Where the Lenape Trail ends in Roseland, Essex County, the Patriots Path in East Hanover, Morris County, begins. So I continued on...
Unfortunately, after the first mile or two, the trail is extremely overgrown with wild vegetation. It seems to have been completely ignored for maintenance and path-clearing. At first, I tried to power through it, but as my legs got bloodied from thorn bushes, I could not take it anymore and turned back to the nearest road crossing (through the same bushes).
Having lived in Morris County in the past, I have a general knowledge of the main roads, so I worked my way through some of the familiar streets and managed to keep meeting up with the path entrances off of the streets. Each time I ventured back onto the trail, I was faced with the same problem. Finally, somewhere in Hanover (or perhaps Parsippany-Troy Hills), I turned around and took the main roads back to my starting point, completing my 19-mile run, but not thrilled about the Patriots Path.
Today, I happened to speak with someone who told me that the western parts are much better maintained and easier to navigate. With that knowledge, I hope to explore more of the trails the Patriots Path in the near future.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Running the Lenape Trail
After five years of running the short West Essex Trail (2.5 miles of
former railroad from Little Falls through Cedar Grove and Verona), I
finally began wondering about the yellow blazes on the trees in its
southwestern portion. Some online research led me to find that the
section is part of a larger entity called the Lenape Trail.
Named after a Native American tribe that once lived in the area, the Lenape Trail is not always, in fact, a trail. Rather, it starts in Newark and winds through Essex County, passing through several parks - sometimes on the roads, sometimes on paths, and sometimes through the woods.
Breaking it up into four separate runs, I tackled the first 13 miles by parking at Brookdale Park in Bloomfield/Montclair and taking a bus to Newark. Starting at Riverfront Park, I worked my way through city streets to beautiful Branch Brook Park. It was there I started following the yellow blazes.
Once out of the north end of the park, the blazes followed some more streets and a few small strips of land between properties in Belleville and Glen Ridge. It was not always easy to navigate - when you run, you can miss the blazes. But eventually, I worked my way into Bloomfield and to Brookdale Park.
The second leg was from Brookdale Park to Fairview Avenue in Verona. This run took me straight up the little mountain in Montclair, through lots of steep, wooded areas with rough footing, and down around the reservoir in Cedar Grove before hooking up with the West Essex Trail into Verona. At that point, I took a more direct route back to Brookdale via the roads. If you follow one of the online maps of the trail, you can see that this section makes a lot of turns, so following a straight line back to Brookdale made the most sense in order to maximize the forward movement on the trail.
For the third leg, I did an out-and-back from Verona to West Orange, including another difficult stretch. After winding through several Verona side streets, I was faced with another heavily wooded, steep incline with difficult footing through Eagle Rock Reservation. Coming down from the mountain and into West Orange, the trail follows along power lines off of 280 along unkempt terrain - tall, weedy grass with lots of bugs - before landing back on the road in Roseland.
The final stretch is tricky right now because the trail continues to follow the power lines, but the sections are closed due to work by the power company. So I had to find the nearest roads and follow as best as I could until finally meeting up with the official trail again through Becker Park and crossing Eisenhower Parkway, finally ending along Eagle Rock Avenue at the Essex County Environmental Center and the Morris County line (where the Patriots Path begins). Then, of course, I had to turn around and get back, too.
Supposedly, there is a section of the trail that breaks off near Route 280. I was going to cover that in a separate run, but I couldn't find it.
If you run the trail, keep your eyes well peeled for the yellow blazes, but also have a good general idea of where the route is supposed to take you, just in case you miss a turn. Also, be prepared to run around the closed-off section - keep the power lines in sight and know where you need to end up. It is a fun adventure and well worth it the multiple trips if you live in northern New Jersey.
Named after a Native American tribe that once lived in the area, the Lenape Trail is not always, in fact, a trail. Rather, it starts in Newark and winds through Essex County, passing through several parks - sometimes on the roads, sometimes on paths, and sometimes through the woods.
