Finally Fenway.

Walking into Fenway

As we walked from the hotel all that was going through my mind and through my fingers via twitter – Holy fucking shit – finally walking to Fenway to see Phish!  We were a little late getting to the park so we didn’t get to loop the outside of the park as intended.  There were vendors selling merch, people littered the streets being crunchy and wearing costumes.  People were actually selling tickets at face  value which makes me believe that I could make it to any Phish show I’d ever want to see and be able to get in.

My sister and I with a pirate and some guy in pajamas

This leads me into a small digression.  As soon as I got back from Boston all I wanted was to go see Phish again, I was hooked and made it a goal to get Deer Creek tickets, a show I had heard from fellow phans on Twitter could be hard to come by.  To my surprise the majority of the tickets I found on craigslist (not Jambase or Phantasy Tour – communities that have sprung up that promote and serve as a vehicle for ticket trading) were trade offers of people selling at face value.  Got three tickets coming my way tomorrow.

Everyone was fucking psyched for this show.  There was just a general good feeling in the air.  The show was delayed for a few minutes as it started to rain slightly hard.  An announcer came on – reminding the fans of the rules of the Fenway Stadium (so cool – just like at at game) and directed the audience to the pitcher’s mound.  The boys started the show at the pitchers mound wearing Red Sox jerseys singing in a acapella, naturally the Star Spangled Banner.  Here’s a shot off the screen:

Phish singing the Star Spangled Banner in Fenway

I’m a cheese ball but I then experienced what I now deem as my perfect Phish moment.  They started with Sample.  It was raining.  In the middle of the song the rain let up and rainbows sprouted around the stadium.

Rainbow @ Fenway

It was beautiful and I still can’t tell that story without getting a giant smile on my face.  The sound was a little wonky throughout the first set, but I honestly didn’t hear it until I downloaded the show and listened to it back at home.  I really was wrapped in a moment and the memory of Phish from when I was  16 and developed a love for Phish which I think was probably the first quality band I fell in love with.

Night’s Set List and my comments:

SET ONE

1. Star Spangled Banner (1:52) – Very raw way to start the show.  Lots of talk that they would open with this, but the mound was a neat surprise.  Boston jerseys total cool touch.
2. Sample in a Jar (6:19) – The Rainbow Song!
3. The Moma Dance (7:17)
4. Chalk Dust Torture (8:02)
5. Ocelot (7:32) – This is going to be a new favorite jam song. Lots of build ups and climaxes – ups and down.  Perfect hippie music.
6. Stash (11:31)
7. Bouncing Around the Room (3:51)
8. Poor Heart (2:45) -  I get down with the twangy jigs.
9. Limb By Limb (7:47)
10. Wading in the Velvet Sea (4:42)
11. Down with Disease (11:47) – One of my very favorite songs of the night.  Jammed the fuck out.  Here’s our video:youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJx36eIpeSE]
12. Destiny Unbound (6:19) – Last time this song was played was in February 20063.  It’s a rare song that we got to experience in a cool ass place.Phish is an extremely prolific band that wrote a dozen songs for each one they kept and played. Thus, songs often appeared briefly in a tour and then disappeared, becoming fabled rarities. In the case of Destiny Unbound, to which this occurred, Phish fans, over time, requested it more and more, until it acquired a mythical connotation. Destiny Unbound was jokingly synonymous with the impossible. (via Wikipedia)
13. Character Zero (8:16)

SET TWO

1. Tweezer (13:41) – At this point a Tweezer Reprise as the encore was inevitable.
2. Light (5:12) – New Song that didn’t turn me on that much.
3. Bathtub Gin (11:18)
4. David Bowie (12:01) – DAVID BOWIE – dunt, dunt, dunt – DAVID BOWIE  !!!!  WOOOT!
5. Time Turns Elastic (17:30) – They released this randomly on itunes a week before the Spring Tour started.  It got mixed reviews.  I didn’t get to give it too close of a listen before the show, but this was so sick.  Another great new jam favorite.
6. Free (8:48) – This is my gentleman friend’s first favorite Phish song.  I’m glad since he came all the way out to Boston for his first Phish show, he got to hear it.
7. Curtis Lowe (5:21) – Very much appreciate this song now that I’ve listened to the show a million times during the past few weeks.
8. You Enjoy Myself (22:25) – Over 20 minute YEM, I don’t think you could ask for a better song to end a set with.

