9/18/14 moe. @ CEFCU Stage - Peoria, IL

On Thursday I drove down to Peoria.  I left around 5:30.  The weather was gorgeous with temps in the afternoon reaching the mid 70s.  My friend Doc got me a ticket to this show for my birthday which was generous of him.  This venue is one of the easiest to reach from my house.  Its convenient and hassle free and I've always had good times on the shores of the Illinois River beneath the I-74 bridge.  Trust me its more scenic than it sounds.  The opening act Brainchild played too long in my opinion.  I've met Roy and I realize they're a local act but moe. had a strict 11:30 curfew so perhaps they should have had a more truncated opening set.  Before the show they were playing Little Feat and ABB on the PA.  Rob was sporting a NE Patriots lid.  They didn't have much in the way of speakers and frankly it could have been louder.  Also, the house lights seemingly were on the whole show.  I had the Decatur crew to my right and the lone tapers Randy and Kris to my left. 


Timmy Tucker was a great choice to open and this was a solid version.  However, the rest of the first stanza featured too much new material from No Guts, No Glory.  I'm not a big fan of Punchline so the set somewhat fizzled for me.  The Cpt USA > WLT segue was well executed.  I thought they were going into Opium briefly during the transition.  Pretty standard first set.




Yodelittle was a monster version on this night.  They jammed this song so long that they essentially ran out of time to finish the set they'd had planned.  I thought there were hints of Moth but it became Time Ed.  Also, it should be noted a crazy hippie kid tried climbing the scaffolding.  It took security and the cops a while to get down there to apprehend the culprit.  The band watched as he spun around like a moron from one of the four support posts.  This was a huge Time Ed that had an extended Drums breakdown.  This segued into head. which is one of my favorite moe. songs.  By this point the temperature had dropped into the 50s and it had become quite windy.  When they stopped at the end of the third song I was pretty surprised.  It had been over an hour but I felt they could have played another song or two in the set.  It was only like ten after 11.  The encore was rather weak.  The final song being a nod to the curfew.  This show will be remembered as being unique for its three song second set.  However, aside from the Tucker opener and the transitions between Yod > Time Ed > head. this show was nothing spectacular.  With that said I had a fun experience and was glad I attended.

8/29-31 Phish @ Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City, CO

I left Geneseo around 7:15 on Thursday morning last week for Colorado.  This has become an annual tradition with it being my 4th year in a row seeing Phish at the home of MLS' Colorado Rapids.  The weather was nice initially but quickly deteriorated in Iowa.  It rained through most of central Iowa.  There was an accident in Urbandale that backed up traffic.  However, I was really in no rush and was enjoying my solitude on the open road.  I started the roadtrip with many of my favorite traveling albums by artists like Jamiroquai, Michael McDonald, Hall & Oates, and Crosby Stills & Nash.  When I crossed into Nebraska I put on the soundtrack from that movie by Alexander Payne.  I caught my second wind near Grand Island.  From this point forward I pretty much surfed the FM dials for anything that wasn't country (albeit I did listen to some George Strait).  When you combine the desolate terrain and the exhaustion that goes with driving all day it gets a little scary out on the plains.  I was sick of seeing cows when I reached Denver.  Rocky Mountain Way by Joe Walsh was on the radio when I rose over the horizon and finally saw the front range. 


I stayed at Bobbyluv and his wife Erin's house in Denver.  It was not far from downtown and was easy to find from the interstate.  It was good to be off the road.  Doc from Decatur was also staying there and it was good to have another familiar face.  He saw the 2011 Dick's run with me.  Later Joel Brown joined the group at the house.  I spent the day relaxing and recovering from the road.  Later in the day I made my first visit to a dispensary which was The Giving Tree on 38th Street.  There were a lot of Phish fans there shopping and working.  I liked The Grateful Dead DVD in the lobby.  That was a nice touch.  We rounded up the rest of the crew at the Renaissance (next to my old stomping grounds at the Stapleton Super 8) and headed to the lot.  They parked us in the grass lot on the other side of the practice soccer pitches.  The practice pitch became a favorite hangout for me during this run.  The well manicured fields had me daydreaming about playing the top flight leagues of Europe.  The Kroneke family who owns Dick's also owns Arsenal which is my favorite team in the English Premier League.  Preshow I had a quality grilled cheese with green chile peppers.  I met up with a friend from high school/college Matt "Iron Balls" McGaugh.  It was good to see him.  We went through the wars together playing soccer. 


Doc stubbed me down to the field.  Sunny's husband Aaron was nice enough to lend his wristband.  I really wanted to be on the field for the first night to be with our crew.  I had a feeling some sort of hijinks were in store.  We noticed the LUSHINGTON being spelled out three or four songs in.  I called the Guyute.  That along with Stash were the highlights of the first set which sacrificed cohesion in order to spell out the obscure 80s Phish tune.  Them playing Ha Ha Ha after was their response to any chance of them actually playing it.  I loved seeing the TAB ladies out for Suzy. 


