Greeting friends. The holidaze are almost upon us again. A time to reunite with friends and family that you haven’t hung with in awhile. But it’s also a great time to see shows, because what better way to celebrate than with your friends and family. So I thought I would revisit some holiday runs that didn’t get a write up the first time around. And who wants to wait until 2029 for an installment of my world famous “It was 20 Years Ago …”series? So, with out further ado, I present for the first time the epic run that was Phish at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, PA 11/24 and 11/25/09.
As I’ve said before, my favorite time of year for Tour is the Fall. The leaves are turning, football season is well under way, and bands return to the arenas and theaters after basking in the sun all summer long. The Fall Tour started only 2 weeks after Festival 8, so the boys were fired up and ready to go. And what better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than with Phish shows in Philly the Tuesday and Wednesday before Turkey Day.
I got my tickets with no real plan how I was gonna proceed. My brother lived right outside of Philly and I thought it would be cool to see my niece and nephews in between the craziness that is Tour. Most of my friends were only going to the Wed show so I made my plans accordingly. Switzer was coming home before the shows. She was going to stay over at Megan’s apartment (yes, this is the same one I have waxed poetically over and over about, mainly on my chronicles about Camden shows). Then early Wed, she was going to shoot over to the airport and pick up her fiancé (now soulmate and husband) Josh and hit the show. She said she needed a ride to Philly, where she had a place to stay, then a ride back to Hanover after the Wed show. Sounds as perfect as can be!
I came down with a nasty cold the Friday before the shows and didn’t even make it through a 7 hour day. When Monday rolled around, I was in no shape to work 12 hours and then do 2 days of Tour. So I called in sick (something I rarely do) to rest up and was in much better shape on Tuesday when we roll out.
We got to the Lots before they even opened. We waited with all the vendors and then rolled in. We had the choice of going left or right and Switzer said right. We got cutoff by some douche bag (Chill out man, its 6 hours until the band goes on and we are already in the Lot.) Some asshole vendor, selling bunk items no doubt. No one directed us so we found a spot 3 or 4 rows off of Shakedown, no need to be right in the middle of all the madness. I like it much more when we can visit and get out of the Lot rather quickly. Switzer’s friend Courtney was going to meet us in the Lot. And where in the Lot? Directly under the light post that said M3. Could it be any easier for peeps to find?
She rolled up and had a hatchback station wagon just like mine. We fashioned a covering out of old ponchos and a cassette deck mp3 adapter that I didn’t use anymore. Just a little bit of old junk in my car and I totally went MacGyver on their asses.
As I stated before, Switzer was staying at Megan’s apartment but Meg didn’t have a ticket. I assured her she would be able to procure one in the Lot at less than face value. You couldn’t give them away at some of the Summer shows. As we wandered around Shakedown, we ran into a typical Italian American Philly Dead Head selling tickets. He was wearing a too tight Dead tie-dye, gold chain and half-assed mustache. I’ve seen a hundred of these guys at shows over the years. Megan flashed her Lot skills by bargaining with the guy and got the ticket for 20 bucks. Mission accomplished!
A few friends showed up, again drawn to us by our beacon of light shining through the darkness of Lot. I had a great conversation with a rabbi I meet who was following Phish. Where else am I going to get advice from my rabbi? A temple?
We make our way inside and got some phatty seats, Fishman’s side, second level and get ready to rage!
Tuesday, 11/24/2009
Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA
Set 1: Chalk Dust Torture, Bathtub Gin, Cities > Camel Walk, The Curtain With, The Wedge, The Moma Dance, Reba[1], Golgi Apparatus, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan
Set 2: Possum > Down with Disease[2] > Twenty Years Later > Harry Hood > The Mango Song > Mike's Song > Simple > Slave to the Traffic Light > Weekapaug Groove[3]
Encore: A Day in the Life
[1] No whistling.
[2] Unfinished.
[3] Slowed down in parts.
Notes: Cities was played in response to a fan with a sign requesting the song and featured alternative lyrics referencing Thanksgiving. Reba did not have the whistling ending. Disease was unfinished. Much of Weekapaug was played at a significantly slower pace than normal. Prior to ADITL, Fish teased the Weekapaug drumbeat.
First set was very high energy. But when isn’t it when Phish plays Philadelphia? I've always felt blessed living so close to a city that bands love to throw down in and tonight was no exception.
We go our separate ways and I make it to my brother’s in one piece where I get a good night’s sleep, hang with my family and recharge. My oldest nephew, Owen, who was 3 at the time, declared he wanted to go because if Uncle Dave likes it, it must be fun. Someday my young padawon, but not this Tour. I can barely take care of myself on the road, let alone a child.
I’m still on I-76 when I get a text from Switzer “Lot M3 bitches”. She got the same exact spot on the Lot. That is why she is HMLL! I reunite with them and this time a band called Flux Capacitor is playing in the lane behind us. Good spots near Shakedown and a live band, hell yes! Andy Miller and some friends somehow scored rooms at the Holiday Inn that is right next door to the arena and they made their way over.
While all this is going on, we are waiting to see what is going on with Switzer’s fiancé Josh. He was supposed to arrive in Philly around noon but was fogged in at the Newark Airport in northern New Jersey. It was only a few hours north of us by car but his flight kept getting delayed because of the foggy, rainy mess that was all over the East Coast.
His luggage was on the plane so he couldn’t just bail on the flight. But we had a plan. Megan was going to pick him up from the airport and take him to the Lot. She knew exactly where to take him because we were in the exact same spot as the night before. He could stash his bag in my car and then meet up with us inside the show. And, as long time readers of my blog no doubt know, I had an extra set of keys for my old car just in case a crazy situation like this one came up. Megan came to the Lot, got my keys, picked up josh from the airport and took him to my car. He put his bag in my car and through the magic of texting, found us inside the show. He ended up only missing half the first set. Not too shabby.
Wednesday, 11/25/2009
Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA
Set 1: Kill Devil Falls, 46 Days, Sugar Shack, Halley's Comet > Divided Sky, Sleep Again, Ocelot, Train Song, Wilson > Run Like an Antelope
Set 2: Birds of a Feather, Farmhouse > Tweezer, You Enjoy Myself, Esther, Time Turns Elastic > Tweezer Reprise
Encore: Oh! Sweet Nuthin'
Notes: During Wilson, Trey implored Mike to take a "heavy metal bass solo" (and Mike complied). The lyrics to Antelope were changed to "Been you to have any Mike, man?" followed by another bass solo from Mike
This show was good until the second set. During the first 2 years of Phish 3.0, a lot of people have rightfully complained about the set flow. Check out second set of Merriweather 8/15/09, the flow just isn’t there. 11/25 was the definition of this. I’m not saying the music wasn’t well played, and they had some nice jams, it just lacked energy. Birds was a good opener, but you could hear the sigh from the crowd when they followed that with Farmhouse. The Tweezer had some nice moments but then just stopped. The Esther really didn’t get anyone dancing and then Time Turns Elastic. I literally heard people groaning and even saw quite a few heading towards the exits. This song is very long (15 min) and when placed in the right spot, it does work. But late in the second set is not the right spot. Trey tacked on the Reprise and then they went off stage.
After a 2 night run in Philly and with everyone heading home to see family the next day, you would think Trey or someone else in the band would have a few words to say before they sent us on our way. They came out and said nothing. They then proceed to play a rather mellow encore, Oh Sweet Nuthin’. The chorus is “You ain’t got nothing at all.” My theory is that Trey was pissed at the crowd’s reactions to some of the songs in the second set and decided to tell them to go fuck off. You don’t know anything. You don’t have anything. Just my theory but based on the way they ended the run, I know I’m right.
Switzer, Josh, and myself made our way back to Hanover after the show. Switzer was spent and passed out but Josh was a trooper, he stayed up the whole way home. We listened to the Dead 12/6/73 from Cleveland, OH. I wanted a desolate show and what area would be more desolate than a show from Cleveland, in the dead of winter. The area was economically reeling in the early 70’s, so what better way than to celebrate Thanksgiving than this show. It does have a 43 min. Dark Star and since I can’t stream archived Phish shows, take a listen to this hidden gem.
http://www.archive.org/details/gd1973-12-06.sbd.miller.105560.flac16
While I’ve been to many a holiday run, this one seemed like it was ready to be written about. If you’re in the Hanover area this coming weekend, a few things are happening. On Sat, Boxcar Social will be kicking out the jams DOWNSATIRS at the Coliseum in Hanover, starting at 10 p.m.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
Ph.D. in Rock and Roll
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
MMW 11/2/11 & Cabinet 11/11/11 Appilachian Brewing Company, Harrisburg, PA
Hello everyone. Hope you are all doing well. I’ve been good other than the awful sickness and total disappointment I am feeling with the whole Penn State scandal. I hate to say it, but almost all of the institutions in the US are rotten. But, the only way to get through all of this is to stop and listen to the music play. And that’s what this entry is all about. I show Harrisburg how it is done with 2 shows in 10 days of non Dead, Phish, or Widespread Panic related music. So get ready to get down with some groovy jazz improv. and some shit kicking bluegrass, Northeast PA region style.
Medenski, Martin, and Wood was playing on a Wed at the Appalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg. ABC is a brewery/restaurant and one of the cooler places I’ve been, with a good selection of food and heady brews. Devolver played there a few times in the Golden Era (2000-2001) but I hadn’t seen anything there until this past April when Hanover’s own Boxcar Social played a private party in the bottling room. http://kempepedia.blogspot.com/2011/04/furthur-4111-hampton-va-boxcar-social.html
I have noticed they have been getting some incredible bands up there so I decided to take the opportunity to see some different bands since there is no Fall Phish Tour and East Coast Furthur tixs are out of my price range. A mid week show is also a super rarity for me. With a traditional Monday through optional Friday work schedule, I never hit midweek shows. My last stand-alone, non-holiday midweek show was Widespread Panic at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC on a Tuesday in 1998. Last midweek holiday show was Phish Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2009.
So I worked a “half day” at my job (5am until noon), go home, power nap, and meet my friend Emily (of the Summer 2011 Furthur Philly show in the hottest heatwave imaginable fame) in Mechanicsburg and pregamed with some of her crew, Kendra and Dimetri. Dimetri had more cool Phish refrig magnets than I knew existed, he even had one for Coventry from 2004. I can just imagine some Head thinking, So Phish is breaking up, I need to sell something at their last show. I know, I’ll sell magnets. Who knew there was such a huge market for non-healing magnets?
Get to the show about a half an hour before the band starts and it’s a nice chill scene. Sign said sold out but there was still plenty of room to shake your tail feather. First set was nice with Wood switching between a double bass and 4 string electric bass. They did the Dizzy Gillespie tune, Caravan, which I’ve seen Phish perform. Second set was all improv and they killed it. Little bit of drunken chaos post show but eventually get rolling and make it home around 2:30. Up 22 hours for the bliss that is live music, 4 hours of sleep and back to the paper tube mine the next morning at 9 am.
So, less than 11 days later, it was time to head back up to The Abbey Bar for some good old fashion Pennsyltucky bluegrass with Cabinet from Wilkes Barre, PA. My Dad was born, raised, and attend Wilkes College in Wilkes Barre. My grandparents lost EVERYTHING in the Flood of ’72 in Wilkes Barre. My brother was born in Wilkes Barre. I grew up outside of Scranton, which is 20 minutes up the road from Wilkes Barre. Needless to say, I have NE PA flowing through my veins, so seeing a bluegrass band from coal country is just what the doctor ordered.
I was meeting Paul (mandolin picker for Boxcar Social) at his crib and then heading up to the show. He wanted to get up there rather early to eat and pregame. He wanted to leave between 5 and 5:30. I get there at 5:20 and he was just getting out of the shower. We had to listen to some Old and in the Way vinyl and eventually got on the road at 6:05. On the way we went under a bridge and there was a slow moving train rolling over it; that will get me in the mood for some old timey music. Did I mention he was supposed to meet his friend Rin and her crew to eat at 6:30? We rolled in Prankster style at 7:05. No one had even ordered yet, all of them waiting on our slack asses.
They finally chow down and we head back to Rin’s crib to chill out. It was in the ghetto of Harrisburg. Whole blocks empty, a whole block with one lonely house on it. Stuff right out of the Wire. I half expected Omar to roll up on us. I’m assuming that the houses burned down during racial unrest at some point in the last 50 years.
While there, we listened to more music on vinyl. Long play records really have come back. Cassettes are NOT coming back, no matter what any half-assed music journalist writes. We make it safely back to the Abbey Bar to meet up with Christie, Christine, and Todd. Did I mention this was Christine’s birthday show? Happy 28th day of birth to the OG HMLL!
The show was sold out but had A LOT more people in it that the sold out show of MMW. I can't give ya a setlist but they ripped it up, even had a drumz segment. I danced so much and so hard my lower back was KILLING me Saturday morning. Also spent most of the night with something on my contact. Tour is rough, I made it until 1:15 but then had to hit the road. I needed a good night's sleep so I could get up early to write all this down for you.
November is shaping up to be a good month. Still ahead; Devolver on Nov. 25th at Kclinger’s and Boxcar Social the following night, Nov 26th at the Coliseum in Hanover. Boxcar will be playing downstairs rather than up in the loft so come on out to check out the new setup.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
Medenski, Martin, and Wood was playing on a Wed at the Appalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg. ABC is a brewery/restaurant and one of the cooler places I’ve been, with a good selection of food and heady brews. Devolver played there a few times in the Golden Era (2000-2001) but I hadn’t seen anything there until this past April when Hanover’s own Boxcar Social played a private party in the bottling room. http://kempepedia.blogspot.com/2011/04/furthur-4111-hampton-va-boxcar-social.html
I have noticed they have been getting some incredible bands up there so I decided to take the opportunity to see some different bands since there is no Fall Phish Tour and East Coast Furthur tixs are out of my price range. A mid week show is also a super rarity for me. With a traditional Monday through optional Friday work schedule, I never hit midweek shows. My last stand-alone, non-holiday midweek show was Widespread Panic at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC on a Tuesday in 1998. Last midweek holiday show was Phish Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2009.
So I worked a “half day” at my job (5am until noon), go home, power nap, and meet my friend Emily (of the Summer 2011 Furthur Philly show in the hottest heatwave imaginable fame) in Mechanicsburg and pregamed with some of her crew, Kendra and Dimetri. Dimetri had more cool Phish refrig magnets than I knew existed, he even had one for Coventry from 2004. I can just imagine some Head thinking, So Phish is breaking up, I need to sell something at their last show. I know, I’ll sell magnets. Who knew there was such a huge market for non-healing magnets?
Get to the show about a half an hour before the band starts and it’s a nice chill scene. Sign said sold out but there was still plenty of room to shake your tail feather. First set was nice with Wood switching between a double bass and 4 string electric bass. They did the Dizzy Gillespie tune, Caravan, which I’ve seen Phish perform. Second set was all improv and they killed it. Little bit of drunken chaos post show but eventually get rolling and make it home around 2:30. Up 22 hours for the bliss that is live music, 4 hours of sleep and back to the paper tube mine the next morning at 9 am.
So, less than 11 days later, it was time to head back up to The Abbey Bar for some good old fashion Pennsyltucky bluegrass with Cabinet from Wilkes Barre, PA. My Dad was born, raised, and attend Wilkes College in Wilkes Barre. My grandparents lost EVERYTHING in the Flood of ’72 in Wilkes Barre. My brother was born in Wilkes Barre. I grew up outside of Scranton, which is 20 minutes up the road from Wilkes Barre. Needless to say, I have NE PA flowing through my veins, so seeing a bluegrass band from coal country is just what the doctor ordered.
I was meeting Paul (mandolin picker for Boxcar Social) at his crib and then heading up to the show. He wanted to get up there rather early to eat and pregame. He wanted to leave between 5 and 5:30. I get there at 5:20 and he was just getting out of the shower. We had to listen to some Old and in the Way vinyl and eventually got on the road at 6:05. On the way we went under a bridge and there was a slow moving train rolling over it; that will get me in the mood for some old timey music. Did I mention he was supposed to meet his friend Rin and her crew to eat at 6:30? We rolled in Prankster style at 7:05. No one had even ordered yet, all of them waiting on our slack asses.
They finally chow down and we head back to Rin’s crib to chill out. It was in the ghetto of Harrisburg. Whole blocks empty, a whole block with one lonely house on it. Stuff right out of the Wire. I half expected Omar to roll up on us. I’m assuming that the houses burned down during racial unrest at some point in the last 50 years.
While there, we listened to more music on vinyl. Long play records really have come back. Cassettes are NOT coming back, no matter what any half-assed music journalist writes. We make it safely back to the Abbey Bar to meet up with Christie, Christine, and Todd. Did I mention this was Christine’s birthday show? Happy 28th day of birth to the OG HMLL!
The show was sold out but had A LOT more people in it that the sold out show of MMW. I can't give ya a setlist but they ripped it up, even had a drumz segment. I danced so much and so hard my lower back was KILLING me Saturday morning. Also spent most of the night with something on my contact. Tour is rough, I made it until 1:15 but then had to hit the road. I needed a good night's sleep so I could get up early to write all this down for you.
November is shaping up to be a good month. Still ahead; Devolver on Nov. 25th at Kclinger’s and Boxcar Social the following night, Nov 26th at the Coliseum in Hanover. Boxcar will be playing downstairs rather than up in the loft so come on out to check out the new setup.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
Friday, October 28, 2011
Phish Halloween 1994
One of my favorite times of the year is Fall. The heat and unbearable humidity of the summer fade to cool crisp nights requiring hoodies, jeans, and socks. College and pro football are well underway and the leaves are turning glorious colors of brown, yellow, and orange. But my favorite thing about Fall is Halloween. Starting with childhood trick or treating, evolving into teenage Mischief Night, until shows and music take center stage, it’s always been about All Hallow’s Eve for me.While many bands put on Halloween shows, few do it with the flair and creativity that Phish does. That’s why I’m proud to present the first full telling of my adventures for my all time, number one show ever: Phish’s Halloween show in Glenn Falls NY, in 1994.
While the Dead always threw down on NYE, Halloween was like a neglected stepchild. In 1985, they opened a show with a Scary Space and brought back Werewolves but didn’t do an epic Halloween show again until 1991. It was 6 days after Bill Graham’s tragic death and featured Ken Kesey coming on the stage to say a few words while the boys opened a door in the space time continum and went back to an Acid Test in 1966.
