10 years ago today in a field in Florida…

oh man, this one has me a bit nostalgic and teary-eyed today… I cant believe if has been ten years since me and rob jumped in my mustang and drove from houston to the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation to see phish’s millennium concert.

I should be making a much larger post to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of this event but I can’t seem to find the time lately…

Anyway, the long-short of it is that me, rob and about 79,998 other people descended on southern florida for one of (if not THE) greatest phish festivals ever. The weather was perfect and the scene was amazing — aferal, we all thought we were going to die when the world blew up at midnight and the calendar rolled over to 2000…. Anyway, phish did an amazing job setting up the concert field for everyone, as well as the entire festival grounds and it was essentially a free-for-all of epic proportions…

the band played two days, on the 30th and on the 31st and the 31st was capped off with an amazing midnight-to-sunrise set that included several 25+ songs, and appearance on ABC’s millenium special and some general goofiness from the band that included giant hotdog rides, feeding father time meatsticks and getting a crowd of 80,000 to chant ‘cheesecake’ in unison.

ANYWAY, here’s the download links for both days:
DAY ONE:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=e64969679d601a071686155677bb2685fb97657ef41f9352
DAY TWO:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=e64969679d601a071686155677bb2685f03b46f38b3466ce

and here’s some random media from the event:

cheesecake, cheesecake, cheesecake….

listening again…

well folks, it’s been a great weekend. I’m listening to exile again and am really impressed with how well the band pulled this off. page’s vocals and piano especially shine through the halloween set.

It was great getting to hang with good friends and make new friends all weekend. We got a lot of praise for our costumes (which had to be the best at the fest), the festival grounds were amazing and the visual candy (flame throwers, burbles, etc) were epic.

Thanks to JT and Taboot Art for being our base of operations, thanks to JT for being an awesome person, thanks to the Joker for his UPS package hilarity, thanks to everyone who told us ‘great costumes’, thanks to the weirdo lady during the acoustic set who was wearing nothing but a slip and kept pulling it up above your waist (it was hysterical), thanks to the folks operating the Burble — that thing is amazing. thanks in and out burger. thanks to tito and his walking stick, and to the guy with the plastic ‘roor’ in the line to get in Sunday. thanks to the mounted patrol for letting us take a picture with you (picture to come)

no thanks to: the guy who knew all the words to every song on Exile on Main Street and let everyone know it at the top of his lungs the entire set, the creeper old woman who snaked in on at least three of our sessions without even asking, and whoever ate all the donuts before we could get there, no thanks to the toolbags with laser pointers (you all suck).

i’ll likely get around to some sort of full review of the tunes and each day’s sets, but for now you can all simply enjoy these pics. I’ll get more up when I get a chance to hook erin’s camera up to the computer:

slap bag guy:

here’s ass lady. she just kept pulling up her slip like it wasn’t a big deal — flashing her ass right in the face of these two girls behind her. She also pulled up the front, showing her vag to anyone who happened to turn around:

the light from the flame-throwing oil towers behind us during the last set:

second Burble:

flaming oil derek towers:

good morning!

wow. what a great time last night.

the concert grounds are perfect. the grass is dry and soft, the art instalations are sick and the amount of vending and food is awesome. There was a guy lighting off paper hot-air balloons (you know, the kind where yoy light a candlein a paper bag and it flies away), and after the thing got airborne a few of us started screaming about poor Falcon up in the balooon.

the setlist was okay last night, but we have all said that those are the typ[e of songs you want to hear the first night of a festival — it’s not like i want them to come out and blow their load the first set.

that said, the second set was pretty much nasty.

phish
oct. 30, 2009
Indio, CA

set one
PARTY TIME!
chalkdust torute
moma dance (mike sounds good)
NICU
Stealing time
Stash
I didn’t know
poor heart
cavern
beauty of a broken heart
ocelot
time turns elastic

Set II
pyite
dwd >
caspian
wolfman’s brother > NASTY JAM >
piper >
joy >
Bowie
Hood
Golgi

e:Character Zero

highlights were moma dance, stash jam, cavern (got the lyrics right), PYITE, wolfman’s jam, bowie and hood. theres this crazy flying balloon thing that changes lights to the musc that was flying around during hood that was pretty mind blowing. I’ll do a picture dump here in a second.

