9 years ago today...

[Blane]

My first show!

08-14-97 Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Darien Center, NY

Soundcheck: Buffalo Bill, The Old Home Place, Funky Bitch

1: Ya Mar, Funky Bitch, Fluffhead, Limb By Limb, Free, Cars Trucks Buses, Tela, Train Song, Billy Breathes, Run Like an Antelope

2: Chalk Dust Torture, Love Me*, Sparkle, Harry Hood, Colonel Forbin's Ascent > Merry Pranksters' Bozo Madness#-> Camel Walk, Taste

E: Bouncing Around the Room, Rocky Top

*For Elvis Week. #This segment was dominated by the stage presence of Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters. Colonel Forbin doesn't meet Icculus this time but rather finds "Ken Uncle Sam Bozo Kesey" (or something near that). At this time Kesey, dressed as Uncle Sam, appears on the stage and accounces that the Bozos have been missing for two years but are on Phish tour now. He calls one by one the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and Frankenstein (Phish breaks into "Frankenstein") to help him find the Bozos, which soon appear as four white things in costume. After singing about the Bozos which are doing interpretive dance, the Pranksters all leave the stage after Kesey hears the "Bozo Mockingbird". Trey comments that this is what happens "after you do too much acid 30 years later..." Phish had been playing background music (including McGrupp and Ghost teases) which had developed by this point into a deep funk jam. Trey announces that "we are supposed to start 'Famous Mockingbird', but the funk is too deep." The band continues the funk jam and eventually segues into "Camel Walk."

Kesey's Recap of the Day

What a wild and crazy intro to phish "in person" for me. Unlike most, I had been a fan for a few years before getting to see them live, but I still wasn't prepared for the wierdness of the Darien Lake show! Great times.

Edited August 14, 2006 by Guest