This was the night that we'd all been waiting for. This was the night that like an anxious kid awaiting Christmas morning., we were getting the big surprise. Who was the Halloween costume?. What album were they gonna cover. The Phish rumor mill is always afloat with everybody putting in their 2 cents worth claiming to have the ultra-reliant super-secret source of info for all things Phish. Most were speculating on an old Genesis album titled " A Lamb lies down on Broadway". I myself even bought into that possibility. I added it to my ipod so that I could give it a listen on my way to AC and familiarize myself with the album. Early Genesis is definitely better than that 80's Phil Collins lead travesty,. but all in all, I'm still not a huge fan. Talented collective of musicians , but they just don't really do much for me.I got to the venue much earlier than Rob that night. I had a cheesesteak jones to satisfy and Rob , feeling the disappointment of a Redskins loss that afternoon , was finding the world a much better place after looking thru brown glass for a while. I was able to finagle a spot close to the front of the admission line and was lucky enough to be one of the first 50 people into the venue when the doors opened. I didn't even have my Phishbill in hand yet and I recognized that tomato-headed mama relaxing in a hammock. I grabbed my copy of the program and quickly fished out trusty iPhone to furiously send a picture and text to the few people I knew who'd care....... "IM INSIDE, ITS LITTLE FEAT- WAITING FOR COLUMBUS" Fuckin'A! Its Little Feat ....thank God its not Genesis, Bruce Springsteen or any of the other choices I'd heard tossed around in the weeks leading up to this moment. Ive got a vinyl copy of Waiting for Columbus,... a bit scratchy,worn and and definitely played by whomever owned it prior to me. I can only imaging the many joints that were rolled and the lines chopped out while listening to this masterpiece of live Lowell George driven Little Feat.
Two things stood out in my mind about this album. First- Lowell George is a slide guitar player due to missing one of his fingers . So I'm getting ready to hear Trey play some nasty slide parts .... Second- Little Feat had invited the Tower of Power horns along with them on the tour this album was recorded . So Treys gonna play some slide and if they're gonna do this album right they've gotta have a horn section. Tower of Power is still touring, so could it be possible that Phish is gonna have Tower of Power as the horn section tonight?
By this time cellular communication is nearly impossible due to the over abundance of concert -goers sending reports to the outside world just as I had done moments earlier. Rob and I were playing a frustrating game of "Dropped Call" trying to find one another , both of us now inside the venue. Then amazingly my eyes spy that ugly-ass burgundy and gold Redskins hoody Rob was wearing. Even in the face of a loss that afternoon , Rob was still gonna represent! My attempt to bribe an attendant in charge of letting people onto the floor had failed, so we were relegated to some assigned seats in the first tier. Great view, and from having been camped out there the first night we knew the sound was choice too. We grabbed some drinks, Rob hit the smoking lounge and we made our way to the seats in anticipation of a long 3 set night.
The Lights go down , the band takes the stage , Page grabs the Key-tar and out to the front of the stage he saunters........Trey counts it off..... and wham its directly into Frankenstein... the 1972 Edgar Winter Group instrumental. A small note of trivia, Edgar Winter was the first person to strap a keyboard around his neck to give himself the same interactive abilities usually only reserved for guitar players. Frankenstein moves into the Misfits -influenced hardcore punk rock distortion of Big Fat Furry Creatures From Mars. The guys are really setting a Halloween mood of monsters and goblins as Trey begins "Story of a Ghost' As Ghost is coming to an end I hear a familiar riff peeking its way in.... I look at Rob to see if he recognizes it, and by the time I've caught his attention I don't really need it anymore because I realize that Ghost segued into Spooky, that late 60's romp about love being crazy with a spooky little girl like you by the 2-hit wonder Classics IV .... I immediately thought that this was a debut but a little research told me that although I wasn't in the 100% club on that one, I was indeed in the 33% club since that was the only time they'd played Spooky since being twice played in '93. Spooky seemlessly segues into Divided Sky , a mostly instrumental tune. The halloween theme was lost on this one , but the incredible jam made me forget all about any theme that might have been lost at this point. Phish now plays pretend again with a string of 3 more cover tunes..... A semi -Halloween relatible Ween cover of the pumpkin tossing ode Roses Are Free which segues into a classic the late Son Seals penned "Funky Bitch" with some choice words about a womans disregard for her lover and her incessant appetite for money and the finer things in life which then makes its way into the uber-funky clavinet of Stevie Wonders Boogie on Reggae Woman. Page lays it down thick on the keys, Trey masterfully croons the lyrics and takes a screaming solo , and Mike and Fish are holding down the funky groove on the low end. "Boogie on" winds down and the crowd is screaming for more......requests for all sorts of stuff is heard on the circulating bootlegs.....after catching a brief breather Treys multi-note intro give way to the calypso-laden beat of Stash, a Trey-admitted chord progression rip-off of the Charles Mingus composed "Jump Monk" ode to Thelonius Monk . For the musical geek there's a lot written here about the music theory behind Stash that gives it such a unique sound. But for those who don't give a gooses ass about music theory , the first set closes with a fairly standard set closer - Character Zero. Reminding us that all I learn is always wrong, And things are true that I forget But no one taught that to me yet.
First set ends, and we still have one set of Phish as Little Feat, and another set of Phish being Phish.
