Somewhere in Delaware

Friday 10th June 2011


Woken up at 5 by big lorries outside running their engines. Got a headache. In one of those motel rooms you see in the movies. Delaware - funny state, funny shape, wonder how it came to be - must go and google that. First, check emails, phone home, and get some breakfast. Need to plan the day out - it's going to be a hot one and I'm going somewhere I've never been before. Phish are on fire this tour - 10 shows in, couple of new covers debuted (Led Zep 'No Quarter' and Al Green 'Rhymes') and one new original 'Steam', a 25-minute 'Down With Disease'/'A Love Supreme' at Clarkston, MI and excellent reviews all round.

Today it's Camden, NJ - spitting distance acress the river from downtown Philadelphia - a location the band have played 11 times before and known for always pulling out a special one.

Camden Susquehanna Bank Center

Time to shower and get moving. Leisurely 30 minute drive to Philadelphia and time to look around for a couple of hours before heading over to Camden about 2:00pm. Bring it on!

Thursday 9th June 2011

London - Washington DC - Newark, DE

Virgin Atlantic 11:15 flight to DC... pretty uneventful (which is always a good thing) - in economy, but paid the extra £30 for an 'extra legroom' seat, which is very worth it and I had noone sat next to me so plenty of room to stretch out. Read the paper, read some magazines, did some work til the laptop battery ran out, eat the slightly dodgy food, watched the first 2 episodes of 'The Trip' again, dozed off for a bit, watched 'Cedar Rapids' http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cedar_rapids_2010/ (perfect inflight film) and read a few chapters of 'Moonraker' and there we were, making a bumpy landing at Washington Dulles right on time at 14:30. They have these funny buses to take you from the plane to the terminal that they call 'mobile lounges'.... yeh, right.... but what a different experience to last time when I waited in line for 90 minutes at immigration. This time straight through - apart from a particularly sullen 'Homeland Security' grilling - and I was driving out of  the car rental by 15:30 in one of these...

Unfortunately it was then slow slow progress round the 'Beltway' - like the M25 on a bad day - and then more of the same once through the Baltimore tunnel... but it doesn't seem so bad when you're in an american car and taking in the sights - the cars, the scenery, the evocative road signs: Rockville, Frederick, Baltimore... song titles everywhere... but I had Chapter 3 of Hal Masa's Summer Mix

 http://phishcoventry.blogspot.com/2010/08/you-enjoy-my-summer-2010-mix-by-hal.html to keep me company ..... 

and then halfway up the I95 I realised I was driving on Joppa Road which completely made my day.

Oh, and it was hellish hot

So anyway, three and a half hours later, after getting a bit lost and stopping for a Beef Brisket dinner at Boston Farmer's Market (?) I finally made it to Newark Days Inn which seems OK for a £40 a night stay. The air was soooo hot. It hits you when you get out of the air-conditioned car... a heat you don't feel in the UK. Checked in, then a quick drive round the corner to pick up some water and a small bottle of wine and the sky suddenly got dark and the air got very close and I just got back in my room before it absolutely pissed down. Glad I wasn't driving in that, and pleased the temperature's dropped immediately and I can turn the noisy AC off...... very tired now, that's it for tonight...

Summer 2011 Phish mini-tour

So here's the plan...

• Thursday 9th June - fly LHR to Washington Dulles - pick up hire car and drive to hotel near Newark, Delaware

• Friday 10th June - drive into Philadelphia and look around - check into hotel - get over to Camden Susquehanna Center for the Lot and the Show

• Saturday 11th June - drive down to Baltimore - check into hotel - get over to Merriweather for the Lot and the Show

• Sunday 12th June - drive back to Washington Dulles, with maybe some sight-seeing on the way - evening flight back to London arriving early Monday morning

Last night's set from Darien Lake looks fascinating, can't wait to hear it. They are raging so far on this tour. Day off today - wonder what they have in store for tomorrow night. Camden shows are known for being consistently good....

Tweezep!

Sunday morning... still recovering from the Saturday night spectacular - can't wait to hear the recording of last night's show. I was tired after the exertions of the first night - too much alcohol and kept thinking I should have gone into training before this trip because four hours of 'grooving' kills my calf muscles. Fortunately I had some medication to get me through this one from a different perspective. had a good seat on the other side of the hall and could see more of CK5's light magic tonight.
What a show. This one will definitely go down in Phish legend - probably as the 'Tweezep' show. There were some absolutely transcendent moments that were the greatest I've ever seen and the energy of 17,000 people going crazy and just so happy to be there in that place at that time was incredible. There is absolutely nothing like it but you cannot know that without being there. There's lots of great bands I've never seen but I feel priveleged to have seen quite a few yet nothing beats Phish when they hit the high spots and they are playing as well as they ever have right now.
No photos tonight - forgot to put the recharged battery back in my camera (durrr). So many great moments:
- the pause in Geulah Papyrus which went on for ages and the band just stood grinning while a full-scale glowstick war broke out before eventually piling back into the song
- breaking into Whole Lotta Love in the middle of Chalk Dust Torture.... speculation obviously rife about what album they'll cover in the Halloween show and the people's choice would definitely be Physical Graffiti so the crowd were not just surprised and excited to hear WLL but there was suddenly a tangible sense of excitement that shot round the room - was this a taster of what's to come tomorrow.....
- Ha Ha Ha bustout. 64 shows since they last played it and I was at that one
- amazing energy for Walk Away, everybody singing
- beautiful Page keys to end set I
- Possum. What a fucking song, what a way to control a crowd... just incredible... and Trey rocking hard. His guitar tone these 2 nights has changed subtly. I feel like he's used 'the Whale' much less than previously this year and sounds more hard rock tonight - another clue for tomorrow?
- Then the Tweezer/Zeppelin medley - everyone going crazy and the band just nailing it. Another 8 covers played tonight and yet they make each one their own and even Trey's vocals on Ramble On were spot on
- Show Of Life - 8th performance of a new song first played in June but already a firm favourite with the whole room singing along - expecting this to be the last song of Set II.... then a furious BDTNL and...
- Good Times Bad Times: at that moment in time was the best single gig performance I have ever witnessed... words cannot explain....
On stage at 8:15 - finish just before midnight
Set I
Kill Devil Falls
Cavern >
Foam
Geulah papyrus
Chalk Dust Torture ->
Whole Lotta Love >
Chalk Dust Torture
Ha Ha Ha
Walk Away
Wolfman's Brother ->
Undermind
Bathtub Gin
The Squirming Coil
Set II
Tube >
Possum >
Tweezer ->
Heartbreaker ->
Ramble On ->
Thank You ->
Tweezer ->
Stairway To Heaven
Halley's Comet >
2001 >
David Bowie
Show Of Life
Backwards Down the Number Line >
Good Times Bad Times
Encore
Sleeping Monkey >
Tweezer Reprise

