Busy, busy, busy...

by Yome NetSan 21. October 2013

After 8 days in Morocco, I'll head up for my trip in the US of A. I better get some rest on the beach because I'll be very busy during my stay across the ocean. 

I like to plan stuffs out so I have landmarks, althought things are always subject to change of course. But this is basically to help me keeping tracks of the mandatory eandez-vous like bus departure, concerts...

I sometimes have several options for things like the bus from Philadelphia to Atlantic City or IMAX 3D screening for Gravity.

 

October already ?

by Yome NetSan 3. October 2013

What happened ?!

I thought I would flood this page with dozen of posts in the weeks leading to my trip in the US to see Phish. I wanted to change the blog's design and colors, even lighten the overall color as the days past, ending in a completely bright website. I'd have loved to add a widget on the top right saying something like "34 days before my first concerts !"

But time past too quickly and I happen to be too busy with work and family to do all that. It's not that I'm not excited to go, but maybe I don't fully realize yet that I'll be living a dream I dream for so many years in just about a month from now !

 

Meeting some fans

A nice thing that happens during the process of finding tickets is that I met some french speaking fans ! Some contacted me though this blog and I found others on the forum of phish.net. They are from France, living in Paris, in the south or in the US ! One of them, Gilles from Switzerland, has been seeing jam bands for years and has been writing in a web fanzine some years ago. He might write some trip report here in the future (he's been to Alpharetta this summer) and will be at the same shows as me in the fall.

 

 

Planning my trip

Right after I secured my concert tickets, I searched for hotels and flights. I found out that the booking fees were lower depending on the hour of the day I place the order. So I woke up in the middle of the night (4AM or so) to booked my flights to have free fees !

As I accidently bought a ticket for the October 29th show in Reading, I made arrangement to be there. The thing is that I already have vacations booked in Morocco the week before and I'll be back from there on October 28th. I didn't want to leave my wife too early and I tried to avoid one more hotel stay. 

I'll finally take off from Lyon very early on Tuesday morning to be in Philadelphia early in the afternoon. Gilles will arrive from Geneva an hour before. He plans to rent a car and offered me to drive me to Reading and from Atlantic City to the airport for my flight home on the 3rd November. I'll arrived in France on the 4th and my return to the office on the 5th (with a work meeting already planned at 9AM) will be tough.

I also quickly booked my hotel nights. I was afraid of finding myself with only expensive and far await possibilities. I'm not that satisfied with my Reading option but the one I found in Atlantic City is rather near the venue (it's actually across the street from Bader Field) and cheap. I don't know if the quality will meet my expectations but I don't think I'll spend a lot of times in my rooms anyway. 

I don't know neither if there are many things to do in Atlantic City except for the beach and the casinos. Anyway, I already spotted several video game stores in town !

 

Still things to do

Apart from that, I still have things to do to be ready. I almost forget that I have to change a bunch of Euros to Dollars !

A Halloween costume is also mandatory. I thought about several possibilities like dressing like Guy Forget (because of the Phish connection and he's french) or the Eiffel Tower... I now have 2 options, both related with video games. We'll see...

The trip from Reading to Atlantic City also have to be planned. I'd have loved to take the train but that's long gone apparently. Greyhound buses are one of the only options so I checked ou their website. Times and rates are fine but it's better to search for two seperate rides instead of one :

  • Reading to Philadelphia = 18 $
  • Philadelphia to Atlantic City = 12 $
  • But Reading to AC = 52 $ O_o

 

Predictions 

New Year's run at Madison Square Garden has been announced so we know there won't be an 30th anniversary show on the December 2nd. We could have predict that because they already did a 25th anniversary run in 2003. 

The overall guess is that the minestrone will be celebrated in a way or another at Halloween or MSG. The fact is that the 30th Phish show in the Garden will happen... on December 30th !

About the musical costume, many assumptions have been made, from the brand new album they told to have recorded to Junta or the White Tape. I also thought about Michael Jackson's Thriller because it's an iconic album, it's been released in late 1982 (that's almost 30th years ago) and it would be a funny nod to their first show ever. But they already paid tribute to the man on 6/25/2010 during a marvelous 2001.

For the same reason, I don't think it will be a Pink Floyd album, although that would be my top choice !

