It was slow-going and a little worrisome, though. Thanks to tons of traffic on I-287 and I-87, a trip that should have taken less than three hours took almost five. Not only that, I drove through waves of rain, and the threat of thunderstorms continually loomed.
But once I rolled into the parking lot of the beautiful Saratoga Spa State Park, things immediately started looking up. The storm threat had passed and the band gave the OK via Twitter to enter the venue. So I happily drank a few beers (it was nice to finally toss back a few since I spent the Mann shows stone cold sober in preparation for the Sunset Classic race) and headed to the lawn in time for the "Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan", which I love as an opening song.
I danced around the back of the main lawn area for a while before settling into my usual solo spot on the left corner where the hill is steep and it is usually muddy, but offers an excellent sight line to both the stage and a screen.
Right away, the treats began with the first performance of "The Birds" since its debut on Halloween 2014, and by the time "NICU" was in full swing, my friends from Albany (Meredith and John, the awesome folks who convinced me to run the Maine Coast Marathon in May) sent me a text message, summoning me to their spot which had a great view from the mid-center of the lawn.
The fun kept coming with "Cities", a surprisingly placed "David Bowie", "Free", and "Uncle Pen", the latter compelling me to swing several partners round and round. Speaking of fun - how about that new Mike Gordon tune, "Let's Go", with its fun singalong "Whoooaaaaaa" chorus?
Things got a little more chilled out (but no less enjoyable) with well-played renditions of "Halfway to the Moon" and "Waiting All Night", but when "Bathtub Gin" kicked into gear and they ramped up the tempo the way they did in 1999, the show had really taken off. So when "Golgi Apparatus" started (and played perfectly until Trey Anastasio botched the final lick), we figured it was the end of the set.
But then Trey said "Thanks everybody. We'll do one more," and the set ended with "The Squirming Coil", in which he nailed the composed parts and left the ending open for a beautiful piano solo by Page McConnell.
The second set was a nonstop tour de force. Phish brought the funk with "Sand" and "2001" and the rock with "Carini" and "Chalk Dust Torture", which featured a brief 2011-style Plinko jam, a full-on bliss jam that recalled the stellar 7/10/99 version in its modulation from E-minor to G-major, Trey playing Jon Fishman's Marimba Lumina (this time with the actual marimba sound), and Mike playing piano while Page played the Hammond. It was an epic jam.
Some may criticize the back-to-back balladry of "Prince Caspian", "Bug", and "Shine a Light" but I certainly could find no reason to complain, especially with Trey positively tearing it up at the end of "Bug". "My Sweet One" was a bit sloppy at first but it contained a kickass drum solo, and "Sleeping Monkey" was had its usual weird tenderness, but the set-closing version of the Jimi Hendrix song "Fire" had some stellar playing from Mike (with Trey announcing, "Move over, Rover, and let Cactus take over!") and a rip-roaring solo from Trey that contained all the fire and ferociousness of his 1990's playing.
The predicable but powerful "Character Zero" encore sealed the deal, as night one of SPAC became an indisputable highlight of the tour so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment