I set out early Thursday morning to meet Phish face-to-face for the first time since Coventry. We had unfinished business, especially after The Curtain (With). This was a last minute trip with plans made in haste on that fateful night when the Pittsburgh Penguins stole
Explaining to a US Border Guard why I am going to not one, but two concerts by myself was not easy. Some of my closest family and friend don't understand why I see Phish, let alone why I see them night after night. This was the first time I had ever been asked point blank, "Do you have any drugs with you?" Has anyone ever answered "Yes" to that question? Regardless, I did not. We went through our dance and I was eventually told to have a good time, and so I did.
It had been a long time since I had been able to hop in a vehicle and just hit the road. I had with me an ample supply of Phish, some live Grateful Dead, Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Day for Night & We Are the Same by The Tragically Hip, some Beatles and a few others. It rained off and on until I got fairly close to Pittsburgh where the sun started shining through. This was going to be my first show at the Post-Gazette Pavilion and I was excited. Phish has a good record here and the limited lawn space was proof that the fans paid attention to this fact.
I arrived at a little after 4pm and festivities were well under way in the lot. I cracked a beer and took a stroll noting the closest port-o-potties, entrance and section letter where I was parked. I stood by the fence of the venue and listened to the sound check. From what I could make out they played Nelly Kane, Funky Bitch and I thought I heard at least the music to Friday.
I had brought down some artwork that my friend Andrew did. I wanted to help him get some exposure for his site and make a little cash for gas at the same time. With three hours to kill I brought my chair, a few beers and the prints over to a high traffic area and plopped down. The prints included a couple of solo Treys, Phish, Dave & Trey acoustic and a Jerry Garcia. You can check those and many others over at www.andrusartprints.com. I sold a few, but mostly it was just chit-chat. I had a sign advertising my need for a Deer Creek ticket the next night and did manage to score a pavilion seat. The forecast was calling for rain and I didn't mind paying face for that luxury. This would turn out to be huge...
After about an hour of hawking prints I made my way back to the car and fired up the grill. Cheddar sausages, corn on the cob, cherry tomatoes and a big, fat ganja goo-ball for dessert. Yes sir! I had lawn seats so I made my way into the venue at around 7:15. I found a spot about 15 feet up dead centre. The lawn was quite thick and wet from the day's rain so sitting was not an option for me at least. I had grabbed a bottle of water on my way in, so that along with the goo-ball was what I was working with.
The boys took the stage close to 8 O'clock and hit the crowd with an unexpected opener, Golgi Apparatus. Ticket stubs were raised high. I love the energy of the Phish crowd. I've seen enough bands in my day to safely say it is unmatched. I had made friends with a group from Cleveland and this was the first show for most of them since Coventry. We had a good time discussing the trials and tribulations we all went through in northern Vermont as I'm sure many others had. There was one girl in the group, Barb, the wife of Mike and though they had both seen Phish many times prior, this was their first show together. She kept high-fiving me.
Chalkdust Torture, Bouncing Around the Room, Wolfman's Brother and The Divided Sky followed. Welcome fuckin' back! Holy shit did they ever come out like gangbusters. For me, seeing Phish for the first time in 5 years, it couldn't have started off any better. I've never been one to really judge Phish's prowess up there on stage though I can tell when I've just heard a masterful version of a song versus a complete bomb, but the disclaimer here is that to say I wasn't looking at things through rose coloured glasses would be a lie. I was SO happy just to be standing in front of this band again with all my phriends.
The first set also included a bust out of Walk Away with that last coming pre-first hiatus, Wilson, Tube!, Alaska & David Bowie. I enjoyed Alaska and I think it's going to have some legs with this band. Bowie was the hit and miss song of the night for me. I think there was a flub or two in there. That being said, they played it better than anybody else could have.
Set break tip: If you can manage to go in the exit of the washroom, time is saved. Also there's always more urinals in the very back. People just don't pick up on this. I was drug free though, so I may have had an advantage. Ha ha.
Don't you just love when Mike slaps those first few notes of DWD? They didn't come back to the riff, but dropped nicely into Free. People seemed to like that. Guyute, one of my favorites, followed next and then Piper. Los Lobos' When the Circus Comes to Town was perfectly placed. I have always loved that song and it always reminds me of the traveling Phish fans.
Harry. HOOD! Harry. HOOD! Well played and to be honest this could have been the set closer for me. You want to go ahead and throw a Squirming Coil & YEM on top of that? Well, be my guest boys. I am not here to stand in anybody's way. The Vocal jam out of YEM shut down the second set. Thank you very much.
The encore brought out the personality that I think endears the band to many of their fans. Page blew the wrong key and their acapella version of Grind was not great. They tried to make up for that by doing Hello My Baby, but Fish kept laughing. Trey said if Fish messed up again he'd sing Bike. So we got a HYHU>Bike>HYHU with Trey on drums & Fish on the vacuum cleaner. That kinda looked like that was it until they reformed and dropped into Loving Cup. Cause they're good like that.
Great first show back for me. On paper it looks epic, but I think Deer Creek was the better show. I will cover that in my next post.
06/18/09 Post Gazette Pavilion, Burgettstown, PA
Set I: Golgi Apparatus, Chalkdust Torture, Bouncing Around the Room, Wolfman's Brother, The Divided Sky, Heavy Things, Walk Away1, Wilson, Tube, Alaska, David Bowie
Set II: Down With Disease> Free, Guyute, Piper> When the Circus Comes to Town, Harry Hood, The Squirming Coil, You Enjoy Myself
Encore: Grind, Hello My Baby2, HYHU> Bike3> HYHU, Loving Cup
1 Last Played 10/5/2000 (80 Shows)
2 incomplete; there were two false starts; after the first, Trey said that if they
messed up again, Fish would sing Bike
3 Last Played 9/12/2000 (95 Shows); Fishman banter included him saying "welcome to the trainwreck portion of the show"
-mrjackstraw
Part II
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