Phish Summer Tour TR

[ccskier]

Figured I would start a new thread since the Tour has started. Well, Phish kicked things off last night at Fenway. Last night was my first musical experience at Fenway, great venue for being Fenway, but the place definately is not built for sound, oh well. It was pretty rough getting into the building, why would they ever have limited gates open. While standing in the rain for 20-30 mins to get to the door thinking that security was going to be super tight, I was wondering what the hold up was since I didn't even get pat down. Phish did bring it last night. Trey is back on point. Pretty evident on the clean licks during tweezer, plus many other times. Pretty pissed that we missed the 1st two songs waiting to get in. Overall a great show.

A few observances, holy crap, I am far from a saint, but do you seriously need to od on pharmaceuticals, heroin, etc.... at a phish show? Whatever happened to following a band for the music, experience, friendships, etc... It is one thing to go have a few beers, have multiple safety meetings, dabble in some halucinogenics if need but, by why do you need to blow 3 grams of yayo before a phish show, saw a few kids in the bathroom. The drug use was just plain blatent. Did anyone see the article in the Herald Saturday saying that the BPD was going to crack down, ha ha ha. The gas scene outside was out of control, I have not seen that many nitrous tanks since Philly in December 96'. There were tanks going off on the street corners, lots, etc... It was like a hippy crack mission, this wagon pulled up, a lady jumps out with a small tank in each hand and starts a new spot. $10, no thanks, I am grown up now and know the value of my dollar. Extra tickets, holy shat, people were offering less than face value as the show got closer. For a sold out Phish show I have never seen so many getting rid of extras.

Again, great show, looking forward to next weekend at Great Woods. I will say the scene will be totally different there, personally I don't like city shows. The security there sucks so it will get interesting.

 

[Johnskiismore]

I have a (ahem) client who was supposed to meet up with me yesterday early afternoon to sign a lease. Didn't hear from him so at around 2 I called and he said, 'Dude, I totally forgot to tell you I'm going to see Phish at Fenway, can't meet with ya!' I think he had met the lady with the miny tanks from the way he sounded!

I had to laugh because he told me that everything was cool to meet and sign the lease Saturday afternoon!

Glad to hear you had fun at the show!

 

[deadheadskier]

Looking forward to Great Woods on Saturday. I was tempted to head down yesterday as I knew they'd be giving tickets away, but my days of catching shows on work nights are pretty well through unless it's within a half hour ride or so of my house.

I'm glad to hear Live Nation got screwed by having extra tickets. The fact that they're in bed with the scalping agencies is so completely obvious. They were re-releasing tickets like crazy all weekend. Once they realized the scalping agencies couldn't sell all the extras they were screwed. Apparently tickets to Jones Beach tomorrow aren't worth the ink used to print them there are so many extras. I've also been told that lawn tickets for Great Woods will be re-released either tomorrow or Wednesday at midnight.

If there are two businesses I'd love to see fail during this recession and I wouldn't weep a moment for all the job losses, it's Live Nation and Ticket Bastards.

The Nitrous and the hard drug use is pretty disgusting and it's something I saw plenty of as far back as the late 98/99 at Phish shows. Part of the reason why I saw so few shows after then and none following the first hiatus. I'm not looking forward to that, but I'm definitely pumped to see a sober Trey rock again. :beer:

 

[ccskier]

I got caught up in the hoopla for the tickets and paid way too much for the ones I have for Saturday. Kind of sucks, I could probably have saved $400 on the 4 tix I bought. Oh well, thought the demand was going to be greater.

 

[deadheadskier]

I got caught up in the hoopla for the tickets and paid way too much for the ones I have for Saturday. Kind of sucks, I could probably have saved $400 on the 4 tix I bought. Oh well, thought the demand was going to be greater.

we got ours at face. I got shut out on the pre-order, but unknown and lucky for me, the lady put in for tickets for us as well. She saw how pissed I was about getting shut out for Hampton and as is par for the course, had better luck than me. Following Hampton and how so few people I knew got lucky on pre-orders, I thought the same thing. Like I said, I believe TM and LN thought so as well and held a ton of tickets to sell to scalping agencies. I bet things will be better for future tours as they won't want to get caught with their pants down again.

Sad thing is that it's likely that Phish is on the take on scalper pricing as well. Trent Reznor talks about this reality here:

http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?9,548515

Hard to tell if Phish would be dicks like some bands are, but it wouldn't surprise me. Trey likes his money like he (hopefully used to) like his drugs. A good friend who is close to the band said that money was an equally driving factor towards the bands break up as Trey's drug habit and its negative affect on their performances.

 

[dmc]

I'm at Great woods too.... Lets hook up...

 

[deadheadskier]

I'm at Great woods too.... Lets hook up...

I'd be down for a meet up at set break. Haven't been in ten years, so I'm not sure where the best spot might be. Back in the day we used to always walk in and go around to the right and back towards where you'd head up the stairs to the lawn there were some concessions.

I don't think we'll be arriving until show time as we're attending a pre-party at a friends a couple towns over.

 

[BeanoNYC]

TB texed me a picture from the Fenway show. Good stuff.

 

[frozencorn]

I was there Sunday, and it was awesome. Ninth row, center stage. Great crowd down there too. Page had an ear-to-ear grin for almost the entire first set. Actually called Destiny since I heard they were practicing it in Worcester over the weekend. Looked like a genius. Couldn't do the same for Lowe I am afraid. The last 3 songs of the first set, DWD, Destiny, and Zero were top-notch. Gordo shredded YEM. Trey sounds great.