Breaking it up into four separate runs, I tackled the first 13 miles by parking at Brookdale Park in Bloomfield/Montclair and taking a bus to Newark. Starting at Riverfront Park, I worked my way through city streets to beautiful Branch Brook Park. It was there I started following the yellow blazes.
Once out of the north end of the park, the blazes followed some more streets and a few small strips of land between properties in Belleville and Glen Ridge. It was not always easy to navigate - when you run, you can miss the blazes. But eventually, I worked my way into Bloomfield and to Brookdale Park.
The second leg was from Brookdale Park to Fairview Avenue in Verona. This run took me straight up the little mountain in Montclair, through lots of steep, wooded areas with rough footing, and down around the reservoir in Cedar Grove before hooking up with the West Essex Trail into Verona. At that point, I took a more direct route back to Brookdale via the roads. If you follow one of the online maps of the trail, you can see that this section makes a lot of turns, so following a straight line back to Brookdale made the most sense in order to maximize the forward movement on the trail.
For the third leg, I did an out-and-back from Verona to West Orange, including another difficult stretch. After winding through several Verona side streets, I was faced with another heavily wooded, steep incline with difficult footing through Eagle Rock Reservation. Coming down from the mountain and into West Orange, the trail follows along power lines off of 280 along unkempt terrain - tall, weedy grass with lots of bugs - before landing back on the road in Roseland.
The final stretch is tricky right now because the trail continues to follow the power lines, but the sections are closed due to work by the power company. So I had to find the nearest roads and follow as best as I could until finally meeting up with the official trail again through Becker Park and crossing Eisenhower Parkway, finally ending along Eagle Rock Avenue at the Essex County Environmental Center and the Morris County line (where the Patriots Path begins). Then, of course, I had to turn around and get back, too.
Supposedly, there is a section of the trail that breaks off near Route 280. I was going to cover that in a separate run, but I couldn't find it.
If you run the trail, keep your eyes well peeled for the yellow blazes, but also have a good general idea of where the route is supposed to take you, just in case you miss a turn. Also, be prepared to run around the closed-off section - keep the power lines in sight and know where you need to end up. It is a fun adventure and well worth it the multiple trips if you live in northern New Jersey.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Marathon XII
After nailing four PRs in a row in as many short distance races (5K, four-mile, five-mile and 15K), I had grown weary of speed. It was time to switch gears and get back to longer, slower distance running. That means I needed to select a marathon.
Looking for a late September race to coincide with my 40th birthday, I found the Clarence DeMar Marathon in Keene, N.H. It is a relatively small race, capped at 600, but it seems well known. When I mentioned it to a fellow runner, he recognized it immediately.
With a race date of Sept. 28, two days after I become a "Masters" runner (the only qualification for which, it seems, is to turn 40), it put me in week five of the 18-week Hal Higdon Advanced training program. I have jumped into training in the middle before, so it should not be too bad, but the past two long runs (19 and 20 miles) were pretty rough.
Nonetheless, I am determined to rock this race in my new age group. A PR is not necessary, a Boston qualifier would be preferred (especially since my qualifying time is pushed back to 3:15), but a solid race like the one I ran in March is all I truly want.
Looking for a late September race to coincide with my 40th birthday, I found the Clarence DeMar Marathon in Keene, N.H. It is a relatively small race, capped at 600, but it seems well known. When I mentioned it to a fellow runner, he recognized it immediately.
With a race date of Sept. 28, two days after I become a "Masters" runner (the only qualification for which, it seems, is to turn 40), it put me in week five of the 18-week Hal Higdon Advanced training program. I have jumped into training in the middle before, so it should not be too bad, but the past two long runs (19 and 20 miles) were pretty rough.
Nonetheless, I am determined to rock this race in my new age group. A PR is not necessary, a Boston qualifier would be preferred (especially since my qualifying time is pushed back to 3:15), but a solid race like the one I ran in March is all I truly want.
Monday, August 18, 2014
Spring 1994, 2004, and 2014
This year, I am determined to listen to every Phish show from the years ending in "4". Having completed all of the spring shows, I have found that the contrast between each of these three eras could not be greater.
