Phish in Charlotte

Friday morning I woke up and went for a quick run to the lake to do yoga, and had 4 canadian geese watching me. I then ran up and down some stairs and ran back to camp for a shower .I got packed up and on the road around noon. I got to Charlotte and the amphitheater around 2:15, and waited on the side of the road until they started letting people in. I was parked on lot by 2:45, and spent most of the afternoon walking around and mingling. There was a band performing out of the back of a trailer on lot, and they were called Jammin Brahmin. I have seen them once before, they did the aftershow for Widespread Panic in Columbus, OH last year. I listened to them for a while and bought a CD.
I got in my seats around 7:20. Both Trey and Mike have on the same shirt with a guy's face on it. The show started with "Mike's Song" which of course Mike killed. This flowed smoothly into "I Am Hydrogen" which I missed while keeping track of the setlist. That segued into "Weekapaug Groove", which I have been wanting to hear for a long time. After that was "Bouncing Around the Room" then "NICU">"Sample in a Jar". Fishman killed during "Sample". Next was "Colonel Forbin's Ascent" which along with "Harpua" is one of the few songs where Trey actually tells a story. This ran smoothly into "Fly Famous Mockingbird", which Page threw down some sick piano jams on. After "Mockingbird" came "Axilla" then "Wolfman's Brother", which I had guessed they would play this night. That was followed by "Scent of a Mule" which Page again killed. The whole band was standing around watching page play. Then Trey came in on guitar with a polka sounding jam. The last song of the set was "Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan", and the set ended at 9:04.
The second set started at the lyrics of "Backwards Down the Number Line" with no intro music or anything. I hadn't heard it started that way before, but it was a good way to start the set. Trey had that look on his face like he was looking up to the gods for the notes to play. That went into "Rock and Roll" and they kept playing right into "Ghost". I had been wanting a "Ghost" for a long time, but didn't figure I'd get one til SuperBall. They jammed for a LONG time before going into the first Phish song I ever heard, "Free". They didn't stop playing until the end of "Reba". They played for over 50 min without taking a break. The break led into "Icculus", which was another first for me. Read Icculus. That's the only way to describe it. During the song video of Trey's shirt was displayed on the screen and Trey claimed him to be the author of Icculus. The end of Icculus was weird, they raged for a second and then abrubtly stopped. Fishman came to the front of the stage with his vacuum to sing "Hold Your Head Up". This was the first time I had gotten to see Fish play the vacuum, and it was pretty amazing. I didn't know you could do that much with a vacuum, and I used to sell them haha. Fishman was having a good time out from behind the drums, and was throwing planes made from fan signs into the crowd. The vacuum solo flowed into a cover of the Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd song "Bike" which Fishman sang, but forgot some of the words, and so the band flowed back into "Hold Your Head Up". While Fishman was singing, Trey was on the drums, which was a real treat, and unexpected. With the band members back in their original places they played "Chalkdust Torture". The last song of the set was "You Enjoy Myself", which I believe to be one of their best songs. As usual Trey and Mike jumped up and down on trampolines on stage while playing "YEM", and there were even fireworks during the song. While Mike had his solo, Trey was dancing around on stage having a grand ol time. The vocal jam seemed shorter than usual, but was still incredible.
The encore was "Wilson" which is always soo much fun because the crowd sings most of the song. There was a Wilson head volleyball being thrown around the crowd during this song. Wilson seemed extremely short, and flowed smoothly into a cover of the Rolling Stone's "Loving Cup". I left during "Loving Cup" to go sell some waters.
While I was on lot my friend Lauren from Manifestation Celebration and Wakarusa found me and she took me to meet up with Dylan, Jill, Evan, and some other friends from Flordia. Although it took a while to get everyone together, we all caravaned to Uwharrie National Forest. We drove down some back roads until we finally found a sutiable place to set up camp. By the time I got to sleep it was almost 3am.