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 !