1994 was a huge year for Phish and it started with a bang in the spring. First, they released a new album, 'Hoist', that featured big production and soundscapes inside compact songs. The tour kicked off accentuating those sounds by including a horn section in the first show. "Julius" became an instant classic as a result.
Throughout the tour, they hammered the new songs hard - "Sample in a Jar" was played at least once every two shows, "Down With Disease" only took days to become a scorcher, stretching out more through the weeks. Though "Wolfman's Brother" still had yet to find its footing (and its key change to "B"), the rest of the 'Hoist' songs easily slid into the repertoire as the band crossed the country, starting in their home state of Vermont, working its way through New York and New England, down the Atlantic Coast, swinging through the South, and barn-burning its way westward with a notable stop in Dallas on May 7 for what is widely considered to be one of the best sets ever.
This was a band on fire, tearing its way through the Southwest, then up the Pacific Coast, ending its massive run of 45 shows in 56 days with two nights at a multi-band festival in Monterey.
The benefits were incredible. The musicianship got sharper and more refined, the band members eventually seeming to be able to read each others' minds. Yet, as the playing got tighter, the players got looser, trying new things and challenging the audience to play along. What other band could play a major mid-sized concert hall and get the audience quiet enough to hear them play with zero amplification?
Speaking of the audience, we were really starting to get in tune with the program, too, becoming a bigger part of this thing that was itself becoming bigger than the four guys onstage. Want to hear the evolution of the clapping in "Stash" and the "Wilson" chant? They both started right there. (Little known fact - before the clapping took hold, some audiences tried to fill the spaces with a "woo!", almost two decades before the Tahoe "Tweezer"!)
If Spring 1994 showed a band breaking out, conquering the country while still continuing to discover its powers, Spring 2004 - which consisted of three shows - showed a band seemingly past its creative peak, drunk on itself, and showing up shitfaced to its own party. Though the improvisations were wilder and more adventurous than ever, the precision required to play the heavily composed parts had gone, especially in the case of Trey Anastasio. One month after those three fateful April shows in Las Vegas, Anastasio sent shockwaves through the community by announcing that at the end of the upcoming summer tour, Phish was done. Listen to those shows and try not to cringe.
A decade later, Phish played one single spring show. The 2009 reunion had run its course by the fall of 2013. After five years re-establishing its members as rock music's preeminent musicians, one thing was missing - new music. After the initial burst of songs from 2009's 'Joy', audiences were treated to myriad new cover songs (many of them only once each), but only a handful of new songs, and only a precious few of them had any staying power.
That all changed on Halloween, with its complete set of new songs. Good songs. The concept was pushed further for the four nights leading to New Year's - not one cover song was played. With that as the lead-in, the single spring show, at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, held a lot of weight. They played one cover that night, but more importantly, played with a renewed focus. And though nothing in particular stands out from that show, we now know they were merely winding up, getting ready to sock us hard. 20 years after taking the country by storm, they were getting ready to do it all over again as a more mature band that knows exactly what to do and how to do it.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Sunset Classic five-mile race in Bloomfield
Run enough races in one area and some names and faces will inevitably become familiar.
At the Sunset Classic, a five mile race in Bloomfield that has been a fixture on the North Jersey running scene since the early 1980s, I saw my one-time arch nemesis Sergio Cano, who bested me in a series of races in 2010, as well as Maria Danna, who had so handily whipped me at the St. Jude's 15K earlier this month. There were also familiar running clubs - Clifton Road Runners, Garmin Runners, etc.
After the St. Jude's race, without any set marathon plans yet, I signed up for the Sunset because I always need something on my race schedule.
During the two weeks of intense training aimed at beating my PR of 30:24 from the 2010 Ho Ha Classic in Hoboken, I finished each workout with only the slightest bit of confidence that the 6:03 pace goal would happen.
It seems so long ago that I had first run this race in 2009 but I remembered one very important thing - at the left turn on Sunset Avenue, just after the first mile mark, there is a huge hill.