There was a little small slip of paper inside each Phishbill informing us of the "secret" language for use during the second set,.... I'm not gonna be a spoiler and give away the secret. But if you listen to the second set the confusion of the secret becomes apparent in the first 1:14 minute of the introduction. I'm not gonna give a play-by -play for this set as it would just be too damn tedious critiquing the 16 songs covered on this album. But from the cow-bell laden intro to Fat Man in a Bathtub all the way thru to Feats Don't Fail Me Now they tore this mother apart. Joined onstage by percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo and a 5 piece horn section which containing 3 members of the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra ,the band swapped verses, instruments and even performed an a capella rendering during this incredible Halloween costumed set. Short of " Skin it Back" and " On Your Way Down" , if you've got a favorite Little Feat song, they played it this night. By the time the band ended the second set by taking a victory lap around the entire floor , my feet were killing me from 2 sets of dancing and I still had another set of Phish to go.
I'm not quite sure what occured during the 2nd set break,. by this time my age was getting the best of me and I was feeling like an 80 year old man that needed a walker. At some point Rob and I became seperated.. probably somewhere around the time I decided I was getting on the floor tonight too. I was still in the stands with a direct side view of the Band during the opener.... The rumbling bassline of Down With Disease shook thru Boardwalk Hall with quick accompaniment from the rest... Close to 2 minutes into the song somebody somewhere botched something and the song abruptly stops with Trey asking "can we do that again Fish?... we're allowed to mess up someone elses album but not our own" prompting Fish to reply " This is off of OUR album" .... Ya gotta love a band that can make fun of their own mistakes in front of a crowd of 15,000 people. So Down With Disease starts again , only this time unmarred ,...Trey and the guys tear it up and head into some slightly spacey jamming which meanders its way into the unmistakable chugging drum beat of Back on the Train. Fishs rhythmic drumming and Pages funky clavinet behind Treys picking make way for the opening guitar notes as they head straight into Gotta Jibboo....a slight somewhat nonsensical possible ode to Dr. Seuss, ala "What would you do if you met a Jibboo?" from Oh, The Things you Can Think. This one made its premier as a Trey band song and quickly made its way into Phish's rotation due to fan requests...The improvised instrumental passages culminate in a rock-n-roll ending with the feedback leading right into the funky strut of Camel Walk, a tune penned by original Phish member Jeff Holdsworth way back in '86. This tune was my theme for the entire trip with its lyrics "Goin' downtown to the disco ,Gotta do it right away , Gotta funky thing to get into, gonna blow my blues away" A fairly standard Camel Walk ends and a moment of silence barely occurs before counting off Suzy Greenberg , a number about a young lady who has apparently fallen from favor with members of the band,...The band rocks their way thru Suzy and goes directly into the call and response of Wilson. Wilson abruptly yet smoothly segues into the reggae-tinged call and response of Harry Hood. Hoods continues into "the Horse" , a brief one verse song usually serving as a prelude to "Silent in the Morning"...a great Page -sung tune. Its not the usually Phish jamming, its somewhat short, but it is an incredible song with great lyrics along the lines of other tunes from the Rift album dealing with relationships and personal conflicts. Phish ends the 3rd set on that much used vehicle for extended jams "You Enjoy Myself". A 20 minute YEM winds down with an incredible 3 minute plus vocal jam from the guys . Trey steps forward once the applause dies down to thank everyone for a wonderful 3 days , an incredible tour , .. and to express a bit of sadness that they all have to go home tomorrow. But he tells us not to worry,.... " We'll see you in December" ... Trey tells everyone to smile because we're about to get our pictures taken ........ the horn section and percussionist has made their way back out on to the stage and are readying themselves to to give us an incredible encore to an incredible 3 night run......Danger! I've been told to expect it.... The Caesar based lyrics of Julius. The combination of horns , percussion and, Phish made this a fitting ending to the three days I'd just witnessed. .
... the lights hadn't even came on yet and my phone is buzzing. its a message from Rob that the hotel key is on the room stand , and a thank you for a great time. I didn't envy him one bit, he had an almost 5 hour drive ahead of him plus an 8 hour work day . Once the lights were on and the crowd was starting to disperse I started looking for ground scores . I looked up from the ground to see Lighting Guru Chris Kuroda still at the light booth. I recalled a "Kuroda is a Jedi" cardboard and pen made sign I'd picked up as a memento of the show. I held it up and asked him if he'd sign it for me,. to which with a huge smile he replied "sure" . He stopped what he was doing , found a sharpie marker and with a smile still pasted to his face, penned the reply to "Kuroda is a Jedi" by writing " FUCK YEAH I AM! KURODA"
And that my friends...is how I survived 3 days of Phish in Atlantic City! Next stop- NEW YORK CITY for the New Years run.. 12/30,12/31, and a first ever New Years day show 1/1 . I still have extras for sale/trade and I'm in dire need of a place to crash for 3 nights......if you know anyone in NYC or the surrounding areas that would offer me floor space for those 3 nights please let me know.. otherwise I'm gonna be homeless in NYC for 3 days, which will be an adventure all its own. Thanks- kingskunk45
And now for a little music
PHISH - 10/31/10 Boardwalk Hall Atlantic City
Roses Are Free - A Ween cover from set 1 with a bit of a pumpkin-chuckin' Halloween to it.
Fat Man in The Bathtub - A Little Feat tune from set 2 that you're sure to recognize. One of my fav Little Feat songs.
Julius - The final song of 10/31. A great encore with horns and percussion.
Sunday October 31 Set 1 - Great Halloween themed first set.
Sunday October 31 Set 2 - The entire Little Feat -Waiting for Columbus album
Sunday October 31 Set 3 - Last set of the 3 day run..
Phishbill - This was the handout we all received going into the venue that night.
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