(Listen to it here, it is truly crazy how insane their playing is. Kesey comes out in the Dark Star before drumz)
http://www.archive.org/details/gd91-10-31.set2.matrix.loy.30699.sbeok.flacf
While Phish had played Halloween shows in the 80’s and ‘90 and ‘91, they hadn’t done a Halloween show for 2 years when they announced they would be donning a musical costume for the 1994 show. They asked fans to vote for an album they should play. The boys emphasized that it could be from any genre (from Sun Ra to Slayer to West Side Story). How do I remember such a detail? I still have the Doniac Schvice. You expected something less?? Child please.
I was attending Penn State at the time. The Dead were still my boys but I was really impressed with the first show I saw on 4/8 at Penn State by Phish and saw them at the Mann Music Center over the summer. When the Fall tour was announced, nothing was really close or doable but my good friend Kristian Boyer said that Halloween would be a worthwhile adventure. Being that Glenn Falls was less than 6 hours from State College, this was definitely doable. My good friend Nad (Nad is not his real name but he is a father now and has other responsibilities so I want to protect him. If you’re smarter than a 5th grader, you’ll be able to figure out who it is by the end of this.)
Nad got on the phone but had no luck through TicketBastard (yup, they sucked ass even back then). He then had the brilliant idea to call the box office of the venue and he got us three tixs. Kristian couldn’t go so another friend Bill Thompson took it. I’m using his full name because he didn’t do anything that would preclude him from becoming President. The night before Nad did an amazing pumpkin carving of Fishman’s face for the coolest jack o’ lantern EVER. Unfortunately, this was back in the analog days and we all didn’t have cell phones or digital cameras and no photos exist of this spectacular creation.
We piled into Nad’s Ford Festiva (for years this car tooled around Hanover with an amazing Jerry levitating a guitar out of a top hat window decal). Bill brought along a bunch of tapes of Phish but Nad only had a radio. So we listened to the song Thriller over and over for most of the journey as every radio station we could find was playing it. Bill had heard a rumor of either Joe's Garage by Frank Zappa or the White Album by the Beatles as the musical costume but I gave little thought as to what they might play.
As some of you know, I grew up outside of Scranton in NE PA. Just driving thru the region brought up warm fuzzy memories of Halloween pasts when all that mattered was how much candy you scored. Whose windows were you going to soap? Who had the best Yoda voice impression? All we saw on the ride up were 7-11’s and Tae Kwon Do schools…Upstate New York is a tough place.. We stopped at a rest stop but the men’s room was closed so Nad used the Women’s room. While in there, a woman walked in to use it as well. Awkward.
We got to the hotel (which had 2 coffee pots for a room that slept 4 people). Bill filled us in on the whole Gamehenge saga and Harpua but I just filed that info away. What were the odds Phish was going to go into any of that?
We get to the lot and Nad sets his pumpkin on a four foot high metal box in the lot. When we walk by later, two Heads are standing on each side of it like demented palace guards. I was dressed as Father Giudo Sardouchi from SNL and Nad was dressed as Elvis. Nad and myself ate a “treat” to get the night started. In 1994, it seemed at every show Nad would do a balloon and pass out flat on his face. Tonight would be no different. While doing a balloon in a Burger King drive thru lane next to the arena, he passed out and woke up to his hands covered in blood. Of course they really weren’t, but what a way to start the night.
A year earlier, Nad sent a photo of himself dressed as Elvis to put on the credit card. He used that card to pay for the tixs. He showed the credit card to get the tixs dressed as Elvis. The clerk almost shit her pants. On the way in, I ran into the Blues Brothers and it was an SNL reunion, without all the coke.
Our seats were two rows away from the glass if a hockey game had been going on. This guy was walking around on the floor strutting along. He was taking huge strides and pumping his arms and suspenders out. He had on really loud rainbow colored pants and a beautifully carved mask that covered his whole head. Nad pointed him out and said that it was Trey. I said yeah right and proceeded to take in all the other freaks that were wondering around us. The lights finally go down and the band hits the stage. My mind gets blown for the first of many times. That guy walking around was TREY!!! Holy shit!! How did Nad see that??? Trey rips his mask off during Frankenstein opener and the place goes apeshit. 5 songs in, they do Harpua with a narration and War Pigs by Sabbath. By now I’m out of my gourd. This is the craziest show I’ve ever seen. I hear the boys teasing other songs within their own songs and think that’s the secret to Phish. They end the first set telling us to get ready for an amazing and long night. I couldn’t even imagine what was next.
Throughout the set break, they’re playing haunted house noises and screams over the PA. Close to midnight, the lights go down and Speak to Me begins over the PA. Holy shit, they’re going to do Dark Side. But then a voice comes over and starts talking about the excitement these boys have brought to NYC over the last two days. Due to my immense pop culture knowledge, I recognize the voice as belonging to Ed Sullivan. Pink Floyd wasn’t on Ed Sullivan??? But THE BEATLES were Oh my God they’re going to do the Beatles. As the screams of the teenage girls enthralled by Beatlemania mix with the screams from the Glenn Falls crowd enthralled with Phish, the boys barrel into Back in the USSR. They’re doing the White Album. I knew this album inside and out. In high school, I did a report on Charles Manson and him using the White Album as justification for his killings back in 1969. My brain exploded and for the next hour and half, I was transported to another dimension where I witnessed the Beatles perform. Not John, Paul, George, and Ringo but the thing that the Beatles represented in all its glory as funneled through the four lads from Vermont.
There’s really no point in me trying to write about what I was experiencing so just think of your favorite musical moment and multiply by one thousand. During Glass Onion, they changed a lyric to work in Guyute and for the line “ The walrus was Paul”, they shown a spotlight on Paul Langudoc and he had 2 drumsticks like walrus teeth, causing Trey to crack up. One other thing I never expected, during Revolution #9, Fishman got naked. WTF!??!?!?!?!?!?!? After that, Page comes to the mike and says they’ll be back for another set. Phew. Need to collect myself.
The third set was no slouch either. Opening with a raging Bowie, CK5 had the lights making it look like we were inside a giant jack o’ lantern. During the Slave, he made the arena bathe in the glow of traffic lights. During Sleeping Monkey, the one keyboard part is nicked from Let It Be. So naturally, I thought they were going to do that album for the encore. It ended with a costume contest and Page thanked us for coming out at 3:20 in the AM. No union overtime at this venue.
Back at the hotel, I finally passed out around 6 AM. Bill forced himself to drink the biggest bottle of Bass I’ve ever seen to get himself to calm down after that mind blowing experience. Back at Penn State, it was a harsh jolt back to reality. No one in dreads, Heads far and few in between. I can clearly remember throwing in a ’78 Dead show with Bertha> Good Lovin’, and it not doing anything for me. It took about two weeks for the show to fade away from my brain and was able to get off to the Dead once again.
So there you have it. I know this was long but what better way to get into the spirit of the season for what this weekend holds
10/31/94 (Mon) Glens Falls Civic Center - Glens Falls, NY
Set 1: Frankenstein, Sparkle, Simple, Divided Sky, Harpua , Julius, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Reba, Golgi Apparatus
Set 2: Speak to Me , Back in the USSR, Dear Prudence, Glass Onion, Ob-La-Di Ob > La-Da, Wild Honey Pie, Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Martha My Dear, I'm So Tired, Blackbird, Piggies, Rocky Raccoon, Don't Pass Me By, Why Don't We Do it in the Road, I Will, Julia, Birthday Jam , Yer Blues, Mother Nature's Son, Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey, Sexy Sadie, Helter Skelter, Long Long Long, Revolution 1, Honey Pie, Savoy Truffle, Cry Baby Cry, Revolution 9 , Good Night
Set 3: David Bowie, Bouncing Around the Room, Slave to the Traffic Light, Rift, Sleeping Monkey, Poor Heart, Run Like an Antelope, E: Amazing Grace, Costume Contest , The Squirming Coil
Dave Kemp
BA in American Studies
PhD in Rock and Roll
While the Dead always threw down on NYE, Halloween was like a neglected stepchild. In 1985, they opened a show with a Scary Space and brought back Werewolves but didn’t do an epic Halloween show again until 1991. It was 6 days after Bill Graham’s tragic death and featured Ken Kesey coming on the stage to say a few words while the boys opened a door in the space time continum and went back to an Acid Test in 1966.
(Listen to it here, it is truly crazy how insane their playing is. Kesey comes out in the Dark Star before drumz)
http://www.archive.org/details/gd91-10-31.set2.matrix.loy.30699.sbeok.flacf
While Phish had played Halloween shows in the 80’s and ‘90 and ‘91, they hadn’t done a Halloween show for 2 years when they announced they would be donning a musical costume for the 1994 show. They asked fans to vote for an album they should play. The boys emphasized that it could be from any genre (from Sun Ra to Slayer to West Side Story). How do I remember such a detail? I still have the Doniac Schvice. You expected something less?? Child please.
I was attending Penn State at the time. The Dead were still my boys but I was really impressed with the first show I saw on 4/8 at Penn State by Phish and saw them at the Mann Music Center over the summer. When the Fall tour was announced, nothing was really close or doable but my good friend Kristian Boyer said that Halloween would be a worthwhile adventure. Being that Glenn Falls was less than 6 hours from State College, this was definitely doable. My good friend Nad (Nad is not his real name but he is a father now and has other responsibilities so I want to protect him. If you’re smarter than a 5th grader, you’ll be able to figure out who it is by the end of this.)
Nad got on the phone but had no luck through TicketBastard (yup, they sucked ass even back then). He then had the brilliant idea to call the box office of the venue and he got us three tixs. Kristian couldn’t go so another friend Bill Thompson took it. I’m using his full name because he didn’t do anything that would preclude him from becoming President. The night before Nad did an amazing pumpkin carving of Fishman’s face for the coolest jack o’ lantern EVER. Unfortunately, this was back in the analog days and we all didn’t have cell phones or digital cameras and no photos exist of this spectacular creation.
We piled into Nad’s Ford Festiva (for years this car tooled around Hanover with an amazing Jerry levitating a guitar out of a top hat window decal). Bill brought along a bunch of tapes of Phish but Nad only had a radio. So we listened to the song Thriller over and over for most of the journey as every radio station we could find was playing it. Bill had heard a rumor of either Joe's Garage by Frank Zappa or the White Album by the Beatles as the musical costume but I gave little thought as to what they might play.
As some of you know, I grew up outside of Scranton in NE PA. Just driving thru the region brought up warm fuzzy memories of Halloween pasts when all that mattered was how much candy you scored. Whose windows were you going to soap? Who had the best Yoda voice impression? All we saw on the ride up were 7-11’s and Tae Kwon Do schools…Upstate New York is a tough place.. We stopped at a rest stop but the men’s room was closed so Nad used the Women’s room. While in there, a woman walked in to use it as well. Awkward.
We got to the hotel (which had 2 coffee pots for a room that slept 4 people). Bill filled us in on the whole Gamehenge saga and Harpua but I just filed that info away. What were the odds Phish was going to go into any of that?
We get to the lot and Nad sets his pumpkin on a four foot high metal box in the lot. When we walk by later, two Heads are standing on each side of it like demented palace guards. I was dressed as Father Giudo Sardouchi from SNL and Nad was dressed as Elvis. Nad and myself ate a “treat” to get the night started. In 1994, it seemed at every show Nad would do a balloon and pass out flat on his face. Tonight would be no different. While doing a balloon in a Burger King drive thru lane next to the arena, he passed out and woke up to his hands covered in blood. Of course they really weren’t, but what a way to start the night.
Our seats were two rows away from the glass if a hockey game had been going on. This guy was walking around on the floor strutting along. He was taking huge strides and pumping his arms and suspenders out. He had on really loud rainbow colored pants and a beautifully carved mask that covered his whole head. Nad pointed him out and said that it was Trey. I said yeah right and proceeded to take in all the other freaks that were wondering around us. The lights finally go down and the band hits the stage. My mind gets blown for the first of many times. That guy walking around was TREY!!! Holy shit!! How did Nad see that??? Trey rips his mask off during Frankenstein opener and the place goes apeshit. 5 songs in, they do Harpua with a narration and War Pigs by Sabbath. By now I’m out of my gourd. This is the craziest show I’ve ever seen. I hear the boys teasing other songs within their own songs and think that’s the secret to Phish. They end the first set telling us to get ready for an amazing and long night. I couldn’t even imagine what was next.
Throughout the set break, they’re playing haunted house noises and screams over the PA. Close to midnight, the lights go down and Speak to Me begins over the PA. Holy shit, they’re going to do Dark Side. But then a voice comes over and starts talking about the excitement these boys have brought to NYC over the last two days. Due to my immense pop culture knowledge, I recognize the voice as belonging to Ed Sullivan. Pink Floyd wasn’t on Ed Sullivan??? But THE BEATLES were Oh my God they’re going to do the Beatles. As the screams of the teenage girls enthralled by Beatlemania mix with the screams from the Glenn Falls crowd enthralled with Phish, the boys barrel into Back in the USSR. They’re doing the White Album. I knew this album inside and out. In high school, I did a report on Charles Manson and him using the White Album as justification for his killings back in 1969. My brain exploded and for the next hour and half, I was transported to another dimension where I witnessed the Beatles perform. Not John, Paul, George, and Ringo but the thing that the Beatles represented in all its glory as funneled through the four lads from Vermont.
You can stream the show here
There’s really no point in me trying to write about what I was experiencing so just think of your favorite musical moment and multiply by one thousand. During Glass Onion, they changed a lyric to work in Guyute and for the line “ The walrus was Paul”, they shown a spotlight on Paul Langudoc and he had 2 drumsticks like walrus teeth, causing Trey to crack up. One other thing I never expected, during Revolution #9, Fishman got naked. WTF!??!?!?!?!?!?!? After that, Page comes to the mike and says they’ll be back for another set. Phew. Need to collect myself.
The third set was no slouch either. Opening with a raging Bowie, CK5 had the lights making it look like we were inside a giant jack o’ lantern. During the Slave, he made the arena bathe in the glow of traffic lights. During Sleeping Monkey, the one keyboard part is nicked from Let It Be. So naturally, I thought they were going to do that album for the encore. It ended with a costume contest and Page thanked us for coming out at 3:20 in the AM. No union overtime at this venue.
Back at the hotel, I finally passed out around 6 AM. Bill forced himself to drink the biggest bottle of Bass I’ve ever seen to get himself to calm down after that mind blowing experience. Back at Penn State, it was a harsh jolt back to reality. No one in dreads, Heads far and few in between. I can clearly remember throwing in a ’78 Dead show with Bertha> Good Lovin’, and it not doing anything for me. It took about two weeks for the show to fade away from my brain and was able to get off to the Dead once again.
So there you have it. I know this was long but what better way to get into the spirit of the season for what this weekend holds
10/31/94 (Mon) Glens Falls Civic Center - Glens Falls, NY
Set 1: Frankenstein, Sparkle, Simple, Divided Sky, Harpua , Julius, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Reba, Golgi Apparatus
Set 2: Speak to Me , Back in the USSR, Dear Prudence, Glass Onion, Ob-La-Di Ob > La-Da, Wild Honey Pie, Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Martha My Dear, I'm So Tired, Blackbird, Piggies, Rocky Raccoon, Don't Pass Me By, Why Don't We Do it in the Road, I Will, Julia, Birthday Jam , Yer Blues, Mother Nature's Son, Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey, Sexy Sadie, Helter Skelter, Long Long Long, Revolution 1, Honey Pie, Savoy Truffle, Cry Baby Cry, Revolution 9 , Good Night
Set 3: David Bowie, Bouncing Around the Room, Slave to the Traffic Light, Rift, Sleeping Monkey, Poor Heart, Run Like an Antelope, E: Amazing Grace, Costume Contest , The Squirming Coil
Dave Kemp
BA in American Studies
PhD in Rock and Roll
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Furthur 10/8/11 Monterey, CA
Greetings everyone. Hope you all have had a good fall so far. I’ve taken a mini hiatus from Kempepedia for a few weeks. My mom had successful heart valve surgery at the beginning of September so that took up some time. I’ve haven’t been too happy with some of my composing so I needed a little bit of distance from the weekly deadline of making copy. But now I’m back and gonna try an every other week schedule. And what am I coming back with? Not much, just my first West Coast, Northern Cali, San Fran, Haight Asbury experience. So strap in, ‘cause my long strange trip is about to begin.
Furthur announced they were playing 2 nights at the Monterey County Fairgrounds back in July. Switzer and Josh immediately decided they were going out to visit our friends Delorean and Courtney. Delorean has lived in San Fran for about 5 years. Courtney moved out there this year after living in Burlington, VT. I checked out flights but it was way out of my budget. Plus, my hours at work had been cut so my bottom line was hurting for certain. But then our friend Megan decided to go out with them. She can get a good deal on Standby tickets through Southwest Airlines.
During the last week in August, Switzer and Megan were in town for a funeral. They stopped over to sell me on going out to the show. I now know how potential clients felt when Don Draper sits across from them. They made their pitch and I was sold. Suddenly, it actually seemed possible, I’d finally make it out to the West Coast for a show. I’ve never been to California, let alone San Fran. I’ve visited Seattle back in 1998 for an April celebration, The closest I’ve come to seeing a show out West was Phil at Red Rocks back in 2001. This could actually happen
First, my mom had to have heart valve surgery. She’s had this hacking cough for almost a dozen years. She never smoked and my dad had quit cigs back in 1970. They diagnosed it as asthma but it continued to get worse. In August, she had really long attacks for 3 consecutive days. She went to the ER and they discovered fluid in her lungs. They traced it to blood leaking from her heart valve. Every time her heart pumped, she lost 40% of her blood, most of which was going into her lungs, thus causing the coughing. She was given the option of 9/9 or 9/26. She choose the earlier date to get it out of the way. This also dovetailed nicely with the Furthur show on Oct 8.
The operation was successful and since she isn’t obese, diabetic, or suffering from heart disease, her recovery went pretty smoothly. Switzer and Josh were flying out Thursday. Megan couldn’t get off Friday so she took a half-day. I meet her at her place of employment and we hopped in a cab for a quick ride to the Philly airport for our 3:25 flight. Now our tickets were standby, so we were not guaranteed any seats. We had to hope people wouldn’t show up or there were seats available right as it was ready to leave the gate. We were able to get on an earlier flight with a stopover in Chicago. Then it was on to LA, switch planes and finally make it to San Francisco. We didn’t have to deplane in Chicago and got the seats right in the front of the plane? Why is this a big deal? LEG ROOM. It was like they took out the row of seats in front of us. Almost as good as first class. And why not, I am on Tour.
We land in LA with enough time for Megan to go out and smoke a cig and go through airport security all over again. It was only an hour flight north but by now I was tired of traveling, cramped quarters, and all of the other joys of airplane travel. We landed in San Fran and jumped on the BART (their version of the subway) and come up from the station to grab a bus. We are immediately in an urban setting of any American city. Bunch of “thugs” hanging out, listening to shitty Rick Ross hip-hop
(Side note: Just watched Planet Rock: Hip hop and the Crack Generation. Amazing doc by Ice Mutherfuckin’ T. Rick Ross stole his persona and name from Freeway Ricky Ross, the kingpin of the LA crack trade in the 80’s. Rick Ross the rapper was a corrections officer before he became a poser. Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post)
A bunch of homeless people and the ever present stench of urine, spoiled food and who knows what else. Welcome to the Mission District. We waited for a bus and hopped on. A woman across from me dropped her pill bottle of medicinal pot. She remarked it would have sucked to lose her medicine. Yes, it most certainly would have. Switzer told me the stop for Delorean’s apartment was Haight and Cole St. Did I mention Delorean’s apartment is smack dab in the middle of the Haight Ashbury neighborhood? 2 blocks from the Golden Gate Park and the most famous intersection on the West Coast.
So we were on the bus for a good 30 minutes. Street after street rolled by. Finally crossed Ashbury so I knew we were getting closer. We came to Haight Street and we got off. At this point, I didn’t care how far I had to walk on the Haight, I just wanted to get off the bus. So we get off the bus and I realize I’m at the corner of HAIGHT and ASHBURY. Wow! Getting goosebumps as I type. Finally, I’ve made it. I got off the bus to see where people got on the Bus. Not too many people around, but the funky vibe is unmistakeable. We walk maybe 3 blocks to get to Page Street where Delorean and Courtney’s apartment is located. Josh meets us outside. It’s on the second floor and we go up one of the widest staircases I’ve ever seen in an apartment. It has 4 bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. What was the living room is now Courtney’s room. Not a lot of space but it is rather centrally located. They had dinner cooking and I finally got to chill out.
When I was getting the final details about the trip earlier in the week, Megan mentioned that there is a dress code for flying on standby tickets. She said it was business casual which might have been Chinese for all my fashion sense. She said slacks, nice shirt, maybe a tie and dress shoes. She found out Thursday night that dress shoes were not required but I still decided I was going to blow minds when I got to San Fran. So I wore one of my 2 Jerry Garcia ties with patterns on them from his paintings. Megan wore jeans with a top that highlighted her cleavage. Still not sure if the dress code thing was a joke but I do clean up nicely. Josh joked that Megan wanted it to look like I was her bodyguard.
We just hung out at the apartment Friday night. Delorean and Rachael (from my Tower Theatre and Hampton Furthur shows in the spring) had already gone down to the shows. So Friday night was just about recharging the batteries. I had woken up at 3:45 AM EST and never got back to sleep. It was 12:30 AM PST, so I had been up something like 23 hours, flown 3000 miles on 3 planes, and ready to sleep the sleep of the Dead. Because tomorrow it was all about going FURTHUR!
We got up to be greeted by fog rolling in from the Bay. Josh and myself headed out to go across town to get the rental car. And what kind of rental did we get? A VW Bettle? A VW Bus since you are in San Fran? Nope. How about a 2011 Mitsubishi Spyder convertible. Talk about a sweet ride. We got in, put the top down and headed out. The radio was on and Lady Gaga was playing. We were just 2 guys cruising around SF with the top down and Lady Gaga playing. Could anything be more San Franciscan that that?
Driving out of the city, up and down the hills and making crazy turns left and right, all accompanied by some breath taking views of the city. Switzer had brought a copy of Phish covering Exile on Main Street because that’s what she wanted to hear rolling down the Coast. Not aware of her plans, I had put the same set but an 8-channel matrix recording on my Ipod. Cameron Crowe can suck it. Josh with his cougar slaying eyes, Switzer’s dreads and flat brim, my beard going on 6 weeks range free, and Meg looking like Jackie O crossed with Thelma from Thelma and Louise, we hit the road like escapees from an insane asylum.
We were so set. The drive down the Pacific Coast highway was mindblowingly beautiful. The Pacific to my right and amazing mountains to my left. When we went through some fog it was freezing. Then we would hit sun and be basking in the California sunshine. Megan said my description of the fog “That fog on the twisty part of the highway was fucking cold” was the academic statement of the weekend; I concur.
We stopped by a beach to chill out. Incredible view of the ocean. Got moving again on our way down to Santa Cruz and the Staff of Life Co-op. Fantastic food. Heady local brews and post show food was procured. I highly recommend the Shepherd’s Pie. They had veggie bacon. I ate some of it but the sandwich had overwhelmed my over processed taste buds. Back on the road and to the show.
The show was held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. Monterey is about 2.5 hours south of San Francisco, the hotel Delorean got was like a 6-minute walk. Mad props to her. I had my doubts but we all survived.
The Lot was actually on the street. There was a parking field but they wouldn’t let anyone on it. How East Coast of them. But in all seriousness, it was a great scene. Lots of older, wiser Heads. I recognized one guy vending from the East Coast. He was at Camden this year and I asked to buy one wrap. He made it up and said, ”You wanted 2 right?” Nice try but this ain’t my first show.
Nice vibes in the Lot until much later. Met some guy named Bear. Met a kid named James, only 22 but playing the Warlock’s demo from 11/65. I commented on it and we shot the shit for 15 minutes. A bluegrass band got set up in one lot. The poses were similar to my amazing Old and in the Way hoodie, which didn’t even get remarked upon. That hoodie’s awesomeness is the NORM out there. Get inside and TCB. Delorean ran into some heady parents of a girl she used to train for swimming. Real homey vibe. West Coast Furthur is where it’s at!
10/8/11 Monterey County Fairgrounds, Monterey, CA
Set 1 Stranger, Althea, Good Morning Little School Girl, No More Do I > FOTD, Viola Lee Blues> Comes A Time>Throwing Stones
Set 2 Golden Road>Shakedown St>Truckin’>Let It Grow>All Along the Watchtower>Morning Dew>Help On the Way>Slipknot> The Eleven> Franklin’s Tower
Donor Rap, One More Sat Night
You can stream the show here
http://www.archive.org/details/Further2011-10-08.Further-Monterey-10-08-11
Always get a Stranger opener in an area you’ve never seen a show before. The Friend of the Devil was really good with the extra harmonies. Viola Lee, The Golden Road, Morning Dew, and Schoolgirl were all from the era of 1965-67, when they lived on 710 Asbury St. Nice touch boys. Comes a Time was EPIC. The whole second set was mind blowing. Just what I needed. While representing the Steelers on the West Coast with my hat, ran into 2 fans. And one guy from Green Bay who was busting my balls in a good way.
After meeting a lot of different Heads before and during the show, it finally wound down and we headed out to the Lot. As I’ve noted before, I always find the vibe post show a little darker. The anticipation of the show is gone. The addicts are looking for their next fix. We were hanging out near Nitrous Central. There were at least 3 different tanks going and overall a chill scene. The cops were nowhere to be found. Then out of the constant din of tanks hissing and the occasional popped balloon, all hell broke loose. Two guys were throwing punches at each other. The one guy started choking the other and fell into a few of the tanks as they struggled. Wow, how East Coast of them. But then again, California did give us Altamont. Honestly, it looked like something off the Camden lot during the Phish 2.0 era. We announced we were getting the fuck out of there and someone remarked in all nitrous seriousness, “Why would you want to get out of here?” That almost doesn’t even deserve a comment.
We hung out at the hotel and chilled with our neighbors. Meet some chick named Jessica who busted her ass to amass some cash and now was just traveling around the country. Really reminded me of some of the Heads I used to meet on Tour. A lot tougher to do that with the prices and economy in 2011 than it was in 1993. We managed to get a few hours of sleep. Then breakfast at Denny’s and we hit the road to go back to San Fran.
Our last day in the City by the Bay was all about the touristy stuff. We went down to Fisherman’s Wharf after waiting for 3 different buses and finally hopping on the BART train. We had an amazing view of the Bay as the sunset. We had the Bay Bridge on our right and the Golden Gate Bridge on our left, with the hills of Marin County directly in front of us. What a vivid visual to cap off an incredible weekend.
We got up at 3:45 AM to get a cab at 4:15 AM to get us to the airport by 4:45 AM. I reserved a cab the day before but was very paranoid if it was going to show up. While waiting for it, a cab from another company showed up. I grabbed him and then waited for Megan to come down. Of course, a minute later the cab I called for showed up. He was rather pissed and I pointed out he was not there at 4:15 so I grabbed the first available cab I found. Had to get a little East Coast on his ass and he did likewise, said a few things and left.
We made it to the airport with time to spare. We got to the gate for our flight and Megan asked how it looked for the Standby tickets. The woman behind the counter remarked, “It could happen.” They had one seat for Megan and maybe one for me. The owner of the seat had checked in but hadn’t made it through security yet. Or he was in the bathroom with some explosive diarrhea. Or he was getting shit faced at a bar that is open at 5:55 in the AM. But when the clock said 6:04, and the plane was ready to leave at 6:05, they looked down the hallway for any runners. When no one was galloping down the hall, I jumped on board, the door shut and we were rolling away from the gate. I hope his checked bag wasn’t on the flight.
Our original “schedule” had us getting into Chicago and then a 4-hour layover for a flight to Philly. We ended up deplaning at Gate 8. Megan walked to the employee working Gate 9 and asked how it looked for us to get on the flight that was leaving in 4 hours. She then noticed the plane at Gate 9 was going to Philly and leaving in 5 minutes. When asked, the employee replied there were plenty of seats. We hopped on and got to Philly at 3:35 EST. Much better than getting in at 7:30. I could not but keep laughing at our tremendous fortune. Megan remarked that it isn’t usually this smooth and she has spent many a time crying at some out of the way airport, as she had to wait hours for a flight with space for her. I remarked we were on Tour and that’s how things fall into place for me.
Got back into an East Coast state of mind and hit the Turnpike to get back home. Just got through before the normal bullshit of rush hour and got home at a decent time. Took a couple of days to punch this out but am really happy with the result. Thanks again to Courtney and Delorean for their unlimited hospitality. Until we meet again San Fran, thank you for the memories and I’ll see the rest of you on the Road.
Dave Kemp
BA in American Studies
Ph.D. in Rock and Roll
Furthur announced they were playing 2 nights at the Monterey County Fairgrounds back in July. Switzer and Josh immediately decided they were going out to visit our friends Delorean and Courtney. Delorean has lived in San Fran for about 5 years. Courtney moved out there this year after living in Burlington, VT. I checked out flights but it was way out of my budget. Plus, my hours at work had been cut so my bottom line was hurting for certain. But then our friend Megan decided to go out with them. She can get a good deal on Standby tickets through Southwest Airlines.
During the last week in August, Switzer and Megan were in town for a funeral. They stopped over to sell me on going out to the show. I now know how potential clients felt when Don Draper sits across from them. They made their pitch and I was sold. Suddenly, it actually seemed possible, I’d finally make it out to the West Coast for a show. I’ve never been to California, let alone San Fran. I’ve visited Seattle back in 1998 for an April celebration, The closest I’ve come to seeing a show out West was Phil at Red Rocks back in 2001. This could actually happen
First, my mom had to have heart valve surgery. She’s had this hacking cough for almost a dozen years. She never smoked and my dad had quit cigs back in 1970. They diagnosed it as asthma but it continued to get worse. In August, she had really long attacks for 3 consecutive days. She went to the ER and they discovered fluid in her lungs. They traced it to blood leaking from her heart valve. Every time her heart pumped, she lost 40% of her blood, most of which was going into her lungs, thus causing the coughing. She was given the option of 9/9 or 9/26. She choose the earlier date to get it out of the way. This also dovetailed nicely with the Furthur show on Oct 8.
The operation was successful and since she isn’t obese, diabetic, or suffering from heart disease, her recovery went pretty smoothly. Switzer and Josh were flying out Thursday. Megan couldn’t get off Friday so she took a half-day. I meet her at her place of employment and we hopped in a cab for a quick ride to the Philly airport for our 3:25 flight. Now our tickets were standby, so we were not guaranteed any seats. We had to hope people wouldn’t show up or there were seats available right as it was ready to leave the gate. We were able to get on an earlier flight with a stopover in Chicago. Then it was on to LA, switch planes and finally make it to San Francisco. We didn’t have to deplane in Chicago and got the seats right in the front of the plane? Why is this a big deal? LEG ROOM. It was like they took out the row of seats in front of us. Almost as good as first class. And why not, I am on Tour.
We land in LA with enough time for Megan to go out and smoke a cig and go through airport security all over again. It was only an hour flight north but by now I was tired of traveling, cramped quarters, and all of the other joys of airplane travel. We landed in San Fran and jumped on the BART (their version of the subway) and come up from the station to grab a bus. We are immediately in an urban setting of any American city. Bunch of “thugs” hanging out, listening to shitty Rick Ross hip-hop
(Side note: Just watched Planet Rock: Hip hop and the Crack Generation. Amazing doc by Ice Mutherfuckin’ T. Rick Ross stole his persona and name from Freeway Ricky Ross, the kingpin of the LA crack trade in the 80’s. Rick Ross the rapper was a corrections officer before he became a poser. Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post)
A bunch of homeless people and the ever present stench of urine, spoiled food and who knows what else. Welcome to the Mission District. We waited for a bus and hopped on. A woman across from me dropped her pill bottle of medicinal pot. She remarked it would have sucked to lose her medicine. Yes, it most certainly would have. Switzer told me the stop for Delorean’s apartment was Haight and Cole St. Did I mention Delorean’s apartment is smack dab in the middle of the Haight Ashbury neighborhood? 2 blocks from the Golden Gate Park and the most famous intersection on the West Coast.
So we were on the bus for a good 30 minutes. Street after street rolled by. Finally crossed Ashbury so I knew we were getting closer. We came to Haight Street and we got off. At this point, I didn’t care how far I had to walk on the Haight, I just wanted to get off the bus. So we get off the bus and I realize I’m at the corner of HAIGHT and ASHBURY. Wow! Getting goosebumps as I type. Finally, I’ve made it. I got off the bus to see where people got on the Bus. Not too many people around, but the funky vibe is unmistakeable. We walk maybe 3 blocks to get to Page Street where Delorean and Courtney’s apartment is located. Josh meets us outside. It’s on the second floor and we go up one of the widest staircases I’ve ever seen in an apartment. It has 4 bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. What was the living room is now Courtney’s room. Not a lot of space but it is rather centrally located. They had dinner cooking and I finally got to chill out.
When I was getting the final details about the trip earlier in the week, Megan mentioned that there is a dress code for flying on standby tickets. She said it was business casual which might have been Chinese for all my fashion sense. She said slacks, nice shirt, maybe a tie and dress shoes. She found out Thursday night that dress shoes were not required but I still decided I was going to blow minds when I got to San Fran. So I wore one of my 2 Jerry Garcia ties with patterns on them from his paintings. Megan wore jeans with a top that highlighted her cleavage. Still not sure if the dress code thing was a joke but I do clean up nicely. Josh joked that Megan wanted it to look like I was her bodyguard.
We just hung out at the apartment Friday night. Delorean and Rachael (from my Tower Theatre and Hampton Furthur shows in the spring) had already gone down to the shows. So Friday night was just about recharging the batteries. I had woken up at 3:45 AM EST and never got back to sleep. It was 12:30 AM PST, so I had been up something like 23 hours, flown 3000 miles on 3 planes, and ready to sleep the sleep of the Dead. Because tomorrow it was all about going FURTHUR!
We got up to be greeted by fog rolling in from the Bay. Josh and myself headed out to go across town to get the rental car. And what kind of rental did we get? A VW Bettle? A VW Bus since you are in San Fran? Nope. How about a 2011 Mitsubishi Spyder convertible. Talk about a sweet ride. We got in, put the top down and headed out. The radio was on and Lady Gaga was playing. We were just 2 guys cruising around SF with the top down and Lady Gaga playing. Could anything be more San Franciscan that that?
Driving out of the city, up and down the hills and making crazy turns left and right, all accompanied by some breath taking views of the city. Switzer had brought a copy of Phish covering Exile on Main Street because that’s what she wanted to hear rolling down the Coast. Not aware of her plans, I had put the same set but an 8-channel matrix recording on my Ipod. Cameron Crowe can suck it. Josh with his cougar slaying eyes, Switzer’s dreads and flat brim, my beard going on 6 weeks range free, and Meg looking like Jackie O crossed with Thelma from Thelma and Louise, we hit the road like escapees from an insane asylum.
We were so set. The drive down the Pacific Coast highway was mindblowingly beautiful. The Pacific to my right and amazing mountains to my left. When we went through some fog it was freezing. Then we would hit sun and be basking in the California sunshine. Megan said my description of the fog “That fog on the twisty part of the highway was fucking cold” was the academic statement of the weekend; I concur.
We stopped by a beach to chill out. Incredible view of the ocean. Got moving again on our way down to Santa Cruz and the Staff of Life Co-op. Fantastic food. Heady local brews and post show food was procured. I highly recommend the Shepherd’s Pie. They had veggie bacon. I ate some of it but the sandwich had overwhelmed my over processed taste buds. Back on the road and to the show.
The show was held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. Monterey is about 2.5 hours south of San Francisco, the hotel Delorean got was like a 6-minute walk. Mad props to her. I had my doubts but we all survived.
The Lot was actually on the street. There was a parking field but they wouldn’t let anyone on it. How East Coast of them. But in all seriousness, it was a great scene. Lots of older, wiser Heads. I recognized one guy vending from the East Coast. He was at Camden this year and I asked to buy one wrap. He made it up and said, ”You wanted 2 right?” Nice try but this ain’t my first show.
Nice vibes in the Lot until much later. Met some guy named Bear. Met a kid named James, only 22 but playing the Warlock’s demo from 11/65. I commented on it and we shot the shit for 15 minutes. A bluegrass band got set up in one lot. The poses were similar to my amazing Old and in the Way hoodie, which didn’t even get remarked upon. That hoodie’s awesomeness is the NORM out there. Get inside and TCB. Delorean ran into some heady parents of a girl she used to train for swimming. Real homey vibe. West Coast Furthur is where it’s at!