I was afraid we'd just see a generic rocker 46 Days to open set two but was elated to hear them open things up.  BOTT was poorly placed.  It wasn't needed at that juncture.  Simple was where they opened a wormhole to another universe and plunged in.  Anastasio took the jam by the balls and the other complimented in turn.  Glorious stuff for sure.  Ghost was a solid version to follow but clearly they'd already taken us there after that Simple.  BDTNL was the most poorly placed song of the run. Hood continues to have improvisation and this was yet another interesting rendition.  The end fo the song led beautifully into the intro of Wading in the Velvet Sea which would have been much more poignant had they not played BDTNL.  Antelope was a high energy way to end the set.  The landing was a little shaky.  I saw the Character Zero encore coming a mile away.  The Bee Gees "How Deep Is Your Love" was the walkout music.  This was a good first offering.  Simple had everyone in the community buzzing.   We went to a bar near Bobby's house and got some burgers and tator tots that were clutch.  Then we watched the Moma Dance > Free from the Live at Brooklyn DVD.
















I slept until early afternoon and recharged my batteries.  During the afternoon we went over to a nice cookout near Fillmore/Ogden neighborhood.  There were a lot of familiar faces there to talk shop with.  We had some bratwurst for our preshow meal.  Once at the venue I met up with a high school friend of mine, Drew and his new wife.  We saw some of our first shows together.  When I went inside I met up with another friend from high school, Dave.  His girlfriend and also his buddy Shane were with him.  I'd met him at the show I flew out for last year at Dick's.  The show opened with the reverse order of the sequence we'd watched on DVD the night before.  I liked most of the song choices in this stanza.  There were two Gordon tunes with 555 and Yarmouth Road.  Things really picked up at the end with Wingsuit, Bowie, Cavern.  Dave gave me his field wristband and I watched the second set with the crew on the field.


 When they started DWD I thought perhaps it was going to be Contact with some of the pre song tunings and noises.  I liked the terrain this covered though it wasn't the best version by any means.  When it arrived at WTU? I was ecstatic.  Carini was likely the song of the night and this seamlessly went into Light which carried on the same theme that they'd previously taken on.  Slave was a good composition to juxtapose against the improvisation of earlier in the set.  I also liked the variety of Meatstick and then the Jimi cover.  Kuroda was on point with the yellow lights during the appropriate time during Bold As Love.  It was good to hear The Horse once again paired with its partner SITM.  I was familiar with the In A Hole song Trey was talking about and was hoping they'd actually play it.  Unfortunately it was not to be.  I was very surprised to hear them start up Fluffhead so late in the encore.  I was loving the "Hold the Line" by Toto postshow.  This was a nice second offering and complimented the Friday show well.  After we grabbed some late night food from Mary Jane's Pizza which was open until 4:20 am. 










Sunday was the show were they put everything together.  This was clearly my favorite offering of the year from the band that I've seen personally or otherwise.  We ate some outstanding food from Masterpiece Deli.  I had a Cubano sandwich.  After hanging out briefly at the Renaissance we made our way to the back lot for the finale. I decided to watch the whole show in the stands and befriended the groups on both sides of me.  It was a very positive vibe.  Preshow PA music was Talking Heads.  My vantage point was about 7 rows up in section 130 which is essentially my favorite viewpoint at this venue all things considered.  The first set had a little extra pop it seemed.  Trey had a little trouble during Curtain With but you have to love that choice as the opener.  Wombat once again had a nice portion of improvisation tacked on.  Trey crushed KDF with the blues rock being his forte these days.  I liked all the song choices in this set.  It made for a nice variety.  Wolfman's and Tube really got the crowd moving.  The Fuego pairing of Waiting All Night and Winterqueen was very well played, especially by Trey.  Possum was appropriate with the drive I'd have to make the next day.  Setbreak PA music was Bob Marley. 


This second set was what dreams are made of.  Chalkdust was another very good 2014 version and this led into a fairly contained Twist.  The Wedge got me thinking of the epic Chicago rendition but this stayed in the box but was appropriate with its "take the highway" ethos.  Tweezer > Sand was great stuff.  Trey was playing confidently and Fishman was a machine behind him.  They teased Tweezer during Sand.  The Piper that followed kept the energy going and gorgeously morphed into the Trey ballad, Joy.  Great placement.  Next was the first jammed out Mike's Song in ages.  Instead of slowing things down again with Hydro they kept the energy flowing like a raging Colorado river with Sneaking Sally and a spirited Weekapaug to close out this epic set.  Loving Cup and its "I'm the man from the mountain" lyrics made sense on this occasion.  Tweezer Reprise wrapped up a classic weekend of Phish in Colorado.  This was the best Dick's run since 2012 and was the highlight of this current year so far in my opinion.  The sounds of Frank Sinatra sent us off into the night.  Thanks again to Bobbyluv and Erin for letting me stay.  I had a great time.  On Monday I made the 13 hour drive back to Illinois.