Phish Fenway Review

Phish took over Boston last night, or at least the Fenway Park area. From the minute I arrived at the Riverside Green Line station, I knew it was gonna be a big night.

I started the afternoon by venturing through the Fenway area to reach my destination of The Baseball Tavern on Boylston St. for the Phish Twibe tweetup. It was really fun meeting many of the people with whom I’ve been conversing on Twitter for the past several months (or longer). If you’re on Twitter and into Phish, some really great people to follow are @MountainLaura, @UNOlker, @tenacioustij, @jmvalentine, @cjyohe, @tmwsiy, @shelitwits, and @KiminRI (there are more, but these are the ones I met last night). It was a great time at the bar. Had some beers and a burger and then the bar put Phish on the jukebox for a while right before we left to head into the stadium. While walking to the tweetup, we heard part of the soundcheck. They were singing the national anthem.

Upon heading to our seats, I understood why so many held this stadium in such high regard. It is truly one of the greatest ballparks (though I am still a Yankees fan). The only problem is that the seats are narrow and uncomfortable. I don’t care how historic the place is, at least upgrade the seats! The good thing is, they provided plenty of room for dancing.

The rain had picked up and it was a basic downpour, which delayed the start a bit. The road crew had to pull the equipment back on the stage to avoid getting wet or electrocuted. Luckily, as bad as our seats were, we were covered.

We noticed the color guard standing outside the Red Sox dugout. It was then that I got a feeling of what was about to happen. I pictured Phish walking out of the dugout and over to the pitcher’s mound to sing the “Star Spangled Banner”. I was partially correct. What I failed to picture was the regular Fenway announcer announce the general policies of the stadium and then announce the “JEMP recording artists from Burlington, VT” before they walked out wearing Red Sox jersies. After the a cappella version of the national anthem, the announcer came back and “said those 2 words from baseball that everyone loves… PLAY BALL!!”

The show had started. Phish went back to the dugout, changed their clothes (Fishman had to put on his dress) and took the stage. The opened the regular show with “Sample in a Jar”. While not exactly what I would have picked for the opener, it was a solid tune. I would have prefered something a bit stronger and more driving to help people get through the rain. However, the sun came out during the guitar solo and made for a really awe inspiring moment. The crowd loved it and the cheers grew. They then started “Moma Dance” and got everyone grooving. It wasn’t jammed out, at about 7 minutes. “Chalkdust Torture” followed, which felt weird in the middle of a set. It had always been used as a set closer in the past, but the totally rocked it, especially when the rainbow showed up over right field. They then played one of the highlights, a new song called “Ocelot”. I had heard it previously in a recording someone made from their rehearsals at the DCU Center in Worcester. It has a lot of potential, but the crowd didn’t seem to know what to think of it. It’s a nice laid back tune, very reminiscent of a Jerry Garcia tune. Page then teasted “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and the band went into a strong “Stash”. The rest of the set was similar to the beginning. They played a lot of songs with no segues and no real jamming until the end. The set had its ups and downs. The crowd seemed a bit uninterested in many of the songs, including “Ocelot”. The band pulled out some oldies, like “Poor Heart”, which, while it may not be the best of songs for a show, is a lot of fun. The “Limb by Limb” was awesome, one of my favorites from The Story of the Ghost (I actually like it better than Ghost). It lead to a very heartfelt “Wading in the Velvet Sea”. You could hear it in Page’s voice how it was really coming from the heart. That let to the rumblings of Mike’s bass that boomed throughout the stadium to let us know it was time for “Down with Disease”. This was the defining song of the first set. They jammed it out a bit. It was really powerful stuff. I then got my second (!!!) “Destiny Unbound”, one of those songs that they hadn’t played in, like, forever when they busted it out at the Nassau Colisseum in February 2003. It’s notable to mention that, at this point, I still had never seen a “You Enjoy Myself”, their most commonly played song. The crowd didn’t really know what to do with this one. It’s such a great tune, but I’m not sure they knew what it was. Even “Ocelot”, the new laid back tune, got a better reception. They closed the first set with “Character Zero”. This one was jammed out a little, but nothing over the top.

During the setbreak, I took a little walk to use the bathroom (they had plenty of urinals, keep the line moving) and stopped to get a Fenway Frank and a bottle of water (both cheaper than I thought, costing me a total of $8).

We went back to our seats and no more than 5 minutes later, the lights went out. It was now dark, and the real show was about to begin. The band started up with the fan-favorite “Tweezer”. I don’t know if it was just me, but they seemed to have a hard time getting into it. They jammed it out a bit and then quickly moved to another new song, “Light”. I thought there was a segue in there, but according to all the setlists I’ve seen, it was not. It may have just been a quick switch to the next song. This new one was just as good as “Ocelot”. I think it has a lot of potential to be a really powerful song. The band picked it up through this new tune and then segued into “Bathtub Gin”. They did a great job here, jamming it out with some nice Page solos. We then heard Fishman playing what, at first, sounded like the start to “Maze”, but it was, in fact, the intro to “David Bowie”. The band really got into it and we saw the first Type II jamming here as it got really spacey during the jam section. After Bowie, the band broke out their new single, “Time Turns Elastic”. It was off to a slow start, but really built up into an epic composition. This tune will definitely grow as the summer tour progresses. I see this one being a really epic tune that the band will just build upon. After this one, they played “Free” and the crowd when absolutely nuts when Trey sang the line “I feel the feeling I forgot”. This was a very strong version of the song. They then played the first cover of the night, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “The Ballad of Curtis Loew”. Again, the crowd had no idea what to think, well at least those that hadn’t been into Phish for some time. This hadn’t been played since 1993. It was awesome. Trey’s guitar sounded as if he was playing with a slide, when, in fact, he was not. It really made the tune and Page’s voice could not be better. Finally, the band broke out the much anticipated (due to the reports of trampolines on stage) “You Enjoy Myself”. I finally got my first YEM, and it was a good one. The jam was incredible with a good drum/bass thing going, and the vocal jam was creepy, spacey, and fun all at once. I can’t imagine what the people who live in the neighborhood were thinking at that point. That closed the second set.

The band came back for the encore after some serious cheers from the audience. They started up with the classic encore tune “Cavern”. I was hoping for the extra verse, but it didn’t make it this time. Just when I thought they were going to play “Tweezer Reprise” to end the night, they bust out the second cover of the night, Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times”. They totally nailed it, vocals and all. And to end the night, they finished up with Tweeprise. The second set and encore just built and built to the climax of Tweeprise. Usually, the encore helps people come back down to earth and get another song or 2, but this time, the band just kept building up the energy to help us through our walk back to our cars, our hotels, or the T.

My legs were tired, we went the wrong way to Kenmore Station, ended up getting on the wrong train at Hynes Station (noticed before Kenmore and switched trains there) and sat on a packed train from the Fenway station back to Riverside. It was a great night. I got home and passed out. I didn’t even hear Susan get up for work in the morning. I’m now having a hard time walking because my legs are so sore from all the dancing.

Thank you, Phish. See you on Saturday in Great Woods.

The Phish Twibe Elders (photo by @tmwsiy)