Saturday, December 10, 2011

Moments in a Jar

As in life, there exist certain rites of passage within the Phish community.

Your First Show

Here, you experience what made the band a success -- what your Phish friends have persistently told you from the onset: "You have to see this band live, man."

No matter during summer, winter or fall tour, no matter at Madison Square Garden, Hampton Coliseum or Red Rocks Amphitheater, regardless of song selection, dancing space or drug availability, regardless of crowd energy, police temperament or hippie presence, this show will act as a point of comparison for every other, whether you see five more or 100 more.

Your First Festival

It's your twenty-first birthday, your learner's permit, your first kiss. It's camping with 30,000 to 70,000 of your best friends. It's two to three days of Phish, of Trey's machine-gun solos, Mike's bombs, Page's funky missiles and Jon's strategic back beat.

After your first Phish festival, all other music festivals -- Bonnaroo, Coachella, Wormtown -- will feel terribly stale.

Your First New Year's Eve

Historically, December 31 has brought consistently epic Phish performances. In 1999, in the midst of the Y2K scare, Phish played from midnight to sunrise in front of 85,000 people -- the largest gathering that New Year's night. 




Your First Halloween Show

No other band, past or present, does Halloween quite like Phish. Donning a musical costume, the quartet becomes, for one memorable set, another band. 

In 2009, Phish covered "Exile on Main Street" by the Rolling Stones.



2 comments:

  1. Nice post, but the most recent Phish Halloween cover was Little Feat's "Waiting for Columbus" in 2010. "Exile" was played in 2009. Hopefully you are coming to NYC for your 1st NYE Phish show!!

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  2. Thank you for the correction. Not sure how I forgot this!

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