I could be a Grateful Dead record because of the obvious links between the bands and the recent sit-in by Trey Anastasio with Furthur.

My personal favorite (but totally unlickely) would be Daft Punk's Discovery. Since the fist time I listened to this record in 2001, I thought that it could be played by our band. Just imagine the a giant funky dance floor Boardwalk Hall would become !

 

Will 2013 be finally THE year ?

by Yome NetSan 29. July 2013

When the fall tour 2013 has been announced last week, I read the news like any Phish tour announcement for sixteen years. Where will they play ? How many shows ? Basic stuffs. But when I saw that they'll play 3 days at Atlantic City from October 31th to November 2nd, I got pretty hyped : Halloween + 30th anniversary show during the same run ?! I HAVE TO GO !

Ok, I realized a few minutes later that their birthday was on December 2nd, not November 2nd...

Nevertheless, my brain was already on fire. The run will be at the very end of the Toussaint holidays in France. I already planned a family trip to Morocco but it won't last the 2 weeks. With one flight to the U.S.A., I could attend 3 shows, including a pretty rare Halloween 3-setter ! I talked about it to my wife and her answer was both encouraging and full of common sense : "How much would it cost ?"

Yes, the main concern will be the money, as it has always been.

The following day, I checked several websites for flights booking to have an idea of the grand total.
First surprise : Atlantic City International airport can't be reached from Europe. So I search for Philadelphia from Lyon, Paris or even Geneva. I found several possibilities with or without stopover for a price from 600€ to 700€. I can find cheaper with 2 stopovers but I don't want to spend 24 hours in planes and airports...
A 3 day ticket would be 180$ but I have to add the fee and shipping for a total of 217.10$.
I have also to count 4 hotel nights, a way to go from Philly to Atlantic City (it seems I won't be alone), food and pocket money.

OK so I have to find a 1200€ bill.

I could fight against my habits to buy countless video games or vinyls to finally save this amount until October. The problem is I have to spend most of it (tickets, plane and hotel) at least in august and I don't have it now. So, like many times before, I dug the idea...

 

On Saturday, I received a letter from my company about my annual bonus. Usually it's stuck on a special bank account for 5 years unless I get married, have a baby or buy a house, which is not planned. But for the first time, this year, I have the option to request the full amount to be paid immediately.

 

Wait a minute...

 

This morning, I did something I've been dreaming of for sixteen year : I request tickets for a Phish show on tickets.phish.com

Oh my. I'll go to a Phish show !

Setting up and loosing money

by Yome NetSan 12. March 2012

Mike Gordon is currently setting up at Melkweg where Jam in the Dam will take place in two days.

via https://twitter.com/#!/mike_gordon/status/179162960541921281/photo/1

 

Meanwhile, our hotel in Amsterdam called me to told that our Groupon voucher was valid until the 29th february ! And of course, the voucher is not refundable...

We found another hotel closer to the Melkweg but we just lost the 350€ of the voucher ! Ouch !

 

Phish NYE Miami Tour - Jan 1st (return to home)

by Holger 2. January 2010

The alarm clock rang 7.15 after 4,5h of sleep. Much too short for my taste. I felt every beer and irish whiskey that Justin was carrying around as usual. Unfortunately staying in bed was no option as we had to catch a flight from Miami to Philly.

The breakfast room was empty and so were the streets when we drove to the airport and returned to car at the Alamo station. The Jeep patriot was 175 EUR a week incl premium insurance package and one tank of gas! A standard intermediate car would have been 150 EUR so I can only recommend to pay the extra 3-4 EUR per day and enjoy the cool american style SUV driving. "I want my SUV" (was that Mark Knopfler singing in "Money for nothing"?).

At the airport we had to find out that our flight was delayes over a hour. We have two hours in Philly so we should still be able to make the connection flight to Frankfurt. The good thing was that they had free Wi-Fi at the US Airways gate so I could upload last night's pictures to Flickr where Yome is grabbing them to put them up here. The livephish.com downloads of all 4 nights are already on my Blackberry and ready to be explored in depth over the next couple of hours.

When we entered the plane I discovered soul singer John Legends sitting in the first class. Prominent travel mate I would say ;) The flight itself was horrible. Bumpy turbulences for 2 hours. My stomach was spinning in circles - the beers an whiskeys, you remember?

