Atlanta

Resting in Atlanta for the holidays before we leave for Costa Rica in a couple of weeks. It's very nice to see friends and family while living in a somewhat stable place for a two weeks. I've been thinking about the "key ideas" from the first part of the trip (like those bold words you were supposed to find in your language arts assignment in elementary school) and will write a few "what's it all about posts" in the next few days. Onward.

Albany to Vermont

Yeah, Albany. Or maybe not, the town didn't seem all that pleasant, but there was an excellent co-op. So at least people can eat well there. We drove back to the farm in VT after the show to stay the weekend and get in one more wwoof day before vermont turns into a statewide ice-skating rink of cold and triple-layered flannel.

Oh and to my sister in law. I'm looking at you catherine. yes you there in the back acting like you aren't paying attention while listening to metalcore on your hot pink and black ipod. Here's a website of all the other nerdy people who keep track of everything the band does. Yeah I see you rolling your eyes. Be careful or they'll come eat all of the snacks in your house and use words like "solid," "groove," and "chill." And then give you dreadlocks while you sleep. And they won't be hot pink.


Friday, 11/27/2009 Times Union Center, Albany, NY

Set 1: AC/DC Bag, Maze, Driver, My Mind's Got a Mind of its Own, Gumbo, Bouncing Around the Room > It's Ice, Two Versions of Me, Timber (Jerry) > Limb By Limb, Cavern > Light

Set 2: My Friend, My Friend > Golden Age^[1], On Your Way Down, Fluffhead > Piper -> Tomorrow's Song^[2], Prince Caspian, Harry Hood, Suzy Greenberg, The Squirming Coil, I Been Around

Encore: Fire

[1] Phish debut.
[2] Debut.

Pretty pretty pretty good. Without a doubt my favorite of the tour as an overall show.

set I: ac/dc, maze, driver, my mind and gumbo all kept up high energy. If they are going to play a slower song, I dig bouncin. It's Ice also one of my favorite shorter ones. Rest of the set pretty solid, groove, chill time. And timber came out of nowhere.

set II: and speaking of that how about the tv on the radio cover. awesome! Very solid, chill, grove second set. With freaking Piper- I've wanted to hear that song live for about as long as I've wanted to hear songs live.

Fire will never be a bad encore choice.

Great show. Really the first of the tour when I felt the band was being spontaneous, fun, and relaxed a la back in the 1.0 day. If they keep this up Maggie and I might be doing additional tours in the future.

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia

We drove from Ohio to Pittsburgh and stayed with Rives (we met her in VT, her daughter wwoofed with us). After staying in a number of less than ideal spots- her clean and well organized house was awesome- this is coming from the part of me that orders albums by genre, artist, and year. Wonderful place to stay- many thanks to her.

We drove to Philadelphia the next day and caught two shows- the following day was a classy motel 6 thanksgiving extravaganza of apples and macaroni and cheese (not together- though I would think that delicious. A party not to be named refused this delicacy).

Philadelphia = excellent town from our limited time wandering around for 5 hours. And a more extensive chinatown than DC.

Shows!


Tuesday, 11/24/2009 Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA

Set 1: Chalk Dust Torture, Bathtub Gin, Cities > Camel Walk, The Curtain With, The Wedge, The Moma Dance, Reba, Golgi Apparatus, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan

Set 2: Possum > Down with Disease > Twenty Years Later > Harry Hood, The Mango Song > Mike's Song > Simple > Slave to the Traffic Light > Weekapaug Groove

Encore: A Day in the Life

Right. First set was great. I can't really say much more than that. Certainly my favorite of the tour so far. CDT, gin, curtin with, the wedge, moma dance, reba, golgi- all standards that I like to hear. Solid jams throughout. I didn't think I would hear cities this tour (no covers up to this point) and it didn't make me frown. I'm mixed about the Joy material, but stealing time is one I like a bit more than the others.

Second set also quite good. Some of the setlist felt a litle recycled, but I won't really ever complain about mike's groove (with simple and slave in the middle at that). A day in the life is one of my favorite encores.

Wednesday, 11/25/2009 Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA

Set 1: Kill Devil Falls, 46 Days, Sugar Shack, Halley's Comet > The Divided Sky, Sleep Again, Ocelot, Train Song, Wilson > Run Like an Antelope

Set 2: Birds of a Feather, Farmhouse, Tweezer, You Enjoy Myself, Esther, Time Turns Elastic > Tweezer Reprise

Encore: Oh! Sweet Nuthin'

Set I: And here's a love/hate example of my phish relationship. I thought this show was a bit on the boring side for most of the first set (though it did pick up at end). I mean, really? KDF -> 46 days -> sugar shack? Meh. Halley's and Divided were nice (the best dived so far) but then Ocelot-> train song -> wilson. I've said it once... but I'm getting tired of wilson. Hard to criticize antelope though, it's always a personal live favorite.

Set II: Yeah birds of a feather! metal. farmhouse = smash my face with a porcupine. then tweezer-> yem -> esther. soild, good funky yem. then it happened. sometimes it takes time to get over a tragic and painful event- the years will yeild more comfort in retrospect... least to say we got tte'd again. does the band not notice the entire venue sit down when they play this.. for 15 very drawn out minutes. Tweezer reprise was standard. Good velvet underground cover to close the night.

Great seats for night 1, ok seats for night 2. Still fun, I've enjoyed watching Maggie start to "get" what being a phish fan is about. It's different than most other bands and very hard to explain to folks who've never been to a show.

Cincinnati Shows

Two shows in Cincinnati this weekend. Many thanks to Sparky for being a fantastic host.

