I Do Stuff…

Over the last few months I have been scrambling to get tickets to the reunion show in Hampton and the summer tour.  Of course none of the shows I wanted to attend could I get tickets too.  I however was happy to get tickets to: Knoxville, Pittsburgh, Merriweather, and SPAC.

So first up, Knoxville.  This was the last stop before Phish hit Bonnarro for a long weekend of shows.  Getting there turned into quite a trip being 8 hours away.  Even with the long drive I was able to stop and get a hotel in Pigeon Forge at the Pigeon River Inn for an astonishing $30!  I was going to hike in The Great Smoky Mountains on Friday and this hotel was close to the park entrance.  While driving down 71 to the hotel I was amazed at the amount of crap on the side of the road.  The long stretch of highway reminded me of a redneck Vegas, but without the gambling.  An hour to go before the concert and I still needed to make it to downtown Knoxville.

Thompson-Boling Arena

As I approached the city following the directions I had I started to see signs saying highway 40 was closed and that I would have to take a detour which took me around the city and not into it.  I was able to find further information on the closing and the highway was closed at the exact exit I needed to get off at, and to throw more egg in my face it was being re-opened on Friday.  Ugh.  So I followed the detour around the city and with a lot of luck I found my way to the general area of the venue.  But since my directions to the venue were based on getting off highway 40 they were completely useless to me.  I eventually found a parking lot with a bunch of other fans and the great search for the venue started, for all of us.  No one knew how to get to the venue so we all just followed the people in front of us that eventually lead us to the campus and the Thompson-Boling Arena.

The venue is the basketball stadium for the University of Tennessee and as such doesn’t have much on site parking.  This however did not stop the horde of fans from setting up a shakedown street and totally packing it.  Unfortunately there was no time for me to walk around and take in the sights and sounds, all I could do was pass through it.  One crazy thing I noticed was that as I got closer to the entrance more and more tickets became available and the prices got lower and lower.  To the point that people were just giving them away because no one was buying.

copyright: www.BreakfastOnTour.com

After making it through some of the most inclusive security I have seen ever I was in the venue without incident.  Mission one had been accomplished, I made it to the venue before the start of the show.  Mission two was finding some beer.  Before I got the parking lot I stopped for some Guinness for a little pre-party.  My buzz was mild and I wanted to get it going before the show started.  A quick scan around was worthless so I found an usher.  To my horror they didn’t serve alcohol in the venue, didn’t matter that it was not a school event, no alcohol was served.  Then it dawned on me, not a surprise.  It is on a college campus and the vast majority of the attendants can’t legally drink, so cheaper to not have alcohol.  Crap!  In disgust I walked to my seat to enjoy the show.  I most certainly was not going to let this minor incident put a damper on my first Phish show in 5 years.

My seat was located in section 315.  When I bought the ticket I first was happy to finally get one, then I was a little concerned about the locations.  I was only a few rows from the top at one of the furthest points from the stage.  But when I actually sat down I was delighted by my view.  My seat was a perfect spot to take in the visual aspect of the show.  The lights by Chris Kuroda, in my opinion, are an integral part of the show.  The guy is magic at adding to the atmosphere of a show, without him it would not be the same.

As the venue started to fill up it still didn’t feel like a Phish show, something was missing.  It had been over 5 years since I saw them perform live and after the breakup I pretty much stopped listening to their music and moved on to other acts.  When the lights went off just after 8 and the boys took the stage a chill ran down my spin.  The crowd erupted with cheers and excitement to welcome them to the stage and it infected me.  All seemed right with the world once the lights went down and I got back into the groove of things.

The set open was Runaway Jim, so I knew this was going to be a great show.  First set highlights included a great PYITE which is a classic and a new song I later found out to be Ocelot.  It was very long and jammy with some heavy heavy guitar rifts near the end of the song by Trey.  Very impressed with the new song from the band.  When they started with Foam as the next song I was not particularly excited to hear it, not one of my favorites.  But when they started jamming it turned into an amazing version.  There was so much feeling and emotion from the guys in this version.  It of course had the crazy guitar work by Trey near the end that escalated higher and higher in its pitch with no end in sight.  When the song finally ended the crowd went nuts.  No one had heard a version like that and we could all tell things were back to normal.  It was not just a song for a songs sake, there was emotion and feeling in it.  The guys were feeding off the energy of the crowd. Another new song, Undermind, had some crazy of key bass work by Mike which lead to the classic Weekapauge > H2O > Mike’s.  Another classic played well.  Squirming Coil was the second to last song of the set and features great solo piano work at the end by Page.  I love this song just for the end piano work by Page.  It reminds me of a lullaby that just makes me feel to rested and peaceful.

copyright: not me

The first set alone they crushed it for about 1:20 before walking off the stage.  Everyone was stunned when the house lights finally came on.  No one could believe what we had just witnessed, we all witnessed something amazing.  I talked to the people around me and we all came to the same conclusion, it was a very special show in deed.  And there was  second set to follow!  In my opinion second sets have a better selection of songs with sometimes an oddity thrown in straight out of left field.

Set two rolls around and I am ready for the fireworks.  The opener was Get Back on the Train, nothing to say here, standard fair and personally a slow way to start the set off.  The second song, Waves, brings high energy to the set.  It was a very spacey version with corresponding light show on the back of the arena near the end of the song.  This lead straight into A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing which was very heavy and deep.  This lead into David Bowie, a little more upbeat and high spirited to contract with the previous dark song.  Other highlights included the accapela Hello My Baby, a classic tune when touring the southern states.

The set closers was another trifecta run on jam consisting of Julius > Cavern > Harry Hood.  What ever you do take care of your shoe.  I was ecstatic to hear Harry Hood, it is certainly one of my favorite songs and was actually played at the first Phish show I ever went to.  I was however a little disappointed with the crowd during the song, there was no glow stick war.  Certain portions of the crowd tried three times unsuccessfully to get a glow stick war going, but most people were not having it.  People would not pick up the glow sticks and keep things going.  Even Chris tried to get the crowd into it would much luck.  I am not sure if this is because all the new fans don’t know what to do or everyone has just gotten lazy.  What ever the reason I wish people would participate when they are suppose to.

After the show it was a short lazy walk through downtown Knoxville back to my car.  With it being midnight the city was quit and empty with the exception of all the elated Phish fans heading back to their homes.  There was this buzz among the crowd while walking back.  Everyone enjoyed the show.  As I reflected on what I had just witness I was very impressed.  This was not the old Phish from the late 2000 I remember, this was the Phish from ’97 and ’98.  They thoroughly enjoyed themselves on the stage, feed off the crowd, and explored musically some of their songs taking them into way off directions I had not heard before.  I was afraid they would be a cliche of themselves and were getting back together for the money.  This show put all thoughts of that to rest and made my look forward to the Pittsburgh show the following week.

But for this evening it was a short 45 minute drive back to my hotel for a good nights rest.  The following day I was going hiking in The Great Smoky Mountains before making the long drive back to norther Virginia.

Set 1: 8:10pm start
Runaway Jim
Punch You in the Eye
Ocelot
Foam
Train Song
Undermind
Mike’s Song >
I am Hydrogen >
Weekapaug Groove
The Squirming Coil
Character Zero

set ends at 9:31pm

Set 2: 10:08pm start
Back on the Train
Waves >
A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing >
David Bowie
Army of One
Reba
Hello My Baby
Julius >
Cavern >
Harry Hood

set ends at 11:31pm

encore: 11:35pm
Frankenstein

encore ends at 11:40pm