Phish, Toyota Park, Chicago, August 11th, 2009

We arrived to the lot at around 5:30 on Tuesday evening. The sun was shining bright, and our spirits were high. The lot scene was one of the best I have ever experienced. There was no fighting, everyone was very cool to each other, and the lanes were filled with all kinds of goodness, and by goodness I mean awesome t-shirts, beer, ganja treats, and dogs. Cops were only looking for gas, which was great.

We chatted around for 90 minutes or so, drank some beers and were in to the show.

The venue is a large outdoor soccer stadium located just south of Chicago. I was a little unsure as to how our seats would be, if we would be able to see the lights, if the sound would be good. It turns out we were okay. The sound was crisp and clear and most importantly LOUD! We could hear every note individually, which is important.

Set One:
Opening with Kill Devil Falls was interesting. It had good energy, but I'm not sure how I feel about the song. It's decent. Crowd was loving it. We were then bombarded by the one two punch of Sample in a Jar and Ocelot. These two songs had some terrific energy behind them, so they weren't bad at all. If I'm going to be outside in the sunshine, dancing lightheartedly to some Phish tunes, these are the kind I'm looking for. Paul and Silas was next, quite a rarity not having been played since 1998. Pretty sweet. Another song filled with great energy. Short, but very fun. I love it when Trey says "Play it Mike." Next came a new song, Windy City. I love hearing new songs that haven't been played live. Something about it that is just fun and cool and interesting. It's a decent song, I liked it. The Curtain With was an old song I haven't heard since Coventry. I have mixed feelings about it, but they nailed it. It was perfect. Train Song was standard, but well placed. Gumbo- AWESOME! I love Gumbo, the entire crowd was dancing and having some fun with this. Then along came Heavy Things, so I went to the bathroom. I got out and asked what was playing and someone in a beer line told me "Time Burns Craptastic," so I joined him in line for a beer. Got back for the final 5 minutes of it, which is the best part anyway.

All in all a good set. Energy made it what it was. Set break saw this happen...



Second set started off with a very rocking version of Backwards Down the Number Line. I wasn't sure about this song until seeing it live - it was totally killer. Really good way to keep that energy up. Rocked and jammed out version of this, nice and dark and spacey at the end. clocking in at just under 14 minutes. I highly recommend listening to it. Somehow the jam ended up becoming...

Carini!!! HOLY FUCK BOYS! By far one of my favorite songs. I was on cloud fucking 9 when I heard those notes. I love this song, and this version was amazing. So perfect. Just awesome on every level. Great kind of jammed out ending which ended up as...

Gotta Jibbo- Wow sweet! I love this song too. Very well done, great lights, nice and spacey. I was still high off Carini... It seemed to rock hard. Kind of the theme of the night. Speaking of themes...

Theme From the Bottom was placed perfectly. It rocked as well.

Wilson- Did I mention that this set ROCKED? The crowd was louder than I have ever heard during the chants. It was stellar. The soccer stadium really helped that out I'm sure. This was very, very well placed. I was fearing a sleeper song in this place, but no, just some sweet Wilson rock action.

2001- WHAT??? really??? Oh my god. I don't see how this could get any better. So funky, I was just dancing the whole time. We had room for it. Good thing. This was goooooooood.

Chalkdust Torture- it was clear my face would be gone by the end of the night. This was rocked out in a very, very good way. The crowd freaked out. I freaked out. What was next?

Harry Hood- oh man. Harry! What can one say. I was floored by this.
Squirming Coil- Beautiful. I was a little welled up during Page's solo at the end, thinking about whatever you think about when you are down and out, overcoming adversity and such.

Encore:
Loving Cup- A completely predictable yet completely perfect way to rock our asses one last time.

Set 2 was one of, if not the best set of live phish I have ever witnessed. It was fantastic. I realized how much I love this band, the true fans, and the experience. Now I just want more!

Weekend Fun Times

This weekend was very much fun.

Wilco was playing on the end of the Maine State Pier, it was very cool. I saw Moe. there last year, and it was good, so being moderate Wilco fans, we decided if we could get in for cheap, we would!

The lady and I heading over to the Dry Dock for drinks and dinner. The service there is nothing short of terrible. It took no less than 15 minutes to get a drink while we were sitting at the bar. The kid was overwhelmed and had no idea what he was really doing. Whatever, it's all good. We got a spot on the top deck so we could see the show. We ordered our food and it soon got cold out. I ran across the street and bought us a couple of long sleeved shirts. We met up with a couple friends, who had Wilco tickets.

