Saturday, March 31, 2012

Why I bought a cassette player in 2012

I have lots of cassette tapes. Hey, I grew up in the '80s, so half of my collection consists of artists like Duran Duran, Wham!, Swing Out Sister and Tears for Fears.

The other half was procured in the '90s when I became a Phish fan. Back in those days, we would find other phans at shows or through friends who knew other phans who had tapes of shows (and if you were friends with a taper? Jackpot!). Like the Grateful Dead before them, Phish always welcomed tapers at their shows as long as the tapes were copied and given away or traded, never sold.

Even in the early days of the internet, there were no mp3s, so we mostly used it as a tool to connect with other phans and trade tapes. That's how I built up my collection.

Because the cassette is now a dead medium, I have been in the process of converting my hundreds of Phish tapes to CD and mp3. My cassette player is hooked up to a standalone CD burner which records from any analog source (I've been digitizing a lot of my hundreds of vinyl records, too).

In order to make things both fun and organized, I have been converting my Phish tapes on their 20th anniversaries. So all throughout 2010 and 2011, I was recording my 1990 and 1991 tapes. The fun of it is that it needs to be done in real time (with track separation being done by pushing a button at the correct moment), so I also listen intently to them, and twice - first to figure out where the track changes were, then to actually record them onto disc. Then I convert the audio to mp3, so I have it on disc and on my computer. Listening to those old shows on my iPod while running has been quite awesome.

It has been quite the endeavor. But a few days ago, my cassette player, which has probably seen more use in the past two years than the previous two decades, conked out.

And so, I logged on to Amazon.com, a thoroughly modern method of shopping, to purchase a used tape deck - a completely outmoded technology.  How anachronistic!

But I need it - I've got a ton of 1992 tapes that need to be converted this year.

Friday, March 30, 2012

The taper begins

This is the first week of the taper - the period of time after the most intense training during which my weekly mileage steadily decreases in order to have fresh legs for the race. After finishing my 58-mile week with less than stellar results, I have mixed feelings.

Am I ready? That last 20-miler bummed me out and it was the last major training day. I hope it is not a harbinger of bad tidings for the race.

My Sunday five-miler was slow, but I was able to pick up the pace for my Monday eight-miler and Tuesday fiver. 

Wednesday was the final day of hill sprints (thankfully!).  I won't miss those.  There is nothing fun about sprinting up and down a hill that is 1/3-mile long.
Yesterday, much-needed rest.

Today, only four miles.  I have not done a four-mile run in weeks.  Hopefully, it will be a piece of cake.

Sixteen days to go until the Gansett Marathon and everything aches. This is not the vibe I wanted for the taper period.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Made it...barely

By Wednesday of last week, my back was feeling better (though not 100 percent), so I got out on the ol' track and blasted out eight 800-meter repeats with 400-meter jogs in between. My average time for those speed intervals was 3:01. I felt so good. So ready.

Thursday was my rest day and Friday was my final 10-mile pace run of the training program. I knocked it out of the park. It was so beautiful on Friday that I was positively grinning from the moment I stepped outside. Low 50s, no wind, cool and crisp air. I flew through the 10 - huge hills in Montclair and all - at a 6:30 pace. I was in heaven.

I wanted my final 20-mile run to be the icing on the cake, but that was not to be. The course was the same as the previous 20-miler, only in the reverse direction. This meant it was mostly downhill from Little Falls, through Fairfield, into Montville, for the first half; and uphill through the Caldwells, Verona and Cedar Grove, for the second. In addition, the wind was blowing from the east, and fiercely at that. Road signs were swinging in the wind like they were made of paper, and there I was, pushing up the four-mile long incline of Bloomfield Avenue from its start at Route 46 all the way to Fairview Avenue.

It did not help that I made the rookie mistake of starting out way too fast. This is what trips people up at the Boston Marathon, in which the first half is all downhill and the next several miles have tough hills, and I knew that. I saw it firsthand. Yet I could not help myself. The excitement of the first 10 miles had me get to the halfway point in 71 minutes. But it did not take a lot of time of running uphill into the wind to knock the vim right out of me.