Gliding along with little effort, I was astonished to see the clock at 5:44 when I passed the first mile mark. I passed Maria and bounded up the hill figuring I would lose much of the gained time. Surprisingly, after turning left on Forest Avenue with some more uphill work, I hit the second mile with a 5:48. I deliberately slowed to what felt like a crawl despite the cheers of the spectators and Maria passing me. It felt unnatural to slow down that much, but this was not a 5K - I was barely halfway done so I had to conserve some energy.
Run the race for which you trained, I kept telling myself. That meant a 6:03 pace, and it meant giving back those 34 seconds. Instead of using the downhill to gain ground, I relaxed around the turns on Osbourne Street and Essex Avenue. With a 6:24 third mile, I was closer to my target time but still ahead by 13 seconds. The math started swirling in my head - a 6:09 for each of the two remaining miles will net me a PR. Certainly I can do that!
Except I suddenly could not. Was it the humidity, the 83-degree heat, the fact that I had started way too fast? Whatever it was, I was losing steam. Quickly. I pushed hard, but even with the downhill of the turn on Glen Ridge Parkway, I only managed a 6:12 in Mile Four.
Back on Broad Street with only one mile to go, I had to pull a 6:06 or better. I was grunting, groaning, and pushing with all my might, but never really feeling like I was accelerating. Downtown, spectators, energy, focus, push.
James Street, JFK Drive, home stretch, Foley Field....
Ah, Foley Field and the track finish. There is something about finishing a race this way that lends an advantage to those of us that do interval training on tracks. No matter how spent I felt, once we were on the track for the last 300 meters, my body instinctively kicked into high gear. Running tall with full leg extension, I overtook Maria and saw the clock just hitting 30:00 as I rounded the last turn. Finishing with a 30:11 (and Maria a mere half-second behind me), I had knocked out that last mile in 6:02.
It was exhilirating, but I was hurting, out of breath, light-headed, gasping in the humid air, and just about ready to puke. I cheered for the next few dozen people coming around the track, and grabbed a water and a soda (no Gatorade?), and a yogurt (no bananas?). There was a barbecue set up with hot dogs - how nice, unless you are a vegetarian. I ate a plain bun while regaining the strength to be a cheerleader for the next few hundred runners, staying on the sidelines to cheer everyone in, right down to the last of the 600-plus participants.
Tenth place overall, second in my age group (though winning the first prize of a $20 gift certificate to the Fleet Feet running store in Montclair, because the first male age 35 to 39 was in the top three overall), and most importantly, a new PR made this another excellent experience. This would be the last race in my 30s. What a way to wrap up my first decade of running - four PRs in as many distances, over the course of three months. Not to mention my fourth best marathon that had preceded them.
The Sunset Classic is a well-organized and enjoyable event for runners of all skill levels. It is not an easy course but the evening setting, mile clocks, track finish and hundreds of runners and spectators provide a quality experience. The selection of post-race food and drink could be improved, but overall this late-June mainstay in Bloomfield has enough to keep going another 30 years and more.
At the Sunset Classic, a five mile race in Bloomfield that has been a fixture on the North Jersey running scene since the early 1980s, I saw my one-time arch nemesis Sergio Cano, who bested me in a series of races in 2010, as well as Maria Danna, who had so handily whipped me at the St. Jude's 15K earlier this month. There were also familiar running clubs - Clifton Road Runners, Garmin Runners, etc.
After the St. Jude's race, without any set marathon plans yet, I signed up for the Sunset because I always need something on my race schedule.
During the two weeks of intense training aimed at beating my PR of 30:24 from the 2010 Ho Ha Classic in Hoboken, I finished each workout with only the slightest bit of confidence that the 6:03 pace goal would happen.
It seems so long ago that I had first run this race in 2009 but I remembered one very important thing - at the left turn on Sunset Avenue, just after the first mile mark, there is a huge hill.
Gliding along with little effort, I was astonished to see the clock at 5:44 when I passed the first mile mark. I passed Maria and bounded up the hill figuring I would lose much of the gained time. Surprisingly, after turning left on Forest Avenue with some more uphill work, I hit the second mile with a 5:48. I deliberately slowed to what felt like a crawl despite the cheers of the spectators and Maria passing me. It felt unnatural to slow down that much, but this was not a 5K - I was barely halfway done so I had to conserve some energy.
