Phish - Camden, NJ 6/7/09

I lucked into a ticket to this show. The previous Wednesday, a good friend in DC emailed me letting me know there was an extra with my name on it, and that it was time for a spontaneous (at 36, it takes me almost a week to be “spontaneous”) Phish road trip. Having attended all three Hampton shows but no others since, I was eager to hear how Phish 3.0 continues to shape up and jumped at the opportunity.

I left Charlottesville just after 8 AM Sunday morning, drove to DC, and met Rob and Tom, the brothers Fortier. After a long search for parking, it was back in the car for the 3 hour drive to Philadelphia. The pain of Tom’s car’s non-operational A/C was offset by the chance to listen to Jones Beach night 2 uninterrupted. In a stroke of luck, another extra materialized on the way and I called an old friend from UVM who lives in NYC to see if he wanted to come down. I think he ran to Penn Station :)

We pulled into our hotel on schedule, had some fun with the front desk staff (the poor hotel had three weddings being held that day, so the lobby crowd was half formally dressed guests, half Phish fans), and promptly left for Dave & Buster’s for beers and a meetup with some more old touring friends. A short five minute ferry ride later, and we were on the New Jersey side of the river. Another five minute walk and we were at Camden, NJ’s own Susquehanna Bank Center. So far, so good.

The evening’s first lowlight - all of the lowlights were venue-related - was at the ticket gates. I have seen Phish 150+ times, and I have never, EVER been subjected to such an intrusive search. Given the way I was manhandled by my own personal security goon, the guy could’ve at least bought me dinner first. Gropey the Security Guard seemed genuinely angry that he wasn’t finding contraband on anyone. The dude had issues. Other friends reported similar experiences.

Things quickly looked up when we got up to the lawn. I haven’t had lawn tickets for a Phish show in an amphitheater in at least 10 years, and it was nice to enjoy the setting sun, the Philadelphia skyline, and the company of others nearby who were as psyched as we were.

The lights went down, and the band kicked into Chalkdust Torture, which got everyone dancing. Next up was Fee, the evening’s first oldie that hadn’t yet been played since the reunion - in fact, hadn’t been played since July 29, 2003. While most Fees sound more or less the same, this stood out because Trey forgot the lyrics at one point, saying “you’ve gotta sing…I really knew this backstage” which was the first but not the last time that Trey and the audience were sharing a laugh. The good kind :) It also actually had a jam for the last couple of minutes, which was unusual.

After Wolfman’s Brother, the “bustouts” set continued, with Guyute, My Sweet One, 46 Days, The Lizards, The Wedge, and Strange Design. None of these had been played since at least Coventry, and all were a lot of fun (with the exception of 46 Days, which is never fun, IMO). I enjoyed these not just because they were tight versions, but because it gave me the feeling I got in 1993-94 when every show was fantastic, band and audience were having a great time together, and most if not all was right with the world. Guyute, Lizards and Wedge were really, really strong. After equally strong versions of Tube, a little banter from Trey (“We might as well play this one now”, and then First Tube, set one was history. I like Phish’s First Tube much more than TAB. It was the kind of first set I like - lots of songs, very little jamming, with only Lizards and Guyute clocking in at 10+ minutes. It’s part of the reason I’m such a fan of Phish 3.0.

Set break was when I learned what solidifies Camden’s position atop the list of America’s Worst Concert Venues. The lawn holds 18,000 people. Guess how many bathrooms there are for those on the lawn? Two. One for men, one for women. People didn’t even go through the charade of waiting in line - they just started going everywhere. For the sake of decorum, I won’t elaborate, but it was really bad. Also, note to the 22-year old wookie who asked me what my favorite song was and then yelled “Check out the noob”: I have been seeing Phish since you were in preschool. Please spill your heady Sammy Smith’s on someone else, and consider showering. Moron.

I did get to catch up with Sara Golier and Doug Schneider, two UVM classmates who also missed our 15th reunion that same weekend. Getting to see Phish with them just like it was 1990 again was a nice consolation. Both truly nice people.

The second set kicked off with a 22 minute Sand, continuing in the groove that First Tube left us with. It was followed by Suzy Greenberg, which has always been one of my favorites. This one really reminded me of years past, with Fishman screaming and ad-libbing throughout (“Neurologist? I like that…yow!” and “Forgot my name, did ya? That’s OK. I do that all the time. Ack!”). So much fun. Mike was dropping bombs at the end, too.

It was followed by more favorites: Limb By Limb, The Horse, and Silent in the Morning. “I think that this exact thing happened to me, just last year” is a lot more emotional coming from a band that just five years ago was never going to play again. People were going nuts. If anyone saw me tear up, I’m sure I just had dust in a contact lens.

Next up was Sugar Shack, a new Mike song making its debut. It was…bluesy. I am not good at describing new songs, and since I’m not a musician I can’t describe it further. I thought it was OK. I never like new songs the first few times I hear them (exception below). After Character Zero, which is always rocking but pretty formulaic, they decided to END the set with Tweezer. That was a new one on me. I usually don’t like Tweezer, but this one was 17 minutes of fun fun fun. Talk about going out with a bang.

The encore brought yet more surprises. The band had to be coming close to breaking the venue curfew, but they walked out and Trey said “You guys in a rush to go anywhere? [audience response: apeshit screaming] Got some place to be? [more screams] ‘Cause we were just talking back there and it’s been a really fun little Northeast swing we’ve been on, and we’re going…South tonight. And we want to stay in the Northeast as long as we can. We love the South too…we’re not dissing the South…we’re just…love Philadelphia. Flyers fan, lifetime Flyers fan…next year is the year, I know that, I have personal knowledge of that, next year. So we’re gonna play a couple, a few songs. I also want to thank everybody…we’ve been playing a lot of new stuff in the last kind of week, the one we just played was Sugar Shack by Mike, and we’re gonna do another new one right now, and then keep going. This song is called ‘Joy’.”

I should note here that this is not the rambling, I Took Too Many Drugs Trey speech. This was a happy, happy man who was clearly having a great time with his bandmates and it was totally contagious. Joy is a pretty song. I won’t describe it correctly so I won’t even try. My guess is most people will think it’s cheesy. I really liked it. It was followed by Bouncing Around The Room. That must be it, right? Wrong. They immediately launched into Antelope, which ROCKED, complete with Trey saying “been you to have any MIKE, mon?” right before the great part. And then, just when I was sure they were done, the band finally closed with Tweezer Reprise.

It’s hard for me to judge whether you’ll like this show. I loved it for nostalgic reasons - there were times when it was a 1993-era setlist and I felt like a teenager again. It also had the best qualities of Phish 3.0: a really happy band playing uber-tightly. Judging from the crowd’s reaction, those in attendance liked it too. I encourage you to check it out for yourself via etree or LivePhish.

It totally whet my appetite for Bonnaroo :) Writing this from the Nashville airport. The folks at the Butter Room tell me that they’ll let me provide some updates on-site, so I may have more to say over the weekend. BTW, the photos I embedded from Phish.com were taken by a guy named Dave Vann - a nice guy and great photographer.