is already facing two class actions in Canada and just settled a costly fight with Bruce Springsteen and his fans. The Canadian Press has learned Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General is looking into the sale and pricing of tickets for entertainment and sporting events in the province. A source close to Attorney General Chris Bentley says the minister "is exploring options right now to address mounting concerns about access to tickets and the cost of tickets." The source says the attorney general wants to make sure families are being treated fairly when they buy tickets to concerts or other events. It's not known whether those options would include legislation or a formal investigation into the sale and resale of tickets. Bentley is expected to have more to say on the matter when he meets with reporters following Monday's question period at the Ontario legislature. Ticketmaster had to change the way it sells tickets online after a widespread backlash over allegedly inflated prices for Bruce Springsteen concert tickets. More than 2,000 fans complained about their attempts to buy tickets online to a Feb. 2 Springsteen concert in New Jersey. The site redirected them to a subsidiary, TicketsNow, which offered the tickets at an inflated price. In a settlement with the state of New Jersey, Ticketmaster will have to pay the state $350,000 US to settle costs associated with the state's investigation of the matter. Soon after, two law firms in Canada launched class actions against Ticketmaster and related parties in Ontario. They say their clients also bought tickets at inflated prices from TicketsNow after first being turned away by Ticketmaster. The law firms allege Ticketmaster and the other defendants owe a total of $500 million in damages to those who were overcharged. http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2009/03/01/ticketmaster-ontario.html

Wish I hadn't spaced it.

Did they do much new material?

Totally spaced it. Was sitting home practicing and I looked up at the clock way too late to consider heading out. How was the show?