Box Seats at The Gorge for the massively talented Vermont jazz-rockers Phish were a bargain Saturday at less than $100. Not certain, however, that the like-priced camping at the official Gorge Camping and Cesspool and Raping Pit delivered such a bargain. Why aren't more of the streetwise phisheads camping and exploring the $11/day Quincy Lakes Wildlife Area, just upriver from The Gorge?
Wearing colorful clothing repels insects, snakes, and hunters, but with 20,000 phisheads less than five miles away, we still feel invisible in the ancient landscape with thousands of acres to ourselves.
Millions of years have passed to get us here, or is it just precisely one year from the renown 8/6/10 Phish show at the Berkeley Greek Theater? Thirteen years have passed since the triple-digit temperatures of the 1998 Gorge shows, but the powerfully hypnotized Phish foursome can still bring the heat. Saturday's 8/6 show was a tour de force of outdoor rock. Even in a plaid shirt?
Even with a school-boy haircut?
I: Possum -- Plenty of these in Grant County.
Moma Dance -- 8/6 dance party!
Sample in a Jar -- Our Texas guest gets her name-call.
Limb by Limb -- Our Berkeley guest gets her neighbor's favorite wake-up call.
Ocelot -- drippy.
Poor Heart -- Swing dancing is Grant County de rigeur.
On Your Way Down -- Page worked this one out in soundcheck making it Vida Blue-ier.
Wolfman's Brother -- At the Gorge if you listen carefully, you hear the high pitched cavitation of propellers from afar.
Maze -- Patchwork perfect.
Wilson -- Phish can do every genre, including rock.
Fluffhead -- "It's all in your head...." Triumphant.
SET TWO:
Chalk Dust Torture -- Mr. Anastasio likes this song.
Tweezer -- If Moma Dance is funk, what is this?
Prince Caspian -- Phish remembering their demographics again.
Sand -- If Tweezer is funk, what is this?
Tweezer -- Mr. Anastasio knows he would be a first round draft pick.
Birds Of A Feather -- Limb by Limb's cousin. Plenty of shredded boas.
Waste -- What is the melting point of a Gumby?
Golden Age -- Rich and complex like a nice Bordeaux.
Reba -- Silly and beautiful and whistling!
Run Like An Antelope -- Explorational like an out of control hiker tumbling toward an ancient lake.
ENCORE
Suzy Greenberg -- There is one Suzy Greenberg in the Grant County phonebook.
Sanity -- "They're trying to sound like this, right?"
Tweezer Reprise -- Phish is the greatest American band.
See you in Golden Gate Park for Outside Lands!