By the time I reached the West Essex Trail, with less than five miles to go, I was barely the man I had been just an hour before, and the enormous hill on Lakeview Avenue, connecting Bowden Road to Ridge Road, drained me of everything I had left. The last three miles were a broken man's shuffle, leading to a second half of 84 minutes.

Averaged out, my pace for the entire run was 7:45 or so. This would have been A-OK if I had started and ended at that pace. But to start so fast and end so slowly is bad news. It means that I must remember to work on my control. Control will be everything at the Gansett Marathon, now just 16 days away.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Racing, resting and relaxing in Rhode Island

On April 14, I will be running the Gansett Marathon in Rhode Island. I picked this race for three reasons:

First, I wanted to run an April race.

Second, the fact the the only means of entry is by qualification - and that I had already qualified with my Missoula Marathon result - made it feel special.

Lastly, the course runs from Naragansett to Point Judith and back. Point Judith happens to be the gateway to my favorite getaway place - Block Island.

I wrote much about Block Island in my old blog, Heart and Soles. I have gone there an average of once a year since 2005 (I missed 2007, but went twice in 2006). I ran its Run Around the Block 15K twice ('06 and '09). I went there with bands to play shows ('05 and '06) and with Karen for romantic getaways ('08, '09 and '10) as well as a post-breakup friendly winter jaunt ('11).

This time, I am going with my good buddy and former roommate, Lee. He is accompanying me to the marathon and then we're hopping the ferry to the Block for three days of rest and relaxation and some quality bro time.

Lee is one of my the only single male friends I have left. And while I still love my married friends and their wives, and absolutely adore their children, and I still enjoy hanging out with Karen, a single guy needs single-guy friends to hang with. It's something married folks can not understand because their lives revolve around their families (as they should!), just as I can not wrap my head around what it must be like to be a family man.

So it'll be Lee and me and an island that will just be awakening for the spring season. We'll probably drink too much and stay up late and be stupid but, you know, that's what single guys do.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The stupidity does not stop

I am a smart guy. I know it. But, all too often, I can be really stupid.

For some reason, I had it in my head that Jones Beach Phish tickets would go on sale at Ticketmaster on last Saturday.

I prepared a plan of attack, opting this time to try my luck at an actual physical Ticketmaster outlet at a local Wal-Mart instead of dealing with the futility if their awful website.

Saturday morning, I looked at the Ticketmaster website and was stunned to see that tickets went on sale Friday, not Saturday, and unsurprisingly, both shows were sold out.

But it is really OK. I had also prepared myself for the inevitable disappointment of not getting tickets. I will be happy with the five shows I scored from Phish Tickets by Mail. If nothing else, that saves me $140 and two vacation days. I will be sure to treat myself to something else, maybe during the Vermont trip or during my Rhode Island marathon getaway.

Monday, March 26, 2012

A stupid, stupid injury

Last Friday, near the end of the second "step back" week sandwiched between tough weeks of 55 and 56 miles, I did something really stupid.

It was the end of the work week, I was itching to get out, and I had to pee really badly, when one of the managers asked me to move a big box of copy paper.

I could have told her to wait until I went to the bathroom first and then moved the paper a few reams at a time.

Instead, in my haste to pee and get the hell out of there, I hefted the giant, heavy box and moved it to its designated spot. I hit the restroom, split and went home.

By the time I went to bed that night, my back was hurting, and when I woke up, it was aching. Somehow, I ran 13 miles (thank goodness it was not 20!) with my back in agony. And, like a fool, instead of taking my optional rest day on Sunday, I began my final week of heavy training with a aching five-miler.

There is something to be said for "active recovery" though. I feel like the strength in my body that I have built up from running so many miles has been a help in healing. Monday's 10-miler was uncomfortable and, even though I ran at a 7:30 pace, I could tell I was getting better.

Tuesday's easy five-miler was at a 7:10 pace and still a bit bothersome, but I have every bit of confidence that I can train through this as I round out this highest-mileage week and head into the taper of the home stretch.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Phish lottery

Five for seven.


