So, I whined and complained a couple of weeks ago about not being able to go to Phish's 20th Anniversary show here in Boston. No tickets was the problem. The first 3 shows of the run were excellent and was very unhappy to be missing the show here.
So, Tuesday was a long day at work, was in the office almost 12 hours. We actually left the office a bit earlier than expected. I got home right about 7 and as I was putting my stuff down I felt my phone vibrating on my belt. It was Lukas calling to tell me Vieve wasn't feeling good and asking if I wanted to go to the show. Of course I said and walked right back out the door to go meet them down at the Fleet Center.
We got in right before 8, grabbed some water and a quick hot dog and waited for the show to start. The show started a few minutes after 8, which we were surprised about since it seemed like they were letting people in VERY slowly. There were many rumors about this show going around. They included things like 3 full sets, lots of guests etc. I spent a lot (too much probably) of the show waiting for something big to happen, but nothing really did. But that was ok. The show didn't live up to the hype, but it definitely was a good show.
This was my 6th Phish show, 4 in 2000, 2 this year. When I went to the 4 in 2000, I didn't really know Phish all that well, but had been slowly getting in to the jam band scene by being dragged to lots of shows by my friends. I had seen Phil & Friends a number of times by then and had gone to see a bunch of smaller bands as well. The shows were cool, but not knowing much of the music made them a little harder to enjoy. Since seeing the 4 shows and totally enjoying them, I got really in to Phish. Now own many of their albums, have a bunch of bootlegs, etc. The show earlier this year had me very psyched. The band had taken a 2 year hiatus and now they were back and I really knew their stuff much better. Well, the show wasn't nearly as enjoyable as I had hoped. The band spent much of the first set playing music from all of their side projects, which was cool, but again, I didn't know a lot of the music which made it harder to enjoy. Well, this show finally was a show where I knew a ton of the music. Though I wasn't super familiar with a couple of the songs, I totally knew most of them which made the show a lot more enjoyable.
So, a good show, yes, the show everyone thought it was going to be, not really. The neat part about the show was in between the 2 sets they played a 20 or 30 minute video of 20 years of Phish. It was funny seeing them back in the old days looking funny and playing scary music. Showed a lot of clips of "famous" shows, etc. Very cool. I wonder if they released that on the net. Will have to check. I do miss Trey talking. He told a great story at the Vegas show in 2000. I wish he did that more often.
So, big thanks to Lukas for hooking me up at the last minute, definitely made my night.
The set list:
Set 1 (1:10):
Harry Hood*
Cavern
Birds of a Feather
Ya Mar**
Horn >
Piper
Anything but Me
Water in the Sky
Down with Disease
Set 2 (1:29):
Rock and Roll ->
Weekapaug Groove ->
Tweezer Reprise# >
Frankenstein ->
Kung ->
Frankenstein
All of These Dreams
The Wedge
Boogie On Reggae Woman >
Cities
Maze
Waste
Encore (0:11):
Bug
Notes:
* - lyrics flubbed
** - ended with "Banana Splitz" theme
*** - screen lowered behind band
# - first line of"Mike's Song" ("Trapped in time, and I don't know what to do") sung inplace of the first line of "Tweezer Reprise"
## - mini vocal jam anddelay loop; Trey drops to ground each time "stand up" is said
### - withmini "duel" between Trey and Page during Page's organ solo