Page side, rage side

It's 1:00am and I'm tired. Recap of Friday will follow in the morning - suffice to say Great Show tonight. Great atmosphere, all good but with plenty of room for more before Sunday...

Set I:
- Star Spangled Banner (a capella)
- My Soul
- AC/DC Bag
- Ocelot
- Sample In A Jar
- Light Up Or Leave Me Alone
- Sugar Shack
- Timber (Jerry) >
- Bouncing Round The Room
- Axilla >
- Rift
- The Moma Dance >
- Cities >
- 46 Days
Set II:
- Punch You In The Eye >
- Sand ->
- Carini >
- Prince Caspian
- Corinna
- Piper >
- Theme From The Bottom >
- Golgi Aparatus >
- Slave To The Traffic Light >
- Fluffhead
Encore:
- Loving Cup

On stage 8:15 - finished just before 12:00

No new songs, no bust-outs, no real surprises... 6 covers (though all Phish standards)... some big hitters - Slave, Fluffhead, Piper - but Antelope, Bowie, Hood, Tweezer still to come..... roll on tomorrow night

A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing

sign on the Boardwalk

Thursday 28th November - a long day of travelling. Left the house at 7:00am and got to the hotel in AC about 6:00pm EST - 16 hours.
First time at Heathrow Terminal 4 (I think) and turned out the Virgin flight I thought I was on was actually a Continental flight which was fully booked and the only seat left (apparently) was the middle one in the row marked in red on seatguru.com (which means don't sit there)... so not happy to start with. Mooched around the terminal buying magazines then went into the zone.... noone to talk to, not in any rush, just read and concentrate on not thinking about delays and how long everything is taking.
Turned out the seat wasn't so bad. Bit unusual being in Economy but hey, it was cheap and the entertainment system on Continental is pretty good - if you're used to United (but what isn't). Had to pay $6 each for 2 red wines but the food was surprisingly good too and in between reading the papers watched American Beauty again, slept for a while, then Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Landing at Newark (another first) was a bit hairy and flight an hour late overall then the joys of US Immigration. What a disorganised, deeply unpleasant soul-destrying experience that is. I don't understand why people dislike traffic wardens so much. We all know whether we're supposed to be parked somewhere or not so why's it their fault if we get a ticket. The arrogant obnoxious twats that work in US airports are far more more unpleasant.
Wandered round the airport for a while trying to find the National car rental. Had to make a phone call to get directions which involved getting on a monorail to another terminal, and from the window of the train could clearly see the Manhatten skyline - an unexpected treat. Picked up the car ok - nice Dodge Charger! - and set off vaguely in the direction of US95 South as the man at National recommended.

Then 3 hours of thinking I'm on the right road, then not sure, then stopping and checking Google Maps on my Blackberry, then turning round and going in a another direction, then just following any sign that said south, and eventually made it to Atlantic City. Beautiful sunset just as I was arriving....

Checked into a nice room at the Sheraton and went straight out to get food at the Tun Tavern http://www.tuntavern.com/ - Wasabi Tuna and the taster of 6 different beers brewed onsite. Then walked the 5 or 6 blocks down to the Boardwalk and along to Boardwalk Hall to see where all the action is going to take place.

One more beer and a wander round a casino then back to the Sheraton for sleep.

a bit more on Saturday night in Saratoga Springs

Don't know why I thought I'd get time to write anything while on tour - too busy either travelling or having a good time. Way too much travelling as it turned out but maybe more of that later. For now I am going to blog by proxy and hand you over to Pauly of the 'Tao Of Pauly' and 'Coventry Music' blogs. I empathise a lot with his thoughts on the Phish tour experience and he will tell it more eloquently than I - here's part one of his Saratoga blog... http://mcgrupp.blogspot.com/2010/06/prelude-to-spac.html

I read the Coventry Music updates every day and following them on Twitter was a really useful rolling news update on the Phish tour - helped me out a lot in the last few days with what time different things were happening and where to go/what not to do - Pauly does a great job giving you a feel for what's going on at the show. On Saturday night I was in my seat waiting for the show to start and a Coventry tweet said he was in Section 9 - and I was in Section 9 too so I looked around, worked out who it must be and went to introduce myself.

and if you're in any way interested in what I've been rambling about, I highly recommend Pauly's review of the show here: SPAC Part I: Step Into the Tweeprise

and here's a great vid of the glowstick war that erupted on the lawn during 'Suzy Greenberg'



"..a thousand barefoot children outside dancing on my lawn..."