Hello everyone. I
hope you are enjoying this chilly arrival of fall. The foliage season is
peaking and it is crisp up here in the land of maple syrup. Low 30’s tonight.
Mt Mansfield has visible snow on it. And what better way to celebrate the
harvest season than with one of the oldest rituals known to our scene, Fall
Tour Opener. Fall tours with Halloween shows are even better. And with the
opener just a mere 3 hours away, you know I am there. Kempepedia is proud to
present Phish, Oct. 16th and 17th, 2018, Albany NY.
Not sure if I
have ever been as pumped for shows like I was for the 2 nights in Albany. After
the soul crushing heartbreak of the cancellation of the Blueballs Festival, I
really need to see some live Phish. Dick’s was out of the question. But an
opening 2 night run in Albany? That is totally doable. The last and only time I
have ever been to a show in Albany was the tour opener in Sept. 2000, right
before the first hiatus. I was going with my normal crew but even though we all
live in Burlington now, due to logistics, we were meeting at the hotel just
like we would when I still lived in PA.
And the hotel? 5 minute walk to venue and a room with a veranda.
!0/16/18
SET 1: The Moma Dance, Tube, Theme From the Bottom > Free, Army of One, Halley's Comet > Everything's Right -> Cities >Walls of the Cave
SET 2: Ghost > No Men In No Man's
Land > Piper > Twenty Years Later > Show of Life > Also Sprach
Zarathustra > Character Zero
ENCORE: Harry Hood
You can stream it here
Moma is a great opener, lots of dancing. The
Tube definitely had a jam in it of several minutes before going back into the
verses. Everything’s Right had some great stuff in it. Some of Trey’s newer
tones go so well with Page’s clavinet it’s almost obscene. The transition into
Cities was stellar. WTC rocked out the way it always does.
I had genuine floor seats. I think the
last time I had floors for an east coast show was 12/11/99 at the old Spectrum.
The vibe was just fantastic. The crew next to us were from Vermont and NOBODY
was yapping or even really singing along, everyone was just there to dance
their asses off. The Ghost kicked off the set and was devastating. Lots of evil
Phish with the light rig going up and down. It gave the illusion of the stage
rising. So much awesomeness within a short span. No wasted notes. No Man’s was more
of a spacer journey but still delivered. 20 Years>Show of Life was insane.
20 Years had a lot of evil Phish as well. Definitely in the running for best Show of
Life ever. End jam had so much energy. There was an after show with a bunch of
Burlington musicians playing soul music. I joked they took a Nectar’s show and
placed it in Albany. While I didn’t make the show, I did see a video where the
owner of Nectar’s sang a song with them. So it REALLY was a transplanted Nectar’s
show.
SET 1: Crowd Control, Chalk Dust Torture, All of These Dreams > Wolfman's Brother > Scent of a Mule, NICU > Gumbo, Steam > I Didn't Know, Bathtub Gin
SET 2: Set Your Soul Free > Birds of a Feather, Mercury > Light, The Wedge, Wading in the
Velvet Sea, Wilson > Slave to the
Traffic Light
You can stream it here
J had called the Crowd Control opener…. For
the first night. But he still gets credit. Chalk Dust was more exploratory than
a normal first set CDT. Wolfman’s was good as always. We were in the second
level right above Page and got to see the Mule choreography really well. Steam
was great with the steam and the lights. Also saw all that goes into a Fish vacuum
solo. Where they keep vacuum and vacuum mic. How Trey has to rush to get to the
drum kit and then the mic. S remarked the visual of trey running around on the
stage to first get to the drums and then back to his mic.
Set You Soul Free had some amazing
parts. Mercury>Light was the peak of the night for myself. Trey remarked how
it felt like a hometown show because of how close it is to Vermont. Wow.
We tried to do the post show Lot but there
was nothing going on. We got back to the room and the Sox game was still on,
ending at 1:44. That is way too late for a baseball game.
Dave
Kemp
BA
American Studies
PhD
Rock and Roll
