Posts tagged concertstories

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Posted 1 year ago

Looking back at Phish at Fenway



With Phish Kicking off their summer tour tomorrow,  June 11th, I’ve been thinking of last years summer tour opener at Fenway Park. I posted this last year but wanted to share it again as it is  unforgettable. It is not my video. I pulled it from you tube. 

Event Name: Phish
Venue: Fenway Park
City: Boston
State: MA
Date: 5/31/09

You are not going to walk away from every concert with some overheard goodness, but I think you can walk away from every concert with a special moment.

After a massive down pour the evening started with Phish singing the National Anthem from the pitchers mound as it continued to lightly drizzle. About 5 minutes later, Phish took the stage as it was still drizzling . They opened the set with Sample In A Jar. An opener I wasn’t expecting to hear but it turned out to be the perfect opener because at the first note of Trey’s solo the sun began to peak through the clouds. It was one of the most amazing and beautiful moments I have ever seen. It’s impossible to explain. The crowd cheered. It was magical!

Were you there?

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Posted 2 years ago

To the concert I went. Yeesssssss.

Event Name: Umphrey’s McGee
Event Date: January 25, 2002
Venue: The Mad Frog
City: Cincinnati
State: OH
Website: http://www.archive.org/details/um2002-01-25matrix.shnf
Submitted by: Tumblr: feedfromthebottom

Being familiar with the Clifton area, getting to the venue wasn’t that bad. Getting home was another story, 1 random stop and a checkpoint later I made it back to school. All I remember from the show was a Yoda doll sitting on a small stack of amps and the floor flexing under the dancing crowd. I saw them NYE this past year at the Aragon and sure enough, there was that same Yoda doll. They are a great band to go see if you are in the mood for high energy rock, but I’m sure a lot of you know that.

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Posted 2 years ago

Medeski Martin and Wood

Writing about the light sticks at the Phish show reminded me of another concert experience when I saw Medeski Martin and Wood at one of their Halloween shows at the Beacon Theatre back in 2000 or 2001. It was pretty much the same idea but no glow sticks just glow rings. The glow rings would fly through the air and one by one they were taken apart and attached to each other until there was one long glow-in-the-dark snake being passed through the audience.

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Posted 3 years ago
There are a few things that make a Phish show unique. It is an experience, from the moment you get to the parking lot to when you return to your car, truck or bus. It is very communal. The audience becomes part of the show, part of the experience. I don’t remember exactly when it happened, I think it was during Reba or Harry Hood, it started to rain glow sticks and glow rings. I was sitting on the upper level and was able to watch as the glow sticks and glow rings spun through the air and descended to the audience below. There is one thing that sets a Phish show apart from any other band I have ever seen, and that is the light show. Chris Kuroda, often referred to as CK5, the five for the 5th member of the band, is Phish’s lighting designer and a master improviser. Kuroda is jamming and improvising right along with the band. No lighting cue or sequence is ever programmed. If the band is jamming, Chris is right there with them and the second they come out of the jam he is there too. This probably doesn’t sound all that impressive on screen and words cannot do it justice. Watching clips on YouTube or DVD’s of live shows can give you an idea but nothing can match the experience of a live Phish show. The band, the lights, and the audience all jamming together. On June 28th 1995 I saw my first Phish show. It was at Jones Beach. I’ve seen them many times since but never again at Jones Beach until tonight. It was a was a little surreal to be returning to Jones Beach 14 years, to the month of my first Phish show to see Phish. I can’t wait to see what Thursday and Friday will bring.

There are a few things that make a Phish show unique. It is an experience, from the moment you get to the parking lot to when you return to your car, truck or bus. It is very communal. The audience becomes part of the show, part of the experience. I don’t remember exactly when it happened, I think it was during Reba or Harry Hood, it started to rain glow sticks and glow rings. I was sitting on the upper level and was able to watch as the glow sticks and glow rings spun through the air and descended to the audience below.

There is one thing that sets a Phish show apart from any other band I have ever seen, and that is the light show. Chris Kuroda, often referred to as CK5, the five for the 5th member of the band, is Phish’s lighting designer and a master improviser. Kuroda is jamming and improvising right along with the band. No lighting cue or sequence is ever programmed. If the band is jamming, Chris is right there with them and the second they come out of the jam he is there too.

This probably doesn’t sound all that impressive on screen and words cannot do it justice. Watching clips on YouTube or DVD’s of live shows can give you an idea but nothing can match the experience of a live Phish show. The band, the lights, and the audience all jamming together.

On June 28th 1995 I saw my first Phish show. It was at Jones Beach. I’ve seen them many times since but never again at Jones Beach until tonight. It was a was a little surreal to be returning to Jones Beach 14 years, to the month of my first Phish show to see Phish. I can’t wait to see what Thursday and Friday will bring.

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Posted 3 years ago

Event Name: Phish
Venue: Fenway Park
City: Boston
State: MA
Date: 5/31/09

You are not going to walk away from every concert with some overheard goodness, but I think you can walk away from every concert with a special moment.

After a massive down pour the evening started with Phish singing the National Anthem from the pitchers mound as it continued to lightly drizzle. About 5 minutes later, Phish took the stage. They opened the set with Sample In A Jar. An opener I wasn’t expecting to hear but it turned out to be the perfect opener because at the first note of Trey’s solo the sun began to peak through the clouds. It was one of the most amazing and beautiful moments I have ever seen. It’s impossible to explain. The crowd cheered. It was magical!

View comments