The terrible thing about hell, is that when you are there you can’t even tell... that tomorrow will be the one you’ve been chasing. I could close my eyes and write my “perfect” set list and would no doubt come up far short of the juggernaut that the boys unleashed on a poor and (maybe) unsuspecting southern Wisconsin. Shows like this are why when my wife asks me “can we go see a different band this time?” the answer is always... “well no, why would we do that?”. Alas I will just go on an oblivious fool, for my brother, sister and I all turned our cars southward on a silent Saturday morning feeling the need to get back to on the train of reality. Saturday night was my 77th show and was a blast, and I thought it had filled the void for this summer. And until right about 8:45 edt on Sunday night I was right. Being a faithful Phan since 96 (despite those few dark years where there were no shows and I had to get a real job) most of the big milestones have been checked off my list. The 8-9 hour set at Big Cypress when we all kept looking to the horizon to see if the world would end and knowing that we were all perfectly happy of it did. My first Fluffhead at my 40th show - especially after “Mike says no” at IT, the Moby Dick set at Deer Creek, finally getting a Harpua after standing like a rooted tree in the driving wind and rain so strong I couldn’t open my eyes at Northerly Island, or the moment I really fell in love at my 2nd show when they opened with Punch. Sure chronologically it’s a little sideways and backwards down the number line but the significance is more what matters...
The pre show conversations now are usually, “man I hope they play catapult again someday” or “I wonder if I’ll ever get an Icculus” or “my only swept away was my first show”. So when the first notes of The Landlady made my ears perk up I knew that this, finally tonight, could be the night. And after a gleeful Jedi began belting out lyrics to a song I thought I knew I realized that finally tonight the stars had aligned!!!
And I drove home 12 hours before.
Phish being a faithful teacher taught me a lesson that I already knew and will never forget.
I will say I felt a strong connection to this show and I watched every minute in beautiful 4K HD - thank you livephish, but my devotion to the dream of my wife and beautiful children made the drive for me.
I’m not going to write an in depth and comprehensive review of the show. At this point you all know what happened and how delightful and amazing it was for all of us. I guess I rambled on here to try to make a point or some how slip stitch and pass it all up into this...
Thank You Phish, for still giving us a reason after all these years.
It wouldn’t really be Phishing if there wasn’t a good story about the great big one that got away right?
#neverstopphishing
#nevermissasundayshow