Friday, 11/20/2009 U.S. Bank Arena, Cincinnati, OH
Set 1: Chalk Dust Torture, The Moma Dance, The Divided Sky, Alaska, Water in the Sky, Fast Enough for You, Time Turns Elastic, Gotta Jibboo > Fluffhead
Set 2: Punch You In the Eye, Tweezer -> Light -> Back on the Train -> Possum, Slave to the Traffic Light, You Enjoy Myself
Encore: Joy, Golgi Apparatus, Tweezer Reprise

Saturday, 11/21/2009 U.S. Bank Arena, Cincinnati, OH
Set 1: Wilson, NICU, Wolfman's Brother, Ocelot, Torn and Frayed, Strange Design, Ginseng Sullivan, Albuquerque, Split Open and Melt, Dirt, Limb By Limb, Run Like an Antelope
Set 2: Rock and Roll, Ghost, If I Could, Backwards Down the Number Line, Prince Caspian, Suzy Greenberg, Also Sprach Zarathustra, The Squirming Coil
Encore: Sleeping Monkey, Axilla
Notes: Albuquerque was played for the first time since 9/14/00 (115 shows).

Nice to be back at US bank for a phish show- it's a well thought out venue. Good lots both nights on the top level of a parking deck.

Friday
Set 1 - opened strong with chalk dust, divided sky was on point. then it kind of went suck. really alaska, fast enough, and tte right next to each other? boring. i don't think i'll ever find tte interesting. picked back up at the end. Fluff sounded much better than it has lately.

Set 2- redemption. Great throughout- maggie was excited to try out aud particiation chants for the first time with pyite. high energy jams for all of the seques. solid encore.

Saturday
Set 1- This is the second time I've seen them open with Wilson at US bank. Is it bad to say I'm kind of tired of it? Nice bust out with Albuquerque. Solid Wolfman's, SOAM jam was a little more laid back than some of the jams as of late. The lights during Antelope were Chirs K's best showing of the weekend.

Set 2- Fantastic Rock and Roll -> Ghost, went dark and angsty at one point. Favorite jam of the tour so far. Great Coil solo from Page as usual. Why oh why must we continue to play f-er pants? Keep Caspain in Narnia, not at the Phish show (thinking of making lot shirts that say this). But in sum, best show of the tour so far.

In all it was a fun weekend. Phish is really returning to form, but I hope they can shake off the setlist formula they're currently using. Working from the more controlled jam structure (a la early 90s) is suiting them well to get comfortable again.

We're spending today in Cincinnati, then driving to Philadelphia by way of Pittsburgh for two more shows on tuesday and wednesday.

The next two weeks

So. We've come to this point. Really. Ok.

For the next two-ish weeks maggie and i are following phish around the east coast and midwest. seven shows in all. For anyone into the band I'm going to make brief comments about each show, but I don't think most people reading this like phish or actually dislike them fiercely (aaron).

setlist:

Wednesday, 11/18/2009 Cobo Arena, Detroit, MI

Set 1: AC/DC Bag, Foam, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, Bouncing Around the Room, Sample in a Jar, Kill Devil Falls, It's Ice, Horn,Mountains in the Mist, Poor Heart, 46 Days, David Bowie

Set 2: Runaway Jim, Down with Disease > Free > Waste, Taste, Bug, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Mike's Song > I Am Hydrogen >Weekapaug Groove, Cavern

Encore: Character Zero

Detroit isn't the nicest city I've visited. The venue seemed like a relic compared to other live venues to which I'm more accustomed (in fact, it's being torn down, phish was the last show there). Lots of concrete, only one bathroom per floor, awkward tier separation that required walking up long confusing halls separated by fences etc. Still, an enjoyable place to see a show.

The lot was in the first floor of a parking deck right outside the venue. First time I've seen an indoor lot, pretty funny. People parked on higher levels leaving work had to drive right through the middle of it all- they looked very confused.

Our tickets. Stage right on the last nosebleed row. Really, row o is the last row. We eventually moved for the second set, but it gave a good view of the crowd. The venue was very undersold. Our section was nearly empty.

The show. AC/DC was a fun opener with a nice foam. Next portion was relatively uninteresting. 46 days had best jam of first set, bowie was a good closer. The second set was much more high energy. Jim -> dwd -> free -> waste was excellent. Like at Bonnaroo dwd was a great jam. Next was (vomit) wading, which I'm come to really never want to hear. Mike's groove -> cavern was a blast. Closed with character 0, which was character 0.

Thought Kuroda did a particularly good job at the show. At some point he figured out the lights could be projected on the wall behind the stage and he started manipulating light shapes to match the intensity of the music. Excellent.

The next day we went back to Cleveland and didn't do too much. Off to Cinci today for two shows.

Kadampa Meditation Center New York

A few pictures of Kadampa New York. The center is in the foothills of the catskills on around 40 acres.

Main building- office, dorms, and small kitchen.

Two of the five buildings. The first is a dorm for non-monastic residents. The building farther back and to the right is the kitchen, dining area, and rooms for the monks and nuns.

The temple sits on a hill overlooking the rest of the buildings.

View from the temple entrance looking down at the other buildings. The only other building (housing for monastic residents) is on a hill behind the temple. Low key and peaceful.

Bread and Puppet

On the way to Maine we stopped by the home base of Bread and Puppet. Bread and Puppet is an artist collective that performs politically radical plays with large paper mache puppets. We weren't able to see a show, but we went to the museum where a lot of the old puppets reside. Absolutely amazing stuff. Thanks to everyone at the farm that suggested we go.