Run the race for which you trained, I kept telling myself. That meant a 6:03 pace, and it meant giving back those 34 seconds. Instead of using the downhill to gain ground, I relaxed around the turns on Osbourne Street and Essex Avenue. With a 6:24 third mile, I was closer to my target time but still ahead by 13 seconds. The math started swirling in my head - a 6:09 for each of the two remaining miles will net me a PR. Certainly I can do that!
Except I suddenly could not. Was it the humidity, the 83-degree heat, the fact that I had started way too fast? Whatever it was, I was losing steam. Quickly. I pushed hard, but even with the downhill of the turn on Glen Ridge Parkway, I only managed a 6:12 in Mile Four.
Back on Broad Street with only one mile to go, I had to pull a 6:06 or better. I was grunting, groaning, and pushing with all my might, but never really feeling like I was accelerating. Downtown, spectators, energy, focus, push.
James Street, JFK Drive, home stretch, Foley Field....
Ah, Foley Field and the track finish. There is something about finishing a race this way that lends an advantage to those of us that do interval training on tracks. No matter how spent I felt, once we were on the track for the last 300 meters, my body instinctively kicked into high gear. Running tall with full leg extension, I overtook Maria and saw the clock just hitting 30:00 as I rounded the last turn. Finishing with a 30:11 (and Maria a mere half-second behind me), I had knocked out that last mile in 6:02.
It was exhilirating, but I was hurting, out of breath, light-headed, gasping in the humid air, and just about ready to puke. I cheered for the next few dozen people coming around the track, and grabbed a water and a soda (no Gatorade?), and a yogurt (no bananas?). There was a barbecue set up with hot dogs - how nice, unless you are a vegetarian. I ate a plain bun while regaining the strength to be a cheerleader for the next few hundred runners, staying on the sidelines to cheer everyone in, right down to the last of the 600-plus participants.
Tenth place overall, second in my age group (though winning the first prize of a $20 gift certificate to the Fleet Feet running store in Montclair, because the first male age 35 to 39 was in the top three overall), and most importantly, a new PR made this another excellent experience. This would be the last race in my 30s. What a way to wrap up my first decade of running - four PRs in as many distances, over the course of three months. Not to mention my fourth best marathon that had preceded them.
The Sunset Classic is a well-organized and enjoyable event for runners of all skill levels. It is not an easy course but the evening setting, mile clocks, track finish and hundreds of runners and spectators provide a quality experience. The selection of post-race food and drink could be improved, but overall this late-June mainstay in Bloomfield has enough to keep going another 30 years and more.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
A confession about "Split Open and Melt"
After seeing much praise heaped upon the "Split Open and Melt" from last weekend's Randall's Island Phish shows, I must make a confession:
I do not really enjoy that song anymore, and haven't in a very long time, certainly not in the 3.0 era.
The jams are always interesting, there is no doubt. Sometimes, they hit on textures that are intense, thick and dark. The soundscapes they create can suck you into their vortex and envelop you. So why do I feel unfulfilled?
I have finally figured it out: It feels like those things do not belong in "Melt". If those same sounds were in, say, a "Sand" jam, I would be singing their praises all day. But every "Melt" feels like a missed opportunity to push for high, peaking jams, not thick, horizontal jams. I do not consider myself one of those old fans that longs for the past, but the 1990's "Melts" did it the way I like it - from the early '90s machine-gun soloing by Trey Anastasio to the all-in funky workouts of 1999. The pinnacle was 7/15/99 and, I dare say, I have not been nearly as moved by the song since that day in Holmdel, 15 years ago.
As a phan who first saw Phish in 1993 but has seen almost as many shows in the past five years than I did in 1.0 and 2.0 combined (I am a total 3.0 booster!), it pains me to say it. But the best days of "Melt" are long gone.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Phish at Randall's Island, July 13
Phish at Randall's Island, July 13
For my last show of the tour, I was determined to do it right, starting with getting there. I went for the simplest approach on Sunday - on foot. It was long run day anyway, and I needed to cover 16 miles.
