This summer has been a quiet one. I haven't got the chance to start listening to Phish's tour before it ended neither the several vinyl records I bought since April. But I've read quite a lot and some of the books I dove into have been related to our band.

 

Fare Thee Well

After finally buying the huge Fare Thee Well 12 CD / 7 BluRay "Complete" box (still missing the Santa Clara shows, where the lyrics "Fare Thee Well" have been sung), I added to my shelves the accompagning book.

It's a beautiful coffee-table kind of book with a lot of beautiful pictures. Seriously, the production of the concerts and the talent of the photographers have done wonders. I received it in the morning of the day I flew to my vacation in Morocco, so I have left to dive deeper in those lights.

 

This has all been wonderful

 

I also bought a book I've been willing to read for a long time : David ''Zzyzx'' Steinberg's "This has all been wonderful". Everybody know for sure Zzyzx's website for Phish statistics but not as many know that the guy wrote a book about his summer 1994 tour, "the year Phish became Phish".

The book isn't very long but I haven't begun it yet. I hope it will immerge me in the 94 scene with description of the lot and the fans more than the actual music. We'll see...

 

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I woke up at 8.30.

Or so I thought.

Gilles had sent me an email during the night to remind me that there was a time change today.
It was actually 7.30 !

I went back to bed for a welcomed extra hour...

When I woke up for good,  my goal was to fit all that I've bought to my luggage and I achieved it quite easily.

After checking out, I took the bus to the city. 

I had a few Souvenirs to buy, like a train toy for my son that I found at Toy'R Us.

 

I still had two hours until my appointment with Gilles so I went back to the Boardwalk.

I bought some Atlantic City T-shirts and a mug for my brother.

Then I just walked on the beach reflecting on the few days I've live here, living my dream. I ate a slice of pizza and took a coffee with more donuts. I quickly met Kevin from last evening bus, totally by chance.

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We were back at our hotel in the middle of the afternoon so I've been able to rest a little more. I took the bus at 6.20PM while several other obvious Phish fans ordered a cab.

During this ride, I witnessed another thing that couldn't happen in France. At the bus stop, I began talking with this young man, Kevin, and we quickly found out we were both heading at the same place. He asked me what I like in America. I answered that I love how welcoming people are. Talking like that with a stranger is quite rare, at least in my experience. 

He had an appointment at a bar and asked me if I knew where it was. I wasn't sure and started to tell him what I knew. We were seated at the front of the bus and the driver heard our conversation. He naturally begun to explain him where the bar were from the bus stop. As he opened the door and we were going out, several people from way back inside the bus yelled at Kevin to show him the direction ! 
As the bus went away, I turn to Kevin and said : "That's the thing I love in America. This kind of spontaneous help never happens in France !"

Before entering the Boardwalk Hall,  I went to the band's hotel to leave my present. The person had a hard time understanding who it was for,  even if I told him the exact name.

As I was entering the venue, my unprecedented luck stroke me again. Between the first person who scanned my ticket and the security check, I found on the floor an un-used golden wristband. Yes, one of those thing given to the holders of GA floor tickets ! I stashed it in my pocket without further ado.

Once inside, I took the time to eat a hot dog with French fries and bought two onesie for relatives' upcoming babies at the Waterwheel Foundation table.

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Still the same routine : woke up at 8.30, bath,  breakfast.

I emailed Gilles to set an appointment at 11.30 in town, in front of Tanger Outlet. 
But before our shopping adventure, I had to go back to Game Stop.

Remember I had reserved 2 limited edition controllers for the Wii U and for this, I had to subscribe to the Game Stop card ? Of course, I had explained to the seller that I was living in France and I didn't want to sign up for something that I could not use. The card costed $16 and he explained me that it would "pay itself" because of a discount I'd have on the Wii Remote. 
So I double checked what I had to pay on my second visit and even with another game that I added, there wasn't any discount. As I supposed, I should had bought a lot more things to have one. 
It wasn't the same person at the cashier but he was very understanding and refund me the price of card.

The rest of the day has been more shopping with Gilles at Tanger Outlet, BAM! (where I found Daft Punk and Grateful Dead vinyls, a Tetris card game and a Lego book) and at a nearby mall (where I bought Game Boy games, a Zelda book and a Pink Floyd vinyl).

During the ride, we passed by a highway toll where the price was $0.75... exact change. We both run into sereval of these "Exact Change" signs since when arrived in the USA. When I took the bus in Atlantic City, I had to have the exact change to pay. The highway toll didn't even had another exit in case you did not have exactly 75 cents ! It looks like we should always have a bag full of quarters with us !

Gilles also showed me the "food court". There isn't things like that in France where tables and chairs are shared between several fast food vendors around. A very cool concept where you can eat different things with your friends at the same table.

I don't know why I didn't use my "day off" to stay in bed late. Maybe I was afraid to miss the breakfast hours ? Anyway, I woke up at 8.30 and tried to warm my neck and back with a very hot bath. It didn't worked very well but at least I could walk better than the night before. 

For breakfast, the food looked exactly the same as what was at my hotel in Reading. Like, exactly. But it was good enough and I didn't lack anything.

After a couple of minutes, I realized something felt awkward. I was alone except for the man at the reception on the other side of the room.

And then it stroke me : the music from the office was only old Christmas songs! I guess they didn't want a time off between the Halloween season (that ended the day before) and the Christmas one! I like Christmas time but it sounded strange on the 1st November!

I went back to my room at 10 and rested or slept the whole day. It rained outside anyway so I didn't want to go out. I don't like massage neither so I stayed in bed all the time,  trying not to move. 