As for the scene after the show...wow. That was a new one. The nitrous mafia setting up in the middle of a crowd so there was nothing anyone could do about it. Then, over the bridge. Holy Crap. Unreal. I'm hoping that doesn't repeat this weekend. Sketchy.

Can't wait for Saturday.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I always thought Phish fans were about the drugs first and the music 2nd..I haven't done Nitrous since college..they used to call it Hippie Crack..and 3 grams of Yayo seems a bit excessive..they should save their money and just smoke/snort Crystal meth..lol

How long did they play for?

 

[Riverskier]

I always thought Phish fans were about the drugs first and the music 2nd..I haven't done Nitrous since college..they used to call it Hippie Crack..and 3 grams of Yayo seems a bit excessive..they should save their money and just smoke/snort Crystal meth..lol

How long did they play for?

x2. I thought the major draw was the drugs and the party scene. I am a little surprised to hear about the amount of heroin, but is there actually a relevant number of people who are stone cold sober and go just for the music?

 

[frozencorn]

I wasn't stone cold sober. Had some beers before the show, none during. And yeah, had a phenomonal time without (gasp) any heroin even!!!!

Lot of idiots give being a Phish fan a bad name, I understand that all too well. But to say it's all about the drugs is greatly overgeneralizing.

 

[Riverskier]

I wasn't stone cold sober. Had some beers before the show, none during. And yeah, had a phenomonal time without (gasp) any heroin even!!!!

Lot of idiots give being a Phish fan a bad name, I understand that all too well. But to say it's all about the drugs is greatly overgeneralizing.

I actually agree about it being an overgeneralization. I have had a number of friends in the past that loved the music, and found the music to be the highlight of the shows. However, I have been to a few shows myself years ago and drugs are literally EVERYWHERE, and the party scene was a huge part of the draw for many people. I have to imagine the people partaking in absolutely nothing are the vast minority. I guess I was just a little bit surprised by how shocked people seemed by rampant drug use at a Phish show, but I guess it was more about the drugs people were using. I would be pretty shocked too to see widespread heroin and other hard drugs. Back when I saw a few shows, you mostly saw safety meetings everywhere, plus some hallucinogens and nitrous. Sad to see the use of hard drugs expanding anywhere.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I actually agree about it being an overgeneralization. I have had a number of friends in the past that loved the music, and found the music to be the highlight of the shows. However, I have been to a few shows myself years ago and drugs are literally EVERYWHERE, and the party scene was a huge part of the draw for many people. I have to imagine the people partaking in absolutely nothing are the vast minority. I guess I was just a little bit surprised by how shocked people seemed by rampant drug use at a Phish show, but I guess it was more about the drugs people were using. I would be pretty shocked too to see widespread heroin and other hard drugs. Back when I saw a few shows, you mostly saw safety meetings everywhere, plus some hallucinogens and nitrous. Sad to see the use of hard drugs expanding anywhere.

I always thought hard drugs were the most prevelant in the 80s when Cocaine was common at Yuppy parties..

 

[thetrailboss]

Yes, the future Mrs. and I attended. It was my first show...awesome. She is a Phishead and enjoyed it. Getting back home at 2am from it: not so nice. Pics and vids coming soon. This week has been a trainwreck.....

 

[dmc]

It's not as bad as it seems....

Psyched for Saturday...

 

[dmc]

I'd be down for a meet up at set break. Haven't been in ten years, so I'm not sure where the best spot might be. Back in the day we used to always walk in and go around to the right and back towards where you'd head up the stairs to the lawn there were some concessions.

I don't think we'll be arriving until show time as we're attending a pre-party at a friends a couple towns over.

Where are your seats?

 

[Geoff]

I always thought hard drugs were the most prevelant in the 80s when Cocaine was common at Yuppy parties..

Nope. The heroin explosion in the late-1960's and 1970's along with the easy access to amphetamines and depressants was the peak of hard drug use in the US. Back then, basically anybody could get a perscription for speed & sleeping pills. That was shut down in the 1980's. Phish is just a rip-off of the Grateful Dead. The Dead were the poster child for hallucinogenic drugs back then. Half the people at a Dead concert were tripping on acid (along with most of the band). The 1980's was "Just Say No". Any and all of that stuff was a felony. Cocaine was around in the first half of the 1980's as a party drug for the wealthy but it mostly vanished when it moved downmarket as crack and started getting a huge amount of police attention. The junkies were combining heroin & crack. The amount of money you'd need to steal in a week to support that combination of addictions was staggering.

 

[deadheadskier]

Phish is just a rip-off of the Grateful Dead.

No offense Geoff, but this is a pretty ignorant statement showing complete lack of knowledge of both bands music catalogs and influences. While the two bands might share similar fan bases and both utilize improvising/jamming heavily in their live performances, their style of music is completely different. Phish is much more Frank Zappa meets Led Zeppelin meets Talking Heads in their style than Grateful Dead.

 

[deadheadskier]

It's not as bad as it seems....

Psyched for Saturday...

I won't be home until late tomorrow night, but will send you a PM of our seats. We have uncovered seats near the back a few rows down from the lawn. Most likely will be hanging on the lawn for much of the show though. I really hate the fact that they converted so much of the lawn to seats. Part of the reason I hardly ever see large shows anymore is that I hate how cramped the seating in arenas/stadiums make me feel. I much prefer an open lawn or a General Admission night club.