I made a tentative route plan from Rutherford train station (so I could take the train back home) and used my phone's GPS for specific directions while my Garmin watch kept track of the distance. I hit the 10 mile mark on the George Washington Bridge, so I added a detour into the Bronx to pad it out to 16 miles.
The next step was to find a good spot with room to dance - and other dancers, too. My best memories of dancing at Phish shows involve being around others that are whirling and revelling as I am. I found that spot slightly in front and to the left of the midfield speaker racks on Mike Gordon's side.
The "Sand" opener threw down the gantlet early - it was time to get funky and it was now or never. Suddenly I was dancing like I had not just run 16 miles. On paper, to follow quickly with "Winterqueen" would seem like killing the buzz that only just started, but something about this ballad works so well. When Trey solos, the magical overtones of the lyrics seep into his playing and the notes sound like pretty colors painting a brilliant landscape. The fact that the song lasted roughly the same amount of time as "Sand" should tell you how much faith Phish has in this song to move people.
The rest of the set kept it mostly old school - five songs from the 1980's - "Reba", with a lovely jam as well; "Possum", thankfully not placed as encore or set-closer; "Runaway Jim", with some excellent dynamics; "Bouncing Around the Room"; and "Split Open and Melt" which was interesting but did nothing to help my continued disappointment with the song - and three more from the 1990's ("Birds of a Feather", a knockout "Maze", and the tour debut of "Water in the Sky"). There was nothing from later than 1998 in the set except "Winterqueen".
The second set was the kind for which I had hoped at my last show of the tour. The opening "Chalk Dust Torture" took the ball from the previous one (only three shows ago) and ran. Just when I thought the Mann "Chalk Dust" would be THE one of the tour, out comes this 28-minute extravaganza that did everything right except not actually end (I have a thing about that). The band was so hooked up, they could not have played bad notes if they tried. And if the lack of a cohesive ending was a problem, well, there is "Light". When a jam is abruptly cut off for a new song, "Light" is usually the best choice to come crashing in (7/10/13 comes to mind). Heck, it is even in the studio version. The band sounds like they are playing "Gone" and then BAM - the clang of B and E chords!
"Light" always delivers a mountain range of peaks and valleys and this was no different. What absolutely slayed the crowd after 40-minute one-two punch of "Chalk > Light", was Phish launching into "Tweezer". After playing the shortest "Tweezer" in four years at the Mann, they gave this one more leg room. I spun around and saw all the other people dancing and going nuts nearby. That moment clinched it - this was exactly what I had hoped for in a great Phish show. So when "Wading in the Velvet Sea" came next, it was no less than wonderful to hear my all-time favorite Phish ballad played so beautifully in the calm glow of the 52 minutes of jammed out perfection that had come before.
The show could have easily ended there. I have seen amazing sets of Phish that came short of the one-hour mark (12/30/94). Instead, "Sing Monica". Not the best placement for the pop-rock tune, with such a changeup in the vibe. But things switched back after that detour with the set-ending "Slave to the Traffic Light", delivering the goods in a blissed-out building jam that squeezed all the emotion possible out of its sweet four-chord progression.
"Backwards Down the Number Line" seemed like an odd encore at first. As usual, it had a shaky start, but Trey Anastasio brought it home to a satisfying conclusion before leveling the place with the power of "Tweezer Reprise".
On the ferry heading back to Manhattan, the amazing feeling that this show was everything I had wanted was mixed with the sadness that I will not be attending any more shows this summer. My mother asked me, "After nine shows, aren't you all Phished out?"
Not a chance. I look forward to hearing the rest of the tour as the recordings become available. I do not want to miss one thing.
Set list:
Set I: Sand, Winterqueen, Reba, Birds of a Feather, Water in the Sky, Possum, Runaway Jim, Bouncing Around the Room, Maze, Split Open and Melt
Set 2: Chalk Dust Torture > Light > Tweezer, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Sing Monica, Slave to the Traffic Light
E: Backwards Down the Number Line > Tweezer Reprise
For my last show of the tour, I was determined to do it right, starting with getting there. I went for the simplest approach on Sunday - on foot. It was long run day anyway, and I needed to cover 16 miles.
