10/26-28 Phish @ Allstate Arena - Rosemont, IL

Last Thursday I made the difficult solo drive back from Colorado to Illinois.  The weather was overcast and I listened to the Nebraska movie soundtrack while driving through the Cornhusker State.  I made it home around midnight.  My parents were both waiting up for me.  It was good to see them and my cat, Mattie.

I took I-88 into Chicagoland which is a change of pace.  It reminds me of when we first moved from Glen Ellyn to Geneseo in 1990.  That's the highway we took that day.  This was a return to my original home area with Phish playing in suburban Rosemont.  This was my 5th and 6th time seeing the band in the area formerly known as the Rosemont Horizon.  I stayed at the Hyatt Place with friends from Decatur.  It was nice to be so close to the lot/arena.  We had a good view of the O'hare runways.  Driving through Aurora and being at the end of the runway reminded me of Wayne's World.

Before the Friday show I met a nice guy named Mike from Massachusetts who I was able to talk Phish shop with. It wasn't difficult to call the Punch You in the Eye opener.  It's cool during Martian Monster how they move the lights up and down.  Axilla kept the energy going.  The opening notes of Reba were received by a huge cheer from the 85% full arena.  These were the only midwest Phish shows of the year and I felt the crowd was energetic all weekend.  Reba reached an amazing peak.  The set would continue with a speedy MSO followed by the best Mercury they had played to that point which would transition into the David Bowie cover Moonage Daydream.  Great work from Trey and the entire band.  Walls of the Cave wrapped up a fantastic first set.

When they open the second set with Tweezer you know they're feeling it.  This was a top shelf version that would include a jam based around the second track they played during set II of Halloween the following Wednesday.  This segued into Golden Age which kept the improvisation going before slowing down with the Trey Anastasio/Tom Marshall ballad Frost.  Limb by Limb was a really classy choice after the cooldown.  It built the energy back up slowly and prepared us for the Sand and fun Possum that would finish the set.  Wilson, Tweezer Reprise was a high energy encore.  This was one of the best shows I saw from Phish in 2018.

We spent Saturday relaxing and watching college football.  I checked out the PhanArt show going on in the lobby of our hotel on my way to the nearby Starbucks.  Iowa State defeated Texas Tech and Iowa lost to Penn State so it was a good day.  Before the show I talked with Steve Vollen and caught up with how he had been lately.  It was good to see him.  During the first set I had an unfortunate encounter with a chomper and had to relocate.  This show had a better first set than second set.  Stash had a jam.  Dogs was the second song of the weekend from the 2014 Halloween show I attended.  Blaze On was a better than normal version as Trey hit some powerful peaks.  Vultures was a real treat on this occasion.  I find myself moving through time.  Roses Are Free was a geyser of energy as they crushed the Ween cover.  46 Days kept the rock going.  The tour's only David Bowie was exactly what I was looking for in that slot.

Moma Dance unless it has a jam needs to be confined to the first set.  This was a well explored 25 minute version of NMINML.  Steam is getting played out.  Chalkdust didn't stray far.  I don't mind Joy.  They want us to be happy.  Suzy wasn't really what I was looking for in that spot.  I feel like I had seen that show before with the Rock and Roll encore on a Saturday night.  It was the 5 year anniv of Lou Reed's passing so that was a nice tip of the hat.  This second set left me disappointed.

Sunday was spent watching the Jets v Bears and the Packers v Rams.  Once again the teams I rooted for won.  This first set was rather lackluster.  I don't mean to be harsh but c'mon.  Tube was a better than average version.  That's about all their was to report on.

Carini was the second set opener I wanted but there wasn't much of a jam as they went quickly into No Quarter.  It became apparent the set would be song oriented.  Cities was appropriate with me having recently moved to Longmont, CO.  Find yourself a city to live in.  Jibboo was a good call but less than 10 minutes could have been much more explored.  Twist > What's the Use > Twist wasn't what I was looking for.  It was good to see the end of the show with Sand and Frank.  Shade is one of my favorite Trey ballads.  I did really enjoy the Plasma they played.  Character Zero was a rocker to end the set.  This show needed a Fluffhead encore.  I drove back to my parents house after.  It reminded me of how many times I'd made the drive from the city.  I'm starting to get over Phish.  This was a tough year for the band.  The music had its ups and downs.  Curveball was a great loss.  I'll reassess next year what my involvement with the band will be. 

