I Do Stuff…

I was able to catch two shows on the reunion tour early in the summer, Knoxville and Pittsburgh.  After they announced a second leg of their summer tour I of course wanted to score some tickets.  I was hoping to do a four show run, but decided on a more reasonable Merriweather and SPAC.  These two shows happened on a Saturday and Sunday, so less time off from work and were the last two shows of the tour.  Fortunately I lucked out and scored my tickets via mail order so I didn’t have to mess around with getting my tickets via TicketBastard.

copyright: Dave Vann

Merriweather was the place I saw my first Phish show back in 1998 and I have always had great shows here, I was excited they were coming back to this great venue.  Jeremy and I planned on tailgating so I purchased a mini grill to cook up some great tailgate food.  We arrived to late to get a spot in the lot and were forced to park in an over flow parking garage near Columbia Mall.  This meant we were not allowed to tailgate as security came around several times telling us we couldn’t tailgate, finally the cops came around and forced everyone out.  We couldn’t even sit in chairs.  We had all this time to kill and some great food to cook but were stuck doing nothing.

As the show time approached we made our way to the venue entrance to grab a good spot on the lawn.  Security was a none issue getting in, however later I read that 31 were arrested for various offenses.  Non of which made the front page like they did with the three night reunion show in Hampton.  The weather was hot but with the quickly setting sun things were starting to cool off, if we could only get ride of the humidity things would have been perfect for a concert on the lawn.

When the show started both of us were pumped!  It was great to finally have my boy out on the road with me and our hopes where high.  Memories of Sabotage (8/8/1998), Harry Hood (8/8/1998, 7/9/1999), glow stick wars, 2001 (8/8/1998), Fluffhead (9/17/2000), Rock and Roll (9/17/2000), the list goes on and on.  One of the best shows in my life was my first Phish show at Merriweather 8/8/1998.  The boys always crush it when they play here, so my hopes where very high for this show.

copyright: Dave Vann

After giving this show such a huge buildup, now it’s time for the actual show.  In short I was very disappointed with the performance.  I had heard that the night before in Hartford was off the hook and I was expecting a similar performance tonight.  Not only because the band should have been running on a high but the pedigree the venue brings to Phish shows.  Looking back the performance was a solid one, but I was expected a more upbeat show then what was delievered.  They played a ton of new songs, some of which I am a fan, others I am not.  There was just a lack of energy that night and Trey was also pretty horrible on the guitar.  Both Jeremy and I noted off key playing, missed notes, simply sloppy playing in songs like HA HA HA and Party Time.  I guess they were saving themselves for the tour closers in Saratoga.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some great highlights including another great version of Foam that was jammed out again, HA HA HA I had not heard live, a new Fishman song called Party Time (crazy vocals, the man just can NOT sing), a version of Tube which was good but waaay to short.  The second set opened strong with Tweezer that lead into Taste, I don’t get that combo.  A long version of 46 Days which was played well and a long running Merriweather staple, Harry Hood as the set closers.  That was the song I wanted to hear, at least I got that.  Jeremy was hoping for a Down with Disease, but we later found out they played that in Hartford so there was no chance of it at Merriweather.  The encore was decent, they played Tweezer Reprise, which was a surprise because of my short memory I forgot they played that as the set opener so it is always a safe bet to get the reprise some time later in the set.

copyright: Steve Moyles

On the long drive home we reflected on the performance and although we were not that satisfied with the song selection and the lack of tailgating, we agreed it was still a great trip.  Even the worst Phish show beats any other day.  I was just hoping for a killer set Sunday night in Saratoga to make up for this poor performance.

Set 1: 7:38pm start
1. Crowd Control
2. Kill Devil Falls
3. The Sloth
4. Beauty Of A Broken Heart
5. Axilla I
6. Foam
7. Esther
8. Ha Ha Ha
9. Party Time*
10. Tube
11. Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan
12. Strange Design
13. Time Turns Elastic

set 1 ends at 9:02pm

Set 2: 9:31pm start
1. Tweezer >
2. Taste
3. Alaska
4. Let Me Lie
5. 46 Days
6. Oh! Sweet Nuthin’
7. Harry Hood

set 2 ends at 10:44pm

encore: 10:46pm start
8. Good Times Bad Times
9. Tweezer Reprise

show ends at 10:55pm

notes:
*first time played