"Music is a spiritual expression of what's in your heart. Music as a way of getting rich is a pretty new thing, and I often wonder if the mega-bucks glitzy atmosphere is making the quality of music suffer. You have to work really hard to get around that and remember why you're in it in the first place: because you have to be. It's like an addiction. You can't go a day without picking up your guitar. To me, the only commercial goals that are really valid are, 'Boy, I wish I didn't have to go to work. I wish I could do this all the time." -Trey Anastasio
"Impose rules to make life simpler. Break them to make life more fun." -Jon Fishman
Since my last update, a lot has happened. Let me see if I can fill you in on everything.
After resting in Nashville and getting some of the Bonnaroo funk out of my body, clothes and car, I began the drive East through North Carolina. I really loved the mountain drive through western NC around Asheville. On Tues night I made it all the way to Raleigh and stayed with the little brother of an old roommate and bandmate from Dallas. Wednesday morning I got up early and drove to Washington DC. I had never been to Our Nation?s Capitol and I enjoyed myself a lot. It was nice to get away from my music tour for a couple of days and see some history. My favorite part of my DC visit was the Museum of American History, where they had a really cool pop culture exhibit that included quite a few black and white photographs of the Beatles? first visit to the Ed Sullivan Show.
By Thursday afternoon I had made it to NYC and was ready to see some Phish. And Phish, apparently, knew I was coming and was ready to play.
Both the shows Thurs and Fri night were at Keyspan Park, a new minor league ballpark at Coney Island in Brooklyn, on the ocean.
The Thurs show was a great one. The Setlist:
Set I: Song I Heard the Ocean Sing, Dinner and a Movie,The Curtain With, Sample In a Jar, The Moma Dance ->Free, Nothing, Maze, Frankenstein
Set 2: 46 Days ->Possum, The Oh Kee Pah Ceremony ->Suzy Greenberg ->Axilla ->2001 ->Birds of a Feather, Kung, Mike's Song ->I am Hydrogen ->Weekapaug Groove
Encore: Divided Sky
I thought this show was a very strong one. The set I Moma Dance>Free was very funky and very well done. At about Maze it started raining, then at the Setbreak it started raining really hard. I joked that I had brought the rain with me from Bonnaroo, but It wasn?t as bad as the Bonnaroo storms & we had an umbrella. I thought the rain influenced the band to play a very high energy and long second set. The lights during 46 days even used the rain to great effect. Set 2 was just a monster. Suzy Greenberg had 2 huge separate jams in it, 2001 was a great one with lots of smoke and noodling from Trey, and the Divided Sky encore got everyone?s jaw to drop and there were smiles all around. The boys sounded very practiced and none of the 2003 sloppyness was there.
Yesterday (Friday) we decided to drive Marco (The Element) down to the venue and tailgate it in the Lot. This turned out to be a fantastic idea. I sold a good deal of Bloody Marys and White Russians from Marco and it was just fun to hang out and talk to all the interesting people that you meet at a Phish show. Last night was distincly different from Thurs night- Last night we had tickets on the floor, and as an added bonus my old friend Kevin Sport and his girlfriend came to the show. It was great to see Kev and again. Phish delivered with another amazing show. The setlist:
Phish 6.18.04, KeySpan Park, Brooklyn, NY
Set I: AC/DC Bag, Camel Walk, Crowd Control, Stash, Cars Trucks Buses, Carini, My Sweet One, Character Zero, Tweezer
Set II: Wilson, Down With Disease, 99 Problems**, Big Pimpin'**, Chalkdust Torture, Harry Hood, Taste
Encore: Bug > Tweezer Reprise
** with Jay-Z.
That?s right- Jay-Z came out during the second set and just owned the stage. The energy on the floor was electric. Overall every song was very solid, and I can?t believe that I saw Jay-Z with Phish! What a life.
Another fun tidbit last night was that I wore my George W. Bush mask and a T-Shirt give to me at Bonnaroo that read "George W. Heart Getting Spun". To complete the joke I made a sign that said "Dubya Heart Phish" on one side, with "Because Mike Drops Bombs!" on the other. I got nothing but good hearted laughs and about 10 people had me pose for pictures with them. It is hard to tell, but I also am fairly certain that Trey, Page, and Mike all read the sign from stage and chuckled.
Let me leave you with my only disappointment: Thursday night on the subway coming back from the show I became smitten with this cutie from Maryland. She had brown hair, the most beautiful blue eyes, this perfect smile and had such a cute hipster/hippie clean phishy girly style. SMITTEN! I failed to get her phone number, but I fell in love. Those are the most romantic encounters to look back on, no?
Today Pauly and I are driving to Saratoga in Upstate NY near Albany for 2 more shows. I am shaking my head that I have already seen so much and my trip is still at its beginning. Pauly is a great tour buddy and we seem to move at the same pace. I feel great, I look like ive danced off a few Dallas cheeseburger pounds and I am in good spirits.