Set I: Fluffhead, The Divided Sky, Chalkdust Torture, Sample in a Jar, Stash, I Didn't Know, The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony, Suzy Greenberg, Farmhouse, NICU, Horn, Rift, Train Song, Water in the Sky, The Squirming Coil, David Bowie
Set II: Backwards Down The Number Line, Tweezer, Taste, Possum, Theme from the Bottom, First Tube, Harry Hood, Waste, You Enjoy Myself
Encore: Grind, Bouncing Around the Room, Loving Cup
Energy...it was the word of the weekend and holy shit was there ever energy down in Hampton!
There's nothing to describe the "buzz," almost a literal humming of excitement that could be felt all around for three solid days.
After making our way to Hampton around 4pm with very little traffic, we continued to VA Beach to check into our hotel...BIG MISTAKE. As the desk clerk said after checking in, dropping our stuff off and running back out the door, "you shouldn't have left after 2pm." It was 5:30.
Who knew there was a bridge/tunnel combo that for no explicable reason gets backed up for over 10 miles? Apparently everyone else but us. Note for future Hampton shows...STAY NORTH OF HAMPTON.
So once our mini (or not so mini) panic attacks subsided as traffic began to move after the tunnel we pulled in easily to the lot, jumped out of the car and joined the mob around the fountain waiting to get in.
Now, there's always a little bit of butterflies in my stomach before a big show, ball game or election day, but this was a fucking swarm of cicadas or something. Beth knows what I'm talking about.
So the event staff got a little smarter each day, but on the first night here was how you got inside the venue:
1. Get in back of the "line" (see post below).
2. Make sure you don't cut your feet on the glass bottles strewn everywhere...i thought hippies recycled?
3. As your mob started moving toward checkpoint 1, take your ticket out of your pocket and hold it as high in the air as possible.
4. Use your remaining free arm to lock arms with your group to make sure you don't get separated in the next rush towards the doors.
5. Once inside the "pen" rush the door. Remember to keep your ticket high in the air.
6. As you approach an actual door to the venue shove that ticket hand towards the beeping sound.
7. Once your ticket is scanned, be prepared to be grabbed by the wrist and thrown inside the venue by a cop.
8. Once all of your group has made it inside...CHEER!!!!!!!!!
Ok, now that we're all inside. Let's try and find some seats.
Beth and i had previously agreed that our "spot" for Phish shows is up and slightly behind the band, so we got inside the bowl and found seats rather easily.
The room was decorated with giant balloons illuminated brightly. One thing i loved about Hampton was that there were no "house lights" to speak of. The pre-show and set break bright lights were the yellow stage lights shining on the balloons.
As you can imagine, the anticipation at this point is uncontrollable. I was just rocking back and forth holding my stomach and i'm pretty sure beth was doing the same.
At almost 8pm the moment we'd been waiting for happened. Other than the final applause on Sunday night, I've never EVER heard anything louder than the uproar that occurred as they took the stage.
Of course, the question on everyone's mind was WHAT WILL THEY OPEN WITH?
And they couldn't have made us happier...***FLUFFY FLUFFY HEAD***
Really? Fluffhead...i thought it could be a joke at first and after the first few lines they would start playing something else, but sure enough we were treated to the first Fluffhead since 2000.
It was maybe the happiest music I've ever heard. Just unbelievable to be listening to this band again live, and even more unbelievable that they choose to play Fluff and get it out of the way. Honestly, great choice, because we would have just spent the whole weekend waiting for it, and with Fluff out of the way, we could move on to bigger and better things.
Like D. Sky, Chalkdust, Sample, Stash. By time I took a breath during IDK I realized that the "statement" we were all looking for from the opening song and first set had been made.
"We practiced, we rehearsed the vocals, we're back and we're gonna have alot of fun."
From Fluff through Stash our fearsome foursome tore through what many would consider some of their "hits" with a lack of inhibition and torrid playfulness not often seen in post-hiatus phish. There were flubs, mistakes and miscues, but WHO THE HELL CARES?!?!?!
That's not why we saw shows 10 years ago so why should it be a problem now? In 1999 Trey was forgetting lyrics and flubbing songs for reasons that we all know of, but we still came back for more...and in 2000 we saw many unbelievable sets (Japan, Darien etc)
This is a different band than the one that left the stage sadly in 2004. And we didn't know the half of it yet...
"I didn't know that i was that far gone," was applicable to every person standing inside the venue at this point. In our altered states we just weren't yet aware that after what we could have considered a set closing OKP->Suzy was only the segue into basically another full set of music.
A mellow (but incredibly soloed) Farmhouse gave way to a pumped up (if sloppy) NICU.
It was hard NOT to look back on those days when our lives were a haze glaring out at 14,000 people all singing the same words at the same time with the most incredible look of bliss across their faces. Our vantage point allowed us to see not just the band, but the entire light show spread along the floor. Kuroda was on FIRE this entire weekend (see: Hood, Maze, AC/DC Bag, 2001).
Horn, Rift, Train Song, Water in the Sky (country version).
Mostly composed songs that were a nice break in the constant movement (barring Rift).
And then we thought we were getting our set closer, the fan favorite Squirming Coil. But wait a second...that was a really short Page solo section...and they're not leaving the stage...OH SNAP...its BOWIE!
Untouchable. The climax was amazing and when the last notes were played we were exhausted and exhilarated. The set lasted two hours. It was basically two sets in one (we didn't know this would become the standard for the weekend). We just sat down and stared ahead for a moment taking it all in...and then ran to get into the bathroom and water lines (a constant theme of the weekend).
Phish was back. We were there and there was still 5 sets to go in what was fast becoming an incredible weekend.
Quick note on Page...he was completely bonkers all weekend. Best individual performance out of the four. Hands down.
As noted in my "Surprising Songs" post Backwards Down the Number Line didn't sound great at the time, but upon the relisten, sounds great. Good song, that i think there's alot of promise for.
Then came more ENERGY. Noodled Tweezer->Taste was rockin'. Possum, standard and fun. Theme and First Tube just brought the house down. There was a "zone" at this point that couldn't be broken. Everyone was lifted to a higher place.
A soulful Waste led to the best song of the night...restart or not. Flubs or not. Shit...
Best jam of the night, sick Gordon solo, crazy vocal jam...it was all there.
A pretty straightforward encore of Grind, Bouncin' (with the giant balloons falling from the ceiling) and Lovin Cup left us the most beautiful buzz we'd felt in years. Seriously. I could have been stone cold sober and I would have left that night walking on air.
Not only was Phish back, but there was immense promise for the next few nights.
This show read like a Greatest Hits of Phish with a couple of hints at what was to come.
Trey's sound was no longer the garage-rock superstar of 2002-2004 (thank god for Ross compressors), Fishman and Gordon held down the rythym like they'd never stopped playing together and Page...ahhhh Page.
More to come...
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