10/8/11 Monterey County Fairgrounds, Monterey, CA
Set 1 Stranger, Althea, Good Morning Little School Girl, No More Do I > FOTD, Viola Lee Blues> Comes A Time>Throwing Stones
Set 2 Golden Road>Shakedown St>Truckin’>Let It Grow>All Along the Watchtower>Morning Dew>Help On the Way>Slipknot> The Eleven> Franklin’s Tower
Donor Rap, One More Sat Night
You can stream the show here
http://www.archive.org/details/Further2011-10-08.Further-Monterey-10-08-11
Always get a Stranger opener in an area you’ve never seen a show before. The Friend of the Devil was really good with the extra harmonies. Viola Lee, The Golden Road, Morning Dew, and Schoolgirl were all from the era of 1965-67, when they lived on 710 Asbury St. Nice touch boys. Comes a Time was EPIC. The whole second set was mind blowing. Just what I needed. While representing the Steelers on the West Coast with my hat, ran into 2 fans. And one guy from Green Bay who was busting my balls in a good way.
After meeting a lot of different Heads before and during the show, it finally wound down and we headed out to the Lot. As I’ve noted before, I always find the vibe post show a little darker. The anticipation of the show is gone. The addicts are looking for their next fix. We were hanging out near Nitrous Central. There were at least 3 different tanks going and overall a chill scene. The cops were nowhere to be found. Then out of the constant din of tanks hissing and the occasional popped balloon, all hell broke loose. Two guys were throwing punches at each other. The one guy started choking the other and fell into a few of the tanks as they struggled. Wow, how East Coast of them. But then again, California did give us Altamont. Honestly, it looked like something off the Camden lot during the Phish 2.0 era. We announced we were getting the fuck out of there and someone remarked in all nitrous seriousness, “Why would you want to get out of here?” That almost doesn’t even deserve a comment.
We hung out at the hotel and chilled with our neighbors. Meet some chick named Jessica who busted her ass to amass some cash and now was just traveling around the country. Really reminded me of some of the Heads I used to meet on Tour. A lot tougher to do that with the prices and economy in 2011 than it was in 1993. We managed to get a few hours of sleep. Then breakfast at Denny’s and we hit the road to go back to San Fran.
Our last day in the City by the Bay was all about the touristy stuff. We went down to Fisherman’s Wharf after waiting for 3 different buses and finally hopping on the BART train. We had an amazing view of the Bay as the sunset. We had the Bay Bridge on our right and the Golden Gate Bridge on our left, with the hills of Marin County directly in front of us. What a vivid visual to cap off an incredible weekend.
We got up at 3:45 AM to get a cab at 4:15 AM to get us to the airport by 4:45 AM. I reserved a cab the day before but was very paranoid if it was going to show up. While waiting for it, a cab from another company showed up. I grabbed him and then waited for Megan to come down. Of course, a minute later the cab I called for showed up. He was rather pissed and I pointed out he was not there at 4:15 so I grabbed the first available cab I found. Had to get a little East Coast on his ass and he did likewise, said a few things and left.
We made it to the airport with time to spare. We got to the gate for our flight and Megan asked how it looked for the Standby tickets. The woman behind the counter remarked, “It could happen.” They had one seat for Megan and maybe one for me. The owner of the seat had checked in but hadn’t made it through security yet. Or he was in the bathroom with some explosive diarrhea. Or he was getting shit faced at a bar that is open at 5:55 in the AM. But when the clock said 6:04, and the plane was ready to leave at 6:05, they looked down the hallway for any runners. When no one was galloping down the hall, I jumped on board, the door shut and we were rolling away from the gate. I hope his checked bag wasn’t on the flight.
Our original “schedule” had us getting into Chicago and then a 4-hour layover for a flight to Philly. We ended up deplaning at Gate 8. Megan walked to the employee working Gate 9 and asked how it looked for us to get on the flight that was leaving in 4 hours. She then noticed the plane at Gate 9 was going to Philly and leaving in 5 minutes. When asked, the employee replied there were plenty of seats. We hopped on and got to Philly at 3:35 EST. Much better than getting in at 7:30. I could not but keep laughing at our tremendous fortune. Megan remarked that it isn’t usually this smooth and she has spent many a time crying at some out of the way airport, as she had to wait hours for a flight with space for her. I remarked we were on Tour and that’s how things fall into place for me.
Got back into an East Coast state of mind and hit the Turnpike to get back home. Just got through before the normal bullshit of rush hour and got home at a decent time. Took a couple of days to punch this out but am really happy with the result. Thanks again to Courtney and Delorean for their unlimited hospitality. Until we meet again San Fran, thank you for the memories and I’ll see the rest of you on the Road.
Dave Kemp
BA in American Studies
Ph.D. in Rock and Roll
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Tales from the Devolver Side 9/14 and 9/15 2001
I hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. Mine was quite fine but today I’m not gonna write about my past weekend. I want to travel back 10 years to another weekend. In light of the avalanche of 9/11 coverage and remembrance we’re about to get this weekend; here is my take on all that went down, but viewed through our local scene. I will tell you why Sept. 14th and 15th were the most important Devolver shows ever.
Things were pretty good in the Devolver world at this point. They were playing a lot of shows, almost every Friday and Saturday for most of the summer. I felt the band was progressing musically while still coming up with new songs. September had a full lineup. There had been a show Labor Day weekend at Michaels’, (formerly the Hillside Tavern, now a flea market/church/diner?!?!?) a place I thought could become a new local monthly stop based on the turnout.
They played a free show the following Sunday at the Codorous bandshell. Weather was nice and the turnout was OK. It started off with an acoustic set and then the usual electric madness that Devolver is known for.
9/9/01 Codorous Bandshell, Hanover, PA
Set 1 : Powderfinger, Loser, ADITL, Waiting to get into Heaven, Dock of the Bay, GDTRFB, Bogey> The Weight
Set 2: Surprise Surprise, Applecart >Glasshawk, Golden Years, Shutdown, Sunday Paper, Laughing Clown, Waiting by the Sand, Super Mario Bros>The Castle>Water Theme> Super Mario Bros, Psycho Killer*>Drumz**>Turnaround, Edge
*w/ Johnny Mondragon, ** w/ Don and Coleman
We got back to Dan and Adrian’s after the show in the early evening to just chill out. That was when we got word that Terry Bown had died in a car accident the night before. He was a part of the Devolver crew before I knew Devolver.
I first met Terry when I had been working at Weis Markets, part time after I graduated from Penn State in 1995. That was the same period I would meet Flick and Andy Miller. I had contact with Terry off and on from the time period of Weis until I met the Devolver crew. One of my fondest and funniest memories is running into him randomly at Nell’s. He was tripping so we went back to my place to chill out. We watched part of the original Planet of the Apes and that blew his mind, what with the heavy metaphors about race relations.
Needless to say, everyone was hurting from the death of someone so young and before we could really process it, Sept. 11th happened. I listened to it transpire on the Howard Stern show that morning and later going out for GD Night at Kclinger’s. People were out but mostly with the same stunned expression on their faces.
Terry’s funeral was Thursday and Devolver already had a show scheduled for that Friday at Lupita’s. Saturday was a private party at Martz’s in New Oxford, so at least everything was local. Adrian suggested I bring in the giant American flag I have hanging in my living room for the Lupita’s show. The band dressed up in Hawaiian t-shirts as a tribute to Terry; they were a favorite of his. They even did a version of Sabrosa by the Beastie Boys. It was one of his favorite tracks.
9/14/01 Lupita’s, Hanover, PA
Set 1 :Bogey>Dehydration>Bubblespeak>Dehydration>L. Clown>Highway 29, Glasshwk> Looking Blind>Everything>Glasshawk, Side, Golden Years, Sabrosa, Soul Shakedown Party
Set 2: Happy Birthday Song, She Drives Me Crazy>Edge>Star Spangled Banner, Black Magic Woman>gypsy Queen, Pedellic Sax, Turnaround>Rowing Song>Turnaround>Drumz, Coming Home>Crosseyed>Shutdown>Funk II
Second set may be incomplete.
If there was ever a time that the family needed to get together it was now. After the week we all had just experienced, we needed a time to gather and forget the world. A time to dance away our blues. Bobbi’s birthday was the Monday after so it was also her birthday show. Back in the day, the band allowed people to help write the setlist for their birthday show. We also raised a healthy amount of cash for a donation to the Red Cross in Terry’s name just by passing the hat.
Saturday was another birthday show, this time Preston’s. Preston being Preston, he had his party at Martz’s in New Oxford. Devolver played there twice and both times the police ended the show. The first party was over Memorial Day Weekend (which will get it’s own blog entry). This time, Groovin’ Seed opened the show and then Devolver did their thing
9/15/01 Martz’s, New Oxford, PA
Edge Reprise, My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama, El Nino, Hurricane, Everything, Glasshawk, Café Latte>Abracadabra>Bubblespeak>Dehydration>Turnaround>Shakedown St>Turnaround
E: The Birthday Song>Funk II
I don’t remember too much about the show other than it was a good time to REALLY let loose. It was a more unrestrained environment than even what Lupita’s offered. And just like any good outdoor music party, someone had brought a tank. I remember Preston requesting the band play the Steve Miller track Abracadabra. The band dedicated it to the birthday boy but he was inside, celebrating his birthday, I guess.
So there you have it. A family is often defined by how they deal with tragedy. The Devolver family dealt with it the only way we knew how to; with good people and good music.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
Things were pretty good in the Devolver world at this point. They were playing a lot of shows, almost every Friday and Saturday for most of the summer. I felt the band was progressing musically while still coming up with new songs. September had a full lineup. There had been a show Labor Day weekend at Michaels’, (formerly the Hillside Tavern, now a flea market/church/diner?!?!?) a place I thought could become a new local monthly stop based on the turnout.
They played a free show the following Sunday at the Codorous bandshell. Weather was nice and the turnout was OK. It started off with an acoustic set and then the usual electric madness that Devolver is known for.
9/9/01 Codorous Bandshell, Hanover, PA
Set 1 : Powderfinger, Loser, ADITL, Waiting to get into Heaven, Dock of the Bay, GDTRFB, Bogey> The Weight
Set 2: Surprise Surprise, Applecart >Glasshawk, Golden Years, Shutdown, Sunday Paper, Laughing Clown, Waiting by the Sand, Super Mario Bros>The Castle>Water Theme> Super Mario Bros, Psycho Killer*>Drumz**>Turnaround, Edge
*w/ Johnny Mondragon, ** w/ Don and Coleman
We got back to Dan and Adrian’s after the show in the early evening to just chill out. That was when we got word that Terry Bown had died in a car accident the night before. He was a part of the Devolver crew before I knew Devolver.
I first met Terry when I had been working at Weis Markets, part time after I graduated from Penn State in 1995. That was the same period I would meet Flick and Andy Miller. I had contact with Terry off and on from the time period of Weis until I met the Devolver crew. One of my fondest and funniest memories is running into him randomly at Nell’s. He was tripping so we went back to my place to chill out. We watched part of the original Planet of the Apes and that blew his mind, what with the heavy metaphors about race relations.
Needless to say, everyone was hurting from the death of someone so young and before we could really process it, Sept. 11th happened. I listened to it transpire on the Howard Stern show that morning and later going out for GD Night at Kclinger’s. People were out but mostly with the same stunned expression on their faces.
Terry’s funeral was Thursday and Devolver already had a show scheduled for that Friday at Lupita’s. Saturday was a private party at Martz’s in New Oxford, so at least everything was local. Adrian suggested I bring in the giant American flag I have hanging in my living room for the Lupita’s show. The band dressed up in Hawaiian t-shirts as a tribute to Terry; they were a favorite of his. They even did a version of Sabrosa by the Beastie Boys. It was one of his favorite tracks.
9/14/01 Lupita’s, Hanover, PA
Set 1 :Bogey>Dehydration>Bubblespeak>Dehydration>L. Clown>Highway 29, Glasshwk> Looking Blind>Everything>Glasshawk, Side, Golden Years, Sabrosa, Soul Shakedown Party
Set 2: Happy Birthday Song, She Drives Me Crazy>Edge>Star Spangled Banner, Black Magic Woman>gypsy Queen, Pedellic Sax, Turnaround>Rowing Song>Turnaround>Drumz, Coming Home>Crosseyed>Shutdown>Funk II
Second set may be incomplete.
If there was ever a time that the family needed to get together it was now. After the week we all had just experienced, we needed a time to gather and forget the world. A time to dance away our blues. Bobbi’s birthday was the Monday after so it was also her birthday show. Back in the day, the band allowed people to help write the setlist for their birthday show. We also raised a healthy amount of cash for a donation to the Red Cross in Terry’s name just by passing the hat.
Saturday was another birthday show, this time Preston’s. Preston being Preston, he had his party at Martz’s in New Oxford. Devolver played there twice and both times the police ended the show. The first party was over Memorial Day Weekend (which will get it’s own blog entry). This time, Groovin’ Seed opened the show and then Devolver did their thing
9/15/01 Martz’s, New Oxford, PA
Edge Reprise, My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama, El Nino, Hurricane, Everything, Glasshawk, Café Latte>Abracadabra>Bubblespeak>Dehydration>Turnaround>Shakedown St>Turnaround
E: The Birthday Song>Funk II
I don’t remember too much about the show other than it was a good time to REALLY let loose. It was a more unrestrained environment than even what Lupita’s offered. And just like any good outdoor music party, someone had brought a tank. I remember Preston requesting the band play the Steve Miller track Abracadabra. The band dedicated it to the birthday boy but he was inside, celebrating his birthday, I guess.
So there you have it. A family is often defined by how they deal with tragedy. The Devolver family dealt with it the only way we knew how to; with good people and good music.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Hanover Chili Cookoff Memories
Hope everyone is doing well after the lashing that Irene gave us. I’m writing this on Sat., so I’m hoping it skirts us and only washes the scum of Jersey away. But this coming weekend is Labor Day weekend, and in Hanover that means only one thing: The Hanover Chili Cookoff
Started way back in 1995, the Hanover Chili Cookoff has grown from just a few dozen entries to being the largest International Chili Society (ICS) this side of the Mississippi River; rather impressive for our little borough. This is not intended to be a total history of the event. Look at it as a retrospective with a slightly heady view.
I’ve been to every cookoff save for the one in 2005. That year I attended the headiest wedding I’ve ever been to in Asheville, NC. It was for my friend Kristin Kuhn Weeks. It will hold this title until Christine marries Michael Franti.
Believe it or not, Devolver is part of the chili cookoff tradition. Since 2003 (I think), Devolver has played the Sat before. However, last year was probably the last time they will do that; attendance was pretty weak. I’m gonna chalk this up to the fact that people are older and wiser and need to save their strength for Sunday’s activities. They had a huge crowd the Friday after Thanksgiving. I always joked that I wanted to walk out of Kclinger’s, pass out in the ball field and wake up when the cookoff began. I can attest to a few years of watching the sunrise after the show and somehow dragging my ass to the cookoff. Let’s just saw that there was a lot of chemical enhancement. Thank The Buddha I don’t mess with that shit anymore.
In 1999, I was part of a capitalist venture called Heeva Haava. My friend’s Watson and Binford started this company. It was essentially a ripoff of Napster. They got an investor to drop 50000 bucks on this. Part of that money went to buying an incredible amount of shirts. 5 bucks says Zach is wearing one right now. They also were a sponsor of the cookoff and had a tent. Binford’s plan was to show how easily one could download music off the Internet (remember, this was 1999) and burn it to a CD.
He was really unprepared. He didn’t have any Cd's ripped. He had no Internet connection. A hurricane hit our area that weekend. It wasn’t at full strength but I can vividly remember seeing the bands rotate overhead. Light rain and then heavy rain. All afternoon that went on. The investor stopped by. He was underwhelmed, to say the least. Yup, 50 grand on a tent and cookoff sponsership. I know somewhere we have a great picture of a very pregnant Karen Driscoll with headphones around her belly.
So please come out and help support a good cause this weekend. It raises money for the HART Center among other charities. It sure has evolved from a few dozen cooks to yearly event it is now. They have VIP packages with front row parking. I have my own VIP package, it’s called walking from my crib.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
Started way back in 1995, the Hanover Chili Cookoff has grown from just a few dozen entries to being the largest International Chili Society (ICS) this side of the Mississippi River; rather impressive for our little borough. This is not intended to be a total history of the event. Look at it as a retrospective with a slightly heady view.
I’ve been to every cookoff save for the one in 2005. That year I attended the headiest wedding I’ve ever been to in Asheville, NC. It was for my friend Kristin Kuhn Weeks. It will hold this title until Christine marries Michael Franti.
Believe it or not, Devolver is part of the chili cookoff tradition. Since 2003 (I think), Devolver has played the Sat before. However, last year was probably the last time they will do that; attendance was pretty weak. I’m gonna chalk this up to the fact that people are older and wiser and need to save their strength for Sunday’s activities. They had a huge crowd the Friday after Thanksgiving. I always joked that I wanted to walk out of Kclinger’s, pass out in the ball field and wake up when the cookoff began. I can attest to a few years of watching the sunrise after the show and somehow dragging my ass to the cookoff. Let’s just saw that there was a lot of chemical enhancement. Thank The Buddha I don’t mess with that shit anymore.
In 1999, I was part of a capitalist venture called Heeva Haava. My friend’s Watson and Binford started this company. It was essentially a ripoff of Napster. They got an investor to drop 50000 bucks on this. Part of that money went to buying an incredible amount of shirts. 5 bucks says Zach is wearing one right now. They also were a sponsor of the cookoff and had a tent. Binford’s plan was to show how easily one could download music off the Internet (remember, this was 1999) and burn it to a CD.
He was really unprepared. He didn’t have any Cd's ripped. He had no Internet connection. A hurricane hit our area that weekend. It wasn’t at full strength but I can vividly remember seeing the bands rotate overhead. Light rain and then heavy rain. All afternoon that went on. The investor stopped by. He was underwhelmed, to say the least. Yup, 50 grand on a tent and cookoff sponsership. I know somewhere we have a great picture of a very pregnant Karen Driscoll with headphones around her belly.