Unfortunately, I still had to walk out to eat something around 12.30. After the pizza the day before, I choose the McDonald's, a mere few meters further, where stayed a little to write on my Journal.

I arrived late at my seat, and missed the beginning of Ghost. Who am I to wait 16 years to see my favorite band and miss a part of the concert ?! Twice as it happend at Reading too !

The music was imaginative, funky, great... as much as my neck was bad. I enjoyed the set but I spent most of it sat on my seat, head down. I couldn't stand up anymore.

People around me understood I wasn't feeling good and were nice with me. I was strange to be at a Phish show finally and to have to listen to it seated, head down, eyes closed, almost like I'm used to with my headphones.

As we're leaving at the end of the set, my contact advised me to go to one of those massages on the Boardwalk and to take some rest the next day. 

On my way to the bus stop,  I met Harry and his friend and we talked a little. Still costumed as Luigi and walking awkwardly, I passed a group of young gangsta-like men on my way to the bus stop. One of them called out to me : "Hey Luigi! Where's Mario ?!" In such a situation in France,  I wouldn't have turned around. But,  I don't know why, I felt safer here. So I answered "I don't know man,  I think he's back at the Hall with the Princess!"

In my hotel bed, I quickly checked Facebook and found my picture in the Halloween gallery before falling asleep.

But the second set was already beginning.

And I was among the first (15000) few to hear brand new songs by Phish, first hand.

They start with the Wingsuit / Fuego combo. Right at the first notes I was transported by the slow and haunting song. I loved the Pink Floyd feel at the end. As the tunes each have several parts, they seems to be connected some way. Especially because the beginning of Fuego sounds like the middle of a song to me. I was surprised many month later when I saw the final track order of the released album. 

The light show was different from Reading because there was no seats behind the stage. So Chris Kuroda used the back to "paint" big splash of colors. The room was bigger too and as I was on the side, I had a very good view to the whole venue. Lights on the far rear of the crowd were great.

Anyway, I really loved every song. It was so strange and special to hear brand new Phish music at my second Phish show! 
The three acoustic set ups (with Mike on upright bass for one of them !!) were a nice surprise even if the some parts were hard to hear because of too much crowd noises. For example, Snow is a beautiful song but the big venue on Halloween night doesn't give it justice. It's too bad it didn't make it to the final album.
The beginning of Waiting All Night made me think of You Enjoy Myself but the feeling didn't last.
The prank and the dance routine during Womba were priceless. Even if I didn't know what a Womba is, nor the Fish TV Show, nor the name of Abe Vigoda (I know him from the Godfather but that's it).
I didn't understand all of what Trey said so, at first, I thought it was Page's father in the costume. I finally understood with the Godfather video at the end of the set. One of there best video in my opinion.

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The show finally started at 8PM.

I won't go into details of the music as it has already been reviewed many times during the 12 last months. So I'll stick to what happened "off-stage".

And if you haven't listened to it yet, look for a picture of my tickets and redeem the bar code to livephish.com/redeem and enjoy !

And if the bar codes aren't readables, just ask me ! But remember : first come, first served ;)

I really enjoyed this set. I danced all I could to the Moma Dance, one of my favorite groove, and to the other fine tunes. I've been pretty lucky when it comes to the song selections : Stash, Camel Walk, Free, Mound... It was fun to dance among all those costumed people. I love to watch people having a great time and dancing like there's no tomorrow in concerts so it was double the fun. And what is said is true : Page side, rage side !

As I re-listened to the show afterwards, I noticed that Trey called Mike "Don Gordleone" during Poor Heart. It was a joke to the yet-to-be-shown setbreak video. I don't know if many people got it at the time. I sure didn't.

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Doors opened at 6.30pm.

The first thing to do on a Halloween night at a Phish concert, is to get the Phishbill. For those who don't know, Halloween is one of the most special night to see a Phish show as they play three sets instead of two and most importantly they do a "musical costume" in the second one. That means that instead of donning costumes on stage, they play a whole album from another band, most of the time an important one in the history of Rock'n Roll.

And in this context, the Phishbill is the program of the night where the album is announced, among other funny fake ads and texts. The name itself is a play on word with the Playbill from Broadway musicals.

 

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Tonight's Phish's show was special of course : it was Halloween.

In France, there's no historical background for this season. It's mostly centered on the business side and monster costumes. So I've never been dressed at Halloween in my life and the last time I donned a costume was for a concert I played dressed as Billy Corgan (and by the way, I did play "Sample in a Jar").

But I couldn't go to my second Phish show on Halloween night without being true to the American tradition. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a Luigi costume from a co-worker. It as a little too small for me (it kept opening on the back) but it would be good enough. To complete the theme, I've let my beard spread for several weeks so I could shaved accordingly as a big moustache!

I quickly ate what remains of the pizza (I love doggy bag !) and took the bus, dressed as Luigi of course, at 5.20PM. The bus driver asked me if I could do the "coin sound". I said no but I paid the ride with a lot of small coins (I'll talk latter about change) and they did produced a fitting sound when falling in the bus farebox !

There were several people's with costume in the bus. I remember a girl made up like a zombie with a flap of flesh hanging from his face !

By 6PM,  I was at the will call in Boardwalk Hall to pick up my tickets. I was a little worried because they hasn't been charged yet but there were no problems. I had in my hands the Holy Grail for the 3 following nights !
In front of the venue, Phish fans were all around with lots of funny costumes. As I experienced in Reading, there was a great atmosphere, despite the herd of ticket-less fans.

I witnessed a scene that will live in my memory : a guy came in front of a girl who had her finger in the air and gave him a ticket. Yes, he gave it like that. Without expecting anything in return. He gave her a ticket for Phish's Halloween show and simply left.

They call it a "miracle" over there.