Rivero

Well, the big day is here. The final curtain. The last hurrah. The fat lady's singing. Anyone going to the show, or know anyone who is? How do you feel about the breakup at this point

stevevt

Apparently, because of all the rain, the promoters are only letting in 1/2 the cars they have the capacity for. People are dumping their cars wherever and walking to the venue -- up to 8 miles. State police aren't even letting cars get off at the Coventry exit.

Keep in mind, these are people with tickets that are being turned away.

Sounds like fun.



I know at least 1 person who is there.

I don't care about the band or their music.

SeekOnce

Wished I there, even with the rain. Had my heart set on watching the live broadcast in HD at the Irvine Spectrum Edwards but found out it was already sold out.

I think the breakup was inevitable, like for any band. Sure I'm sad about it but all goods things must come to an end. Time to move on, you know? I don't blame Trey at all.

Poink

A few of my cousins and their wives, etc are out there. One of them and some friends rented a camper that they planned to stay in but had to ditch it 10 miles away from the show and are/were walking and bumming rides the rest of the way if they can. His brother and co. rented a car and left it on the side of the freeway or something, also pretty far from where the show is.

I've never been a fan, so I don't know how it "feels" with them breaking up and this being the last chance to see them, but christ... I'd just be hopeful and wait 5-10 years for the reunion tour. There's really no reason why they wouldn't do it eventually, since they're really only breaking up just so they go out "on top" and everything. I've personally seen some of my favorite bands from "Before my time" that I never thought I'd have a snowflakes chance in hell of seeing, so anything's possible. And yes, I meant "snowflake" instead of "snowball" just to stress my point.

db27

yeah steve, things are indeed out of hand out there!

I know several folks working the event (security, and catering)

I91 was backed up for 35 miles at one point.

also don't care about the band, or the show, but it's the only interesting thing in Vermont right now I guess.

Rivero

Incredible show. An experience I will never forget as long as I live.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/b...news/1000h.htm

sauce07

I was in traffic for 24 hours on I-91

I heard Mike Gordon, the bassist, announce that they would have to turn cars away

I got out of my car and walked 15 miles to the show

I did not have real shoes, only sandals, because i was not expecting to walk 15 miles

I now have huge blisters covering both of my feet that made me cringe with every step i have taken since saturday

I would do it again in a second for Phish

Good bye boy's, i'll miss you

mkdevo

i'll try to make this short...

my wife and i were planning on leaving thursday night at 8pm. at 7:30, i got the email saying the rain was killing them, and they were having a hard time getting people in. if you hadn't left yet, they requested that you didn't arrive until saturday morning, or at LEAST friday night. this actually worked out well for us, since it gave us a chance to at least catch one of The Breakfast shows in our/their hometown.

after friday night's Breakfast show, we hit the road around 3am. made great time getting up into VT, until we hit the traffic line (which was about 20 miles from the exit; and the exit was about 12 miles from the concert site). for hours we were moving very slowly, or not moving at all. we travelled 9 miles in 5 hours. then we started to move a bit more, and we came to a section of I-91 which looked like a parking lot.. we heard people yelling 'park and walk!!'.. we had no idea why these people were doing this, until we turned on the radio, just in time to hear mike's announcement.

after hearing that cars were being turned around, i felt sick. i wanted to cry. we had to make a decision - park and walk, or turn around and drive home to CT. the walking 20+ miles part of it didn't bother me.. even the fact that we'd have no tent (had an air mattress in the back of my expedition) didn't bother me too much.. ditching all our food, drinks, etc - none of that really mattered.. but at the end of it, there was no way in hell we were abandoning our $45k+ vehicle on I-91 in the middle of nowhere. i didn't care how many other people were doing it, i wasn't about to. we turned around and drove home, disgusted.

got home around 4pm on saturday. got about 5 hours of sleep, before waking up and heading to night 2 of The Breakfast. while i was still very upset about not being at phish, the Breakfast shows were fantastic, and i certainly wasn't sad i was there.

on Sunday, we went and caught the simulcast at our local movie theatre. after seeing the simulcast, i can honestly say that we made the RIGHT decision, and i don't regret it in the least bit. the show, imo, was an awful trainwreck. good thing mike, fish, and page held it down, cause trey was downright BAD. and it was extremely difficult to watch him rubbing his nose every 5 seconds, from whatever he was on.. THAT was the depressing part.. i expected to be sad at the end of the show, but i wasn't.. i was disappointed, and i think i would have been even more pissed if we had walked in..

i don't know what to say. i'm sad that they're done, but you can't keep it going when only 3/4 of the band are into it. we've learned that over the past 2 years. i thank phish for all they've given me through the years, but it's time to move on.

mkdevo, aka DavePeck
93 Shows (11/26/97 - 08/11/04)

Gdrlv

The most memorable, emotional concert experience I've ever had. mkdevo...you missed the point entirely. First, there were far fewer flubs than you thought you heard. Second, the ones that did occur happened due more to overwhelming emotion than Trey being "on" something. You try playing for 65,000 people while choking back tears. I'm glad you enjoyed the Breakfast, but you certainly did not make the right decision. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else that weekend, which was one of the best of my life.

stevevt

Anyone care to guess the odds that there'd be a problem with leaving a $45K vehicle on the side of a highway in the middle of Nowhere, VT?

