After I got off my shift I started texting Talia so I could meet up with them, and we met up in the festival ground. Dana, Talia, Nicole, Allie, and Allie all walked with me back to my tent where we hung out for a while with my neighbors drinking Bloody Marys and talking about the last night's set. After a while I walked with them back to their campsite with a handle of rum in one hand and a handle of vodka in the other. I am sure I looked like a drunk carrying that much alcohol around. We all sat around their camp with the rest of their crew drinking until we left for the afternoon set. We left an hour early, around 2, and ended up with great seats again, even though we had to wait in the sun while waiting for them to come on.
They opened the daytime set with "Tube" and the crowd got right in the groove. Next was "Kill Devil Falls" which went into "Ocelot". These are two of my favs, and they really jammed "Kill Devil Falls", but I feel the "Ocelot" earlier in the tour at GA had more soul. That was followed by "Lawn Boy" which made me smell the colors haha. "Divided Sky" was next, and right as it came on a chilly wind came down and blew over the crowd which was spooky. Then came a cover of the Stevie Wonder song "Boogie on Reggae Woman" and I enjoyed dancing to that with the girls. That was followed by "Camel Walk" which isn't played very often, but is such a fun song to hear live. They then did another Talking Heads cover, this time "Cities". Next was a song Mike wrote about a tape recorder, "Poor Heart" and that was followed by the Phish classic "46 Days". After that was a Phish setlist debut of the song "Suskind Hotel" which is one of Mike Gordon's side project songs. Then came another song I had been hoping for all weekend, "When the Circus Comes" which is so much fun to sing along with. "Timber (Jerry)" was next, and I think its the first time I've heard it live, and I really enjoyed it. That went into "Back on the Train" which one of my neighbors had really been hoping for. The song that always seems to get stuck in my head came on next, "Suzy Greenberg" and I had a great time singing along with the crowd. The last song of the daytime set was another setlist debut, and another Rolling Stones cover, "Monkey Man".
After the set was over I split up from the girls and headed back to my camp to talk with my neighbors and take a nap before the evening set at 7:30.
I woke up around 6:30 and hung out with the neighbors for a bit before heading into the venue to try and find the girls in their spot. I found them without too much trouble, which is one benefit of being alone at shows so you can snake through the crowd quickly. We were even closer this time, maybe 25 yards at most from the end of Page's grand piano. They opened the set with "Runaway Jim" and during the song Trey announced the winners from the 5k race held earlier in the day. Each winner got to come onstage and get a trophy from Trey and shake his hand, which must have been incredible. After that came "McGrupp and the Watchful Horsemasters" which is part of the background music during the narrations on TMWSIY the album. This was followed by another song that ties into gamehendge, "Axilla". After that while they were looking around, Page locked eyes with me for a few seconds, which was absolutely incredible. Next was another song I was hoping to hear live this tour, "Birds of a Feather". After "Birds of a Feather" Mike did a tease of the Simpsons theme song, which I found out later is part of the secret language Phish developed with the crowd in the 90's and the whole crowd was supposed to shout "D'oh" like Homer. This was the first time they have used secret language since they have gotten back together. This was followed by a rousing "Stash" and "Sample in a Jar". After those two songs they didn't stop playing again for the rest of the set, going from "Heavy Things" into "Horn" which was a fun progression, and then continuing on into "It's Ice". "Ice" was really fun and one of the Phish songs I had never heard before at all, and I really enjoyed it. That was followed by "The Mango Song" which was another one that had been on my wishlist for the weekend, and was every bit as fun as I expected it to be. That was followed by "Rift" and "Scents and Subtle Sounds" which hadn't been played since sometime in 2009. The last song of the set was "Run Like an Antelope" and one of my neighbors had given me an Antelope hat earlier in the week and I was holding it up waving it the whole song while running out of control. There was also a MASSIVE glow stick war during this song. When I say MASSIVE, I mean I have never seen that many glowsticks flying through the air ever before. There were wayyyy more than Bassnectar at All Good. When they got done and took their bows Trey pointed directly at my hat which was in the air. I then sat down and put my head in my hands and just waited patiently for the next set.