Philly to Frankfurt was on time. Nothing exciting on the 8h flight but I got a beer for free (instead of 7 USD) because a salad bowl felt off the wagon of the stewardess when she was passing by and landed on my lap. Frankfurt to Berlin (usually a 50min flight) was also on time but couldn't land in Berlin because the airport was shut down for about 60-90min due to heavy snow fall. Once on the ground we couldn't get a parking position as the other planes couldn't start during the closing period. It took ages until we finally had the bags, passed customs (no officer on duty at all) and jumped into a cab that drove us to our flat. I hardly remember so much snow in Berlin. What a contrast?! +28°C sun and beach to -10°C snow and concrete. We have 2 days left to fully recover before Natalie and me both go back to work on Monday January 4th. My head is full of great memories and the trip and experience was definitely worth every Euro and minute of traveling. Would do it again without thinking twice! Take care all of you and happy new year again to the whole Phish community and sites which help us to connect, share, publish, etc. (phish.com, livephish, drygoods, fromtheroad,  phishthoughts, bouncingaroundeuroom.eu, thisweekonlot.com, jambands.com, phish.net, phantasytour, glidemagazine, relix,  archive.org, twitter, facebook, last.fm, youtube, flickr and many more).


2009/12/31 NYE with Phish in Miami

by Holger 1. January 2010

Last day in Miami and we picked up Justin at his motel on Biscayne Blvd to go to south beach at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. This is one of the nicest beaches I know! Perfect on time we got the best weather of the week (approx. 27-28C). We could even swim in the ocean this time. Before we left the beach we took the obvious pictures and got a random blessing by a really nice and wise man who loved to hear that we just got married. He asked god to bless us with health, a long life, happiness, luck, children, etc. And he told us that I am the "head" and Natalie is the "neck" and that the head is nothing without the neck. He also said that a table with 2 legs doesn't stand. So true! I really did feel blessed after the procedure as strange as it sounds. I definately took it as a good sign by any meaning.

Back in the hotel around 5pm we packed our stuff for the flight back and wanted to go to Shuckers again but due to NYE they didn't serve dinner. We walked up the street where I spotted a fish restaurant ("The Crab House") the days before. The waitress was enthusiastic about their special deals and special NYE 3-course menues but I politely interrupted her to tell her that we are looking for a very quick and short dinner because we go the see Phish. She didn't have a clue what I was talking about ;) Natalie had fish and chips and I had a combo with fish and chips, crab cakes and fried scampi. Yummie! They tried to support our evening plans real hard and brought the food in record breaking time. The difficult part was to get a taxi which took about 20min. The caribean driver was really funny ("NYE in Miami is CRAZY I tell ya"). He explained that it would be close to impossible to get a cab on NYE especially after midnight and on the Miami side as all cabs are in South Beach (I will come back to this later). He dropped us off across the street after a speedy 25 USD ride.

Everything was fully packed and the air was burning. It was a hot day and the streets were still warm at night. People were heated up for the show and NYE in general. You could see all kinds of crazy costumes, formal dresses, fake hairs, colorful clothes. The mass was screaming, yelling, cheering to let out the energy in some direction. There was also a strong demand to connect with others which resulted in a total breakdown of all mobile networks. I wasn't abe to call or text message Justin for over an hour! Suddenly the plan to party in advance of the show busted and we drank our bee alone. I was definately pumped for the NYE show and even Natalie was kind of looking forward to it this time.

I had just bought 2 beer inside and walking towards our section as set 1 started with "AC/DC Bag". I prepared a wish list of songs during the day and they played 14 (!) out of 29 - that's a 50% correct guess. After a perect dancing start they played "46 Days" which always gets me in a really good mood. "Water In The Sky" pleased the Florida crowd before "Bathtub Gin" took it to the next level. Then "Punch You in the Eye" got the arena through the roof. I have never seen such a wild collective dance. This set 1 was like a second 2 set if you know what I mean. Fast, groovy, jamming - like the pefect "The Moma Dance" which was followed by a singing "Guyute". Then the band gave the crowd a rest after the multiple orgasms. "Swept Away", "Demand", "Seven Below" and the cool bar tune "Lawn Boy" helped to save some power for the long night yet to come. They really know to make a perfect setlist with exciting starts, exclamation, rests and a grand finale like "Julius". Man, what a 1st set! Unfortunately still no Justin in sight.

During setbreak Natalie stayed at the seats in case Justin would be looking for us. I was getting us 2 more beers and return exactly when the lights turned off and Justin made down from 4th level to our lower section (sec 118, row 20, seats 7/8). The rest of the night should bring massive excitement with 2 of my favorite covers by Phish. First one kicked off set 2 - "Rock & Roll" (by The Velvet Underground). It felt like the show contained a lot of "Billy Breathes" and "The Story of the ghost" songs. "Rock & Roll" was one of my absolute highlights of the whole night and it got an welcomed extension when it merged into "Piper" followed by "Simple" with a background choir of 20.000 phans. "Theme From The Bottom" gave us some air to breath before we collapse. "Shine A Light" is the second best song (besides "Loving Cup") from the Halloween musical costume which brought us a complete cover of the Rolling Stones record "Exile on main street". And it got better and better with the obvious "Ghost" which was overdue since 3 days and fulfilled all expectations. "NO2" and "Suzy Greenberg" closed an awesome 2nd set around 11.30pm.

From now on everybody was checking the clock for midnight to arrive. You could already see thousands of huge balloons holden by big nets under the roof of the American Airlines Arena. This is classic! 5min before midnight "Party Time" started the extravaganza and it seemed as it was only written for this occasion. The band moved into "Auld Lang Syne" exactly at midnight. The balloons were following down and filling the arena with pure joy. When the bass line of "Down With Disease" started the crowd totally freaked out for the next 10-15min. Balloons were EVERYWHERE!

Then the so called "NYE gag" with Fishman as main actor took place. Yome already wrote about it so I skip this part. I only want to add that from the audience you really couldn't tell if it was the girl or Fishman dressed up like the girl. And the faking at the beginning of "Fluffhead" seemed like a really well trained amateur drummer tried to play with Phish. "Joy" was the perfect song to nail down everyone's feeling. I was so happy and that's how the band wants us to be. "The Squirming Coil" was another crowd pleaser which made us all sing together one more time but one song was still missing after 4 unbelievable days and nights. And they delivered it big time. "Wash uffize drive me to Firenze"! "You Enjoy Myself" is probably THE Phish song ("Man...", "God...", "Shit..."). It ended in a vocal jam like most of the times in the previous 2009. I was exhausted but after "Blue Moon" I saved the rest of my power for  "Loving Cup" - "I'm the man from the mountain...".

Oh my god, what a monster night! Probably my best Phish show ever! It seemed like everybody was enjoying themselves and collectively a lot. The crazy mix of people at Phish shows from all kinds of different states and with all kinds of different styles is a story of its own. I am so glad that Justin joined us. He is such a lovely guy who is always entertaining and outgoing which is infectious to others. One night is was screaming really loud and people around us jumped in and suddenly it spread like wildfire across the whole venue. He just smiled at me and said to me "You see... ;)". He's also a wild dancer and a real party animal. And it all started at Deer Creek when I asked him and Matt if there's some space to sit down in the shade together with them.

It's often the little things. We don't recognize the importance at first but later (sometimes a lot later) we look back and understand how destiny pushed us in this or that direction. Like the guy at the beach who blessed us or the cab driver who didn't want to pick us up again after the show ("Hey man, if I tell ya I pick ya up I would be lying. Traffic is CRAZY in Miami on NYE. I tell ya.").

When we stepped out into the warm December night everybody tried to get a cab. The police had closed down Biscayne Blvd so there no chance to catch one at all. We decided to walk a few blocks. We wanted to get back to the hotel quick as we had to get up early for our flight back. No taxi in sight. Fuck! We walked further north parallel to Biscayne Blvd. Thousands of peoples on the street. Phishheads mixing with the local club scene and night bar goers. Traffic broke down completely around AAA. I was expecting a long walk. But destiny gave us a miracle. The first taxi with lights on which came from the exit of the highway while I was running up the exit to secure it for us was driven by the same Caribbean cab driver who dropped us off before the show. Can you believe that? What is the chance for this coincidence to happen in Miami on NYE around AAA? This time I was like "Hey man, I tell ya this is CRAZY" ;) After a 20 USD ride we fall straight to sleep. See you in the morning and happy new year everybody!