That was my result from the Phish lottery. If I had to choose, I would say the two tickets I did not get were the ones I wanted least (Jones Beach), but I really would not want to have had to choose. And I had no choice anyway. I did not get them. So, you know, oh well.


But I am thrilled that I will be going to Atlantic City and the SPAC and I immediately set about reserving hotel rooms.


I was shocked (though I guess I should not have been) by the weekend prices of hotel rooms in A.C., so I booked a hotel in nearby Absecon. It was half the price of an A.C. hotel and all I had to do was walk a half-mile to the train station and take it one stop (for only seven bucks round trip) to the heart of A.C.


So there! Take that you overpriced Vegas-wannabe of a city! I beat you!


For the SPAC, I booked two nights at a pet-friendly hotel about 30 miles north of Saratoga because my ex-girlfriend (but still good friend) Karen will be coming along and bringing her new dog. We are going to have SO MUCH FUN. I have always wanted to travel with a dog and, lately, been wanting one of my own.


After the SPAC shows, we will continue north for a day trip up to Vermont where we will visit the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory and the Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory. What a (short, not-so-strange) trip it will be!


As for Jones Beach, I figured I would try my luck on Ticketmaster. That is usually futile because Ticketmaster sucks ass, but what the hell.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Second 20-miler of the season

Using one of my previously set courses, I took a much healthier, more sane approach to my second 20-miler of the season.
Heading south into Cedar Grove along Ridge Road and over a big hill onto Bowden Road and the West Essex Trail, I ran the trail to Fairview Avenue in Verona and took a right on Bloomfield Avenue. It was a long uphill into the Caldwells, but a longer downhill out of them and into Fairfield and Montville, where I had to negotiate the dangerous intersection onto Route 46.

My time on the highway was brief, but necessary to get to the quiet residential neighborhood on Hook Mountain Road, taking a right onto Horseneck Road, where a more woodsy, country vibe was only interrupted by an Interstate 80 overpass.

After later crossing a Route 46 overpass, I was back in Fairfield where I hung a left onto Fairfield Road which took me right back to Main Street in Little Falls for the final three miles.

All along, I stayed controlled, focused, hydrated and, singing along to the tunes on my iPod, entertained. All told, it was an average of 7:35 per mile, well below my skill level but perfect for training. That is the constant and essential dilemma with these runs - it is actually quite difficult to consciously run slower than your capability allows. But I did it. One more to go.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Not another injury!?

It was the strangest thing. I was in a "step back" week of Hal Higdon's Advanced I marathon training program - a week of 41 miles between weeks of 54 and 55. I did not need Hal to tell me to take it easy, though. Running 54 miles in a week takes a lot out of a guy, so it was a welcome chance to relax a bit.

But by the end of yet another too-warm winter week, I was feeling great. I did my six-miler at a 6:46 pace (way too fast for my marathon training) on the Friday. The next day, on a 13-miler, after blasting through the first nine miles at my goal marathon pace (7:01), I suddenly felt a throbbing pain in my extensor tendon.

Panic set in as the pain got worse in the tenth. Extensor tendinitis is what did me in two years ago and forced me to cancel plans to run the South Jordan Marathon in Utah. I quickly slowed the pace to an 8+ crawl. Every step brought more ache, more pain and more worry.

That's it, I thought, I ruined it. I never seem to learn my lesson that when it is time to take it slow, I should TAKE IT SLOW.

Finishing out the 13 in agony, I immediately began injury care with the RICE method:

Rest - I took Sunday off from running...and from doing about anything at all except laying on my sofa.

Ice - all day, for two days.

Compress - using an Ace compression sleeve, for several hours on Sunday.

Elevate - see the aforementioned sofa.

Monday began the second heavy training week. I did the 10 miles, but very slowly.

I made sure that Tuesday's easy five was just that for a change.

And by Wednesday, I was back to doing hill sprints, albeit not at full speed. I gave it about 90 percent, cranking out those five tortuous sprints up the .3-mile hill at just over two minutes a piece, with the two downhill at just under two.