The third set Saturday didn't have a single break in the music the entire time, just straight from one song into the next. They opened with a strange cover for them, a cover of the modern band TV on the Radio's "Golden Age". They did a better job with this than the original, I think, and it was a rare treat to get to hear Phish play it. This was followed by "Prince Caspian" and "Piper" which is always a funny song to hear live. Next was "Tweezer", and it was in my opinion the best "Tweezer" I have heard to date, either live or recorded. They absolutely jammed the heck out in this song. Mike kept doing teases from "Scents and Subtle Sounds" throughout the jam. This was followed by "Julius" which I had heard for the first time at the Portsmouth show. Then came my favorite birthday song of all, "Backwards Down the Number Line". Then we got to boogie to "Twist" which went into another of my favorites, "Also Sprach Zarathustra", which Kuroda always does a phantastic job on lights. Then came one of the most iconic Phish songs to me, "Harry Hood". "Hood" always strikes a chord with me and reminds me of all the people I have met along the way. Then came "Cavern" which is fun to watch Trey dance around while he sings. The last two songs of the set were some of the best of the night, an AMAZING "Golgi Apparatus" into "A Day In The Life" by this small band called the Beatles. Talia and I were singing Golgi to each other the whole song, and I just absolutely LOVE it when Page sings, and "A Day In The Life" is most certainly Page's song when performed by Phish. His voice is so angelic when the song starts, but as it progresses he is able to sing all the different parts almost perfectly. It is always a great way to end a set or the night.
The encore was a cover of "Loving Cup" and then they went into "Tweezer Reprise" which I had expected as an encore.
After the show we all sat down for about twenty and waited for the massive crowd behind us to dissipate before heading back to camp. All weekend we had been hearing of a secret set, and I had seen the stage while I was setting up the festival. As soon as we got back to the camp at like 1, we get a text telling us to come back in because something is going on. We go to where I knew the stage was and there was a crowd of people and all these weird trippy noises going on. Some of them made it sound like a racecar was circling the crowd. Everyone had their eye on the giant silver ball in the middle of the clearing, but I knew to watch the storage shed off to the left, and eventually the panels started coming off the building. This revealed a stage that was surrounded by a white visqueen type material that only allowed shadows to be seen. Trey told a story of how the town we were in had to be powered by water, and a guy came to the top of the water tower and poured a bucket in, which started a chain reaction that eventually led all around to the stage, bringing everyone's attention there. The band then began jamming with complete surround sound. I have never in my life heard or seen or heard of anything like this ever happening. The four of them were on the stage and all you could see were shadows jumping around with the lights, and I could catch each members shadow on occasion. They were all swaping instruments, and Page was on the Theremin, which is the only instrument in the world you play without touching. Watching Page on that was incredible because the shadows would keep jumping around showing him arms extended looking like he was possessed. The coolest part though was the sound. It would be circling us and then bounce across the speakers going front to back and right to left complete with lights from all sides as well. How the band knew what was going on is beyond me, they had to be hearing the sound from their monitors which would only be one channel, meaning they don't know as their playing where the sound is going, I just don't know how they were able to play like that. It was absolutely cutting edge technology, and will not be the last time something like this is done. About halfway through this exceedingly weird and trippy set they went into an even weirder rendition of "Sleeping Monkey" with different voices coming from different speakers and rotating around. I had been wanting a "Sleeping Monkey", but never expected to hear it like this, and they will NEVER do it again like that. They then went back into jamming and continued for over an hour total. Watching this crowd wasn't like watching a normal Phish crowd, hardly anyone was dancing. Everyone was just in utter shock at what they were witnessing. After that we slowly made our way back to the camp, but our brains were somewhere in a puddle in Ball Square along with everyone else who saw that set. I LOVED it, but most of the people I talked to either didn't know that that was even Phish playing, or they just thought it was too weird. I explained to them how unique it was and how lucky we were to have seen it. Back at the campsite we sat around and talked about the shows of the day, and everything just kind of blurred into one, considering that they played over 6 hours over the course of the day. After a while of reflection I walked back to my tent to chat with the neighbors and go to sleep after a long day that had really started friday morning since I hadn't really slept since then.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
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