Hello all,
Ok-it's taken me a couple of days,
but here a few more than a few random
thoughts from my first NY in NYC.
After having one of my employees give me the scoop on the train system to get
to Madison Square Garden.
I was able to make it to the city w/ no problems.
Penn Station, the meeting point, is directly underneath MSG.
I sat down out
front, just admiring the hustle and bustle of a rail hub in downtown NYC.
Just then 2 asian guys were scanning around at all of the phishy people
and
called them "white trash crack heads" and a few assorted other names.
The he
said, "who the hell would wanna go to Phish concert on New Years Eve anyway?"
Well I guess who better to clean up racism in NYC than me.
So, I let the guys
know that was going to the show
and I didn't appreciate being called a white
trash crackhead.
They freaked and ducked into their little dive bar at Penn
Station.
Who the hell would want to spend NY's eve in a dive bar in Penn
Station anyway?
Anyway, shortly after I meat a nice gal from London who was not having much
success at flagging a cab,
and wanted directions for the subway system.
Although I wasn't much help, she was quite funny.
Just after she left, Alex
showed up with Lori, soon followed by Joe, Parisa, Matt, and asst. others.
Yeah, the gangs all here and I'm going to my 1st NYE Phish show!
I left those in the lower seats to head up to my upper level home.
After consuming another beer on the way, I
find my way up to 328 G 4.
I have a birds eye view of over Fishmans shoulder.
Really not too bad, especially in the shape I'm getting in.
I just couldn't
see Trey at work, but this gave me a new perspective on Phish as I really
seemed to focus in on Mike and Jon.
Anyway, life is good.
They open by
promoting the upcoming Stones concerts at MSG by playing "Emotional Rescue".
It
was that typical cheesy phishy kind of way that just when you think they are
dogging the stones, they just start jamming.
I was pretty psyched, great
dancing room, cool neighbors , etc.
Above the crowd they had a
circular sheet/screen hanging down from the rafters that you just knew were
holding balloons.
Well, they also projected crazy images off of this this
screen.
The show started with a spiked rubber ball spinning around.
Well,
Trey had talked about a spiked rubber ball the previous night during Harpua.
Anyway, 1st set had a couple of my favorites; "Wolfmans Brother" and "The Sloth".
Set 2 was great also with "Mike's Groove". I was beat by the first 2 sets.
Most
everyone in my section was passing out b/w this set.
I was wondering how they
would pick us back up.
It didn't take long. they opened up with "Sprach
Zarathustra" and had the image of that spiked rubber ball again.
They had us
jamming and watching this ball transform into a pig into a spaceman pig
that
goes out to space just as earth is being destroyed.
Just before the countdown
the pig (or whatever) comes back into this atmosphere and sparks life.
You
then see the big blue marble.
Soon after the coundown the band plays "Auld Lang
Syne" mixed in.
This picture show put everyone in a very heightend state for
the beginning of 1998.
WOW.
They dropped balloons, which of course looked
like fried eggs and rubber spike balls.
The stage was soon swamped with huge
ballons.
Soon Trey was popping them in tune with "Tweezer" with the end of his
guitar.
He soon became frustrated as the balloon scraps were all over their
equipment and Mike's mike had been broken.
Frustrated or not, they followed
that with a great version of "Maze".
The 3rd set rocked. The encore was "New York, New York" with Page singing.
They closed this show with "Tweezer" (reprise). Damn, what a great time!
After show highlights include watching 18 thousand Phisheads pour onto the
city streets
with every other imaginable type of intoxicated fool you could
think of.
I briefly saw Alex and Lori after the show. But, I must have been
too late to see everyone before the headed out.
My tale wouldn't be complete w/o mentioning the ride home.
After getting my
face chapped in NYC I decide to head home at 2:45.
I figured out the train
thing pretty easily.
I get a seat, and along come these three Russian women.
of them are huge, not fat, just BIG.
The 3rd is a georgeous blonde who
basically sits on me and passes out.
The other 2 were very funny. They spoke
only broken english and were smashed.
After the train started moving, a guy
about 4 rows up yacked.
DAMN...it just figures.
There was nowhere to go
since the trains were packed.
I spent the next 45 minutes listening to people
throw attitudes towards each other
...ahhh the great north east.
Thanks Alex, Joe, Parisa, Lori, etc... I owe ya!
"Who the hell would wanna go to a Phish concert on New Years eve?"
Take care,
-Peters