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157623084195140/

 

2009/12/30 American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL

by Holger 31. December 2009

After an excessive shopping experience at Aventura Mall in the morning and around lunch we went to North Miami Beach to sit and walk at the Beach. My wife Natalie wanted to skip night 3 as she is not the biggest phan and she's fine staying at the hotel room, relaxing and watching movies. Its a short and packed with activities trip so she needed some rest. My Indiana phish buddy Justin was more than happy to trade his 4th level balcony ticket with her lower level seat.

So we met after an delicious dinner (new york cut steak) and a beer in front of American Airlines Arena. Low demand seemed to let the parking prices plunge from day to day. As a result I only had to pay 10 USD last night instead of 20 and 15 the nights before. The parking lot was a lot fuller. Before going in we had another beer outside. Inside it was also a lot fuller. I guess more people go for the end of the run and NYE of course! Behind the stage and flor was well filled and the balcony behind stage was open but still empty.

Set 1 started with some cool reaggae music ("Soul Shakedown Party") and followed by an dancing "Runaway Jim". Next song was the very relaxed blues number "Jesus Just Left Chicago" which is on "Slip, stitch and pass" which has been recorded during the '97 Europe tour in Hamburg, Germany. "Dixie Cannonball" was a real surprise song to me - didn't hear it before. I only found out today that was a debut. Then the first and only song from the latest album ("Joy") - "Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan" with the brilliant lyrics "Got a blank space where my mind should be". The next 5 songs ("Corrina", "What's the Use?", "Tela", "Gone" - the second debut of the show, "Rocky Top") were all about rarities and phan tunes - that's one of the reason why people go to several shows in a row. The set was closed with a rocking "Chalk Dust Torture" and a awesome "David Bowie".

Set 2 started with a jamming "Sand" followed by a great "The Curtain With" and a quiet "Lifeboy" which gave everybody a mini-break. One of my highlights was the 17min long "Back on the Train" which is one of my alltime faves by Phish. "Wading in the Velvet Sea", "Hold Your Head Up" > "Love You" >


"Hold Your Head Up" had a guest appearance by a fan on stage who was allowed to play a solo on the vacuum cleaner instead of Fishman. The fan was wearing the same shirt like Fishman and to his big surprise he was given the vacuum cleaner as a gift and could take it with him off the stage back into the audience. So this time it really was the ultimately final vacuum solo of the decade. Fishman didn't seem to feel sad about the loss and ran around the stage in circles only stopping from time to time to let the crowd give applause to him. During all of this Trey was playing the drums by the way.

After this little fun break a serious rocking "Free" made me dancing and actually feel very free. This was my second highlight of the night. And it got better with a funky "Boogie On Reggae Woman" - Mike probably deserves last nights MVP. And it got even better with "Run Like an Antelope" which was mashed up by Trey with guitar licks from "Roses are free" multiple times during the whole song. I was simply blown away - wow! As an encore they played "Frankenstein" with Page on the keytar standing in front of the stage. What a night again!

Personally I thought they might bring out a guest (Gloria Estefan or Lady Gaga as some rumors say) on night 3 but maybe they saved that for NYE or it is just a rumor. Anyway tonight will be sick and we are taking a cab tonight to appreciate the full NYE party vibe before we fly out tomorrow morning from Miami to Philadelphia to Frankfurt back to the cold and snowy Berlin in Germany.

More pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157623084195140/

 

2009/12/29 American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL

by Holger 30. December 2009

Yesterday we went to Key Biscayne during the day. There's a state park with an old light house where you can walk along the water and the marina. After that we enjoyed a sunny but quite chilly afternoon at the beach park on Key Biscayne - it is one of the best beaches around with hundreds of palm trees right on the beautiful white sand beach. The light around 4-5pm was amazing. It was actually so good that some company had a photo shooting with five bikini girls doing a cushion fight going on - can't give you any more details right now ;) Unfortunately it was too cold to swim but we will return on NYE during the day.

After a blitz dinner with "shrimp and angel hair pasta" (that's ultra thin spaghetti) at Shuckers Bar + Grill we headed towards the arena for the second time. We got there by 7.15pm which was still too early as they didn't start until 8.10pm again. You wouldn't dream of what to come...



First set started with "Golgi" which is definitely a classic Phish tune and a perfect opener and already more uptempo and danceable like "Sample in a jar" and most of the rest yesterday. It should pave the way for the whole night. "Maze" got it going before "Driver" and "The Connection" brought some of the more relaxed first set tunes. I am not sure if many people do but I like "The Connection" a lot. The next 3 songs were j ust awesome: "Wolfman’s Brother", then "Ocelot" (especially for my wife Natalie who loves this tune), an unbelievable "Reba" with beautiful lights by CK5. "Access Me" was maybe the only low point (you can hardly name it this way but if you need to pick one this was it). "The Divided Sky" was from another planet taking it really long. The melody is just lovely. Personally I thought that's the closer for set 1 but man was I wrong! A really nasty "Cavern" left everybody hungry for more. This was pretty solid compared to night one - a 7.5 out of 10 I would say. Setbreak.

Set 2 started with a really rocky version of "Kill Devil Falls" followed by one of the best "Tweezer" jams I've ever heard. They had ultra groove last night! Page was incredible, Mike was slapping it like hell all night long making the songs mega-funky, Trey did his high signature tunes after taking it higher and higher and Fish was working the drums like a dervish. The "Tweezer" was probably around 20min as far as I remember (please forgive me as I did not listen to the show yet and write this completely out of my memory from my Blackberry standing in front of a Hollister store in Aventura Mall while my wife is shopping - one of the reasons why she came to Miami. 8am to 8pm belongs to her - 8pm - 12pm belongs to me) . Unlike first night there was no stopping anytime. "Prince Caspian" made me sing until I almost lost my voice. After "Divided Sky" and "Tweezer" the next couple of songs, jams were the highlight of the night. It was unreal. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. I text messaged Justin who was in another section to ask him if we were dreaming. "Gotta Jibboo > Wilson > Gotta Jibboo > Heavy Things" left everybody with mouth wide open. It was either from another galaxy, wonderland or hell or all together. And still no signs of slowing down. An energetic "2001" let everybody freak out. In brightest possible light all arms were up and bodies were shaking. And then they played "Slave to the Traffic Light". I almost had tears in my eyes. What do they want to play the next 2 days? Are they trying to create the ultimate set, a "best of / greatest hits" live album? I was full of happiness, couldn't stop smiling, pumped with adrenaline and thanking god for being able to be here.

The Encore brought "Sleeping Monkey" (for Justin) and the obvious "Tweezer Reprise" following the "Tweezer" of the second set. What else do I need to say? After the show we all met at the same corner like last night and drove back to our hotels. I needed to stop at a gas station to buy a sixpack of beer because I knew that without drinking a couple of cans I would not be able to sleep. I was so right: 3 beers later I fall asleep around 2.30am - totally satisfied. I wonder what phishthoughts.com and everybody else writes about the show - set 2 was a 9.5 out 10!!! Can't wait for tonight...

More pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157623084195140/

 

2009/12/28 American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL

by Holger 29. December 2009

After a short swim in the hotel pool we got dressed and took the car to the American Airlines Arena. Its always hard to project how long it will take because sometimes traffic can be totally horrible around venues and parking lots. Not today! Despite a construction site approx. 1,5m from the venue on Biscane Blvd everything runs smoothly. There's only a very short waiting line right in front of the official parking garage of American Airline Arena. Guys with "parking 20 USD" signs try to re-direct people to their private parking lots and garages around the block. As the official fee is also 20 USD we take a right and roll straight on an 90% empty lot. Some Phishheads sit outside their cars listening to music, grilling, chilling, smoking and drinking booze.

Its only a 2-3min walk to the main entrance where we are supposed to meet with Justin and his friend from Indiana. Strangely there is only a really short waiting line on the stairs 5min before the gate opens. Back in 2003 people were standing back down to the street. The arena looks beautifully enlightened with yellow, orange and purple light and a huge video projection on the surface of the building showing Phish live footage previously recorded - really cool! Justin is right on time and after a short but enthusiastic welcome (who could expect that we see each other only 6 month after we first met at Deer Creek) we walk straight in. There is no waiting at all. Security check is relaxed. 