So please come out and help support a good cause this weekend. It raises money for the HART Center among other charities. It sure has evolved from a few dozen cooks to yearly event it is now. They have VIP packages with front row parking. I have my own VIP package, it’s called walking from my crib.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
1st annual Concert in the Park, 8/13/11Hanover, PA
For those of you that read my last post, I started off by saying what a kickass weekend of music I had lined up. So you ask, Dave, are you so old that Friday is your weekend? NO, but I do need to stretch out the post; so here is the second half of my musical weekend, the first annual Concert in the Park series in beautiful downtown Hanover.
This took place on Aug 13 at Wirt Park in Hanover, PA. Just off the square, it is one of the many green and open spaces within the borough of Hanover. If you include Penn and West Manheim Townships, the Hanover area has over a dozen parks with wide selection of options. I had lived here for 14 years before I discovered a park with horseshoe pits and shuffleboards only 2 blocks from my parent’s house on the alley behind Baer Ave.
All of this was set up by EyeDeal Productions, consisting of Josh Perkins, Sean Wolfe, and a few others helping to highlight what a rich area Hanover is for the arts, specifically music. EyeDeal Productions also put on the Triantafyllo Arts and Music Fest last year and the Halt Hunger Jam this past March. Putting on any event can evolve into a royal pain in the ass, these people do an outstanding job. While the weather was nowhere near as perfect as it was for MMJ, things looked promising as Frank Miller’s Beard kicked off the festivities.
Once again, FMB was augmented by Ian Carroll on fiddle/violin and drumbox and Matt Stambaugh on percussion. Not sure what to call his drumbox contraption, but that’s good as name as any. They opened up with Fearless and it was all soaring acoustical bliss after that. Other highlights include Midnight Moonlight and Sledgehammer. Still looking forward to the day they dip into the Devolver songbook a little bit more. (Hey it’s my soapbox and I’ll shout about what I want). The skies were a little more threatening as Eric “G String” Costello played a short but sweet acoustic set as Redwud set up. The highlight? A version of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” focusing on the fact that it's a great little tune, made famous by a douchebag from the 80’s.
Next up, 3 guys that put the power back in power trio; Redwud. I’ve seen these guys a few times over the last couple of years and they have really come a long way. A mix of prog-rock with fusion and down right sick tightness- they emphasize Hanover's music scene isn’t all about jambands, though they do jam the fuck out of their tunes. Regretfully, I am unfamiliar with the names of their original songs.They had so much energy that it caused the sky to open up and unload a downpour of rain. Luckily, soundman extrodinaire Slade Gottschaulk was well prepared with tarps. The music was interrupted for 20 minutes but then resumed and Redwud closed it out with a raging instrumental that sounded like Frank Zappa had a baby with Les Claypool. It sounded great but that would be one ugly ass baby. Steph Berlin did a short acoustic tweener, which featured the second best song ever written about Hanover. The first? Edge of Town by Devolver.
Last but not least were Hanover’s own proprietors of funky soulgrass, Boxcar Social. They opened up with 3 Little Birds and it was blissed out improv from there on out. Other first set highlights include Taper’s Section> Memory of Elizabeth Reed and Relativity>Dirty Business. Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided not to cooperate, as it rained for ten minutes, would stop for 20, and then rain again. The boys excell at maintaining a sweet flow throughout their sets and this screwed that up. The whole show featured local drumming legend and president of the Donna Jean Fan club, one Mr. Craig Walker on percussion. They finished up with a tight River Song>Unrest and Franny Mae, a tune that is not about the mortgage giant.
Overall, a good turnout despite the foul weather. This truly shows that not only are there several bands within the scene, there is also a community willing to come out and support them. I am looking forward to this becoming an annual tradition.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
This took place on Aug 13 at Wirt Park in Hanover, PA. Just off the square, it is one of the many green and open spaces within the borough of Hanover. If you include Penn and West Manheim Townships, the Hanover area has over a dozen parks with wide selection of options. I had lived here for 14 years before I discovered a park with horseshoe pits and shuffleboards only 2 blocks from my parent’s house on the alley behind Baer Ave.
All of this was set up by EyeDeal Productions, consisting of Josh Perkins, Sean Wolfe, and a few others helping to highlight what a rich area Hanover is for the arts, specifically music. EyeDeal Productions also put on the Triantafyllo Arts and Music Fest last year and the Halt Hunger Jam this past March. Putting on any event can evolve into a royal pain in the ass, these people do an outstanding job. While the weather was nowhere near as perfect as it was for MMJ, things looked promising as Frank Miller’s Beard kicked off the festivities.
Once again, FMB was augmented by Ian Carroll on fiddle/violin and drumbox and Matt Stambaugh on percussion. Not sure what to call his drumbox contraption, but that’s good as name as any. They opened up with Fearless and it was all soaring acoustical bliss after that. Other highlights include Midnight Moonlight and Sledgehammer. Still looking forward to the day they dip into the Devolver songbook a little bit more. (Hey it’s my soapbox and I’ll shout about what I want). The skies were a little more threatening as Eric “G String” Costello played a short but sweet acoustic set as Redwud set up. The highlight? A version of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” focusing on the fact that it's a great little tune, made famous by a douchebag from the 80’s.
Next up, 3 guys that put the power back in power trio; Redwud. I’ve seen these guys a few times over the last couple of years and they have really come a long way. A mix of prog-rock with fusion and down right sick tightness- they emphasize Hanover's music scene isn’t all about jambands, though they do jam the fuck out of their tunes. Regretfully, I am unfamiliar with the names of their original songs.They had so much energy that it caused the sky to open up and unload a downpour of rain. Luckily, soundman extrodinaire Slade Gottschaulk was well prepared with tarps. The music was interrupted for 20 minutes but then resumed and Redwud closed it out with a raging instrumental that sounded like Frank Zappa had a baby with Les Claypool. It sounded great but that would be one ugly ass baby. Steph Berlin did a short acoustic tweener, which featured the second best song ever written about Hanover. The first? Edge of Town by Devolver.
Last but not least were Hanover’s own proprietors of funky soulgrass, Boxcar Social. They opened up with 3 Little Birds and it was blissed out improv from there on out. Other first set highlights include Taper’s Section> Memory of Elizabeth Reed and Relativity>Dirty Business. Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided not to cooperate, as it rained for ten minutes, would stop for 20, and then rain again. The boys excell at maintaining a sweet flow throughout their sets and this screwed that up. The whole show featured local drumming legend and president of the Donna Jean Fan club, one Mr. Craig Walker on percussion. They finished up with a tight River Song>Unrest and Franny Mae, a tune that is not about the mortgage giant.
Overall, a good turnout despite the foul weather. This truly shows that not only are there several bands within the scene, there is also a community willing to come out and support them. I am looking forward to this becoming an annual tradition.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
My Morning Jacket, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD 8/12/11
Greetings everyone. I hope your enjoying this nonhumid, beautiful summer weather. I’ve been trying. No post last week because of the dreaded summer cold I picked up from a germ factory, aka my friends’ infants (That was the father’s term, not mine). I’m wrapping up summer in fine form with yet another kick ass weekend of music. First up, My Morning Jacket at Merriweather Post Pavilion.
I absolutely love My Morning Jacket. They are one of the premiere live acts out there today. Lead singer Jim James is a showman extordinaire and always leaves everything he has on the stage. One of my friends from Penn State, who was responsible for turning me on to Widespread Panic way back in the day, called MMJ “postmodern Americana”. I could not think of a more apt description. They play a mix of various genres but have their own unique sound which many other bands have aped. One term I’ve read describing them is “beard rock”. Anyone doubt I’d be a fan of something called beard rock?
Andy Miller and myself headed down a little later than normal. We took a back way through Westminster to avoid the rush hour traffic of the Beltway. Andy also had to pick up his contacts. See how much I care about my musicians? (In addition to my full time gig of being me, I am consigliere for Devolver, Frank Miller’s Beard, and Boxcar Social). We ended up getting a little lost. My GPS kept recalculating the route before we even got off the beaten path. It told us to take a left where there used to be a road and at one point claimed I wasn’t even on a road. We eventually made it to I 70 and got into the Lot.
As some of my more faithful readers may remember, I consider Merriweather my own backyard. These shows always bring out the locals. I love the venue despite my unfortunate close encounter of the worst kind way back in 1999 at the Phish show. We pull in and I notice that the Lot looks pretty filled and I don’t want to get buried. So before we even get to the first right, I see an empty space occupied by one of those board-at-an-angle-beanbag-toss games. Andy gets out, asks the guys to move it so we can park there and we are set with a prime spot.
Gretchen Gadzoski (sp) recognized me. I haven’t seen her in maybe 15+ years but she spots me immediately. I had an experience with ESP involving her back in the day. I was doing a balloon on the Spectrum Lot, Spring of 1995 Dead Tour. I flashed to someone talking about giving and receiving presents for Easter. I had never heard of such a tradition so I remembered my hallucination being about that. Later that summer, she was talking about it. What can I say, I’m in tune with the Phlow.
Meet up with Corey O and Ralphie. Chill in the Lot and then head in. It was such a different experience than when Phish plays there. First, no cops in the lot at ALL. The police RV is not there. Second, no security walking around. Inside the venue, no lines for anything. It was maybe a third filled. I actually noticed the contours of the lawn. A rather beautiful place when not overrun by wookies.
I caught the last 3 songs by Neko Case. I’m not familiar with any of her stuff so I can’t comment on it. Half an hour break and then it was on. The lights went down and the minimalist lighting and set design lit up.
My Morning Jacket, 8/12/2011, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
Victory Dance, Circuital, Off the Record, I’m Amazed, Gideon, Outta My System, Golden, Evil Urges, Mageetah, Slow, Dondante, Smokin From Shootin, First Light, End of Run Thru, Movin Away, Phone, Black Metal, I Will Sing,
Encore: Wordless Chorus, Day Is Coming, Islands in the Stream (w/ Neko Case), Touch Me Prt 2, Highly Suspicious, One Big Holiday
It was all high energy from the get go. Many of their songs have structured jams and they play the hell out of them. Andy Miller pointed out a total Star Wars theme that Jim James had going on. He came out with some type of computer that lit up hanging around his chest. It looked like Darth Vader’s chest plate. He also wore a towel over his head for a few songs. He looked like Emperor Palpatine the way he was lit by the stage lights. But it all looked awesome. No one can doubt that the Force is strong in Jim James. Timcheck once remarked that he looks like a mountain man but sings like an angel. Well said.
I love being on the lawn. There is something special about being out under the stars listening to live music. The full moon was the next night so it was super bright as it rose over the trees. The sound was incredible. The new HD screen adds so much to the lawn experience. There was a guy who had a tie-dyed sheet about 3 feet by 5 feet. He had it attached to a stick and was dancing around with it very intensely. He did this pretty much the whole show. While chilling on the lawn, I ran into a couple that I met last year at the MMJ show. Like I’ve said, this is my house. Alexis talked to the tie dye guy. He was walking around like he was looking for something. She asked him what was up. His reply “Not only did I lose my mind, I lost my car keys as well” He was all over the lawn so who knows where his keys ended up. Probably still looking for them.
The show ended right before curfew. We headed out into the Lot and were on the road within 5 minutes. There weren’t even any cops directing traffic when we left. But once again, My Morning Jacket reaffirmed my belief in the redemptive power of rock and roll.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
I absolutely love My Morning Jacket. They are one of the premiere live acts out there today. Lead singer Jim James is a showman extordinaire and always leaves everything he has on the stage. One of my friends from Penn State, who was responsible for turning me on to Widespread Panic way back in the day, called MMJ “postmodern Americana”. I could not think of a more apt description. They play a mix of various genres but have their own unique sound which many other bands have aped. One term I’ve read describing them is “beard rock”. Anyone doubt I’d be a fan of something called beard rock?
Andy Miller and myself headed down a little later than normal. We took a back way through Westminster to avoid the rush hour traffic of the Beltway. Andy also had to pick up his contacts. See how much I care about my musicians? (In addition to my full time gig of being me, I am consigliere for Devolver, Frank Miller’s Beard, and Boxcar Social). We ended up getting a little lost. My GPS kept recalculating the route before we even got off the beaten path. It told us to take a left where there used to be a road and at one point claimed I wasn’t even on a road. We eventually made it to I 70 and got into the Lot.
As some of my more faithful readers may remember, I consider Merriweather my own backyard. These shows always bring out the locals. I love the venue despite my unfortunate close encounter of the worst kind way back in 1999 at the Phish show. We pull in and I notice that the Lot looks pretty filled and I don’t want to get buried. So before we even get to the first right, I see an empty space occupied by one of those board-at-an-angle-beanbag-toss games. Andy gets out, asks the guys to move it so we can park there and we are set with a prime spot.
Gretchen Gadzoski (sp) recognized me. I haven’t seen her in maybe 15+ years but she spots me immediately. I had an experience with ESP involving her back in the day. I was doing a balloon on the Spectrum Lot, Spring of 1995 Dead Tour. I flashed to someone talking about giving and receiving presents for Easter. I had never heard of such a tradition so I remembered my hallucination being about that. Later that summer, she was talking about it. What can I say, I’m in tune with the Phlow.
Meet up with Corey O and Ralphie. Chill in the Lot and then head in. It was such a different experience than when Phish plays there. First, no cops in the lot at ALL. The police RV is not there. Second, no security walking around. Inside the venue, no lines for anything. It was maybe a third filled. I actually noticed the contours of the lawn. A rather beautiful place when not overrun by wookies.
I caught the last 3 songs by Neko Case. I’m not familiar with any of her stuff so I can’t comment on it. Half an hour break and then it was on. The lights went down and the minimalist lighting and set design lit up.
My Morning Jacket, 8/12/2011, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
Victory Dance, Circuital, Off the Record, I’m Amazed, Gideon, Outta My System, Golden, Evil Urges, Mageetah, Slow, Dondante, Smokin From Shootin, First Light, End of Run Thru, Movin Away, Phone, Black Metal, I Will Sing,
Encore: Wordless Chorus, Day Is Coming, Islands in the Stream (w/ Neko Case), Touch Me Prt 2, Highly Suspicious, One Big Holiday
It was all high energy from the get go. Many of their songs have structured jams and they play the hell out of them. Andy Miller pointed out a total Star Wars theme that Jim James had going on. He came out with some type of computer that lit up hanging around his chest. It looked like Darth Vader’s chest plate. He also wore a towel over his head for a few songs. He looked like Emperor Palpatine the way he was lit by the stage lights. But it all looked awesome. No one can doubt that the Force is strong in Jim James. Timcheck once remarked that he looks like a mountain man but sings like an angel. Well said.
I love being on the lawn. There is something special about being out under the stars listening to live music. The full moon was the next night so it was super bright as it rose over the trees. The sound was incredible. The new HD screen adds so much to the lawn experience. There was a guy who had a tie-dyed sheet about 3 feet by 5 feet. He had it attached to a stick and was dancing around with it very intensely. He did this pretty much the whole show. While chilling on the lawn, I ran into a couple that I met last year at the MMJ show. Like I’ve said, this is my house. Alexis talked to the tie dye guy. He was walking around like he was looking for something. She asked him what was up. His reply “Not only did I lose my mind, I lost my car keys as well” He was all over the lawn so who knows where his keys ended up. Probably still looking for them.
The show ended right before curfew. We headed out into the Lot and were on the road within 5 minutes. There weren’t even any cops directing traffic when we left. But once again, My Morning Jacket reaffirmed my belief in the redemptive power of rock and roll.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Tales from the Devolver Side 4/6 Bloomsburg, PA and 4/7 New Oxford, PA 2001
Greetings everyone. Hope you survived the heatwave. Nothing going on for the next few weeks. Going to my brother’s this weekend but the weekend after that is huge. Eyedeal Productions is pleased to announce that on Aug 13th, A Concert in the Park, featuring Frank Miller's Beard, Redwud, and Boxcar Social will be kicking out the jams from noon until 8 PM at Wirt Park in beautiful downtown Hanover, PA. There will be vendors of food and arts and crafts. Fun for the entire family and your brain. So come on out and help us make the scene what it is in Hanover. But today it’s all about going back to the beginning of the scene with a little band I like to call Devolver. Today’s Tales from the Devolver Side focuses on the first weekend in April, April 6 and 7th, 2001.
This was a typical weekend during the golden age of Devolver. A show on the road one night and a local show the next. This was my life for about 2 years and they were some of the craziest times of my existence. The Friday show was up in Bloomsburg, PA. It was at someone’s house. I had to work and most of the crew left town before I got off of work. Flick and myself rolled up in the early evening. Now this was well before everyone had a cellphone and GPS so we had an address and somewhat of an idea of where we were going.
We ended up at a frat house that wasn’t like any of the frat houses up at Penn State. It looked like a normal house until you walked inside. Then it was all old broken furniture…. and a nitrous tank. Those guys were getting down but it was obvious Devolver was not playing there. They pointed us in the general direction so we headed back out. Yes, that’s right. I bailed on a tank to see the boys.
We drove a few blocks, hoping to recognize someone’s car with the classic D Devolver sticker, as designed by graphic artist extrodinaire Andy Miller. We didn’t see anyone’s car but we could hear them. We parked by the railroad tracks and walked towards the sound. We found someone and were led into the basement of a house.
The basement was split in half by 2 by 4’s that you would use to frame a room. Devolver and their full light rig were on one side and the audience was on the other side. It was like a low rent barrier that worked really well, almost framing the band. Got my tape deck set up but had some power issues. Luckily, someone noticed my deck kept going off and we were able to fix the problem.
Devovler 4/6/01 Bloomsburg, PA
Set 1
Edge, Surprise Surprise >Looking Blind, Side of a Mountain, Everything Comes Around, Bogey>White Room, Highway 29> Psycho Killer> Highway 29
Set 2
Bubblespeak, Turnaround, Pedalic Sax, Funk II, Miss You.
Nice mix of covers and originals and pretty good sized crowd. We tore down and loaded everything back up. Flick and myself headed out rather late. We stopped at a Sheetz to get some grub. While we were there, a whole crew of younger girls came in. Given what my state of mind was during that era, I just assumed they were all on rolls. Flick ordered a chicken sub, which he identified, to the employee as “the chicken sub with all the shit on it”.
We get back to Hanover very late, probably around 3 or 4 in the morning. All I wanted to do was drop Flick off at his house and go and crash. Ahh if only things were that easy. Flick was passed out and was not in any mood to be woken up. I tried to pull him out from the car and he resisted. He would open one eye, glare at me, and return to unconscieceness. This went on for a good half an hour. I finally somehow got him out and made it back home to beat the sunrise.