I can see if you were concerned about it getting towed (the only cars that ended up getting towed were the ones in the actual traveled roadway, despite all the warnings to the contrary), but I would have been comfortable otherwise.


I found out that the one guy I knew who went to the show took the northern back-roads route, avoiding all traffic. Smart move, and obviously much easier when you're coming from the northwest to begin with.

deadlax

I've heard the shows, and when you've seen 200 hours live and listened to another 1000 hours or so on tape, you can here the mistakes, and they are VERY apparent. Hood, Guyute, YEM, Bag, Antelope, even the opening riff of Zero. I haven't heard the 2nd night yet, but have heard bits and pieces, and it was just as bad. Disappointing way to go out.

db27

I'm just frickin' amazed at how many people came from so damn far away to see a band.

I respect the band and what they've done, I don't like it, but I do respect it. If I had been Trey, knowing this was it, watching fans walk miles and miles to see ME. I would have screwed up a lot as well. Simply amazing what people do for this band, amazing.

It's a big mess of nothing musically to me, far too much improv for my tastes. Although as a guitarist myself I'm blown away by much of what Trey does, but the music as a whole isn't for me.

Being in Vermont, as is Stevevt, we got a few months worth of prep-time in for this event, and it was a very unique experience (even from Burlington).

On Monday, I saw cars with some very dirty/tired people from Arizona, Oregon, Washington. WOW.

The paper has been doing a hundred different stories a day about this thing, the articles have all been fun reads.

Johnny Zhivago

Haven't listened to the shows yet, but most of the reviews that I've read - on the technical level - have basically said the same thing that's been stated above... Sloppy. I'm not in the least bit surprised, for whatever reason... Being a former head myself, I'll always appreciate what Phish meant to me at that time in my life (mid 90's) but they honestly should have called it a day by the time they reached Big Cypress. It was pretty much over at that point IMHO...

I may be in the minority with that opinion but Phish were pretty much dead to me by that time, the whole scene turned into a drag and the quality of the performances had been slipping since the summer of 98'. And that was a real shame... I play guitar as well and the band (not just Trey) were a pretty big influence on my direction at that time.

There's a review up over at jambands > http://www.jambands.com/ShowReviews/...08_18.00.phtml

Also, there's a great interview with Trey in Guitar World this month, if anyone wants to track it down and read it... I wasn't at Coventry (thankfully, no offense intended but it sounded like a horrible mess with the weather, traffic and all that) so I dunno if Trey was "on something" or not. But, read that GW interview for some insight into what everyone in the band were doing on tour for quite some time... Trey is point blank honest about their drug use in the past and how it was impacting the band.

Lara Means

Some pictures:

Rivero

I hope somebody had the idea to make a documentary of this.

Bust

If anyone wants to listen to the shows and doesn't want to pay for the SBD recording, I highly reccommend this source. It's a little over 3GB, but it's one of the best audience recordings I've ever heard.

Too bad the musicians couldn't match the quality of the tapers last weekend.

cdollaz

Just saw this on Billboard.


Phish To Reward Spurned Festival Fans


Fans turned away from Phish's career-capping Coventry festival in Vermont earlier this month will receive free digital downloads from the event, including the soundcheck, as well as a one-of-a-kind photo book autographed by the band.

Phish manager John Paluska announced the plan in a lengthy letter to fans on the band's official Web site. The photo book will be compiled by photographer Danny Clinch and will feature images spanning from 1994 to the present.

"These books are being created specifically for those of you who missed the Coventry shows and will never be sold or available in any other way," he writes. "It will take a number of weeks to get these books printed, signed and shipped, but we will get them to you as quickly as we can."




So I guess those who missed win in the end. I would like to have one of those books as I imagine they will be worth big money on ebay.

Bust

I would have rather had the experience. The book shouldn't be too hard to get for anyone who wants it bad enough. I think there will be a LOT of them being sold right when they are received. Of course, this all depends on how many people actually turned away, a figure I have seen no legitimate estimates of.

Johnny Zhivago

http://www.sover.net/~hackmohr/captive.htm