My Boston Weekend

it was very nice to head to boston to see my friends and phriends. hanging out with jon, laura, thea, jess, doug, and all the related company in the beautiful weather was a nice treat. having an old-school bbq was a nice treat. walking around the city was a nice treat. and going to fenway was a nice treat.

going to fenway to see phish was also a nice treat. seeing phish at fenway was the confluence of two of my favorite things: phish and baseball. there was a huge baseball vibe going through the park on sunday night, because, duh, we were in fenway! but we weren't there to see a baseball game, we were there to see phish, but boston being boston there was more red sox gear to be seen than heady tye-dye. significant phillies gear too, as was the case in hampton. so the baseball theme was strong. just sitting in the seats of fenway sends the feeling of baseball up your ass (in a good way). oddly enough, the most prominent feature of fenway, the green monster, was not to be felt at all because the stage was placed in front of it. fenway is just so special. as is phish.

its interesting seeing phish these days. the crowd is different. the music is still great. super high-energy. in enjoyed the first set. it was a nice way to get things started. sample was a safe opener. moma was a way to get some dancing going. the new song, oscelot, was interesting. need to hear it a few more times. stash was great to get started, but as with some of the other songs the ending felt a bit contrived (see: bowie, david). poor heart was a great highlight. one of things that makes phish phish and not some second-rate "jamband". no other band can drop styles like that, from funk to psychedelic to hippy-dippy to sweet bluegrass. that is classic phish. the other highlight of the first set was OBVIOUSLY destiny unbound. so far i've seen both post-'91 destinies. very few people knew what it was. it was an interesting juxtaposition: for the most part the crowd knew all the songs, with the exception of the new songs when all the newbies would sit and us old heads would stand and listen, but it was obvious that no one knew the song, whereas for destiny 95% of the crowd had no idea what it was so assumed it was a new song but the other 5% knew how rare destiny is and went nuts. it was fun being in that 5%.

the second set had some great parts to it, but went astray in some others. as i called at setbreak the second set would open up with a new song or something awesome, and with tweezer we got something awesome. but i thought the jam drifted. i did, however, like the new song "light". it had a more of an indie-rock feel to it than your typical phish song, and it sounded good. bathtub was great. i like the bathtub jam, very straightforward and felt right. i was psyched for bowie. i picked up on the high-hat and had to play the "bowie or maze" game. short intro. the bowie jam was great, as always, but i felt the end didn't work right. i can't quite figure it out, but they jumped the gun somehow on the end. came in too soon and rushed it so the end release wasn't as good as it could have been. time turns elastic is kinda sucky. the sections don't make much sense together and the song doesn't go anywhere. the older compositions had disparate sections too, but the songs actually went somewhere. TTE is just a jumbled mess of sections with no real big finish. but oh, well. from free to the end of the show was dy-no-mite! free was well played rock, but the real, real, real highlight treat was curtis loew. hasn't been played since 8/2/93 (no, i did not know that at the show but i knew that it hadn't been played in a long, long time). such a sweet tune and such a great treat. i told the dude next to me that after curits they were going to play either YEM or hood. YEM it was. dude was impressed. and the sweet, sweet encore. dude was again impressed that i knew the tweeprise was coming. people always forget the tweeprise, but it is the greatest way to close out a show. love the tweeprise.

so it was good. phish is back. summer tour is on.

In Appreciation Of The Phillie Phanatic

i am torn about this world series. on one hand, i DO NOT want to see the red sox win because i am sick (read: jealous) of boston and their sports success, but on the other hand, its not the red sox themselves that i hate, its the bostonians i have ire for. i also want to see BOTH the rockies AND their fans suffer as much as possible, so this puts me in a baseball conundrum: who do i root for? i should also add that as much as i hate red sox, and boston fans for that matter, i know that they are good fans...some of the best sports fans in the whole country, and i respect them for that. now i am really confused!

this summer i saw my fist baseball game at fenway park. for any baseball fan, visiting fenway park is like visiting a holy shrine. it was amazing to have seen a game there. it was an eye opening experience, not only into how baseball is played at fenway, but it was a new window into the pathology of the red sox fan. you people are nuts!!! but you are good sports fans, i gotta give you that.

seeing a game at fenway is like seeing a game nowhere else. seeing games at CBP is great. phillies fans are good baseball fans, but we aren't anywhere on the level of a game at fenway. sure, we are unique and have our own philly style which totally rocks and i wouldn't trade it for anything, but boston fans at a game in fenway are like nothing else. BUT, the one thing where we totally kick their ass is:

THE PHILLIE PHANATIC.

the phanatic rules. he is the best. no one can beat him. hell, no one can even touch him. the phillie phanatic is in a league all to his own. and he is ours! no one else may understand him, but we do. the phanatic is our fenway park. he is the totally unique thing you get when you see a philies game. that can't be manufactured (well, granted he is a mascot who was manufactured, but you know what i mean). you can't manufacture fenway and you can't manufacture the phanatic.

my thoughts turned to the phanatic this evening during the world series. somewhere around the 6th or 7th inning, fox cut to the crowd and there was some green blob (i am assuming he was some sort of "green monster") with his hand on some dude's shoulder trying to pump the crowd up. the only problem was, this dude had a look on his face that said "what is this...thing...and what is it doing with its hand on my shoulder?" when i saw that i thought to myself, "what, is this guy nuts? if the phanatic had his hand on MY shoulder at a pivotal part of a world series game, i would be going ape-shit! that would be the greatest honor one could bestow on me in CBP!" this is how much i love the phanatic: i want him at my funeral. i feel we are cut of the same mold, me and the phanatic. we share the same sense of humor me and him. i feel he is my intellectual equal :)

now, this MAY be because i had a phanatic growth chart in my room growing up, or it could just be a coincidence. you decide.