After dinner, we walked up to the gate area. You could see the stage, kind of. We were thinking about leaving and the lady asked the women at the ticket booth if they had any tickets for sale. She said she did, and they were $30. I offered $40 for two, and they took it, which was awesome, as I think we had only missed a couple of songs. Wilco is great live, very tight, very fun. Took this video:



We ended up running into tons of people, and having a blast. After the show, we took some peeps to Amigo's to watch Nippin The Nub. I used to play with them, and it was super cool to see everyone again.



Saturday started off overcast, but I used the opportunity to record a song, that apparently I've been singing in the morning for the past few days. I think it will be called "I Have." Anyway, the sun came out and we decided to ride on the big motorcycle. It actually worked, which was great. We headed up to Yarmouth for the Clam festival, but did not actually get off the bike. We did around 70 miles. It was awesome. The evening was mellow and smooth and relaxing.



Sunday featured yet another sweet motorcycle ride. We went out to Cousin's Island in Freeport. It was pretty cool, nice new paved roads over there. Stopped for an incredible phallic looking chocolate covered banana. Once we got home, we decided to take the scooters out. Everything was going smoothly until "randy" (the silver and black scooter) just stopped working. It's a pain in the ass to access these batteries, and I was sure thats where the problem was. I bounced the rear wheel and the little red light came on. We turned around, and I got to Payson Park. She went home to get the bocce set, and we rocked it under the sun for at least an hour. It was an epic game. The scooter made it home, where I took it apart and found the culprit, a loose battery connection, that had actually melted some of the plastic on the casing. It's all better now though!

Rode the green boy into work today, as the motorcycle won't run in the morning.

Ween 2009.07.10 Portland, Maine

The sun was out, the air was cool, and we were going to see Ween. A long time fan, I was more than excited to see them back in the town in which I call home, Portland, Maine. I got out of work at 3pm and went straight home. Simone and I hung out in our yard, and consumed a few cold beers, which were delicious. We cabbed it into town where we got our tickets and ate at the dogfish head, which is a short walk away. We met up with my friend Mike, who drove up from Boston. We kept running into people we knew everywhere we went. It was fun. Upon entering the venue, I ran into two good friends who I don't see enough, at the same time. It was great to kind of talk to them. I have to admit, I was a little drunk at this point. After buying a sweet print of the poster from the show, we found our spot for the night- the VIP section near the front of the stage. Was it worth the extra $15 per ticket charge? 100%. Everyone up there was super cool. I even had one dude tell me not to slouch because he was tall enough to see over us. I had extremely high hopes for this show, and was not disappointed. The band took the stage about 10 minutes after we got up there and with a ferocity I had not been expecting, proceeded to rock the hell out of the joint for the next 2.5 hours.

Piss up a Rope was a perfect opener. Opening with a Dean song got the place pumped and it was clear how into the show everyone was going to be.
The Golden Eel is one of my favorite songs, and was played quite well.
Flutes of Chi was unexpected- in a good way, I love this tune and they don't play it enough.
Johnny on the Spot Captain Fantasy The Grobe - the trifecta of ball busting rock- was overwhelemed by the screaming solos that were truly inspiring. All played to the perfection of rock Ween is known for.
Zoloft was a nice breather, followed by
Sorry Charlie which is so much fun. I love this song. Another Deaner gem.
Learnin to Live was fun, and the first song off La Cucuracha. The crowd loved it.
Little Birdy AWESOME
Laura AWESOMER Can't say too much about this brown mess. other than it was very very sketchy. Gener had some really strange moments.
Even If You Don't was standard, but is a good song, and sounded great.
Wavin My Dick in the Wind pretty good, Claude was KILLING his solos.
Freedom of 76 was perfect. I have never seen this song live before, and was quite suprised how fucking awesome it was. I love it and was wondering what they were going to pull out next.
Woman & Man was possibly the high point of the show for me. I was completely zoned out to Deaner, and he was playing like his life depended on it. Just fucking tearing up the carpet with this one.
I Don't Want It was a welcome song after getting my face melted off.
Pork Roll Egg & Cheese - fun
Your Party also fun.
Roses are Free- crowd loved it, pretty standard version.
El Camino- I was not expecting this, but damn, was it ever awesome... followed by
Buenos Tardes- shit yeah! what double shot! Dos bier bitte.

At this point, i was pretty excited to hear just one more song, but we were treated to 6!

Encore:
HIV Buckingham were tight and sweet.
Honesty was strange and brown as shit. They played it twice, and then teased My Life.
Sketches of Winkle was ROCKING,
The Mollusk had some nice improvised talk from Gener that I would love to hear, cause I couldn't really understand. It was a great way to end on a happy note as we left into the world.

All in all, I don't think the show could have been much better.

I would say it's probably the best they have sounded. The club was perfect for them. This was my third show at the venue and by far the best. The first time I set foot in the place, I said to Simone, "Wow this place would be perfect for Ween to play, too bad they never will cause it's too small." Never have I been so happy to be proven wrong.

