Phish, Fenway Park, March 31st, 2009
A week after Memorial Day & summer is in full swing. The circus came to town.
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After a five year hiatus (not counting Hampton in March), legendary jam band Phish returned at Fenway Park in my hometown to launch a summer tour.
One thing I love about this band: less than 24 hours after the show, it’s available for download.
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While I lost the ticket lottery, a kind old hippy sold me face-value tickets 15 minutes before showtime.
Just as my tickets were in hand, it started to drizzle. Linz & took a walk down Landsdowne wgere I snapped one good photo before my phone lost power:
The sky opened up for maybe 5 or 10 minutes as we made our way through the turn-styles on Yawkey Way but I don’t know if you’ll see a group of people enjoy rain as much as Phish fans just before a show.
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After singing the Star Spangled Banner from the pitchers mound in Pedroia, Beckett, & I think a Yaz or Ted Williams throwback, the boys made their way to center field…
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… and opened with a favorite of mine, Sample in a Jar.
I swear the moment Trey hit his first notes on the guitar solo, the rain cleared up for the rest of the night.
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The second song was Moma Dance, which I didn’t recogni, but then they set the tone for the rest of the first set with a kick-ass Chalkdust Torture.
But who can unlearn all the facts that Ive learned
As I sat in their chairs and my synapses burned
And the torture of chalk dust collects on my tongue
Thoughts follow my vision and dance in the sun
All my vasoconstrictors they come slowly undone
Can’t this wait till I’m old? Can’t I live while I’m young?
That lead into Ocelot…
… which lead into an 11-minute Stash.
After pausing to breathe, they broke out Bouncing Around The Room, not a favorite of mine but catchy, then the bluegrassy Poor Heart.
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The next song was, in my opinion, the highlight of the first set: a complex Limb by Limb. Listen to Fishman put a little extra sauce on the drums:
After slowing it down with Wading in the Velvet Sea, they dropped an 11-minute Down With Disease, and I heard one guy say, “is this a greatest hits set?”
They played a new song called Destiny Unbound sung by Mike Gordon, then finished off the first set with possibly my favorite Phish song, Character Zero.
When the second set started, night had fallen. The band kicked off the set with an always jam-filled, 13-minute Tweezer, a crowd favorite…
… which was interweaved with a jam-laden Light.
They followed that with a damn good Bathtub Gin, then David Bowie.
They broke out their new single, Time Turns Elastic, next, which has lots of people excited, but I find it to be a snoozer. About this time of the night, Linz & I had circled around behind home plate & ran into my friends Matty & Rob. Matty called Elastic “a noodler”.
Not to fear, they busted out Free next.
Then came the big surprise of the night. For the first time since 1993, the boys played The Ballad of Curtis Lowe, a country-twinged Lynyrd Skynyrd tune.
To finish off the second set, Phish played their iconic song, the 22-minute rollercoaster, You Enjoy Myself. To add a little spice, Trey & Mike jumped on trampolines right at the crescendo.
They kicked off the encore with Cavern, a song I didn’t recognize, then let loose with Led Zeppelin’s Good Times, Bad Times into Tweezer (Reprise). No one left hungry.
