Phish in Camden, NJ - Aug. 7, 2018

Travelling to this venue in Camden has never been a great time.  The traffic getting into and out of the area, which is on the Jersey side of the Ben Franklin bridge to Philadelphia, is always a mess, and the fact that the city is not only in most "Worst Places in New Jersey" lists (due to high violent crime, poverty and unemployment rates), but Rolling Stone magazine once did an article about it called "Apocalypse, USA".

That article was five years ago and though the city does not look like it is about to win any awards any time soon, there does seem to be some improvement.  As I walked the streets, my thought was, "They're Jersey City-ing the place," - trying to build up the waterfront area to make it attractive for Philly commuters, but probably leaving the rest to rot as usual.

Adding further ire to music fans, when it is time to park, they charge $40 for the nearby lots and $30 to $40 to park in lots that are up to a mile away from the venue in spots that looked no safer than if we parked on the street.

Never one to let the bastards get one over on me, I drove around for a while and found a few blocks with street parking.  One of them was next to a Rutgers campus building and literally around the block from a spot where they were charging 30 bucks.  I put $4.25 in the meter and was on my way. Take that, bloodsuckers!

Another frustrating, though relatively minor, issue is with the name of the place.  I have seen Phish at this venue on six tours and the name has been the E Centre (1999 and 2000), the Tweeter Center (2003), the Susquehanna Bank Center (2011) and now the BB&T Pavilion. This naming rights nonsense is out of control.  That is why, at this point, I just refer to it as Camden.

Once in the venue, all was right with the world again. I bought a $15 beer, but at least I was still ahead from the parking situation.  Then, because I was early, I staked out a spot in the front of the lawn section, Page side.

"Crowd Control" is only played about once a year and, thankfully, usually at a show I'm attending (often at SPAC), and this was a great way to start my first Phish show of 2018.

The spotlight jam of the first set was "Blaze On", which followed a funky but standard "No Men in No Man's Land".  The new song by Mike Gordon, "Infinite", is so-so, but the dark jam that came out of it was interesting.

The rest of the set was entertaining and fun, but with little variation from the norm, with "Lawn Boy" and "Wilson" staying short and to the point.  Even the set-ending "David Bowie" clocked in at a mere 11 minutes.  "46 Days" lifted off a bit, but it wasn't as big as previous versions (and, hey, they do not always have to be).  "Rift" was good until Trey lost his mojo in the solo.

Placement is important with "Roggae" and "Sparkle", and while the former sat perfectly in the middle of the set, the latter was odd and unnecessary right before "Bowie".

It started raining lightly during "46 Days" and it turned into a full shower by set break.  Lightning in the distance had us worried that the remainder of the show might get delayed or canceled.  But "Down With Disease" started the second set, as it tends to do, while the rain still came down.  Clearly, they should have saved "Petrichor" for this show.  But the 20+ minute jam that came out of "DWD" was amazing.  There was so much movement, so much melody.  Such a fun ride.

The move to "Backwards Down the Number Line" showed that it works much better early in the set, rather than the later placement it often receives.  And its segue into "I Always Wanted It This Way" got me incredibly excited.  It is a fantastic song with a groove to which one can not help but dance.

After a well-placed and well-played "Miss You" (unlike at the Baker's Dozen on both counts), another huge, amazing jam came with "Light" as the rain finally subsided.  I wasn't sure if it was going to amount to much while it stayed rhythmic and mellow for a while, but Mike forced a key change and caused Trey to kick it up a notch.  Fantastic interplay with Fish pounding out a great beat on the toms kept me dancing for the entire 16 minutes.

At that point every song except "DWD" was from the 3.0 era, so it was time to kick it old school with a classic, if not remarkable "Mike's Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove" to close the set. The latter two were lackluster, but it didn't matter. This set was already stamped with awesomeness.

I was surprised that it was already 11:35 as the set ended and figured the encore would be relatively short. To my delight, it was that 2010 ballad that most people disliked, but I loved then and still love now, "Show of Life".  As the crowd meandered to the exits, I enjoyed the first performance of the song in two years. It was a wonderful ending to a great show.

Leaving the venue was easy and the mile walk to my car was stress free. I never felt like I was in danger.  A person who parked on the street near me remarked about how surprised he was that both he and his car were OK.  Though there was a lot of traffic getting out of the city, it mostly went well.

So it seemed this area of Camden might not be so bad after all, until my wife called the next afternoon and told me about how two cops were ambushed and shot multiple times at 8:30 p.m., only about a mile from the venue.

<sigh> Camden. We had such high hopes for you.