9/15/18 String Cheese Incident @ Planet Bluegrass Ranch - Lyons, CO

Last Saturday I celebrated my 12th year without drinking by ironically going to a concert put on by Mountain Sun.  This two day event at the Planet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons, CO was known as the Colorado Kynd Festival.  It doesn't get much more Colorado than standing in a mountain stream listening to Yonder Mountain String Band and The String Cheese Incident.  The crowd was very family oriented.  I'm not sure I've ever seen more children at a show.  I was enjoying the Speedy West on the PA system before SCI.  It was good to see Whitney from work and Kacie from Iowa State.  I spent the show with Angelo and his family.  They were very generous and I liked their creek side location on the Kyle side.

The first set was highlighted by Missin' Me > Rivertrance.  I liked the groove that Keith and the drummers built from Illegal > I Know You Rider.  Jen Hartswick did a great job per usual during the songs that she sat in for.  Panama Red and This Must Be the Place were appropriate with me having just moved to nearby Longmont, CO.  I've never seen SCI so close to home.  During Rollover I made my way back to my vehicle.  As the Shake Your Body encore ended I was hitting the road.  That cover was during the awkward years when they were known as The Jacksons just prior to Michael going solo.  Years ago I had a dream about me living in Colorado seeing SCI in a mountain venue.  At some point during this show I thought about how that dream had been realized. 

8/31-9/2 Phish @ Dick's Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City, CO

Following the debacle at Watkins Glen I decided it was time for a change.  I quit my part time job I'd been working and secured a place to live in Longmont, Co with a friend.  On Wednesday August 29th I made the arduous journey across Iowa and Nebraska into Colorado.  I spent the next day relaxing and recovering from the drive.  On Friday I met up with Justin Murphy and his crew from Ohio on the ridge overlooking the soccer fields in the camping area.  It was a nice spot to people watch.  It was good to meet up with the Auburn crew of Pat, Kasha, Ryan, and Heather.  I spent all three shows in the stands with them along with Travis and Nate who made the trip out from Iowa City.

It was good to see familiar vendors in the parking lot.  The Gyro man had the best food on tour this summer.  There were five or six rows of shakedown street in the Dick's Sporting Goods Parking lot.  It was quite the scene for the end of tour finale.  Friday night had a message in the song choices and lyrics that dealt with the Curveball cancellation.  You could tell the band had gone through a huge ordeal.  I dropped off my cans for the food drive and got the commemorative pins.  Upon going into the venue after the soundcheck I bought the event shirt.  I've bought all 8 Dick's Phish event shirts.

I liked the Friday offering.  In the first set there was a well executed Ghost > Crosseyed segue.  Set II was highlight by a strong Mercury, Light pairing.  On Saturday it became somewhat warm in the campgrounds during the day.  They soundchecked Shade which was appropriate.  I liked the first set on Saturday better than the second.  DWD might have been the highlight.  To end the second set there was a strong Slave to the Traffic Light.

Sunday didn't turn out to be the huge end of tour blowout that I expected.  Things fizzled after an interesting Tweezer.  Song selections toward the end of the set and encore left me disappointed.  It was a weird summer.  Alpharetta was great.  Then the devastating situation at Curveball.  Dick's would have been better had they actually played two weeks prior.  I met some good people and had a very good experience.  The next morning I drove back to Longmont to start my next adventure.

8/17-19 Phish Curveball @ Watkins Glen International - Watkins Glen, NY ***CANCELLED***

I was up before the dawn on Wednesday and got on the road at 4:45 am CDT.  My vehicle had been packed since Monday.  I had thought about leaving on Tuesday and cutting up the drive but I decided to hold my horses after hearing about the flooding around Watkins Glen, NY.  The weather was great on Wednesday and Thursday.   I had Sbarro at one of rest stops in Ohio on the way.  My goal was to get to Watkins Glen International by sundown which I accomplished.  This was my third festival at this facility so I was familiar with the lay of the land.  I had a great camping spot in shade atop a hill in a location in Quadratic that was closer than most of the Glen Close camping.  I met all the people camping around me.  Scott and his girlfiend from New York, NY, Dobbs and Tracy from Stowe, VT, and the guys who operate the Black Bear restaurants in Morgantown, WV.  The vibe was great.  Ryan and Heather from Auburn were camped nearby.  From their makeshift living room setup you could see the lights of the stage.  I was having the time of my life. 


