Phish, Live at Merriweather Post Pavilion, Aug 15th and 16th, 2015

   
     Greetings everyone. Hope you are enjoying the last few weeks of cultural summer. My summer has been a weird one show wise. All my fun has been jammed into one month. I saw Dear Jerry at Merriweather back in May and then nothing until August 1^st when I saw Tedechsi Trucks Band/Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings in Baltimore. But now I have finally arrived at what Summer is all about, Phish. So with the boys on fire, I finally get around to seeing them live for 2 nights at my home away from home, Merriweather Post Pavilion on August 15^th and 16^th.
      These two shows were kind of the end of Tour. Magnaball fest is kind of its own thing and Dick's is over 2 weeks away. It was forecast to be a blistering hot weekend with no chance for rain. Adding to the excitement, Switzer and her hubby were coming down for the shows. Bonus, she is 7 months pregnant. So the next time you complain about the heat or lines, at least you aren't touring for 2.

Saturday, 08/15/2015
Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

Soundcheck: Sparkle, McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters, Friday, Nothing (x5), Stir It Up (instrumental)

Set 1: Simple > Glide, Buried Alive > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > Roggae > Limb By Limb > Big Black Furry Creature from Mars > Your Pet Cat > Big Black Furry Creature from Mars, Horn > Blaze On > Run Like an Antelope^[1]
Set 2: Halley's Comet > 46 Days -> Bug > Steam > What's the Use? > Steam -> Piper -> Tweezer^[2] -> NO2 -> Tweezer > Walls of the Cave
Encore: Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise

[1] Marco Esquandolas lyric changed to "Gaktoidler Esquandolas."
[2] Trey on megaphone.

Teases:
· Magilla tease in Simple
· Your Pet Cat quote in Big Black Furry Creature from Mars
· Call to the Post tease in Run Like an Antelope
· Sleeping Monkey quote in Tweezer Reprise
· Martian Monster quote in NO2

Notes: This show was webcast via LivePhish. Simple included a Magilla tease. The first Big Black Furry Creature from Mars included a Your Pet Cat quote. Run Like an Antelope included a Call To The Post tease and the lyrics were changed to "Gaktoidler Esquandolas." Piper included a Steam tease. Tweezer included Trey on megaphone. NO2 was last played August 12, 2010 (202 shows) and included a Martian Monster quote. During the intro to Sleeping Monkey, Trey said that backstage the band had read a website that ranked Phish songs and they were surprised that Page's all-time favorite song was not on the top of the list, so they were going to play it for the crowd right now. Trey then said every night walking off during encore breaks Page asks to play it and Mike says, "No Page, not tonight, tonight's not your night, man." Tweezer Reprise included a Sleeping Monkey quote from Fish.

You can stream it here

http://www.jamstreams.net/phish/2015/2015-08-15

    I haven't listened to them again so everything is going off of my memory. Simple opener is super cool. Whole first set was nice mix of old school stuff and the newer material. I love Blaze On and the Pet Cat stuff in the middle of BBFCFM was perfect. The Antelope even had a different little jam in it, which everyone I talked to agreed it was a superior version. My only complaint? The amount to people running their yaps during the whole first set. That is so old by now. Why even come to the show if your aren't going to listen to the music.
      The second set first jam of note was 46 Days. I really liked the sandwiches they did for Tweezer and Steam. I'm sure most people didn't even know the weirdness with the megaphone was NO2. I really liked the second part of Tweezer, although it was short. And the encore was a rather unique Sleeping Monkey. The coolest thing about the Monkey? It was Christine’s 60^th show and anniversary of her first show. And what is the favorite song of the OG HMLL? Sleeping Monkey. Not too shabby.
The next day was even hotter so of course we got to the Lot earlier.


 Sun, Aug 16, 2015
Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
 
Soundcheck: Foam, The Mango Song, My Soul

Set 1: Golgi Apparatus > Undermind, Julius, 555, Nothing, No Men In No Man's Land, Stash, David Bowie > Possum

Set 2: Down with Disease^[1] -> Slave to the Traffic Light > Light -> Twist, Shine a Light, Fuego > Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley > You Enjoy Myself
Encore: Backwards Down the Number Line

[1] Lyrics changed to "Mike's head." Unfinished.

Notes: This show is being webcast via LivePhish. Sleeping Monkey was teased and quoted before the show and also quoted in the YEM vocal jam. Mike teased "Charge!" before the show as well. Nothing was played for the first time since June 7, 2012 (139 shows). DWD's lyrics were changed to reference "Mike's head." DWD was also unfinished.
     After faking us out with some Sleeping Monkey teases, the first set got under way. Glad I got No Man's Land, which along with Blaze On, are my two favorite new songs. Stash and Bowie were the improv highlights of the first set. Second set was solid. An early in the set appearance of Slave was cool. The Shine A Light is always welcome and Sneakin' was very cool, as they have been going light on the covers this tour. I really liked the vocal part of YEM.
      So there you have it. With these shows, Merriweather is my most seen Phish venue and Columbia, MD is my most seen city, barely edging out Philly. Up next, living the high life at MagnaBall in a phatty RV.



Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll

It Was 20 Years Ago Today: The Day the Music Died, August 9th, 1995

     Hello friends. Hope you are doing well as we kill time until Phish's glorious return to Merriweather Post Pavilion next weekend. I'm here to write, without a doubt, one of the saddest posts I will ever write. So without further ado, allow me to begin “It Was 20 Years Ago Today : The Day the Music Died, August 9^th, 1995.”
     The summer of 1995 was going pretty good and the fall was looking really good. All of my shows were over by the time July rolled around. The Dead had finished up their chaotic Summer Tour and had issued an open letter to the fans about their behavior. They threatened to stop touring if we didn't clean up our act. I can't remember my reaction to it because I wasn't gate crashing and swinging drugs on the Lot. But I did have a Fall Tour to look forward to. They were doing a 3-night run at the Spectrum in Philly in September, and I had scored tickets for all three nights. They were doing a multiple night run in Boston at the original Garden and it was the last event to be held there. My friend, who is a huge Red Sox/Celtics fan, had tickets for all of the shows. On each ticket they printed a word at the bottom, so if you had the whole run it spelled out “Would tear this old building down;” a line from Samson and Delilah.
     And then it happened. I can't really explain how bad I felt about it. I hadn't lost a parent yet, so this was probably the biggest loss I had suffered yet. I was working at Keystone Machine in Littlestown, running the #078 horizontal mill. We had a shitty little radio that was tuned to a country station out of Baltimore. It was noon and the announcer said “ Reports out of Marin County in California” and I knew Jerry was dead. What other news would come out Marin County? My fellow co worker saw how ashen I was and asked if I was alright. I said, “yes” and since it was lunch time, I went out to the parking lot to compose myself. I spent the rest of the day in a daze. Adrian stopped by and we chatted for a few minutes. He was just as stunned as I was.
     I left work and then had to go to my second job, two nights a week at Weis Markets. Not sure why I even went in. I was there less than an hour before I told my boss I was leaving. He didn't exactly understand but left me go. I went over to Nad's and we went out in the fields by his house and puffed out of his piece pipe. It was really ornamental with bull horns on the front. He made it himself and it was the perfect device for such a sad and solemn occasion.
     During the weekend following Jerry's death, Custom Blends, aka Planet RYO, held a memorial service up in York or Lancaster. It was well attended and really had a community vibe. Remember, this was before the Internet. There also was a huge event in Golden Gate Park in SF with the band, a truly healing and grieving moment. And Robert Hunter rose to the occasion and wrote this little gem:

An Elegy for Jerry

by Robert Hunter

Jerry, my friend,
you've done it again,
even in your silence
the familiar pressure
comes to bear, demanding
I pull words from the air
with only this morning
and part of the afternoon
to compose an ode worthy
of one so particular
about every turn of phrase,
demanding it hit home
in a thousand ways
before making it his own,
and this I can't do alone.
Now that the singer is gone,
where shall I go for the song?

Without your melody and taste
to lend an attitude of grace
a lyric is an orphan thing,
a hive with neither honey's taste
nor power to truly sting.

What choice have I but to dare and
call your muse who thought to rest
out of the thin blue air
that out of the field of shared time,
a line or two might chance to shine --

As ever when we called,
in hope if not in words,
the muse descends.

How should she desert us now?
Scars of battle on her brow,
bedraggled feathers on her wings,
and yet she sings, she sings!

May she bear thee to thy rest,
the ancient bower of flowers
beyond the solitude of days,
the tyranny of hours--
the wreath of shining laurel lie
upon your shaggy head
bestowing power to play the lyre
to legions of the dead

If some part of that music
is heard in deepest dream,
or on some breeze of Summer
a snatch of golden theme,
we'll know you live inside us
with love that never parts
our good old Jack O'Diamonds
become the King of Hearts.

I feel your silent laughter
at sentiments so bold
that dare to step across the line
to tell what must be told,
so I'll just say I love you,
which I never said before
and let it go at that old friend
the rest you may ignore.


     About 2 weeks after this, Phish announced a lengthy Fall Tour, which ran from the end of September until mid-December with a week off after Halloween. Little did they know they would be under the spotlight like never before but would rise and fly light years beyond any expectations as they vaulted to the top of the live music scene. I hit 4 shows and it was exactly what I needed to show me the road does continue on. But there will always a little hole in my heart and soul. I feel extremely blessed and fortunate to have seen the Grateful Dead, and I look back in amazement at the adventures I had all before I turned 23.


Dave Kemp
BA American Studies

PhD Rock and Roll