[ATTENDED: August 5, 2022] Phish
I saw phish earlier this summer and wasn’t sure if I was up for another Atlantic City run. I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle all three nights, so I decided to do Friday and Sunday. I also decided that this might be my final Phish shows, these being numbers fourteen and fifteen.
I decided to drive to Atlantic City straight from work on Friday night. It saved a little grief, although not a lot of time. I also wound up arriving fairly early, but apparently nowhere near early enough to get the famous Atlantic City posters (people started lining up for them at 2PM). I parked in the Bass Pro Shops, which I pre-paid for, but I think that it would have been free because the store was closed. Or something. It was confusing.
So I wandered around A/C for a bit and enjoyed being plenty early. The mood was good and I managed to walk all the way through the people set up with blankets and got a walked pretty close to the Paige side of the stage.
One of the bad things as far as Phish for me is that I have never really gotten close to the band–never gotten GA tickets. So I thought it would be cool to be close (even with so many other people around).
Well, I enjoyed the view and the breeze and was soon rewarded with one my favorite songs “Chalk Dust Torture.” It was quickly followed by a second favorite “Wilson.”
When Phish plays the shore, they play thematically appropriate songs like “Sand,” a slinky slow grooving song. Although they had jammed Chalk Dust, this one they stetched out over ten minutes with a grooving mellow jam that seamlessly bounced back to the rugged raw melody of the song before segueing into “Plasma.” “Plasma” had a bouncy ebullient jam with lots of swirling grooving keys behind Trey’s solos.
This led into a “Theme from the Bottom” a song I really like–many parts, weird melodies and it’s thematically appropriate. Even though they had just played it at the Mann center back in July. Now I was under the impression that Phish almost never played the same song more than once in a tour. I know that’s not true. It may have been true for some tours in the past, but is no longer the case, with some songs getting multiple plays in a tour, but still I was really quite surprised that they played a song that I heard last month.
This one had a lot of piano and kept a happy vibe as by this time my feet were in the ocean and things were very chill. It segued into a bouncy “Back on the Train.” There was a good long solo with so me nice high peaks.
Phish shows, especially at the Mann and Atlantic City are very strange for me because I can actually move around. Usually I am planted in my spot and the only moving I do is to schooch up or move back away from obnoxious people. So to have the huge amount of freedom that the shore affords is a little unnerving to me. It’s also my fourteenth Phish show and I’ve given up on the idea of “watching” the band and have accepted that Phish shows are more about the experience. So yes, sometimes you’re walking away and looking at the water or the sky or the people dancing or whatever.
Then I got my first experience of the title track of their new album “Sigma Oasis.”. I really like the album and I like this song quiet a bit. I never expected it to run for over 21 minutes (the 6th longest Phish song I’ve seen them play). A 20 minute jam on the beach is an interesting thing because you can really wander around and enjoy the sights and everything. But you still want to get into the vibe and the lights. I think that the air of COVID has made my usual hesitancy about strangers even more pronounced at events like this, so I’m even more standoffish than usual. Continue Reading »
I was never 100% sure that we’d be going to this show. My wife and I like the album, but it’s a big difference liking the album and going to see the band live. Turns out this much-postponed show was right during our vacation. Sorry David.
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