ENCORE – FUCKING PERFECT ENCORE

1. Cavern (4:41)
2. Good Times, Bad Times (6:02)
3. Tweezer Reprise (3:38)

• First Ocelot
• First Light
• First Time Turns Elastic

As Phish continued the Spring Tour up the east coast and moving southwest, livephish.com will email you the setlists of each night and the links to download.  Fenway and the first night of Jones Beach have by far been the two most impressive nights.  I’m glad I got to catch one.

I love how each Phish show I go to I meet other fans and get their story.  This time I met a woman who was having contractions but was still at the show.  My sister and I went over to meet her and her husband during intermission because we spotted her wearing a “Piper” and “Wilson” shirt with arrows posted to her belly.

Pregnant at Phish

I want to BE this couple.  They had gone to Coventry and the show left a bad taste in the husband’s mouth; she knew it was important for him to be at this show.  They were genuinely considering “Wilson” and “Piper” for their expected twins.  If Phish had played “Guyute” – there would have been one unfortunate person in the world named after an ugly fictitious pig.  Hell of a story though, warms my heart.

Best photos I got from at the show:

Stage @ Fenway

Phish @ Fenway

Phish @ Fenway

Phish @ Fenway

Crowd Leaving Show

Some crap I kept from the show:

Official Phish Fenway Art Poster 207/1000

Bag Check!

Cover Band Post Show after the Show

Next up – Deer Creek, jea!

Please her with a Tweezer (Phenway Teaser).

Phish did more than please me with a tweezer on Sunday night in Fenway Park.

Moving, going to Boston, working on the new got milk? processor catalog has put me a little behind on blogging – sorry loyal readership!

Pictures and review of Phenway coming soon!

Phish | Fenway | 5/31/09 @amontag

Phenway: 10 Days Away.

BASEBALL AND PHISH COLLIDE IN ONE WEEK FROM SUNDAY – KICKING OFF PHISH’S FIRST SUMMER TOUR SINCE 2004!

Here’s a list of Red Sox player nicknames inspired by a Phish song or cover (via Boston.com)

The Hall of Fame:

OrTweezer/ OrTweeprise (“Tweezer” -”Tweeprise”/David Ortiz)

Youk Enjoy Myself (“You Enjoy Myself”/Kevin Youkilis)

Ellsburied Alive (“Buried Alive”/Jacoby Ellsbury)

Matsuzaka Policeman (“Makisupa Policeman”/Daisuke Matsuzaka)

RemDawg Stole Things (“Dogs Stole Things”/Jerry Remy)

Okajima Ceremony (“Oh Kee Pa Ceremony”/Hideki Okajima)

Saito Killer (“Psycho Killer”/ Takashi Saito)

ChalkDustin Pedroia (“Chalk Dust Torture”/Dustin Pedroia)

On the roster:

Split Open and Kielty (“Split Open and Melt”/Bobby Kielty)

Jason Varitek- “Punch You in the Eye”

The Manny Who Stepped Into Yesterday

Francona Dance (“Moma Dance”/Terry Francona)

HaHaHavier Lopez (“Ha, Ha, Ha”/Javier Lopez)

Sample in Millar (“Sample in a Jar”/Kevin Millar)

Julius Yamarez (“Ya Mar”/Julian Tavarez)

Runaway Timlin (“Runaway Jim”/Mike Timlin)

“Character Zero” – JD Drew

Back to the minors:

Jonathan Piperbon (“Piper”/Jonathan Papelbon)

Buffalo Bill Mueller (“Buffalo Bill”/Bill Mueller)

Beckett on the Train (“Back on the Train”/Josh Beckett)

Timlin Ho! (“Timber Ho!”/Mike Timlin)

“Wolfman’s Brother” (Johnny Damon)

Uncle Pineiro (“Uncle Pen”/Joel Pineiro)

MDC Bag (“AC/DC Bag”/Manny Delcarmen)

Coco Twist (“Twist”/Coco Crisp)

His name could only be… / Boston Sports Blog, Boston.com / by Eric Wilbur, May 21, 2009

Phenway: 11 Days Away.

Phenway

I’m going to Boston to fulfill an all time dream of mine – to see Phish somewhere other than Alpine Valley or Deer Creek.  No joke, if I was a terminally ill kid, I would use my “Make A Wish” to get out to Boston to see Phish play at the oldest ballpark in the country – Fenway.

Since this tour is starting an Fenway and the tickets insinuate that each show of the summer tour is going to be given a chronological number much like the season ticket holders of baseball games, my gentleman friend posted the tickets and asked for suggestions of where to visit while in Boston on the Bleed Cubbie Blue site.

Check out the discussion they have going on over at BCB.

Now – I’m asking my readership the same – what’s great in Boston that we can’t miss in the 3 days we’ll be chillin’ there?

Batter up:

FENWAY TICKETS HAVE ARRIVED!

Phish @ Fenway Park, 5/31/09 Tickets

Phish @ Fenway Park, 5/31/09 Tickets

UPDATED:  Sorry – I took this down earlier today because some haters on Twitter started hollering from outta nowhere that people could counterfeit my shit and I should watch out.  Had a minor (okay MAJOR) panic attack and took it down.  But here’s the deal, I’m a hippie nerd grown to paranoia for obvious reasons.

Considering all the ticketing debates – with Live Nation printing “ALEXANDRA MONTAG” on all 6 of my No Doubt tickets and Trent Reznor making fairly public announcements denouncing scalping – I asked myself if I was part of the whole fraud ticketing system that goes on in conjuntion with every ticketed event.  I freaked out, got home from work, grew a pair and here we are:

5 Reasons It’s Okay to Post Tickets Online Before the Date of the Event

1.  This shit is art.  Phish tickets can be really raw, especially for these “special” shows.  Hampton tickets – raw.  Las Vegas tickets – raw.  I’m getting my stubs professionally mounded and framed with the rest of my summer Phish show tickets.  I’ve been twitting with people who’ve I’ve never met and only know because of our common interest is Phish for weeks in anticipation of what the Fenway tickets were going to look like.

2.  I scanned the tickets in at work.  On a low resolution standard office printer/scanner machine.  The hologram at the top looks like a faded, yellow strip.

3.  Festival Crashers posted their Hampton tickets 2/2/09 – Hampton shows were 3/6 to 3/8.

4.  I got a gentleman friend who works for the security company that patrols the Chicago Bears home games at Soldier Field.  On a per game average,  300 people try to get in with counterfeit tickets and 95% of these people (either legit fucktards or naive assholes) are caught when the tickets are scanned at the gate.  The handful who do get in, get asked to go down to the box office as soon as a second ticket of the same seat scans through.  So – those odds are in my favor.

5.  I bought these tickets. I have the credit card statement with the charge from the Phish ticketing system, I have the confirmation that I purchased the tickets as well as the tracking information email that I got on Saturday.  I would win any “struggle” that did occur.

The shitty thing about this is the poor wook who scalps a ticket in the lot (will there be a lot at Fenway?) and is out the cash money.  And that, for sure sucks.

Masthay Studios: Phish @ Fenway Art

I’m buying this tomorrow:

Fenway Park

On sale: Friday, May 8th @ 12pm EST
Masthay Studios

Countdown to FENWAY