After the show, we hung out in the alley next to the venue and met Gene and Glen who both signed our sweet ass poster. Waited till about 130 for more of the band, but no one else came out. The staff could have let us in after an hour of waiting to get a signature, but they wouldn't.
Awesome Show!

Phish Fenway Park Boston Review

There is a new kind of Phish fan, no longer as much trustafarian, as it is young self entitled male stoner assholes. I did not like how the band catered to the terrible crowd at Fenway- playing 70% songs I (along with most older fans) could care less about. But it was still a Phish show, and the other 30% of songs were pretty spectacular....

After wandering around Boston for several hours, my girlfriend and I went into Fenway and experienced the first of many, many long annoying lines. There were so many people just trying to get in it was obnoxious. Once we got in, the aisles were full of idiots just standing there, not sure where they should be, which was holding everyone up. Once we found our seats, I went to go get us beers and use the bathroom. I should have forgotten about the beer, as I missed the stage announcements. Once the crowd cheered for phish, I ran out and caught the national anthem from the aisle. I didn't really want to pay $8.75 for a 16oz beer anyway. Complete bullshit on the part of Fenway Park management, they should be ashamed of themselves. for being so unprepared. No ushers telling people to get moving, and the bartender was pouring beer individually, instead of just continuing to pour tons of cups and have someone serve them. Just one fine example of the caliber of characters we would encounter the rest of the show.


The show finally starts and the band opens up with- Sample in a Jar. WTF. Sample? You have to be kidding me. We have been waiting for years to see them and they open up with a set killer. Wow. Lame. Who cares if they played it very well, it's not a hard song, and they are professional musicians, it should be played well. The only good thing was during the solo, a rainbow opened up behind the stage and field as the rain had passed. Anyway, after that, they brought my hopes up with Moma Dance, which was funky and fun, but then crushed my hopes with a Chalkdust. This song can go either way for me, I generally like it, but it started out slow and never really took off. Then Ocelot. A new song that was okay, but it's new. Stash finally brought some rocking to the house, which was nice. It was a great version of this song. One of the few highlights of the set for me.

(I should add at this point that the people behind us were young, and for the most part cool, but they kept singing along loudly, and saying things like "Trey is gonna tear it up" and "this is so amazing!" It was incredibly annoying, and kept me from really getting into the show.)

After Stash, I'm really hoping for something that will get me back into the show, like Harpua, with an excellent story about Jimmy's first game at Fenway park, or maybe a ripping Tube, Sloth, Carini, or Gotta Jibbo. What do we get? Bouncin' Around the Room. What in the fuck? Does anyone even like this song? All the kids are singing along, poorly, and I am wondering if they will be able to recover this set. Thankfully, they do, sort of. Poor Heart was okay, Limb by Limb was great, Velvet Sea is a sleeper, but it was nice, and the last three songs kicked major ass. During Down With Disease, some asshole comes up to me and tells me that we are in his seats. I say we are not, and have been here all night. He says that these are his season ticket seats. I tell him its not a baseball game. He demands to see my tickets. I wanted to break his nose. I show him my seats and ask to see his tickets. He pulls them out and I laugh and tell him he's not sitting here, he's waaaaay over there and point. I had tried to take this with a grain of salt, but I was pretty bothered by it. So if you were the one trying to get into field box 74 row F, go fuck yourself. By this point, I'm feeling really let down. I can't get into the show because the kids behind us are so loud and invasive, despite how awesome the DWD is. How can I get back on track? With a DESTINY UNBOUND!!! HELL YES!!! I love this song, and all the kids didn't know it so they went to get beers. Too funny. They missed the best song of the set. Zero was decent and the solo at the end had me going. I was finally feeling a groove.

SET ONE HIGHLIGHTS: Destiny(!!!), DWD, Stash, Moma

Set Break, there was a guy with a bloody face behind us sitting down and blocking the aisle. He was an older man, probably an old dead head. Apparently he got into a squabble over something petty, and ended up getting knocked to the floor, and getting a concussion. Earlier he had said to Simone to stay in the section, it's not worth leaving for beer because the lines are too long. We should have listened to him. Without getting into details, some asshole decided to give my girlfriend a hard time in the beer line, accusing her of cutting the line, calling her very bad names. This kind of behavior is unacceptable! I was looking for her, and so help me if I had found her I would have undoubtedly beat his ass, and probably have gotten kicked out. We finally met up after the set had started, and made our way back into the venue. It took forever to get to our seats, and we had to kick people out of them. ANYWAY...

