No editorial. Well, a tiny bit, I guess. Turn this up loud- what a great f-ing guitar riff!!!
Well, I certainly never thought I'd get a chance to see my Favorite Band Of All-Time (F.B.O.A.T.)1 at Red Rocks again. Although I was reasonably certain that Phish would regroup at some point, I figured they had outgrown that venue for good. When the four shows got announced (after months of rumors swirling) I was pretty giddy. Jen and I were only able to score tickets to one of the four nights- Sunday, the finale. Five years ago, I would have been really upset to not be going to all four of these concerts, but this time, one show was sufficient2.
I got off work a half hour early, and Jen picked me up at 4:30. We headed straight to Red Rocks, parked, and found Tim, Justin, and a few other dudes in one of the parking lots. We wasted a good 20 minutes hiking up to the upper south parking lot, when Tim's text message clearly stated they were in the lower south lot. Regardless, we still had time to relax a little bit and have a couple frosty PBRs in the sun, before making the climb up the many, many stairs into the venue3.
Red Rocks has this new way of doing ticketing that's really freaking annoying. They've made the first 24 rows general admission, then rows 25-60 reserved, and 61-69 GA. The rows are just really long bleachers. So there are numbers painted on the top of the bleachers, corresponding to seat numbers. In my opinion, the entire venue should be GA4.
Or, I suppose they could make the first 25 rows reserved. But the way it is now is really stupid. Seven of us went in together, and staked out a nice spot in row 42, dead center. Tim and a buddy actually had reserved tickets for that row, but over towards one end. The rest of us had GA tickets. We just crossed our fingers, and hoped we didn't get people coming up to us saying "you're in our seats, bro." By the time the show started, we had 12 people in our group, occupying 7 or 8 seats' worth of real estate. Unlike an arena, though, the rows at Red Rocks are nice and deep. It ended up being a little tight at times, but not bad- just enough room for us to boogie.
Phish took the stage just after 8, and I definitely felt some goosebumps. Though I no longer devote even a fraction of the time I used to in dealing with all things Phish, they're still my F.B.O.A.T. And I thought I might never have a chance to see them again, after ditching out on Coventry5.
***It seems prudent to split this post into more than one piece, since it's taking me forever to write it. Next up, the concert.***
1. My apologies to David Foster Wallace, but reading Infinite Jest is not simply a leisure activity. He's starting to get deep into my head. Hence, the footnotes.
2. The last time I saw a single Phish show was July 21, 1998, at Desert Sky Pavilion in Phoenix. Between that concert and the Red Rocks show this past Sunday, I saw Phish 29 times, always seeing at least 2 consecutive shows, and seeing as many as 6 in a row.
3. It's always interesting being at a Red Rocks show that features a lot of out-of-town attendees- most of them have to stop fairly often on the deadly stairs up to, and also inside, the venue, their body pleading for oxygen. Red Rocks is located 6200 feet above sea level, and stairs remain a pain in the ass even if you are properly acclimated.
4. Some concerts still are done GA-style, like the upcoming Labor Day weekend Ween show.
5. Jen, Faustino, Freitag, and I had tickets for the infamous "last-ever Phish shows," but we listened to Mike Gordon's plea on the radio, and turned away from the "disaster area," rather than abandoning our rental car on the side of the highway, and hiking in 10 miles in flip flops, in order to camp in 3 feet of mud and water, and listen to what turned out to be really crappily-played music.
I'm finally cleaning out my photos & videos (my freaking hard drive is full), moving stuff to a backup drive, deleting crappy stuff, etc. I can't believe I never posted this stuff- especially the one of Dom wiping out!
So...Jen and I will be heading to Red Rocks tomorrow, to see PHISH! I haven't been to a Red Rocks show yet this year, and I haven't seen Phish in 5 years. This will be the 38th Phish concert I've attended. More importantly, Phish hasn't played Red Rocks since 1996, over 13 years ago. There was a bit of a problem with all the ticketless hippies who used to follow them from town to town. They basically took over the town of Morrison, police came in, acted a little too aggressively, and things got out of hand. Here's a funny news clip from back then. The best part is at 0:45, when a kid flees the paddywagon:
I was at the first show of the 4-night run in '96, with Eddie Kline, Mike Hyland, Matt DiPietro, and Eric Skaar. Why we drove all the way there from MN, and only saw one show, I'm not sure. I guess I couldn't convince those guys to lay down the cabbage for more than one show...
I planned on writing more about this- what's changed in my life in the nearly 15 years since I first was hooked (pardon the pun), and how the technological/information revolution has changed what it means to be a Phish fan. But, that will have to wait for another post.
Somehow I've transitioned from blogging consistently to not blogging at all.
I don't understand it. It wasn't like I woke up one morning and said "I don't think I'll blog anymore."
I suddenly realize all the things I should have been writing (typing?) about.
...where to begin? I'm gonna see Phish at Red Rocks this Sunday. That's a decent template, methinks.
Rockies game- kid keeps taking off his shirt and shaking it
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I never get sick of this view of the Continental Divide
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3 great MN tunes:
