Imagine my delight when Phish announced its first fall tour in three years.
Imagine my elation when I found out that the entirety of the tour would be in the east.
Imagine my utter joy when they said that the tour would be capped off with a three-night run, including Halloween, right here in New Jersey.
Imagine my disappointment when I could not get one darn ticket to any of those Atlantic City shows.
What to do? Go to New England.
I managed to secure tickets to both shows in Worcester, Mass., and the following night in Hartford, Conn., and, boy, am I glad I did. Those shows, my 93rd, 94th and 95th, were well worth the drive, cost of gas, hotel room and outrageous parking fees.
Friday's show was one of those that looks ho-hum on paper (with the exception of the rare four-song encore!), but to listen to the show is to hear Phish firing on all cylinders.
"Funky Bitch" was a nice start, standard for sure, but once "Wolfman's Brother" kicked in, the band was locked and there was no turning back. My view from behind the stage was so cool, seeing the crowd doing the "Wilson" chant and digging the deep grooves of "Cities" and "Free".
"The Curtain With" has finally gotten to a point in my head that I can almost dismiss the dreary memory of it being the last song Phish played at the awful Coventry, Vt., concert before breaking up in 2004, and has become enjoyable again in all of its excellence. So much so, that it did not even occur to me how weird it was that they played "Rift" two songs later, with its middle break being exactly the same as the "Curtain" coda. "My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own" was a nice little two-minute treat before the incredibly raucous "46 Days" set closer.
I love huge first sets and the second set built on the already impressive show, with a "Waves" opener that created those Zen moments that Victor D. Infante wrote about in his excellent article in the Telegram & Gazette on Sunday. "Carini" and "Down With Disease" rocked the house and brought more monster jams and "Backwards Down the Number Line" seemed more rollicking than usual. "Sneaking' Sally Through the Alley" brought the funk and the one-two punch of "Cavern" and wild "Run Like an Antelope" closed the set leaving everyone satisfied. For me, the dancing only stopped for a beautiful rendition of "Dirt" and a solid "Prince Caspian". Otherwise, there was just no stopping the party.
Trey Anastasio must have felt the same way because after the encore of "Contact" (again, with my view from behind the stage offering an excellent visual of the entire arena's audience doing the signature arm-waving), the band launched into "Suzy Greenberg" with Page McConnell absolutely killing it in his piano solo. On any other night, that would have ended the show perfectly, but when I saw Trey turn around to Jon Fishman and yell for "Rocky Top", I was floored. The breakneck bluegrass song came to a close and Trey turned around to Fish yet again. I watched his mouth and saw it say, "Good Times". And with that, the show entered the history books with the first four-song encore in God-knows-how-long as they brought the house down with Led Zeppelin's classic "Good Times Bad Times".
When the insanity finally stopped, I'm sure the statistics were the farthest thing from anyone's mind. We had just experienced a killer show that, granted, consisted almost entirely of songs from the 1980s and 90s, yet sounded fresh and exciting. That is the key to the band's ability to never become an oldies act.
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