I'm pretty upset at this point, but the Tweezer was pretty out there and funked up a little. I was feeling the new song, it kind of put me in a better mood and the people behind us weren't saying much at this point. The Bathtub Gin was awesome. I liked the Hampton version and was hoping to hear something like it, and was not disappointed. It was excellent. I like that Trey is letting the audience sing the "love to take a bath" line. I was not really excited for Bowie, but the kids behind us sure were. Jesus, why in the fuck do you need to sing along with that song, it only has like 3 words. It was decent, long, well played. I'm not a huge fan of this song, but it did not turn me off. I wanted to hear some more songs. Time Turns Elastic begins. I was okay with this one but it's LONG and clocked in at nearly 17 minutes! Wow. That's intense. These are really the words to this new song song:

"I'm a submarine. Submarine sinks below the ground"

Maybe I'm the only one, but I would rather hear fourteen 5 or six minute songs with a couple of long ones for good measure. Basically what happened at Hampton. Songs like First Tube or Possum, or Rift or Horn or NICU in lieu of these long songs. After that, Free was nice, and Curtis Lowe was awesome to see live. I hate Lynerd Skynerd, but that song is great. When they started YEM, I was a little bummed out. I was really hoping to hear Harpua with a something (Cracklin Rose) tossed in there for good measure. YEM is one of those songs that I like, but only managed to feel it about half way through. Mike's solo was amazing. Thanks Mike. Okay, so that ends and we get a standard Cavern-GTBT-Reprise encore, but it had some good energy, so that was nice. Cavern was pretty decent, and GTBT was really great.

As I left Fenway park, I realized that the scene may not change, but the people do. It makes me sad, but I guess that's just the way she goes.

Also There was nitrous everywhere. You people doing it are idiots, and you people selling it are balsy as fuck. Saw no less than 5 tanks getting busted up, and watched as a cop opened a valve and let er rip, instantly freezing it to the ground. We even saw a rouge cop decide to take on the nitrous mafia all by himself. Dressed in full riot gear, we watched him start grabbing peoples balloons, and saw him grab some kids head and grind it into a brick wall. It was fucked. As much as I love the Pats and the Sox, There are aspects of Boston I really can't stand.

Serbia

5 star performance about shoes.

Gene Ween Band, 2009-04-15, Boston, Mass

This is the Gene Ween Band. They play good fun songs. We saw them last night. Gene is kind of mellow when he's alone, and the experience is interesting. Ween is greater than the sum of it's parts. That's about all I can say. The crowd was mostly dudes. It was a little strange venue called the Paradise. We had a nice spot on the side.
Highlights for me included:
DC Will Do You No Good
Ohh Vaa Laa
Mountians & Buffalo
I Fell In Love Today
I'll Miss You
Friends
Let's Get Divorced

Oh yeah did I mention I met Dave from Ween? He plays bass for Ween and here he is. Picked up a really nice poster, had 3/4 of the band sign it, minus Gene.

There's much more, but I will say it later.

Jazz Mandolin Project

My SLF and I went to see the Jazz Mandolin Project last night. It was great. We paid $10 to get into the VIP area this time. We snagged a table right next to the stage, which was awesome. We were so close, it was an amazing show. I def got some kind of contact high from the bathroom. when I went in, it was like there was a fog machine in there, and people were standing on toilets passing whoever knows what around. Apparently later on in the night there were girls in there too. Soooo sketchy. I've never laughed so hard in a bathroom before.

Anyway, they had a harmonica player play with them on stage. I saw him next to us and I told him he had the best seat in the house. It made no sense.

After wards it was snowing outside and absolutely beautiful.




Jon Fishman before the show.

Derek Trucks Band

Last night my SLF and I went out after work for $2 pints at the Stadium. It's a great deal, every day, from 4-7, all drafts are only $2 and all apps are half off. Our waitress was amazed that we left a 100% tip, and she thanked us when she got the check. We had 7 pints and an app for 15 bucks, so we left 30. Anyway, Derek Trucks was playing right next door to where we were, and my SLF was keen on going. I wasn't all that into the idea till we got out front and there were 500 people waiting in line to get in. 

We had no tickets and walked up and down the line a couple of times.  I was asking people for tickets when I saw two get sold for $50 a piece. That was not good. Fortunately, I managed to snag a ticket for 30, however we still needed one more. My SLF got lucky and got another! We were in! 

This venue was awesome, you can read my review of the place HERE.

There was a VIP section next to the floor in front of the stage that we needed to get into. Somehow, through

 constant nagging, we managed to get in there.  It was raised a couple of feet above the floor, which made for excellent viewing.  

It was an incredible show. Derek tore up the place, and was joined for a couple songs by Portland's own Nigel Hall, who is by far my favorite Portland musician right now. 

All in all, the night was fantastic, and I can't wait to see more shows at this awesome venue.