we’re chilling at the house now for a bit, listening to last night’s show and watching college football. a bit of pool time is in order, but we’re heading over to the festival ground around 1:30 in full costume. I promise more updates from the fest today, including the lot quote of the day.

i’m still calling for exile on main st, though it seems the rumor of an undisclosed album being the alum that is ‘killing’ the other albums (www.phish.com) and is the album they will play (possibly michael jackson’s ‘off the wall’)

TALLY HO!!!

on the green

of a golf course, that is…

we’ve all landed here in laquinta CA, just a few miles down the road from the polo grounds. nice contrast to the last few days in denver… im looking at blue skies, flowers and fucking BUMBLEBEES. got the pool heating up though, it gets chilly at night.

we have a few hours before we head over there — for the meantime, we are chilling by our pool by the 9th hole of some TPA golf course where the golf carts have AC units on top of them. must get hot as balls here.

anyway, we are headed over to the fest around 3 p.m. cali time. i’ll have more then.

Palm springs

Made it in about 45 mins late. In palm springs by 1125 and chilling at the little hotel we rented for the night before checking into our house.

Flew first class. Very nice. I could get used to it. Up tomorrow and off to the festy

In the airport…

Waiting to board our flight out if this winter tundra. Looks like Erin and I are going to be cruising first class. Sweet willy left his check-bag at home and had to haul ass back to get it. They are gonna make the flight tho. Derek, Liz, nik and Brian are flying frontier and are delayed an hour.

I’m watching the massive snow melt machine on the runway and hoping everyone else in Team Awesome makes their flights.

Snow? Please, nothing stops me getting to phish…

Two feet of snow, flghts cancelled allday, friends are sacking up and driving out to Indio….

But I’m holding tight in the cut and still set to board a first-class flight to John Wayne airport At 645 with Sweet Willy, his wife and now Dukemesh Jason has gotten a seat on our flight after his was cancelled thismorning.

Behold the power of phish.

More on-the-road updates from here on out. Keep checking back….

oh, and the costumes look FUCKING RAD!

three more days….

And I’ll be in sunny southern California.

we’re down to 20 albums on the list:

Still Alive:

David Bowie – Hunky Dory
David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust
Frank Zappa – Apostrophe
Genesis – The Lambs Lie Down On Broadway
Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland
King Crimson – Larks’ Tongues In Aspic
Led Zeppelin – I
MGMT – Oracle Spectacular
Michael Jackson – Thiller
Pink Floyd – The Wall
Prince – Purple Rain
Radiohead – Kid A
Rolling Stones – Exile
Springsteen – Born To Run
Television – Marquee Moon
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
Yes – The Yes Album

DEAD ALBUMS:
Dead albums:

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers– Damn The Torpedoes
Medeski, Martin & Wood – Shack Man
Huey Lewis And The News – Sports
Talking Heads – Fear Of Music
Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man
Velvet Underground And Nico
Who – Who’s Next
Beatles – Rubber Soul
Ween – White Pepper
White Stripes – Elephant
Primus – Sailing The Seas Of Cheese
Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
Allman Brothers Band – Eat A Peach
Manu Chao – Clandestino
Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Eagles – Hotel California
Roots – Phronology
Tom Waits – Rain Dogs
Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
Jane’s Addiction – Ritual de Lo Habitual
fIREHOSE – flyin’ the flannel
X – Los Angeles
Peter Gabriel – So
Bob Seger – Against The Wind
David Bowie – Scary Monsters
Elvis Costello – This Year’s Model
Bob Dylan And The Band – The Basement Tapes
Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Duran Duran – Rio
Michael McDonald – If That’s What It Takes
Pink Floyd – Meddle
John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band
Pork Tornado – Pork Tornado
Queen – A Night At The Opera
Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Arcade Fire – Funeral
Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes
Hall & Oates – Private Eyes
Ramones – Ramones
ZZ Top – Tres Hombes
Credence Clearwater Rivival – Green River
Aerosmith – Toys In The Attic
Led Zeppelin – IV (Zoso)
Grateful Dead – American Beauty
Devo – Freedom of Choice
Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Blvd
U2 – Joshua Tree
Journey – Escape
Pearl Jam – 10
Doors – The Doors
Rush – Moving Pictures
LOVE – Forever Changes
Guns & Roses – Appetite For Destruction
Beastie Boys – Hello Nasty
KI$$ – Alive II
Bob Dylan – Blood On the Tracks
Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced?
Blind Faith – Blind Faith
Pixies – Come On Pilgrim
Band – The Band (Brown Album)
Metallica – Master Of Puppets
Frank Zappa – Hot Rats
Miles Davis – A Tribute To Jack Johnson
Rage Against The Machine – Evil Empire
Police – Ghost In The Machine
Curtis Mayfield – Superfly Soundtrack
Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic
Neil Young – Tonight’s The Night
Van Halen – Van Halen
Brian Eno – Before And After Science
Clash – London Calling
Jonathan Richmond and The Modern Lovers – The Modern Lovers
Nirvana – Nevermind
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Boston – Boston
AC/DC – Back In Black
Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
T.Rex – Electric Warrior
Chicago Transit Authority
Minutemen – Double Nickels On The Dime

