Part I
After a nice long drive through mostly cloudy skies & rain and arriving at Burgettestown just outside of Pittsburgh only to have the sun shining down it just couldn't have been better. The show was great, the people were great and it was just great overall. I was grinning the whole time and that's why I go.
After the Burgettestown encore I made my way back to my car. Luckily I was right off the lane heading out and wasn't too deep in the lot. I figured if I could get out quickly I would be able to put 100 clicks behind me before crashing at a rest area. I headed south down the twisting and foggy Hwy 18 until I hit the I-70 which would take me pretty much all the way to my next destination, Noblesville, IN just ourside of Indianapolis.
I ended up crashing at the first rest stop in Ohio. I actually crossed through that thin slice of West Virgina that shoots up and was going to stop there, but I was carrying a bit of Michigan gear and though better of it. I was in a hatchback so with a bit of shifting I had myself a nice little bed in the back with lots of padding & two pillows. Yes sir!
I crashed out pretty quickly & woke the next morning around 7:30. A bunch of tour heads also crashed at the rest stop and the washroom smelled like dirty hippies. I washed up and hit the road. Rain was a factor during the first part of my drive along with some huge thunder & lightening. The mid-west summer weather would play a memorable roll as the day moved on.
I didn't stop to eat or gas until I reached the outskirts of Columbus, OH. I saw a sign for a Waffle House and made a b-line for the exit. It has been a while since I've had the opportunity to dine at this fine establishment and I wasn't about to pass this up.
I was making great time so I grabbed a USA Today & went in for one of those leisurely breakfasts. I had a nice big waffle with butter and syrup, a couple of sausage patties and some coffee. The menu had changed a bit since the last time I was there. They seem to be moving towards the higher end of greasy spoon restaurants if that makes any sense. Friendly staff and fat customers. Great choice by me.
On my way through Columbus I saw a Budweiser 18 wheeler flipped over. It wasn't on our side of there road. I need to always have my camera ready. You just never know. Once the rain stopped it got hot. Thick and hot. It was over 30C which I think would be in the 90's F. As soon as I crossed into Indiana I deviated from my Google Maps print out and hit some back roads. My thinking was to avoid Indy and any potential construction, traffic jams, etc. I was ahead of the game on time and I like to get off the Interstate from time to time to really see some things not just fly by them. I saw a lot of fields and a lot of random churches. Churches everywhere. According to most of their signs, it looks like I'm going to Hell. I've accepted this fate, but if you don't want the same for yourself it looks like you can be saved by joining a congregation and signing over percentages of your paycheck to the church. It's just that easy.
I ended up getting lost on the back roads around Noblesville. I don't know how really. There's not much out there and all I had to do I figured was get to the area and look for the vehicles with stickers indicating they were a part of the traveling circus that is Phish's mobile entourage. It wasn't quite that easy, but I managed to get there without asking one single person for directions. Huge.
It was so hot when I got into the lot & parked at around 3pm. I hit the beer quickly and figured I would slowly wane down consumption as the day/night went on. I was also able to purchase 2 goo-balls right away. I wanted to eat one straight off to ensure its quality. This would give me time to look for the guy or other options if they turned out to be bad. Luckily they weren't :)
I parked beside a group of Mikes from Pittsburgh. One of the was wearing a Penguins hat and I commented that I just couldn't get away from Pens fans on this trip as I held my beer in a Red Wing cozy. We ended up getting on good and talk hockey for a good while along with some other sports stuff and the Canadian health care system.
The boys cooked me up some nice fat chicken breasts smothered in an amazing BBQ sauce. They cooked with proper charcoal. I added some cherry tomatoes to the mix. They have been one of my favorite snacks lately especially after a little hooch. I'd trade for them over a bag of chips any day.
I headed in at around 7:30. I was in the reserved seating section under the pavilion which I had made a point to get based on the weather forecast. Thunder & lightening with rain. I grabbed a huge can of Coors Light (only choice) and milled about. My seat was on Page's side.
A lot of firsts for me at this show, my 18th. Some were new songs that hadn't been played before this tour and others were just because Phish has such a huge catelogue that there are quite a few rarities. The new songs at this show I hadn't heard before were Backwards Down the Number Line, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan (great tune), and Ocelot. I still consider all songs from Phish's Undermind album to be brand new since they were not given any time to develop in the last shows before the band broke up in 2004. They played The Connection for the first time live and I was very happy to hear A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing, a song I thought had incredible live potential but didn't have any time to develop. Now it does.
It surprised me that I had not heard Water in the Sky live before, but my stats indicate that I hadn't before this show. Other first for me included Fluffhead, Let Me Lie, Sleeping Monkey and Suzy Greenburg. It's hard to believe I missed Suzy for 17 straight shows, but that wasn't my biggest snub. I left Coventry thinking I would never see a Tweezer live. I don't know how I got this far into my Phish career without one. I said to myself right before the house lights dropped, "This is your Tweezer show Darren."
This show was filled with greatness. In the first set The Moma Dance had the place bouncing & grooving, Lawn Boy was classic Page, The first ever live The Connection, Stealing Time was great & Fluffhead was superbly played. The 2nd set began after a one hour weather delay. Horizontal lightening filled the sky. When they did start again around 11pm it was monstrous. A water theme early, a nicely placed slow tune and then the TWEEZER>2001>Suzy!!!! Incredible. Possum was a great set closer and the Sleeping Monkey in the encore was unexpected and perfect and was ofcourse followed by Tweeprise with Trey doing his chicken dance.
06/19/09 Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN
Set I: Backwards Down The Number Line, AC/DC Bag, Limb By Limb, The Moma Dance, Water in the Sky, Split Open and Melt, Lawn Boy, The Wedge, Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan, The Connection1, Ocelot, Fluffhead
Set II: A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing> Drowned> Twist, Let Me Lie, Tweezer> Also Sprach Zarathustra> Suzy Greenberg, Possum
Encore: Sleeping Monkey, Tweezer Reprise
1 First Time Played
As soon as the show ended the skies opened up. By the time I got to the car I was completely soaked. Getting out was fucked too because they had idiots parking cars earlier in the day. I was completely bagged after this show and crashed at the first rest stop I came to as I headed north on I-69 towards Detroit.
I was on the road by 7:30am the next day. It was a nice sunny day. I listened to a fairly hard core conservative religious station for a while. When in Rome... Yeah. Anyways. I put in The Dead's Without a Net and just cruised north. I hit Detroit at around noon and even though I was coming back the next day for a Tiger game I wanted to stop by what was left of Tiger Stadium and take in a bit of urban plight. It's a sad situation in Detroit, but I think an opportunity too. Here's my last look at The Corner. Two days later it would be gone completely.
I got back across the border with no hassles. I took the tunnel and made it to my dad's place before 2pm. I was actually the first to arrive which didn't really surprise me as the other vehicle was filled with all girls. I'm not trying to stereotype, just saying...
I relaxed for the rest of the day. Had some beers, watched the US Open & BBQ'd. We were on the road to Detroit by 10:30am and were in our seats for the 1:06pm first pitch. Like the trip itself, the game turned out good.
-mrjackstraw
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