My Friday pace run was at an exactly perfect 7:01 pace and, heeding my lesson, my 20 miler on Saturday was at a controlled 7:35 pace (more about that later).

I am once again feeling really good about this upcoming race. April 14!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Phish tour announced

After months of speculation and rumors, Phish announced their summer tour on February 29.Many rumors had swelled around the possibility of a festival in Atlantic City at Bader Field, a decommissioned airport where the Dave Matthews Band held a fest last year and Metallica is scheduled to host one this year. It seemed like a done deal from the various sources swirling around cyberspace.

Confirmed for June 15-17, it will not be a festival in the tradition of the nine campout extravaganzas from the Clifford Ball in 1996 to Super Ball IX last year. Instead, it will be more like a three-night stand in one big spot. It's not like there aren't plenty of places to stay in and around Atlantic City.

Still, I might have preferred the big camping weekend. There is a certain vibe that is very much singular to those festivals. With no curfews, Phish tends to play looser and longer, digging up obscurities and cementing newer songs' place in their catalog.

The way I see it, as an event, this Bader Field series will be somewhere in between Super Ball IX and last year's three-night stand at Bethel Woods. More Lollapalooza than Bonnaroo.

As for the rest of the tour, I had considered returning to the DCU Center in Worcester, where I saw the excellent New Year's Run shows in 2010, but could not fit it into my vacation schedule or budget. Besides why the hell are they doing indoor arena shows in June?

Bonnaroo? Been there, done it, loved it in 2005, but again, way too expensive and far away for a 2012 budget that includes two marathons.

The thought crossed my mind to check out the Virginia and Ohio shows, simply because I have never seen Phish in those states but, really, when stats become the reason to go to shows, you have to wonder if you have gone off the deep end after 19 years of phandom.

That brings us to the legendary Midwest venues in Noblesville, Ind. (the former Deer Creek), and East Troy, Wis.,(the still-thankfully-non-corporate-named Alpine Valley). I am thrilled and proud to have seen Phish at both of those venues when I did almost the entire summer tour in 2004, thinking it was my last chance ever to see them. But that was before I started running, so I had nothing else with which to split my vacation time and money. Sadly, I do not make much more money, and have only one more week of paid vacation time, than I did eight years ago, so I can not add it to my budget.

Besides, why travel when this leg of the tour ends up back in New York for two shows at Jones Beach (where I saw my first two Phish shows in 1993 and 1994) and three shows at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center? Those were not to be missed and relatively close to home, so I submitted my request for both Jones shows and two SPAC shows.

Seven requests in all, potentially $400 in tickets. Not to mention hotels in A.C. and Saratoga (thankfully my parents live on Long Island, so I can stay with them between the Jones shows). Would lady luck smile upon me and grant me the tickets I requested?

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

First 20-miler of the season

Everything was going smoothly since the brief ankle problem. I had finished the first of three heavy training weeks, each with around 55 miles with no troubles.

My first 20-miler of the season was amazing.  It was yet another beautiful, unseasonably warm day. To keep it simple, I used Google Maps to find a point 10 miles north, and ran there and back.

From my hometown of Little Falls, I ran north into Woodland Park and Paterson via McBride Avenue. Running past the Great Falls, I made a couple of short turns which brought me to River Road. I took River all the way up to the north end of the city and crossed the Maple Avenue bridge into Fair Lawn. Maple cuts right through Bergen County on the border of Glen Rock and into Ridgewood, where I turned around.

At the turnaround, I checked the stopwatch and could not believe it. I was running exactly my goal marathon pace (7:01), exciting because it made me feel good about my abilities, but worrisome because I really should have been going a lot slower on this training run. But there were no significant hills on this run, something I was not used to after doing most of my long runs over the mountains in Montclair, so I practically flew through it.

For the second half, I decided that I would just run comfortably. If the beautiful day and my strong legs dictated that "comfortable" meant "marathon pace", then so be it. But if I needed to slow down a bit, that would be fine, too.