First thing you see when you walk in is the merchandise table with all brand new Phish Florida items. I am very sorry but I have to admit that I was massively disappointed with the new goods. I don't like the event poster which is too colorful and looks like an advertisement for orange juice. The 2003 poster looked like a cheap "Kitch" painting by an averagely skilled street artist on Ocean Drive. The colors hurt my eyes. Unfortunately I only found out after waiting in line for 45min and buying #987 (or so) of #1000. Now its on the wall in my flat ;) Thank god to Facebook, Fromtheroad, Twitter, etc. you now know in advance what you get so I did not get in line this time. The T-shirts weren't any better - just not my colors (all kinds of purple, yellow, orange, etc.). Well, the trip was expensive enough and my budget needs some rest. Domestic beer at the venue is 9,00 USD, imported beer 13,50 USD, a slice if pizza 8,00 USD, a cocktail 18 USD, etc.. So while Phish is keeping ticket prices low everybody else is robbing you legally! 

We were standing on the first floor and watching the people flow in. Around 7.30pm when the show should officially begin there were no signs of a soon start. Still hundreds and thousands of people came in from outside. Around 7.50pm we got to section 118 which is one of the lower sections in the middle of the arena. The seats are perfect and its so good to know that we will be there for 4 nights in a row. The people next to us were very nice. One was from Ft. Lauderdale, the other from New York City (seeing his show #96 or so - EU phans can't compete with that numbers but with the intimacy of our tiny venues). 

I don't remember the exact time but it must have been shortly after 8pm when the lights went out. Suddenly people were pumped and you could feel the collective energy. Everybody was waiting for this moment for weeks. Most people were already screaming and dancing when they got up the stairs and through the entrance. So did I. They didn't play Wilson as an opener like I had wished for. They didn't play it all last night. The whole set list and flow of the show was a bit strange and the first set missed a little dancing and party vibe (except some moments). 

Phishtoughts.com is quite disappointed by the whole show and pointing to the half empty venue. Yes, you hear right. Half empty (and the show was almost sold out)! There was even a black curtain covering the 3rd and 4th level behind stage and the lower section behind stage was nearly empty. Everywhere were empty seats - even on the floor. They definitely need to change the way tickets are sold. Print a name and ID# on the tickets and the scalping ends. That's the way FIFA does it with tickets for the soccer world cup. 

The show kicked off with "Sample in a jar" which is one of my all time faves. The version was very tight and I thought it was a great opener. Next song was "NICU" which always is good feel tune to me. It was followed by a rare bluesy "My Soul". The following 4 songs ("Roggae", "Undermind", "Bouncing Around The Room", "Poor Heart") lacked excitement a little bit. Then came "Stash" which brought back my full attention. I must agree with Phishthoughts.com that the flow of the show was destroyed more than once. There was a lot of "humor songs" but the whole mix was strange. "I Didn't Know" (featuring the final vacuum solo of the decade) and especially "Beauty Of A Broken Heart" didn't seem to fit between "Stash" and "Possum" which was a very warm welcomed and superb finale of set 1. 

Set 2 continued the spirit of the night. It took until song #4 (after "Mike's Song", "Light", "I Am Hydrogen") "Weekapaug Groove" kicked off the party. My wife Natalie who is far from being a phan felt the jetlag and was not turned on so far. Unfortunately "Weekapaug Groove", "Alaska", "Backwards Down the Number Line", "Makisupa Policeman", "Harry Hood" (all fantastic in my eyes) came too late for her to bring her back to life. "Contact" was a another "fun break" before an energetic "Character Zero" closed set 2. And then came an incredible sick "First Tube" which alone compensated for some mediocre versions last night. Trey was suddenly on fire and CK5 brought on an absolutely gorgeous light show. 

After the show we met Justin and his friend across the street to give them a ride back to their hotel which was on the way to ours. Back in the hotel room I synched my digital camera to the notebook and uploaded some pictures to Flickr (Thanks to Yome who grabs them and puts them up together with my writings which I send from my Blackberry during day). 

 

More to come tomorrow...

 

More pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/treyanastasio/sets/72157623084195140/

 

More pictures from Miami

by Holger 28. December 2009



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