Thursday I woke and enjoyed the coffee from the nearby vendor.  There were real bathrooms very close.  I liked the pizza sandwiches the West Virginia guys were cooking.  One wonders how many of those I would have eaten?  Before the soundcheck started I walked over to the gates.  They weren't letting people into the food area.  The security had the gates all ready to go.  They had been told to wait.  4 pm was the scheduled start for the soundcheck.  Phish's buses arrived on site to the cheers of excited fans.  An hour ticked by as I waited for the soundcheck to start.  I was pacing around the campground wondering what the deal was.  Around 5 pm someone walked by and said the festival had been cancelled.  I turned on the onsite radio station The Bunny on 104.9 WNGZ and heard the official announcement about the water being deemed unsafe.  It was like being gutpunched.  I had looked forward to this since January and even before when the festival was in the rumor phase.  After that I didn't feel in the mood to socialize.  I got to sleep as early as I could.  Before it started raining too hard I was able to get my campsite taken down and loaded up.  I got on the road at 6 am CDT.  It took me 14 hours and there were about half a dozen storms I drove through plus Friday rush hour traffic south of Chicago.  It was a long sad drive.  I'll always wonder what could have been?

8/3-5 Phish @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - Alpharetta, GA

I drove on my 37th birthday to Decatur and stayed with my friend Jeff.  It was good to see him. It had been a while since I had visited his lakeside home.  This cut three hours off my drive.  The next morning I was following the lines going south out of Illinois via backroads to I-24 down through Kentucky and into Tennessee.  In Nashville I got on I-65 and headed further south into Alabama and through Birmingham.  Going past Oak Mountain brings back memories of my only Alabama concerts which were Widespread Panic in Pelham April 26-28, 2002.  I stopped at the Bibb St. Pizza for an excellent slice for dinner.  This was where I met up with Pat who was helping his brother Ian get the new location started in Montgomery.  This was the original capital of the Confederacy and my first time there.  I watched some of the Bears vs. Ravens in the first preseason football game at Pat's apartment.  After he got off work we made the journey to his home in Auburn.  This was my first visit since he and Kasha got married.  I liked meeting their new dogs.






The next morning we picked up Ryan and got on the road to Alpharetta.  I hadn't seen Phish in exactly 11 months and was excited to see the band again.  We stayed at the Embassy Suites.  On Friday Brandon and his buddies hung out with us.  We were also joined by Jeff and Kat.  It was good vibes as we took the Uber to the venue. I ended up watching all three nights in section 103.  The weather could have been much warmer for Georgia in August.  First Tube was the last song I saw last summer and turned out to be a great opener on this occasion.  You could tell from the start something was special about Friday in Alpharetta. No Men kept the energy going.  It was the Ghost that would change the game.  This was an excellent version that was the best jam of the  weekend.  I hadn't heard All of the These Dreams in like 15 years.  The song selection in this first set was strong.




I called the Tweezer set two opener.  You could just tell that after a first set like that they would chose their go to jam vehicle.  Blaze On kept the energy going.  It was the Carini that would be the second 20+ minute jam of the night.  The jam went from nasty/dark to blissful.  Winterqueen served as the cooldown but also had some interesting playing that emerged before an emotive version of Harry Hood to end the set.  I was surprised when they didn't follow More with Tweezer Reprise.  The Flamingos "I Only Have Eyes For You" was the walk out song.  This was a top 25 Phish show for me.




Saturday proved to be a very solid follow up to the amazing Friday show.  We were joined by Brandon's wife Jenny and her friend Cara.  Pat and Ryan's wives joined us after the show as they made the drive from Auburn.  We drove to the show on Saturday and Sunday and it proved to work out easier.  There was a very large lot scene.  I bought a sweet Atlanta United/Alpharetta lot shirt.  Everyone was caught off guard with Tweezer Reprise as the second song.  I thought the Divided Sky later in the set was a good version.  Trey teased LA Woman by The Doors during Character Zero.
The second set opened with Crosseyed and Painless but it was the monster version of Soul Planet that would win this day.  Piper was better than usual lately.  I like the late second set placement of Possum, especially in the south.  Slave was a poignant end to the set.  Squirming Coil is their best encore. 


The Sunday show was more playful with You Sexy Thing being brought back from last summer's Baker's Dozen.  Most Events Aren't Planned was cool to see again.  Vultures is an underplayed tune.  Reba is always welcome.  The Golden Age in the second set ended with them doing the Reba whistling.  Mango Song was a major highlight for me.  I was surprised when they played Bathtub Gin so late in the show.  2001 to end the encore was unsual as well.  This was the best 3 night run of Phish that I've seen since Magnaball in 2015.     