Around Mile 16, I started feeling a bit fatigued, so I allowed that slowdown and finished feeling great at around two hours and 24 minutes, for an average pace in the second half of 7:24.

Good stuff.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The winter training that was not

Memories of last year, running through snow and ice, played in my head as I trained in the relatively warmer and definitely drier mornings throughout this winter.
One day, it was 17 degrees when I went out to do my hill sprints. Another, it was in the low 20s when I did my Saturday long run, forcing me to break out the running tights for the first time since the half marathon.

Other than that, temperatures were mostly in the 30s and only occasionally in the upper 20s for almost all my runs.

Snow? Barely any at all. We had one day of snowfall in late January. I did my 13-mile run that day slowly, casually, taking pictures along the way. By mid-week, the snow was gone. Aside from a brief flurry in February, we have seen none since.

Even now, as I type this, I am sitting outside on a mid-March day. While it is windy, it is sunny and warm, in the 60s.

The effects this has had on my training are two-fold - one positive, one negative:

On the plus side, it has allowed me to better perform my "quality" training. The alternating Wednesdays of hill sprints, 800 meter speed intervals on the track, and 35 to 45 minute tempo runs.

I hate doing as many as eight hill sprints in a training session, but they are effective. Unlike in 2010, when training for Boston, I was able to do them on dry ground, instead of slipping and sliding on ice. As for the track, obviously, it is a heck of a lot easier to do 3:03 repeats when the track is not covered with a blanket of snow. And the tempo runs, which I do on the trail, are much easier for footing when I can actually see the ground.
Not to mention, of course, that the average mid-30s temperatures were ideal for all of this.

The downside? Without the snow and ice and other elements to slow me down, I have been in constant, full-force mode, always pushing myself to the brink of my abilities and the edge of injury simply because I can. That was why the snowy day was a welcome relief. It gave me the permission to slow down, which is really what I should be doing on my long runs and mid-week shorter runs. Instead of saving the speed for the speed days, I have just been cranking them out, one after another.

Yet I know I should think the better of it. With only four weeks until the Gansett Marathon, now is NOT the time to get injured.

Friday, March 16, 2012

First injury of the year

Last January, something had gone terribly wrong with my heel and I was sidelined for a few weeks

Almost like clockwork, this January brought injury again. This one was new - a pain in my ankle that did not feel like a sprain or a strain or overuse. It felt more like the after-effects of blunt trauma. Only I do not remember the trauma.

I do know that my gait is somewhat odd. In addition to being a flat-footed underpronator, I tend to twist my feet after push-off. Sometimes, on the way back toward landing, the heel one foot will crash into the ankle of the other. Rarely are my ankles free of cuts and scrapes from this happening.

Maybe I am so used to this that I did not even notice that I hit my left ankle particularly hard and  in just the right spot, causing the pain I felt by the end of that Saturday.

I am proud to say that during the course of my six years of running, I have learned many lessons on caring for injury and I put them to good use right away.

First - extra rest day. Now that I  have been running six days a week, taking second rest day does not seem so bad.

Next - ice. I kept an icepack wrapped around my ankle all day for almost two days.

Finally - take it easy. I ran four miles that next day as slowly as I could possibly go. It was a jog, really.

By the third day, I could comfortably do my eight-miler, though still at a slow, controlled pace. And by the fourth, I was back on the track doing speed work.

Best of all, throughout that week, I did not panic. The marathon was still several weeks away and I was confident I would get back to peak performance.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Marathon VI

By mid-December, I had already made my marathon plans for 2012. For the first time, I would run two in one calendar year. If I am going to run a marathon in all 50 states, I had better start upping my game. After all, if I did one per year, I wouldn't finish until 2056. I'd be 83 years old.

My first two marathons were only six months apart (Nov. 2007 and May 2008). When the second one went horribly, I blamed the short turnaround for the disastrous result. I am a better runner now, but that six-month span still scares me, so I am going to try for nine months. That puts my next one in April.

In searching for yet another April marathon (two of my five were April races - Eisenhower and Boston), I happened upon a very small, somewhat elite race in Rhode Island called the Gansett Marathon. Its website touts it as the ONLY marathon in the country, except for the Olympic trials, for which registrants must qualify to enter. My first thought was likely your first thought...

...Ummmm, Boston?

Turns out even at Boston, you can get in by running for charity. No such thing going on at Gansett. Sounded like a throwdown, a challenge. And, of you read my blog or have seen my short film about Boston, I am not one to walk away from a challenge. So I checked the qualifying times. They use the Boston qualifying times, which meant that I was in!

Then I looked at last year's results. Less than 200 people ran it. And they were faaaaast. So once again, even though I promised myself I would take it easier, I put myself in a position to go hard.

So be it. That's why I went right to Hal Higdon's Advanced 1 training program and got right into it. I probably will not win any awards, but I am definitely gunning for a PR on April 14. Count on that!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Phish at Madison Square Garden, Dec. 30, 2011

Lord knows I tried to get tickets to December 29 and New Year's Eve.

Every single day, from the day tickets went on sale and crashed that awful company Ticketmaster's website, I revisited the site to see if any tickets mysteriously materialized for purchase. This happened in the past on several tours - as the show date drew near, extra tickets suddenly became available from Ticketmaster.

Tickets were, of course, available elsewhere - from scalpers both illegal (on Ebay, Stubhub and Craigslist) and legal (that so-called "ticket broker" bullshit - for upwards of a thousand dollars. Hey, I want to see Phish but I have a budget and, more importantly, morals. I don't support crooks if I can help it.

So instead, I had to make do with two of four shows. And what of December 30?
Well, for one, I thought I had it made with my seat. It just so happened that it was in the 300 section through Gate 77, the party spot from the night before. But this night, there was no party and the guard in the alcove was making sure everyone moved along. Booooo.


Despite my excellent sight line and good sound, I once again got saddled with crappy neighbors.
These two idiots behind me did not shut up for the entire first set. The ENTIRE FIRST SET. They gabbed and gabbed about everything under the sun, talking as if they were hanging out at a diner, shooting the breeze. Why go to a Phish show if you are not even going to listen?

After a while, during what seemed to be a particularly awesome "Sand" jam, I could not stand it any longer and turned around to ask them to be quiet. I was as polite as anyone could possibly be, even though I really wanted to say, "SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU IDIOTS!"

They apologized and did, indeed, quiet down, but the damage was done. They ruined my set. I was upset that they yakked for most of the set, I was upset that I did not say something sooner, and I was upset at myself for being a wuss and being so apologetic about it even though they were the ones in the wrong. But I knew I would be upset if I told them how I really felt, too. It was no-win for me. I remember absolutely nothing else from that set except an excellently rocking cover of Bob Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn."

During set break, I decided to continue to be extra nice, hoping it would - I don't know - have a positive karmic effect? So I apologized again for having to tell them to be quiet (imagine that!).

One idiot replied, "Oh, man, that's cool. I like 'Sand' as much as the next guy, but I haven't seen my buddy here in years and we've been catching up."

And even though I wanted to say, "So you decided to spend 60 bucks apiece to catch up while talking over live music at Madison Square Garden? How frigging stupid ARE you?" I simply said, "Oh OK, but, you know, I'm trying to enjoy the show here and all I hear is you guys talking."

He apologized and that was that. All I could do was hope for a better second set.

But it was tough to get into it, partially because I was so soured from the first set and partially because Phish failed to deliver the magic to me. Some people have been extolling the wonders of that night's "Piper", but I don't remember it being outstanding.

I do recall that the entire second half of the set was dominated by traditional set-closing songs like "Julius",  "Golgi Apparatus" and "David Bowie" before finally ending with "The Squirming Coil".  "2001" was actually quite memorable with it's climactic peaks. But nothing blew me away.


Maybe I expect more during a New Year's run show, especially Dec. 30, the calendar date on which I have seen more Phish shows than any other. They certainly delivered at the 2010 shows - song after song of great jams and tight playing. And nothing at this show will be as memorable as some of the moments on that date in 2010, 1999 and 1994.

