The Vermont jazz-rock phenomenon Phish concluded its two night run Tuesday night in Telluride, Colorado. Another sellout at 9000, but no real lines and lots of room to move.
The phishheads were more tidy than usual, but the town was still needlessly littered with bottles and wrappers and music flyers and little baggies with green stickers on them. Hopefully, the fireplace hating millionaire locals will have them back.
Not everything was besotted -- for example, this pristine stream running through town usually is a bath only for trout -- but it should recover from bathing a few hundred phishheads.
Here is a hula hooper with no ticket but with a large smile.
This man had a ticket and a few stuffed animals to go with his smile.
This man thought it was still Monday night's show.
Ganjola neighbors from Virginia and Boston where apparently it is polite to ask before sparking up their easterncannabis. First set neighbors were from "Sawpit Colorado", Miami and San Francisco and included a New Yorker emceeing a "get to know your neighbor" game -- so we did and I was the only one in the zone who would not choose to eat a hypothetical cereal bowl of live crickets for $40,000. Second set I was in a midwesern pocket -- neighbors from Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and "Watertown, South Dakota." Pre-show music included Paul Simon and Miles Davis; set-break music was gospel.
Set I: Squirming Coil (someone won the "call the opener for a dollar" game run by Fluffhead Jeff), Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan ("gotta blank space where my mind should be" -- very solid), Ya Mar (lots of happy spinning), Timber (Jerry) (Fishman is pounding it out using all four limbs -- my NYC neighbor says "he never even looks at the band"), Let Me Lie ("gonna use my breaks when I go downhill" -- my favorite of the new slow songs), Divided Sky (right as the alpenglow peaks after the sunset), Walk Away (more covers for the locals), Roses are Free ("unless you think that pumpkin holds your destiny" -- a song about food: pumpkins, raisins, lasagna), Limb by Limb (fish!), Run Like an Antelope (spike, man).
Set II: Party Time (one of the pimp-scepter guys gets his call), Mike's Song (Mrs. MSP goes nuts and Mr. MSP explains to me "her name is Sharon"), Crosseyed and Painless (Fishman as David Byrne), I Am Hydrogen (Trey's wailing can be heard throughout the canyon), Weekapaug Groove (what does Mikes' bass sound like when its not plugged in?), Carini (at this point the rear of the field is emptying -- maybe only 7/9's full), Free (Trey and Mike are platonic lovers), Heavy Things (you know, for kids), You Enjoy Myself (the locals are wondering if the concert has been taken over by aliens).
E: Shine a Light (revival!) Tonight's MVP is Jonny B. Fishman.
I've never run an ultra marathon, but five Phish shows in six nights was just what I needed, endorphin-wise. I feel brand new.
See you tomorrow at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison!