Friday, March 13, 2009

From the Archives: Review of Merriweather Sept 2000

Thought i would post this for comparison. Trying to find
other reviews i wrote from phish.net.

I've read the reviews already posted and i'm pretty surprised...i got to the scene a bit later, like 6,
and parked in the parking garage down the road on the other side of the pavillion. After sitting in
tons of traffic we parked the car with no problem. In this parking garage there was a decent
scene..some bbq's...a few people selling things...a couple of nitrous
tanks...and NO COPS AT ALL. After leaving the lot i walked to another lot in
what seemed to be a field with trees...shakedown was nothing..i walked up to
the guy holding my ticket and he said take off your hat...i was amazed...at
all other venues they pat me down..(i always wear cargos and a hooded
sweatshirt)...this time they did nothing...oh well...so i made my way into the
pavillion and found some good seats..one thing that i do agree with one of the
other reviewers is that the older phans are not appreciating the fact that
younger phans have the same love for the music and band as they do...i met a
guy who claimed to have been to over 200 shows who was the biggest asshole i
met that night...i was dancing and i accidently moved 2 inches into his space
and he started yelling at me about how much he payed for these tickets, and
how kids are ruining the shows...he was clearly drunk and was taking bong hits
the entire show and talked through most of it to his girlfriend...i dont
understand how he could say something like that to me when all i was doing was
dancing and enjoying the music??? anyway, on to the music...it doesnt really
need more explanation than has already been given but i will describe some of
the high points for me...i was at the 7/3 show for that amazing bathtub and
this one equalled it if not surpassed it...the jam went from fast to ambient
to fast again with trey ripping it up and mike grabbing every note to the
fullest...limb x limb is a personal favorite of mine, the 12/29/98 version
being my favorite version that i've seen...this one was good, pretty basic
jamming though...when trey started fluffhead i thought to myslef "wow a great
first set, what a closer"...as soon as they dropped the last line on us though
he started the Curtain With...BLOWN AWAY cannot describe how i felt upon
hearing this...and then trey smiles ( i was 5th row so i saw) and starts
chalkdust, he was having sooo much fun up there...short break then on to one
of the best sets i have ever seen...Rock and roll was standard right up until
the jam which was tight, long, and beautiful...they went from rock to space,
and all over the place on this one...when it died down fishman kicked in
repetative short staccato hits on the high hat and i couldnt really tell what
was next...when page started Theme i was defintly happy...some of my friends
have been waiting lifetimes to hear this and i heard 2 this year, always a
great song...when trey started the reggae beat, i knew the song was
unfinished an dthough it was just jamming but then mike looked over and they
both smiled...MY FIRST DOG LOG!!! blown away again...these guys are
amazing...great mango song with amazing jam similar to 6/30 in Hartford...then
one of my all time favorites...since i was so close i saw trey start the
opening chords of FREE early on and flipped out...it was such a great free,
just great, and a great way to end the set cuase that's the exact way i felt,
free, after this show i had no worries at all!!! Now i lost my shit when they
came out and played CONTACT...it was perfect...just shows how much fun they
were having that night...and rocky top is always a great closer...that was my
last show for the time being...and to top it off i got a great veggie burito
in the lot after the show...damn wookies really know how to cook!!! peace,

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