Even the excellent encore of "Boogie On Reggae Woman" and "Good Times Bad Times" could not shake me of the feeling that perhaps it would have been better to have stayed home and purchased the recordings from LivePhish.com to listen to at home and enjoy in high fidelity in the comfort of my home. I remembered being as underwhelmed 13 years before to the day, in 1998, when I left the very same arena with the very same feeling.

Except, of course, back then, we did not have LivePhish.com and we had to find people who had tapes, and were willing to trade, in order to hear the show. But now, there is actually a viable alternative to being at the shows. Next year, I promised myself, if I do not get decent seats, I am immediately selling my tickets and doing "couch tour".

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Phish at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY - Dec. 28, 2011

What went wrong with New Year's Run 2011? I'm still trying to figure out if the problem was with the band, the venue, the other fans, or me. It wasn't all bad, but it made me have my doubts about going back for more this year.

By the way, I am intentionally writing without having listened to the recordings because I want to only go by my memory of the shows as I experienced them.

The first show started promising enough, with the first-ever "Free" opener, but my seats, which seemed good on paper - aisle seat on the 100 level, directly across the arena with a clear sightline - ended up becoming an annoyance. I thought the aisle seat would mean a little extra dancing room, but it turned out to be the opposite. I was next to entrance to the concession stands, so every one coming in and out of the walkway kept bumping into me...or crashing into me as the set continued. Eventually, the whole aisle was full of people just standing there, crowding the space where others were trying to walk in and out, leading to more pushing and shoving. Finally, after getting beer spilled on me from a particularly drunken, clumsy fool, I had had enough. I plotted a move for the second set.

As for the music, well, it was hard to say. The sound was so-so all the way across the arena. There may have been great jams in "Stash", "Kill Devil Falls" and "Bathtub Gin" (though I do recall being impressed with the latter). I also recall "Glide" being redeemed for me after the last time I heard it, at the Coventry festival in 2004.

"Possum" was played for what seemed to be the billionth time last year, which was bad because I had seen it so often, but good because they have gotten so  darn great at playing it as a result. I do remember a time back in the late 90s when my friends and I referred to "Possum" as "Roadkill".

It was a nice treat to see Phish play "The Ballad of Curtis Leow" again, "Contact" and "Sample in a Jar" were fun (always nice to see the fans do the arm-waving in the former), and for some reason, I recall "Cities" being a highlight with a post-song jam.



Determined to find a better seat, I roamed the arena during set break. The band started up again and every so often, I would emerge from the walkways and into the arena in a new spot while Phish played "Birds of a Feather" and "Carini". Were they any good? I wish I could tell you.

I went upstairs to the 300 level and finally found my spot. It was high up, a the end of the walkway, but almost next to Fish side where the giant PA speakers were hung. There were fans packed in the seats, but in the alcove, Gate 77, there were a dozen or so people dancing and having a ball without the stage even being visible.



I have learned something about Phish shows - to hear, dance, and be around good people with good vibes trumps being able to see.

As I danced with my fellow revelers to "Tweezer", "My Friend My Friend", an absolutely incredible "Rock and Roll", and a fantastic "Harry Hood", I recalled the set from Super Ball IX in which I boogied my ass off near the colored lights on the sidelines to "Golden Age", not seeing the stage at all, but hearing and feeling it in such a profound way.

Even the shaky "NICU" and the standard "Bouncing Around the Room" (which always draws groans from other longtime fans) had an air of fun and happiness in my little world of Gate 77. The huge ending of "Bug" which I have always loved as a set closer (Big Cypress, It, and Coney Island come to mind) was perfect.

Topping it off with a three-song encore of "Tube" funk, "Rocky Top" bluegrass, and "Tweezer Reprise" climax sealed the deal that the show would in fact, leave a good impression on me, despite the first set troubles.

So what makes a good Phish show? Clearly, it takes more than the band. They could be playing their best, but the fans, the environment, the sound quality, and the vibe are what make it. Otherwise, we would all just listen to the recordings, wouldn't we?