7/8/18 Mike Gordon @ Live in Lincoln Park - Chicago, IL

On Sunday I drove Han Solo from Geneseo to Chicago for Live in Lincoln Park.  I parked near my sister's place in Wicker Park and took the CTA to the venue. The weather was unseasonably cool with nothing but clear skies.  The opening act was the remnants of The "original" Wailers.  I didn't mind the familiar reggae songs while I mingled about the festival grounds.  A corner of the expansive park had been fenced off for the weekend event.  They had the sound turned up very loud.  When Mike Gordon's band hit the stage you could feel his bass.  It was awesome to hear my favorite musician from such a close range in a comfortable setting. 


For a Chicago event this was laid back with plenty of room. I talked to NickMo and his expecting wife.  (also their dog).  It was a pet friendly event.  An unexpected part of the night was seeing Katie and Tom who I knew from Iowa City back in college.  It had been at least 10 years since I'd seen them. I liked seeing the show with them and Lindsay Bybee.  Familiar faces from older times. Also, I hadn't hung out with Steve for a few years and it was good to catch up with him.  I was saddened to learn of the passing of his dog, Hugo.  I stayed at his apartment after a lot of shows and he was always well behaved and friendly.  That's the worst part of owning a dog.  It's hard to say goodbye.  Steve's a good guy and I'm glad we were able to watch this one together. 


I liked how the set was a Victim sandwich.  There were several repeats from his show last October at The Metro but I couldn't help but notice how he didn't pander to the crowd with any Phish associated tunes.  He relied on the tightness of his band, the strength of his new OGOGO material, and his own outstanding bass playing to make this a winning set.  It frankly made me excited for Phish tour the way he was playing up there.  He played a Tower of Power cover at one point.  The Murawski sung Sleep to Dream segued into Marissa but the rest of the songs were standalone.  The sun was just going down at 8:50 when the set wrapped up.  I made it home at a reasonable hour.  Bring on Phish Tour. 

6/23/18 Dead & Company @ Alpine Valley Music Theatre - East Troy, WI

I watched the classic Germany v Sweden World Cup battle.  A late Toni Kroos goal saved the Germans late in the match.  Then it was time for Dead & Co. at Alpine Valley.  The drive up was uneventful with mild temperatures and sunny skies.  There was a bit of a traffic backup at the exit off I-43.  Fortunately upon arrival in the yellow lot I was able to find my buddies Frank and Sand fairly easily.  In a crowd of 37,000 they were parked very close to where I was.  It took a long time to enter the facility where there was quite a bottleneck.  We saw our friend Brandon who we went to HS with.  I wasn't thrilled with our spot on the lawn but the sound wasn't bad and we had flat dancing room. 


The show got going with it still being broad daylight with The Music Never Stopped.  This segued into Easy Answers.  Alabama Getaway brought the energy level up.  We liked the Big River with the Davenport reference.  Jack Straw was another highlight of the set.  The guest from Bon Iver didn't really add anything during his guest appearance. We noticed his Northern Exposure shirt. 


I like The Weight as a cover choice but this was bad placement.  The falsetto singing was a bit cheesy as well.  Shakedown Street was when the second set got started.  This was a well explored version and included a "Part Time Lover" tease by Mayer/Oteil.  Althea seems like one of Mayer's favorite Dead tunes.  China > Rider at Alpine Valley felt right.  We went for a walk to the top of the venue.  It felt good to be back in this classic venue.  Drums > Space > Watchtower was my highlight of the show.  Mayer threw in some Jimi Hendrix licks while Weir stayed true to the Dylan original.  The moon was visible above the lawn earlier in the night so Standing on the Moon wasn't entirely unexpected.  Sugar Magnolia was a fun singalong to end the set.  Weir had problems with his microphone.  Everyone knew One More Saturday Night would be the encore.  I beat some of the traffic and got on the road.  This was the least engaging of the three times I've seen Dead & Co.


There was a comical looking old Deadhead on a motorcycle wearing a well worn tie dye tour shirt on I-43 who I passed on the way home.  He could have been on the cover of Shakedown Street.  I made an ill advised run for the border in Beloit.  After I had exited I-88 at Lyndon/Prophetstown I saw four deer on the road in different spots before I reached home which was nerve racking in the foggy conditions.  All told though I was home by 2:30.