I still think it’s going to be Exile on Main St. — complete with horn section and female backup singers.

in other Fest8 news, Indio police are hoping to see pigs fly:

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20091027/NEWS01/910270307/Police+to+pot+users++Don+t+go+Phish

ndio police are encouraging attendees at this weekend’s Phish Festival 8 to refrain from smoking marijuana to have a good time.

Police aren’t disclosing their methods but said they will be on the lookout for anyone caught doing drugs during the three-day event at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.

Samuel Martin, who writes at phishandthedead.blogspot.com, does not dispute that Phish fans tend to smoke marijuana at concerts just as the Grateful Dead’s Deadheads.

“Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of it,” he said. “(But) it’s not like there’s going to be a truckload of drug addicts coming to town.”

Violators may face a $100 to $500 fine and/or up to a year in Riverside County jail.

“The bottom line is just don’t do it,” Indio police spokesman Ben Guitron said. “Don’t make it a memorable experience in the county jail.”

The polo grounds have hosted numerous multi-day music events with their share of arrests.

Sixty-nine people were arrested during this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and there were 22 arrests at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival.

Martin said he does not believe Phish’s mellow fans are likely to cause trouble.

“Fans don’t go out of their way to stand on top of Volkswagen buses and wave bags of weed,” Martin said. “It’s not going to be that extreme, but they are carefree.”

San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials issued similar warnings to attendees at this past weekend’s Cypress Hill Smokeout Festival in San Bernardino, which celebrated marijuana legalization and its therapeutic uses.

Aside from detecting the smell of marijuana in the air, officials were “pleasantly surprised” that there were no arrests made, department spokeswoman Jodi Miller said.

“There was a fight on Saturday, and the crowd basically took care of it,” she said.

Have you missed me??

well, grad ,school and work and life have gotten in the way lately… and i haven’t really even gone out to see much live music OR been skiing yet… so there’s not much to report.

HOWEVER… in 8 days I’ll be traveling (with 8 people) to phish’s 8th festival, Festival 8 (isn’t that great!) over Halloween weekend at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA — at the site of the Coachella Music and Arts festival.

while festivals in the past have had as many as 80k people in attendence (NYE 2000 in Florida), this one is rumored to be about half that size…

Phish will be selecting a ‘musical costume’ to wear on Halloween night, and http://www.phish.com has set up a really cool gallery of the 100 possible albums — with more and more getting killed by arrows, axes or knives over the last few weeks as the concert draws closer. My pick all along was the Rolling Stones ‘Exile on Main St.’, which is still in the running (and according to rumored maps of the site which have each campground named after a final album, will be one of the final 8 albums going into the festival).

my other pick would be Boston’s self-titled album or Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust — though neither of them are part of the rumored final 8.