So I got some shut eye and then got up to do it all over again. They were playing at the Old Mill Inn up in New Oxford so no long distance driving required. Devolver had played many times before and always drew a good crowd. With a big dance floor and Bucket’s light rig, it was the perfect place for an Acid Testesque throw down.
April 7, 2001 Old Mill Inn, New Oxford, PA
Set 1
Soundcheck: Surprise Surprise
Soul Shakedown Party, Glasshawk, Strange Red Afternoon>Taps>Edge of Town>Looking Blind>Edge Reprise, Highway 29, Bubblespeak, Tumbleweeds and Mailboxes, El Nino, Pedalic Sax
Set 2
Happy Birthday Song (for Jake), Marina, Applecart>Old Man and his Beer, Drumz>Serve Me up Another, Bogey>Everything Comes Around>Bogey, Comfortably Numb, A Day Gone By, Waiting By the Sand*, Funk II, Turnaround>Looking Blind>Turnaround>Taps>Turnaround
* With Jake Herman on vocals
Very lengthy and solid show. Jake was Devolver sound guy and someone who’s been around the scene as long as I have. His birthday was April 2nd and he wanted to sing something with the band. I admire his balls, as there is no way I would have the guts to get up and sing with the boys. After a hesitant start, he finished in strong form.
So there you have it, just another typical weekend of sick jams, crazy times, and overindulgence of substances. Everyone have a good next few weeks and I’ll see you all at the Concert in the Park.
This was a typical weekend during the golden age of Devolver. A show on the road one night and a local show the next. This was my life for about 2 years and they were some of the craziest times of my existence. The Friday show was up in Bloomsburg, PA. It was at someone’s house. I had to work and most of the crew left town before I got off of work. Flick and myself rolled up in the early evening. Now this was well before everyone had a cellphone and GPS so we had an address and somewhat of an idea of where we were going.
We ended up at a frat house that wasn’t like any of the frat houses up at Penn State. It looked like a normal house until you walked inside. Then it was all old broken furniture…. and a nitrous tank. Those guys were getting down but it was obvious Devolver was not playing there. They pointed us in the general direction so we headed back out. Yes, that’s right. I bailed on a tank to see the boys.
We drove a few blocks, hoping to recognize someone’s car with the classic D Devolver sticker, as designed by graphic artist extrodinaire Andy Miller. We didn’t see anyone’s car but we could hear them. We parked by the railroad tracks and walked towards the sound. We found someone and were led into the basement of a house.
The basement was split in half by 2 by 4’s that you would use to frame a room. Devolver and their full light rig were on one side and the audience was on the other side. It was like a low rent barrier that worked really well, almost framing the band. Got my tape deck set up but had some power issues. Luckily, someone noticed my deck kept going off and we were able to fix the problem.
Devovler 4/6/01 Bloomsburg, PA
Set 1
Edge, Surprise Surprise >Looking Blind, Side of a Mountain, Everything Comes Around, Bogey>White Room, Highway 29> Psycho Killer> Highway 29
Set 2
Bubblespeak, Turnaround, Pedalic Sax, Funk II, Miss You.
You can stream it here
Nice mix of covers and originals and pretty good sized crowd. We tore down and loaded everything back up. Flick and myself headed out rather late. We stopped at a Sheetz to get some grub. While we were there, a whole crew of younger girls came in. Given what my state of mind was during that era, I just assumed they were all on rolls. Flick ordered a chicken sub, which he identified, to the employee as “the chicken sub with all the shit on it”.
We get back to Hanover very late, probably around 3 or 4 in the morning. All I wanted to do was drop Flick off at his house and go and crash. Ahh if only things were that easy. Flick was passed out and was not in any mood to be woken up. I tried to pull him out from the car and he resisted. He would open one eye, glare at me, and return to unconscieceness. This went on for a good half an hour. I finally somehow got him out and made it back home to beat the sunrise.
So I got some shut eye and then got up to do it all over again. They were playing at the Old Mill Inn up in New Oxford so no long distance driving required. Devolver had played many times before and always drew a good crowd. With a big dance floor and Bucket’s light rig, it was the perfect place for an Acid Testesque throw down.
April 7, 2001 Old Mill Inn, New Oxford, PA
Set 1
Soundcheck: Surprise Surprise
Soul Shakedown Party, Glasshawk, Strange Red Afternoon>Taps>Edge of Town>Looking Blind>Edge Reprise, Highway 29, Bubblespeak, Tumbleweeds and Mailboxes, El Nino, Pedalic Sax
Set 2
Happy Birthday Song (for Jake), Marina, Applecart>Old Man and his Beer, Drumz>Serve Me up Another, Bogey>Everything Comes Around>Bogey, Comfortably Numb, A Day Gone By, Waiting By the Sand*, Funk II, Turnaround>Looking Blind>Turnaround>Taps>Turnaround
* With Jake Herman on vocals
Very lengthy and solid show. Jake was Devolver sound guy and someone who’s been around the scene as long as I have. His birthday was April 2nd and he wanted to sing something with the band. I admire his balls, as there is no way I would have the guts to get up and sing with the boys. After a hesitant start, he finished in strong form.
So there you have it, just another typical weekend of sick jams, crazy times, and overindulgence of substances. Everyone have a good next few weeks and I’ll see you all at the Concert in the Park.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Furthur 7/23/11 Mann Music Center, Philadelphia, PA
Greetings everyone. Hope you all managed to survive the heatwave this week. The temp in at work this week had to be well north of 110 degrees. But neither rain, nor snow, nor instant swamp ass inducing humidity and heat will stop me from doing Tour. So without further ado, let me regal you with tales of insanity and wonder from Furthur at the Mann Music Center on July 23, 2011.
I picked up my friend Emily from Mechanicsburg and was shooting to get to the Lot around 4. I went a little later than normal on account of the heat. We got to the same spot as last year, under the trees on the grass by the statues. Set up the Quik Shade and were ready to rock and roll. George Shcrippa showed up (Independent George in the house). Dion and his friend Christie showed up as well. It was all about chilling out under the shade and conserving energy. Did a quick swing by Shakedown Street. Not too much going on there. Bureau of Licensing and Permits was out in force and telling people vending to close up shop. Weak sauce. Saw Jamie Lee, Greg, and Suze from my adventures at the Tower Theatre back in March on Shakedown. The heat index made it feel like it was over 110 degrees. It was 20 degrees hotter on the asphalt. We made a quick retreat back to the campsite.
Christine and her crew showed up after 5. She saw a green Quik Shade but knew it was mine because of the blue HMLL shirt hanging from it. It serves as a beacon for all the ladies on the Lot.
They were late because they had to wait an hour to check in and still couldn’t do it. However, they did see our neighbor from SuperBall 9, Dave from here, there, and everywhere. I love it when you see the same people on different tours. Vanessa had an even larger tent, so we moved mine and had a huge spot made in the shade. Saw one guy pass out from balloons/dehydration. Cops and EMTs were right on the spot. Seemed like the guy was OK. More nitrous than you can shake a stick at. Complimented the police on taking away some of the tanks but they hardly put a dent in it.
Our friends on tour told us that Furthur had been starting early every night so we went in early. Avoided a huge backup at the gates getting into the venue by 7. Famous mandolin genius Paul Kraft said it took him an hour to get into the show. That really sucks. He missed them covering Boxcar Social. We ran into half of Frank Miller’s Beard. They played earlier in the day at the 3D Hempfest in Wrightsville.
Set 1
Sitting On Top of the World, Greatest Story ever Told, High on A Mountain, Masterpiece, Ruben and Cerise, Loser, The Last Time, The Mighty Quinn
Set 2
Shakedown St, Women are Smarter, Any Road, Playin>Help>Slip>Franklin’s Tower>Playin Reprise, Death Don’t Have No Mercy, Midnight Hour
E: Fool in the Rain, One More Sat Night
Sitting was a nice opener. First Greatest since 3/21/94 for me. (Don’t freakout, I had to look it up. But on the lawn I said early 90’s, so I wasn’t that far off) The Last Time was really good. I get a Stones cover almost every show I go to. George saw a time and temp sign that said it was 97 at 9pm. The Quinn was the third one I saw this summer, 2 by Phish and 1 by Furthur. Shakedown had a nice ’79 vibe. Women Are got all the ladies dancing. The meat of the set was the Playin’ sandwich. All of it executed flawlessly. Finally got my first Death Don’t and a rocking Midnight Hour. Can’t beat a show that ends with a little Pigpen. I was super surprised when they did a double encore. Would have bet we would only get One More Sat Night. But low and behold, Emily got her Fool in the Rain. I love the sambaesque rocking out they do at the end of the song.
Hung in the Lot a little bit after the show and then hit the road. It was still over 90 at midnight. Ran into Butch and Sean at the rest stop. Emily remarked I knew everyone everywhere but was very pleased with the local turnout at the show. I love the life I live and live the life I love.
One last moment that sums up what this is all about. Frank and Miller stopped by again during set break. At some point during the show, 8 of Emily’s friends showed up. So it was myself and 7 smoking hot chicks sitting on my blanket. Frank asked “Kemp, is this your harem?” My reply “HMLL’s man. They follow me everywhere” I do always have the hottest chicks on the Lot in my general vicinity. How do I do it? The beard, a full head of hair, and 21 years of going to shows. Furthur!!
Dave Kemp
BA in American Studies
PhD in Rock and Roll
I picked up my friend Emily from Mechanicsburg and was shooting to get to the Lot around 4. I went a little later than normal on account of the heat. We got to the same spot as last year, under the trees on the grass by the statues. Set up the Quik Shade and were ready to rock and roll. George Shcrippa showed up (Independent George in the house). Dion and his friend Christie showed up as well. It was all about chilling out under the shade and conserving energy. Did a quick swing by Shakedown Street. Not too much going on there. Bureau of Licensing and Permits was out in force and telling people vending to close up shop. Weak sauce. Saw Jamie Lee, Greg, and Suze from my adventures at the Tower Theatre back in March on Shakedown. The heat index made it feel like it was over 110 degrees. It was 20 degrees hotter on the asphalt. We made a quick retreat back to the campsite.
Christine and her crew showed up after 5. She saw a green Quik Shade but knew it was mine because of the blue HMLL shirt hanging from it. It serves as a beacon for all the ladies on the Lot.
They were late because they had to wait an hour to check in and still couldn’t do it. However, they did see our neighbor from SuperBall 9, Dave from here, there, and everywhere. I love it when you see the same people on different tours. Vanessa had an even larger tent, so we moved mine and had a huge spot made in the shade. Saw one guy pass out from balloons/dehydration. Cops and EMTs were right on the spot. Seemed like the guy was OK. More nitrous than you can shake a stick at. Complimented the police on taking away some of the tanks but they hardly put a dent in it.
Our friends on tour told us that Furthur had been starting early every night so we went in early. Avoided a huge backup at the gates getting into the venue by 7. Famous mandolin genius Paul Kraft said it took him an hour to get into the show. That really sucks. He missed them covering Boxcar Social. We ran into half of Frank Miller’s Beard. They played earlier in the day at the 3D Hempfest in Wrightsville.
Set 1
Sitting On Top of the World, Greatest Story ever Told, High on A Mountain, Masterpiece, Ruben and Cerise, Loser, The Last Time, The Mighty Quinn
Set 2
Shakedown St, Women are Smarter, Any Road, Playin>Help>Slip>Franklin’s Tower>Playin Reprise, Death Don’t Have No Mercy, Midnight Hour
E: Fool in the Rain, One More Sat Night
Sitting was a nice opener. First Greatest since 3/21/94 for me. (Don’t freakout, I had to look it up. But on the lawn I said early 90’s, so I wasn’t that far off) The Last Time was really good. I get a Stones cover almost every show I go to. George saw a time and temp sign that said it was 97 at 9pm. The Quinn was the third one I saw this summer, 2 by Phish and 1 by Furthur. Shakedown had a nice ’79 vibe. Women Are got all the ladies dancing. The meat of the set was the Playin’ sandwich. All of it executed flawlessly. Finally got my first Death Don’t and a rocking Midnight Hour. Can’t beat a show that ends with a little Pigpen. I was super surprised when they did a double encore. Would have bet we would only get One More Sat Night. But low and behold, Emily got her Fool in the Rain. I love the sambaesque rocking out they do at the end of the song.
Hung in the Lot a little bit after the show and then hit the road. It was still over 90 at midnight. Ran into Butch and Sean at the rest stop. Emily remarked I knew everyone everywhere but was very pleased with the local turnout at the show. I love the life I live and live the life I love.
One last moment that sums up what this is all about. Frank and Miller stopped by again during set break. At some point during the show, 8 of Emily’s friends showed up. So it was myself and 7 smoking hot chicks sitting on my blanket. Frank asked “Kemp, is this your harem?” My reply “HMLL’s man. They follow me everywhere” I do always have the hottest chicks on the Lot in my general vicinity. How do I do it? The beard, a full head of hair, and 21 years of going to shows. Furthur!!
Dave Kemp
BA in American Studies
PhD in Rock and Roll
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Tales from the Devolver Side: Jan 2002. Dave and Kyle try to buy a van
Hello everyone. Hope those of you that went to AllGood had a wonderful time. I’m kind of spoiled after the RV experience that was Super Ball 9. I have a Furthur show next week at the beautiful Mann Music Center in Philly so I decided what better time to reminisce about the golden age of Devolver. Today I tell you all about the time myself and Kyle tried to buy a van
It was January of 2002. The Miller’s Caravan minivan had given its all for rock and roll. The DeWald’s conversion van had made a gallant effort but lost the battle of the West Virginia hills and Jake’s lead foot. We needed something to get the gear to and from the shows. We had been doing it hodge podge, using everyone’s vehicles but that was only a short-term solution. I shattered the back window of my Omni taking gear to Kclinger’s that month. I got really hammered and had 2 ladies trying to put their hands (filled with ice) down my pants. Who were they? I guess that will have to wait for another entry. We also had a string of 2 weeks worth of shows booked stretching from North Carolina down to Atlanta and had to solve this issue pronto.
It was obvious that we had to buy a van. I figured with the local once a month steady gigs in the area (The Depot in York, Kclinger’s and Lupita’s in Hanover, and the Old Mill in New Oxford) plus other shows, there would be enough positive cash flow to cover the payments. However, because all of the band members still lived at home and had no real credit history to speak of, I was the only option to get a car loan. So putting my sterling credit score on the line, I said I would take out the loan to by the band a van. Yes I was that dedicated to Devolver and that batshit crazy.
Kyle’s dad Timbo, was a master salesman. He sold heavy industrial machinery for a living and claimed he paid 8000 bucks under MRSP on his last new car. He was going to help us get a good deal. Since I had no problem getting the bank to pre-approve the loan, Kyle and myself checked out used car dealerships in the area. We found a good van at a place in Dillsburg. I remembered Kyle being impressed by 2 things
1) The van had one of those sensors that beeped when you backed it up.
2) Pink’s “Get This Party Started” was on the radio when we did a test-drive.
But for whatever reason, we didn’t buy that van. We did find exactly what we needed at Ruth Motors on Route 30 in Thomasville.
I don’t remember the name of the salesman we dealt with, nor do I know if he is representative of the establishment. But the following is what happened. We found a van that was within our price range. We had a mechanic check it out and said it needed a new universal joint. The salesman said he would replace it. So we arranged for Timbo to accompany us when we went up to negotiate a price. However, Timbo bailed at the last minute. He did give us a five-minute lesson on how to get a lower price. This was a pointless exercise. The only bargaining I have ever done was in the Lot so I didn’t feel too confident going in. Kyle had done a little bit of online research for the Kelly Blue Book value. So, with a limited amount of arrows in our quiver, we went into battle against the scourge of capitalism, the used car salesman.
First the salesman said he replaced the joint. I asked to see the old part and he said they already threw it out. First red flag. When we tried to get a better deal, he got really pissed and said the price was what it was. Kyle said he found different numbers on the Internet. The salesman proclaimed he didn’t care what Kyle found on “his” Internet. Kyle’s response: “Well, it’s not my Internet.” We left without buying a van.
Andy quit the band within the next 2 weeks. He said he had to pull the trigger because he didn’t want me to have to pay for the van if the band broke up or couldn’t afford it. I knew he was unhappy with the grind of being in a band at that level and not really making any money off of it. From the bottom of my heart I want to thank him for that.
Soon after, my car failed inspection and that meant I had to buy a new car. 2 car payments would have been much more than what my budget could afford. The boys did the southern swing without Andy and shortly thereafter relocated to Atlanta to attend a music school there.I hope you all enjoyed this slice of life and blast from the past. Everyone have a good week and I’ll see some of you at Furthur
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD in Rock and Roll
It was January of 2002. The Miller’s Caravan minivan had given its all for rock and roll. The DeWald’s conversion van had made a gallant effort but lost the battle of the West Virginia hills and Jake’s lead foot. We needed something to get the gear to and from the shows. We had been doing it hodge podge, using everyone’s vehicles but that was only a short-term solution. I shattered the back window of my Omni taking gear to Kclinger’s that month. I got really hammered and had 2 ladies trying to put their hands (filled with ice) down my pants. Who were they? I guess that will have to wait for another entry. We also had a string of 2 weeks worth of shows booked stretching from North Carolina down to Atlanta and had to solve this issue pronto.
It was obvious that we had to buy a van. I figured with the local once a month steady gigs in the area (The Depot in York, Kclinger’s and Lupita’s in Hanover, and the Old Mill in New Oxford) plus other shows, there would be enough positive cash flow to cover the payments. However, because all of the band members still lived at home and had no real credit history to speak of, I was the only option to get a car loan. So putting my sterling credit score on the line, I said I would take out the loan to by the band a van. Yes I was that dedicated to Devolver and that batshit crazy.
Kyle’s dad Timbo, was a master salesman. He sold heavy industrial machinery for a living and claimed he paid 8000 bucks under MRSP on his last new car. He was going to help us get a good deal. Since I had no problem getting the bank to pre-approve the loan, Kyle and myself checked out used car dealerships in the area. We found a good van at a place in Dillsburg. I remembered Kyle being impressed by 2 things
1) The van had one of those sensors that beeped when you backed it up.
2) Pink’s “Get This Party Started” was on the radio when we did a test-drive.