I made a tentative route plan from Rutherford train station (so I could take the train back home) and used my phone's GPS for specific directions while my Garmin watch kept track of the distance. I hit the 10 mile mark on the George Washington Bridge, so I added a detour into the Bronx to pad it out to 16 miles.
The next step was to find a good spot with room to dance - and other dancers, too. My best memories of dancing at Phish shows involve being around others that are whirling and revelling as I am. I found that spot slightly in front and to the left of the midfield speaker racks on Mike Gordon's side.
The "Sand" opener threw down the gantlet early - it was time to get funky and it was now or never. Suddenly I was dancing like I had not just run 16 miles. On paper, to follow quickly with "Winterqueen" would seem like killing the buzz that only just started, but something about this ballad works so well. When Trey solos, the magical overtones of the lyrics seep into his playing and the notes sound like pretty colors painting a brilliant landscape. The fact that the song lasted roughly the same amount of time as "Sand" should tell you how much faith Phish has in this song to move people.
The rest of the set kept it mostly old school - five songs from the 1980's - "Reba", with a lovely jam as well; "Possum", thankfully not placed as encore or set-closer; "Runaway Jim", with some excellent dynamics; "Bouncing Around the Room"; and "Split Open and Melt" which was interesting but did nothing to help my continued disappointment with the song - and three more from the 1990's ("Birds of a Feather", a knockout "Maze", and the tour debut of "Water in the Sky"). There was nothing from later than 1998 in the set except "Winterqueen".
The second set was the kind for which I had hoped at my last show of the tour. The opening "Chalk Dust Torture" took the ball from the previous one (only three shows ago) and ran. Just when I thought the Mann "Chalk Dust" would be THE one of the tour, out comes this 28-minute extravaganza that did everything right except not actually end (I have a thing about that). The band was so hooked up, they could not have played bad notes if they tried. And if the lack of a cohesive ending was a problem, well, there is "Light". When a jam is abruptly cut off for a new song, "Light" is usually the best choice to come crashing in (7/10/13 comes to mind). Heck, it is even in the studio version. The band sounds like they are playing "Gone" and then BAM - the clang of B and E chords!
"Light" always delivers a mountain range of peaks and valleys and this was no different. What absolutely slayed the crowd after 40-minute one-two punch of "Chalk > Light", was Phish launching into "Tweezer". After playing the shortest "Tweezer" in four years at the Mann, they gave this one more leg room. I spun around and saw all the other people dancing and going nuts nearby. That moment clinched it - this was exactly what I had hoped for in a great Phish show. So when "Wading in the Velvet Sea" came next, it was no less than wonderful to hear my all-time favorite Phish ballad played so beautifully in the calm glow of the 52 minutes of jammed out perfection that had come before.
The show could have easily ended there. I have seen amazing sets of Phish that came short of the one-hour mark (12/30/94). Instead, "Sing Monica". Not the best placement for the pop-rock tune, with such a changeup in the vibe. But things switched back after that detour with the set-ending "Slave to the Traffic Light", delivering the goods in a blissed-out building jam that squeezed all the emotion possible out of its sweet four-chord progression.
"Backwards Down the Number Line" seemed like an odd encore at first. As usual, it had a shaky start, but Trey Anastasio brought it home to a satisfying conclusion before leveling the place with the power of "Tweezer Reprise".
On the ferry heading back to Manhattan, the amazing feeling that this show was everything I had wanted was mixed with the sadness that I will not be attending any more shows this summer. My mother asked me, "After nine shows, aren't you all Phished out?"
Not a chance. I look forward to hearing the rest of the tour as the recordings become available. I do not want to miss one thing.
Set list:
Set I: Sand, Winterqueen, Reba, Birds of a Feather, Water in the Sky, Possum, Runaway Jim, Bouncing Around the Room, Maze, Split Open and Melt
Set 2: Chalk Dust Torture > Light > Tweezer, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Sing Monica, Slave to the Traffic Light
E: Backwards Down the Number Line > Tweezer Reprise
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