as for OUR costume, we have decided that in honor of going to the polo club for the weekend we would don polo attire and go as Polo Team 8…. Er and I are getting the custom polo shirts screen printed right now. This isn’t the final logo — i’m saving that to show until the festival — but our initial sketch was something like this:

this is my first phish festival since Big Cypress (new years eve 2000), so i’m pretty pumped… Phish tends to go all-out in preparing for these fests, with massive art installations, carnival rides, vending, etc… plus there’s the entertainment of being around thousands of phish heads (this time in southern cali) camping together. Apparently there’s a massive area for trading music, a huge bar with ‘EXTRA BLOODY’ bloody marys, big screens for MLB playoffs and NFL games on sunday and (most importantly for you, dear readers) free wifi, so I will be updating live during the day (or, when i feel like it) from the fest. With 8 sets of music (including a Sunday-morning acoustic set, complete with coffee and 8-shaped donuts).

Also, Team Bleedingsenses (aka Team Awesome) has rented a golf chalet to stay in all weekend with 9-10 other Colorado music freaks.

Its’ way too nice for us (as usual), and apparently in the same neighborhood where team phish was looking to rent a few places (most likely for this week during the setup), so you never know who our neighbors could be. (though they will likely be some weirded-out retirees who just want some peace and quiet so they can wake up and play on their top-rated golf course in the morning)

check out phish.com for more on fest 8…

Time Capsule: 10 years ago today at a suburban amphitheater in Houston, Texas…

I’m reliving this little ’99 Texas run for a few reasons… One, I was thinking a lot about how it’s been ten years since my grandma passed, and as I mentioned earler these shows were a big release for me to have just a week after. Two, I’m trying to entice El Jefe to get off his ass and come see phish with me for the first time in TEN YEARS… Third, this night was one of my favorite times ever with our good friend D-Bird, who is no longer with us.

We woke up, and I’m not sure why D-bird didn’t go to Austin with us (since he and I were roomates at college together, this is even more baffling)… but he didn’t. But Jeff and I had plans to meet up with D-bird, Dana B and Little Stu early on in the day at D-bird’s mom’s house (which was vacant, as she was moving in with her new husband if i remember correctly). With the crew rounded up, we cruised over to the lot of Cynthia Woods.

The amphitheater itself is not bad, but the area its in is so weird. It’s like they dropped it in the middle of a shopping/office center and you park literally in the office parks (thiings may have changed, i haven’t been here in a while). The walk up to the place is kinda cool, and you are in these huge woods which makes it pretty spooky after shows… anyway, we got in early and set up shop on the front of the lawn (at the rail). Dana, Jefe, D-bird and I were all enjoying our fake-id’s working when we realized Little Stu (a sophomore in high school, mind you) was missing. AFter freaking out for a bit, the kid returns with a wicked grin on his face… we ask him what’s up and he sticks out his tounge which is covered in paper. D-bird freaking out over the thought of babysitting Stu all night was classic, even though Stu held it down like a pro (which is yet another reason why he is now my attorney).

as for the show… it’s yet another overall well played show with no real low points.

tube opener was cool after the first tube opener the night before, limb by limb is very well played, and Page KILLS IT covering On Your Way Down.

special treat near the end of the first set when the girl screaming for sleeping monkey gets her request with the promise that Fish will “sing it extra pretty for you”.

bowie is very drawn out and spacey, as is the Coil that follows it. The real heat of the show is the Rock and Roll -> 2001 > Frankenstein > Julius. I remember my head nearly exploding as they went into Frankenstein.

after the show we all cruised back to d-bird’s house where, for some reason, there was a keg… I remember Stu getting a call from his parents at 4:20 in the morning asking him where he was and if D-bird could please drive him home.

good times.

phish
09/25/99
The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion
Houston, TX

Set I: Tube, Runaway Jim, Ya Mar, Horn, Limb By Limb, On Your Way Down, Sleeping Monkey, Wilson

Set II: NICU, David Bowie, Squirming Coil, Prince Caspian, Rock and Roll, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Frankenstein, Julius

Encore: Character Zero

DOWNLOADS
SET ONE: http://www.sendspace.com/file/s4jyxu
SET TWO: http://www.sendspace.com/file/3gps4f

ENJOY!