But for whatever reason, we didn’t buy that van. We did find exactly what we needed at Ruth Motors on Route 30 in Thomasville.
I don’t remember the name of the salesman we dealt with, nor do I know if he is representative of the establishment. But the following is what happened. We found a van that was within our price range. We had a mechanic check it out and said it needed a new universal joint. The salesman said he would replace it. So we arranged for Timbo to accompany us when we went up to negotiate a price. However, Timbo bailed at the last minute. He did give us a five-minute lesson on how to get a lower price. This was a pointless exercise. The only bargaining I have ever done was in the Lot so I didn’t feel too confident going in. Kyle had done a little bit of online research for the Kelly Blue Book value. So, with a limited amount of arrows in our quiver, we went into battle against the scourge of capitalism, the used car salesman.
First the salesman said he replaced the joint. I asked to see the old part and he said they already threw it out. First red flag. When we tried to get a better deal, he got really pissed and said the price was what it was. Kyle said he found different numbers on the Internet. The salesman proclaimed he didn’t care what Kyle found on “his” Internet. Kyle’s response: “Well, it’s not my Internet.” We left without buying a van.
Andy quit the band within the next 2 weeks. He said he had to pull the trigger because he didn’t want me to have to pay for the van if the band broke up or couldn’t afford it. I knew he was unhappy with the grind of being in a band at that level and not really making any money off of it. From the bottom of my heart I want to thank him for that.
Soon after, my car failed inspection and that meant I had to buy a new car. 2 car payments would have been much more than what my budget could afford. The boys did the southern swing without Andy and shortly thereafter relocated to Atlanta to attend a music school there.I hope you all enjoyed this slice of life and blast from the past. Everyone have a good week and I’ll see some of you at Furthur
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD in Rock and Roll
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
More thoughts on Phish Superball 9
Hello everybody. Hope things are good in your hood. Just a week removed from SuperBall IX and Trey’s guitar is still echoing through my skull. So I’m going to take this opportunity to add a few things to my original posting last week. That was written under the threat of a deadline, so there were a few points I missed and would like to revisit. So without further ado, I present SuperBall 2.0 review.
On July 3rd, the setbreak music was all American themed songs. Born in the USA, American Girl and Young Americans were among the tunes that were spun. One glaring omission was US Blues by the Grateful Dead. I know Phish has spent most of their career avoiding the Dead comparisons but I think they missed the boat on not playing this one. I bet most people would have gotten up and danced. And does any song speak more to the challenging times that we live in right now?
I also found it curious how many Stones songs they played. Torn and Frayed was great because Exile is one of my favorite albums and I missed Festival 8. I missed it because I was putting on a show featuring Devolver and the Winter House Band. We also got Loving Cup and one of my all time favorite Stone’s songs, Monkey Man, off the album Let It Bleed. The people across the street in the RV camping were actually playing Let It Bleed before the first set on Sat. This album is associated with Altamont Speedway concert, which is generally viewed as the end of the peace and love ideals of the 1960’s. Here’s what phish.net had to say and they said it pretty damn well.
Released on November 28, 1969, The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed album somehow represents all of the grit, dirt, funk and sometimes despair felt by the flower child generation as the 1960's withered and mutated. The formerly young Utopians that had once practiced "peace, love and dope" had now gathered enough real world experience to realize the reality of it all. Fittingly, the music that fueled that movement turned darker, led by spokesmen like The Stones.
After all, the album opens with the harrowing "Gimme Shelter," includes the gory title track and begins the second side with a tale of murder before finally ending with a coda entitled "You Can't Always Get What You Want" that is somehow uplifting after all that comes before it... Huh?
But directly before we get to that crescendo, we have “Monkey Man.” In an abstract way the song seems to describe the weary physical and mental condition of the band (and the general feeling of an exhausted generation). This after the trials, tribulations and general craziness of the previous five years or so. One gets the feeling that “Monkey Man” is, in a way, a celebration of letting it all hang out and being comfortable with that. Happy with being "a me" in the impending "Me Decade," no matter how misanthropic that might be.
Although played extensively on Page’s Summer 2007 Tour, the song entered the Phish canon on the second day of SuperBall IX on 7/2/11 (though it was teased nearly thirteen years earlier in the 11/2/98 “Moma Dance”). This version tracks a little more than a minute and a half longer than the Stones' album version due to a relatively short Trey-led foray into Solo Land and a slight rave up during the extended ending. However, this debut is otherwise generally faithful to the original; right down to the chunky, signature guitar and bass interplay. Page even does a fine job growling a Jagger-esque "I'm a Monkeeeeeey, Man!!!" at the peak. However, there is indeed room to stretch out within this song. SuperBall IX has opened the door. Let's see where it leads.
Posted on phish.net by Phil Nazzaro
I find it somewhat curious that the boys chose a song off of an album associated with a concert disaster, the Altamont Speedway show. Even weirder is that they were doing a show at a speedway. What’s Altamont? Well according the good people at wikipedia and my own encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll, it was a free concert the Stones threw at the end of their American 1969 tour. They hired the Hells Angles to be security. They paid them with 500 dollars worth of beer. It was a disaster from the getgo. First, the show was supposed to be a secret surprise show in Golden Gate Park. Mick Jagger left the cat out of the bag and it had to be moved less than a week before the event. The stage wasn’t even 3 feet high. There was no barrier between the crowd and the stage, just he Angels and their bikes. And you never want to touch an Angels’ bike. So beatings with pool cues and stompings with boots quickly became the order of the day. Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane was even beaten. The Dead bailed because the vibes were so bad. The Stones did close out the night and a man was killed by the Angels during Sympathy for the Devil. All of this is captured on the amazing concert film ” Gimme Shelter”.
I saw a biker on a chopper after the first set on July 2nd, so it was a rather strange vibe for a little bit. I would like to emphasize that the overall vibe of the weekend was just outstanding. But within my massive craniumial cavity, there was just a little bit of doubt.
I was also surprised by what they didn’t play. As always, I fully expected to hear the Prep School Hippie breakout but alas, was denied again. I saw 9 shows on the first leg and did not see YEM. Other notable missing songs: Bouncin’, Free, Fluffhead, Contact, Theme, Split Open and Melt, Slave, and Guyute, Not complaining about what I did get to see (Peaches!!), just some observations.
Hope everyone’s return to reality wasn’t too harsh. Got a week off then back on the bus for Furthur at the Mann Music Center.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
On July 3rd, the setbreak music was all American themed songs. Born in the USA, American Girl and Young Americans were among the tunes that were spun. One glaring omission was US Blues by the Grateful Dead. I know Phish has spent most of their career avoiding the Dead comparisons but I think they missed the boat on not playing this one. I bet most people would have gotten up and danced. And does any song speak more to the challenging times that we live in right now?
I also found it curious how many Stones songs they played. Torn and Frayed was great because Exile is one of my favorite albums and I missed Festival 8. I missed it because I was putting on a show featuring Devolver and the Winter House Band. We also got Loving Cup and one of my all time favorite Stone’s songs, Monkey Man, off the album Let It Bleed. The people across the street in the RV camping were actually playing Let It Bleed before the first set on Sat. This album is associated with Altamont Speedway concert, which is generally viewed as the end of the peace and love ideals of the 1960’s. Here’s what phish.net had to say and they said it pretty damn well.
Released on November 28, 1969, The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed album somehow represents all of the grit, dirt, funk and sometimes despair felt by the flower child generation as the 1960's withered and mutated. The formerly young Utopians that had once practiced "peace, love and dope" had now gathered enough real world experience to realize the reality of it all. Fittingly, the music that fueled that movement turned darker, led by spokesmen like The Stones.
After all, the album opens with the harrowing "Gimme Shelter," includes the gory title track and begins the second side with a tale of murder before finally ending with a coda entitled "You Can't Always Get What You Want" that is somehow uplifting after all that comes before it... Huh?
But directly before we get to that crescendo, we have “Monkey Man.” In an abstract way the song seems to describe the weary physical and mental condition of the band (and the general feeling of an exhausted generation). This after the trials, tribulations and general craziness of the previous five years or so. One gets the feeling that “Monkey Man” is, in a way, a celebration of letting it all hang out and being comfortable with that. Happy with being "a me" in the impending "Me Decade," no matter how misanthropic that might be.
Although played extensively on Page’s Summer 2007 Tour, the song entered the Phish canon on the second day of SuperBall IX on 7/2/11 (though it was teased nearly thirteen years earlier in the 11/2/98 “Moma Dance”). This version tracks a little more than a minute and a half longer than the Stones' album version due to a relatively short Trey-led foray into Solo Land and a slight rave up during the extended ending. However, this debut is otherwise generally faithful to the original; right down to the chunky, signature guitar and bass interplay. Page even does a fine job growling a Jagger-esque "I'm a Monkeeeeeey, Man!!!" at the peak. However, there is indeed room to stretch out within this song. SuperBall IX has opened the door. Let's see where it leads.
Posted on phish.net by Phil Nazzaro
I find it somewhat curious that the boys chose a song off of an album associated with a concert disaster, the Altamont Speedway show. Even weirder is that they were doing a show at a speedway. What’s Altamont? Well according the good people at wikipedia and my own encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll, it was a free concert the Stones threw at the end of their American 1969 tour. They hired the Hells Angles to be security. They paid them with 500 dollars worth of beer. It was a disaster from the getgo. First, the show was supposed to be a secret surprise show in Golden Gate Park. Mick Jagger left the cat out of the bag and it had to be moved less than a week before the event. The stage wasn’t even 3 feet high. There was no barrier between the crowd and the stage, just he Angels and their bikes. And you never want to touch an Angels’ bike. So beatings with pool cues and stompings with boots quickly became the order of the day. Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane was even beaten. The Dead bailed because the vibes were so bad. The Stones did close out the night and a man was killed by the Angels during Sympathy for the Devil. All of this is captured on the amazing concert film ” Gimme Shelter”.
I saw a biker on a chopper after the first set on July 2nd, so it was a rather strange vibe for a little bit. I would like to emphasize that the overall vibe of the weekend was just outstanding. But within my massive craniumial cavity, there was just a little bit of doubt.
I was also surprised by what they didn’t play. As always, I fully expected to hear the Prep School Hippie breakout but alas, was denied again. I saw 9 shows on the first leg and did not see YEM. Other notable missing songs: Bouncin’, Free, Fluffhead, Contact, Theme, Split Open and Melt, Slave, and Guyute, Not complaining about what I did get to see (Peaches!!), just some observations.
Hope everyone’s return to reality wasn’t too harsh. Got a week off then back on the bus for Furthur at the Mann Music Center.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Phish Superball IX July 1-3, 2011
Greetings everyone. Hope you all had a safe and enjoyable weekend. I spent mine at the amazing spectacle that was SuperBall IX, held at the Watkins Glen International Speedway in Watkins Glen NY. So without further ado, let’s get this show on the road!
I went up with Christine, Todd, Nate, and Christie. We decided back when it was announced that we were going to do a RV. And boy did we ever. It could sleep 6 and had the 2 most important things for a pimpin’ festie experience, a bathroom and a shower. I’ve been to a lot of festivals but never had the exquisite pleasure of having a clean bathroom available instantly. No lines, no feels like being in an oven, and no overwhelming odor of whatever had been cooking up over the weekend. It had one shortcoming; as my brother would remark, “No third leg room.” The shower wasn’t bad either. No words exist when it comes to describing the joy of not having to worry about chafing at a festie. Gold’s powder helps alot too.
We met up at Christie’s and Nate’s crib. Load up and head out. Nate had researched the RV we acquired and even found websites that had tips on driving a big RV. He was like Capt. Kirk kicking Klingon ass. No traffic on the way up and took a ninja backway into the racetrack. No line to get in. First Wow of the weekend. My previous Phish Fests had waits of 6 hours at the Clifford Ball and 18 at It. The search was interesting. They asked us if we had any weapons, glass, drugs etc. They missed the coffeepot on the counter. They missed the cutting knives including a meat clever. They did take the maple syrup bottle and Pyrex measuring cup. Missed the wine bottles and barely dug into our coolers. I stepped out to smoke a cig and by the time it was done, we were rolling into the show.
We got a good spot overlooking the valley and nearby hills. What an amazing view. Green rolling hills all around us. We set up our 3 Quik Shades (We don’t mess around people!). Our neighbors said hi and the one chick casually mentioned they had PA. We had tables, a lot of candles, christmas lights, and even Asianesque lanterns hanging. We had a Gonzo flag on top and an HMLL t-shirt hanging loud and proud from a tent. That’s how you know where we were at. Matt and Alicia made a surprise early visit, bring the AYC (Adams York County) to the Ball. Camp Gonzo was ready.
Christine decided to rock out with her cocktail out right from the get go. She made it until 7:30 and then crashed. This was surprising for a couple reasons. One, she ain’t no noobie. She’s been on more band buses than you’ve been to festivals and is the OG HMLL. But even she was no match for the awesomeness that is Superball IX. She passed out but woke up to greet Switzer who showed up around midnight.
Switzer and her husband Josh rolled down from the luscious green state of Vermont early evening Thursday. They had a friend with them who had an all access pass to the fest. She got them an all access parking pass and they camped at a friend’s RV a block over from us. Perfect. HMLL’s unite! General tomfoolery ensued as our neighbor set up his PA and was only moderately annoying doing DJing until the wee hours of the morning.
I must now devote an entire paragraph to how well Christie and Nate do Tour. I’m blown away. They had everything you could need. Nate is an amazing cook who did an outstanding job. I give him a super rare 5 beard rating for the food. We never repeated a meal and had a wide variety of grub. Turkey burgers infused with blue cheese and herbs and spices from their garden was up first. Christine commented she’s used to doing tour on 3 days of grilled cheese and oatmeal. 5 kinds of cheese. A huge variety of fresh fruit. Most of it was local from Lancaster county. He is truly the Gonzo Gourmet.
We had 3 propane gas grills plus the stove in the RV. Nate’s brand new vintage model wouldn’t work. Then my propane stove would work. I’ve had that bad boy since the mid 90’s. It’s been everywhere and made more grill cheese than one can comprehend. I want to save it because it has some amazing stickers on it. We shall see.
After getting a great nights sleep in the modern day comfort of air conditioning, we arose to greet day one of the Fest. Took forever for the RV section to fill in. Eggs, bacon, toast and some fantastic coffee to start the day. Then just chilling out in the constant breeze that blew all weekend. Was supposed to meet up with a chick I met at greensingles.net but she never got ahold of me. Your loss sister. Never even made it to Shakedown. The scene was so perfect in the RV section I had no reason to move. Matt and Alicia showed up in their Fishman dress inspired outfits. Dinner was steamed green beans and sausage with a kick ass raman noodle/walnut/something else side. He also carved up a pineapple. Man do we know how to roll. Delicious!!
We head in and get a spot rather close on Fishman’s side. Interesting people around us. Group in front was a sight. The guy had these big black Raybans on. He would go up to people he didn’t know and bob his head inside their personal space. He looked like a European tennis pro from the 1970’s. A short asian chick was rocking out next to him in a style that looked like she was flexing, kickboxing, and doing taebo all at the same time. How she didn’t elbow me in the stomach is a miracle.
Friday, 07/01/2011
Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, NY
Set 1: Possum, Peaches en Regalia > The Moma Dance, Torn and Frayed > NICU > Bathtub Gin, Life on Mars?, My Friend, My Friend, Wolfman's Brother, Roses Are Free > Funky Bitch, Quinn the Eskimo
Set 2: Jam > Crosseyed and Painless -> Chalk Dust Torture, Sand > The Wedge, Mike's Song > Simple[1] > Bug, The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Weekapaug Groove > Joy > Character Zero
Encore: Show of Life
[1] Third Stone from the Sun teases
Notes: This was the first of the three-show SuperBall IX festival. Life on Mars? was played for the first time since February 15, 2003 (175 shows). Simple contained Third Stone From the Sun teases
They played the overplayed Possum right off the back to get it out of the way. Peaches woohoo! Been looking for that one since my first show. Moma had a nice jam. Finally got my Torn and Frayed off of Exile. Life on Mars made a welcome return. A nice long first set, a beautiful omen for the rest of the weekend.
Very short set break caught us still getting beers at the far end of the Square. Nice song selection with an almost old school Mike’s. Haven’t relistened to it yet so just going by memory on all the music. Head back to the camp ground to chill out and listen to the crappy ass DJ play crappy ass music at a reasonable level. While hanging, we observed the people across the way try to set up their pop up. 2 guys had a hell of a time opening one of the popups but were doing it with as little energy expended as possible. Nate remarked they looked like zombies which sent myself into fits of laughter. Marcus made his way to our camp but it was after we had crashed. He knew it was ours by the Gonzo flag and the HMLL t shirt. Rock and roll!!!
Day 2 opened just like day 1; perfect weather and a constant breeze. Took a shower which made me feel like a new man. Marcus Pivic stopped by. Marcus is an old friend from the Devolver family who now has a family of his own and flies jets for the Air Force. Though luck and sheer force of will, he got out of his first training run to go to the Fest. Mad props to our citizens that serve in the armed forces. Because of what you guys do, I can go to festies like this one, so thank you very much. He was a one man Walmart and more than made a profit selling heady beer and sake jello shots. Never saw that on the Lot before.
A lot can go wrong with a rented RV. The people next to us had their generator battery die. People across the road had their water tank leaking inside and out. We had our waste tanks emptied but the human waste tank still read 2/3 full. Nate harangued and Todd ripped them a new one. They said a piece of toilet paper was blocking a sensor. Wrong. It went to full later in the day and we had to get in emptied again the next day. But that was our only issue. 3 sets today so after a kick ass breakfast of waffles, made on an actual waffle maker, we were ready to go. Got on Fishman’s side again, next to the king and settled in.
Saturday, 07/02/2011
Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, NY
Set 1: Tube, Kill Devil Falls > Ocelot, Lawn Boy, The Divided Sky, Boogie On Reggae Woman > Camel Walk, Cities > Poor Heart > 46 Days > Suskind Hotel[1], When the Circus Comes, Timber (Jerry) > Back on the Train > Suzy Greenberg, Monkey Man[1]
Set 2: Runaway Jim[2] > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters, Axilla > Birds of a Feather, Stash, Sample in a Jar, Heavy Things > Horn > It's Ice > The Mango Song > Rift > Scents and Subtle Sounds > Run Like an Antelope
Set 3: Golden Age > Prince Caspian > Piper > Tweezer[3] > Julius > Backwards Down the Number Line > Twist > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Harry Hood > Cavern > Golgi Apparatus > A Day in the Life
Encore: Loving Cup, Tweezer Reprise
Encore 2: Storage Jam, Sleeping Monkey
[1] Phish debut.
[2] Introductions of Runaway Jim 5K winners.
[3] Scents and Subtle Sounds teases from Mike.
Notes: This was the second of the three-show SuperBall IX festival. This gig featured the Phish debuts of Suskind Hotel and Monkey Man. Runaway Jim included introductions and trophy awards for the winners of the Runaway Jim 5K road race held earlier in the day. The first Secret Language of 3.0 was a Simpsons Signal after BOAF. Tweezer contained Scents and Subtle Sounds teases from Mike.
High energy right off the bat. We had the sun to our back so we could rage as required. Camel Walk and Cities back to back gave us all the funk we needed. Suskind Hotel had a cool little jam. The highlight of the entire fest for me was the closing song, Monkeyman by the Rolling Stones. It’s one of my favorite Stones songs. Devolver did it first but I recognized it from the opening notes. The snaking bass line and piano parts had me jumping up and down, screaming like a maniac well before the vocals started. I still can’t believe they played it. I was so geeked and blown away I forgot about my poncho on the ground. I’ve had it since ’98 or ’99. I’m sorry I left you on the battlefield old friend. You will be missed.
Made our way back to camp to grab some grub what with it being an extra long set break. Had cheesesteaks lot style along with fresh cut watermelon. Gave away a lot of it to peeps in our hood. Had seats a little further back by a stop sign where Switzer and some of the Vermont crew had gotten a sweet spot. That became our base for the next 2 days. Hoover found me there and Marcus made his way over there as well. Trey introduced the winners of the Memorial Runaway Jim 5K winners during Runaway Jim. I had wanted a McGrupp for a long time and was rewarded for my patience. A rocking Antelope closed out the second set. The Golden Age is a great song and crackled with energy. The Tweezer and Twist were the highlights of the rest of the set. Beatles to end the set followed by a Stones song and a Reprise. Yes sir!!!
We hung out afterwards because the rumor was Phish was going to play a late night set. Got a good spot next to the Superball and waited. We couldn’t see anything and just hung out while Phish played some really spaced out stuff. We later found out we were on the wrong side of the “stage”. Some of us left before the end but not Christine. She got her Sleeping Monkey along with everything else she wanted to hear. Why? Cause she’s HMLL. Represent!! Call it a night in order to rest up for the final push.
Slept in once again thanks to the modern comforts of a RV. Eggs and bacon to start the day off right. Conserved energy all day and hung with our cool neighbors, Blake, Dave, and Lana. They were parked with the DJ crew. Blake lives in the woods outside of Asheville and has 3 black bears that roam his property. Damn all I have is that squirrel.
Sunday, 07/03/2011
Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, NY
Set 1: Soul Shakedown Party, AC/DC Bag > The Curtain > Colonel Forbin's Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird, Destiny Unbound > Big Black Furry Creature from Mars[1] > Wilson > Mound, A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing, Time Loves a Hero, Reba[2] -> David Bowie
Set 2: Big Balls[3] > Down with Disease[4] -> No Quarter > Party Time, Ghost > Gotta Jibboo > Light, Waves > What's the Use?, Meatstick[5] > Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, The Star Spangled Banner
Encore: First Tube
[1] Theme from Leave it to Beaver tease from Mike.
[2] Dave's Energy Guide tease.
[3] Phish debut
[4] Unfinished.
[5] Japanese lyrics.
Notes: This show was the third of the three-show Super Ball IX festival. The Curtain was played for the first time since September 9, 2000 (202 shows). The narration preceding Mockingbird, (the first since September 30, 2000 (188 shows)), referenced the previous night's fourth set Storage Jam and explained that all of SBIX was merely a mental projection of a reality that the band created in 1988 on their way to Colorado. Mike teased the theme from Leave it to Beaver during BBFCFM. Reba contained Dave's Energy Guide teases. The setbreak featured All-American themed music. This show featured the Phish debut of Big Balls. Disease was unfinished. Meatstick included Japanese lyrics. Before the encore, Trey thanked each of the crew, management and artists who helped make Super Ball IX happen. First Tube was followed by fireworks.
They opened up with Soul Shakedown Party. Christine remarked it was almost like they were writing the setlists for her. Then Christie had line of the weekend.
“I like it when Christine gets excited about things” Hells yes! The Col’s/Famous Mockingbird with narration was just about spot on. Loved the return of Song I heard the Ocean Sing.
Big Balls by ACDC kicks off the last set. The Disease had some nice jams and No Quarter just destroyed the place. They even had the cool vocal effects. All of the set was high energy. Trey thanked everyone and then a First Tube along with a lot of fireworks sent us on our way.
We get back for some chilling out but DJ Asshole next store decides that everyone in the campsite needs to hear his shitty music. This was definitely the loudest and bass heavy of the 3 nights. We can’t have a glass syrup bottle but this douchbag can bring in a PA because everyone is just dying to hear his mix. Child please. He finally stopped around 8 AM, I guess his ketamine finally wore off.
We packed up everything relatively quickly and were on our way. Mad mad props to Nate and Christie for the planning and preping for this spectacular event. You guys really know how to roll. A big thanks to everyone who showed up, hung out, and made the weekend so much fun. And thanks to Phish for having the imagination to put on such an amazing event.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
I went up with Christine, Todd, Nate, and Christie. We decided back when it was announced that we were going to do a RV. And boy did we ever. It could sleep 6 and had the 2 most important things for a pimpin’ festie experience, a bathroom and a shower. I’ve been to a lot of festivals but never had the exquisite pleasure of having a clean bathroom available instantly. No lines, no feels like being in an oven, and no overwhelming odor of whatever had been cooking up over the weekend. It had one shortcoming; as my brother would remark, “No third leg room.” The shower wasn’t bad either. No words exist when it comes to describing the joy of not having to worry about chafing at a festie. Gold’s powder helps alot too.
We met up at Christie’s and Nate’s crib. Load up and head out. Nate had researched the RV we acquired and even found websites that had tips on driving a big RV. He was like Capt. Kirk kicking Klingon ass. No traffic on the way up and took a ninja backway into the racetrack. No line to get in. First Wow of the weekend. My previous Phish Fests had waits of 6 hours at the Clifford Ball and 18 at It. The search was interesting. They asked us if we had any weapons, glass, drugs etc. They missed the coffeepot on the counter. They missed the cutting knives including a meat clever. They did take the maple syrup bottle and Pyrex measuring cup. Missed the wine bottles and barely dug into our coolers. I stepped out to smoke a cig and by the time it was done, we were rolling into the show.
We got a good spot overlooking the valley and nearby hills. What an amazing view. Green rolling hills all around us. We set up our 3 Quik Shades (We don’t mess around people!). Our neighbors said hi and the one chick casually mentioned they had PA. We had tables, a lot of candles, christmas lights, and even Asianesque lanterns hanging. We had a Gonzo flag on top and an HMLL t-shirt hanging loud and proud from a tent. That’s how you know where we were at. Matt and Alicia made a surprise early visit, bring the AYC (Adams York County) to the Ball. Camp Gonzo was ready.
Christine decided to rock out with her cocktail out right from the get go. She made it until 7:30 and then crashed. This was surprising for a couple reasons. One, she ain’t no noobie. She’s been on more band buses than you’ve been to festivals and is the OG HMLL. But even she was no match for the awesomeness that is Superball IX. She passed out but woke up to greet Switzer who showed up around midnight.
Switzer and her husband Josh rolled down from the luscious green state of Vermont early evening Thursday. They had a friend with them who had an all access pass to the fest. She got them an all access parking pass and they camped at a friend’s RV a block over from us. Perfect. HMLL’s unite! General tomfoolery ensued as our neighbor set up his PA and was only moderately annoying doing DJing until the wee hours of the morning.
I must now devote an entire paragraph to how well Christie and Nate do Tour. I’m blown away. They had everything you could need. Nate is an amazing cook who did an outstanding job. I give him a super rare 5 beard rating for the food. We never repeated a meal and had a wide variety of grub. Turkey burgers infused with blue cheese and herbs and spices from their garden was up first. Christine commented she’s used to doing tour on 3 days of grilled cheese and oatmeal. 5 kinds of cheese. A huge variety of fresh fruit. Most of it was local from Lancaster county. He is truly the Gonzo Gourmet.
We had 3 propane gas grills plus the stove in the RV. Nate’s brand new vintage model wouldn’t work. Then my propane stove would work. I’ve had that bad boy since the mid 90’s. It’s been everywhere and made more grill cheese than one can comprehend. I want to save it because it has some amazing stickers on it. We shall see.
After getting a great nights sleep in the modern day comfort of air conditioning, we arose to greet day one of the Fest. Took forever for the RV section to fill in. Eggs, bacon, toast and some fantastic coffee to start the day. Then just chilling out in the constant breeze that blew all weekend. Was supposed to meet up with a chick I met at greensingles.net but she never got ahold of me. Your loss sister. Never even made it to Shakedown. The scene was so perfect in the RV section I had no reason to move. Matt and Alicia showed up in their Fishman dress inspired outfits. Dinner was steamed green beans and sausage with a kick ass raman noodle/walnut/something else side. He also carved up a pineapple. Man do we know how to roll. Delicious!!
We head in and get a spot rather close on Fishman’s side. Interesting people around us. Group in front was a sight. The guy had these big black Raybans on. He would go up to people he didn’t know and bob his head inside their personal space. He looked like a European tennis pro from the 1970’s. A short asian chick was rocking out next to him in a style that looked like she was flexing, kickboxing, and doing taebo all at the same time. How she didn’t elbow me in the stomach is a miracle.
Friday, 07/01/2011
Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, NY
Set 1: Possum, Peaches en Regalia > The Moma Dance, Torn and Frayed > NICU > Bathtub Gin, Life on Mars?, My Friend, My Friend, Wolfman's Brother, Roses Are Free > Funky Bitch, Quinn the Eskimo
Set 2: Jam > Crosseyed and Painless -> Chalk Dust Torture, Sand > The Wedge, Mike's Song > Simple[1] > Bug, The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Weekapaug Groove > Joy > Character Zero
Encore: Show of Life
[1] Third Stone from the Sun teases
Notes: This was the first of the three-show SuperBall IX festival. Life on Mars? was played for the first time since February 15, 2003 (175 shows). Simple contained Third Stone From the Sun teases
They played the overplayed Possum right off the back to get it out of the way. Peaches woohoo! Been looking for that one since my first show. Moma had a nice jam. Finally got my Torn and Frayed off of Exile. Life on Mars made a welcome return. A nice long first set, a beautiful omen for the rest of the weekend.
Very short set break caught us still getting beers at the far end of the Square. Nice song selection with an almost old school Mike’s. Haven’t relistened to it yet so just going by memory on all the music. Head back to the camp ground to chill out and listen to the crappy ass DJ play crappy ass music at a reasonable level. While hanging, we observed the people across the way try to set up their pop up. 2 guys had a hell of a time opening one of the popups but were doing it with as little energy expended as possible. Nate remarked they looked like zombies which sent myself into fits of laughter. Marcus made his way to our camp but it was after we had crashed. He knew it was ours by the Gonzo flag and the HMLL t shirt. Rock and roll!!!
Day 2 opened just like day 1; perfect weather and a constant breeze. Took a shower which made me feel like a new man. Marcus Pivic stopped by. Marcus is an old friend from the Devolver family who now has a family of his own and flies jets for the Air Force. Though luck and sheer force of will, he got out of his first training run to go to the Fest. Mad props to our citizens that serve in the armed forces. Because of what you guys do, I can go to festies like this one, so thank you very much. He was a one man Walmart and more than made a profit selling heady beer and sake jello shots. Never saw that on the Lot before.
A lot can go wrong with a rented RV. The people next to us had their generator battery die. People across the road had their water tank leaking inside and out. We had our waste tanks emptied but the human waste tank still read 2/3 full. Nate harangued and Todd ripped them a new one. They said a piece of toilet paper was blocking a sensor. Wrong. It went to full later in the day and we had to get in emptied again the next day. But that was our only issue. 3 sets today so after a kick ass breakfast of waffles, made on an actual waffle maker, we were ready to go. Got on Fishman’s side again, next to the king and settled in.
Saturday, 07/02/2011
Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, NY
Set 1: Tube, Kill Devil Falls > Ocelot, Lawn Boy, The Divided Sky, Boogie On Reggae Woman > Camel Walk, Cities > Poor Heart > 46 Days > Suskind Hotel[1], When the Circus Comes, Timber (Jerry) > Back on the Train > Suzy Greenberg, Monkey Man[1]
Set 2: Runaway Jim[2] > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters, Axilla > Birds of a Feather, Stash, Sample in a Jar, Heavy Things > Horn > It's Ice > The Mango Song > Rift > Scents and Subtle Sounds > Run Like an Antelope
Set 3: Golden Age > Prince Caspian > Piper > Tweezer[3] > Julius > Backwards Down the Number Line > Twist > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Harry Hood > Cavern > Golgi Apparatus > A Day in the Life
Encore: Loving Cup, Tweezer Reprise
Encore 2: Storage Jam, Sleeping Monkey
[1] Phish debut.
[2] Introductions of Runaway Jim 5K winners.
[3] Scents and Subtle Sounds teases from Mike.
Notes: This was the second of the three-show SuperBall IX festival. This gig featured the Phish debuts of Suskind Hotel and Monkey Man. Runaway Jim included introductions and trophy awards for the winners of the Runaway Jim 5K road race held earlier in the day. The first Secret Language of 3.0 was a Simpsons Signal after BOAF. Tweezer contained Scents and Subtle Sounds teases from Mike.
High energy right off the bat. We had the sun to our back so we could rage as required. Camel Walk and Cities back to back gave us all the funk we needed. Suskind Hotel had a cool little jam. The highlight of the entire fest for me was the closing song, Monkeyman by the Rolling Stones. It’s one of my favorite Stones songs. Devolver did it first but I recognized it from the opening notes. The snaking bass line and piano parts had me jumping up and down, screaming like a maniac well before the vocals started. I still can’t believe they played it. I was so geeked and blown away I forgot about my poncho on the ground. I’ve had it since ’98 or ’99. I’m sorry I left you on the battlefield old friend. You will be missed.
Made our way back to camp to grab some grub what with it being an extra long set break. Had cheesesteaks lot style along with fresh cut watermelon. Gave away a lot of it to peeps in our hood. Had seats a little further back by a stop sign where Switzer and some of the Vermont crew had gotten a sweet spot. That became our base for the next 2 days. Hoover found me there and Marcus made his way over there as well. Trey introduced the winners of the Memorial Runaway Jim 5K winners during Runaway Jim. I had wanted a McGrupp for a long time and was rewarded for my patience. A rocking Antelope closed out the second set. The Golden Age is a great song and crackled with energy. The Tweezer and Twist were the highlights of the rest of the set. Beatles to end the set followed by a Stones song and a Reprise. Yes sir!!!
We hung out afterwards because the rumor was Phish was going to play a late night set. Got a good spot next to the Superball and waited. We couldn’t see anything and just hung out while Phish played some really spaced out stuff. We later found out we were on the wrong side of the “stage”. Some of us left before the end but not Christine. She got her Sleeping Monkey along with everything else she wanted to hear. Why? Cause she’s HMLL. Represent!! Call it a night in order to rest up for the final push.
Slept in once again thanks to the modern comforts of a RV. Eggs and bacon to start the day off right. Conserved energy all day and hung with our cool neighbors, Blake, Dave, and Lana. They were parked with the DJ crew. Blake lives in the woods outside of Asheville and has 3 black bears that roam his property. Damn all I have is that squirrel.
Sunday, 07/03/2011
Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, NY
Set 1: Soul Shakedown Party, AC/DC Bag > The Curtain > Colonel Forbin's Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird, Destiny Unbound > Big Black Furry Creature from Mars[1] > Wilson > Mound, A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing, Time Loves a Hero, Reba[2] -> David Bowie
Set 2: Big Balls[3] > Down with Disease[4] -> No Quarter > Party Time, Ghost > Gotta Jibboo > Light, Waves > What's the Use?, Meatstick[5] > Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, The Star Spangled Banner
Encore: First Tube
[1] Theme from Leave it to Beaver tease from Mike.
[2] Dave's Energy Guide tease.
[3] Phish debut
[4] Unfinished.
[5] Japanese lyrics.
Notes: This show was the third of the three-show Super Ball IX festival. The Curtain was played for the first time since September 9, 2000 (202 shows). The narration preceding Mockingbird, (the first since September 30, 2000 (188 shows)), referenced the previous night's fourth set Storage Jam and explained that all of SBIX was merely a mental projection of a reality that the band created in 1988 on their way to Colorado. Mike teased the theme from Leave it to Beaver during BBFCFM. Reba contained Dave's Energy Guide teases. The setbreak featured All-American themed music. This show featured the Phish debut of Big Balls. Disease was unfinished. Meatstick included Japanese lyrics. Before the encore, Trey thanked each of the crew, management and artists who helped make Super Ball IX happen. First Tube was followed by fireworks.
They opened up with Soul Shakedown Party. Christine remarked it was almost like they were writing the setlists for her. Then Christie had line of the weekend.
“I like it when Christine gets excited about things” Hells yes! The Col’s/Famous Mockingbird with narration was just about spot on. Loved the return of Song I heard the Ocean Sing.
Big Balls by ACDC kicks off the last set. The Disease had some nice jams and No Quarter just destroyed the place. They even had the cool vocal effects. All of the set was high energy. Trey thanked everyone and then a First Tube along with a lot of fireworks sent us on our way.
We get back for some chilling out but DJ Asshole next store decides that everyone in the campsite needs to hear his shitty music. This was definitely the loudest and bass heavy of the 3 nights. We can’t have a glass syrup bottle but this douchbag can bring in a PA because everyone is just dying to hear his mix. Child please. He finally stopped around 8 AM, I guess his ketamine finally wore off.
We packed up everything relatively quickly and were on our way. Mad mad props to Nate and Christie for the planning and preping for this spectacular event. You guys really know how to roll. A big thanks to everyone who showed up, hung out, and made the weekend so much fun. And thanks to Phish for having the imagination to put on such an amazing event.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
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