Phish Reunion Show June 19, 2009
[Jonathan Holth caught one of the rare Phish reunion shows last month in Indiana. Here are his reactions of that event.]
by Jonathan Holth
It took all of one minute to begin their lyrical dialogue once again. Phish took the stage on an overcast Friday night in June to the standard nervous, excited, and anticipatory roar of the 25,000 fans. As they began to play their opening number, “Backwards Down the Number Line,” the crowd began to smile and sway, just as I remembered they did at other Phish shows. Then, as the lyric, “Do you know what happened then? Do you know why we’re still friends?” came blaring through the air, I found myself holding up my end of the dialogue. I answered to myself, “Sort of, and yes.”
It had been nearly five years since my last Phish concert in Coventry, Vermont. That concert was billed as their farewell show, and at the time, although we all held out hope that it wouldn’t be, that’s how we treated it. It was a different mood, a different feeling than previous concerts. The final set that night was sad, somber, and at times, tearful. You could hear a collective sigh as each song was finished, with everyone in attendance knowing that the inevitable was soon to come. It did.
So here we are, almost five years later. The site is the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Noblesville, IN, just outside of Indianapolis. To this point, this Phish experience was different from any other in the sense that I had flown into Indianapolis, rented a car, and was staying in a hotel. Quite the contrary to the usual drive halfway across the country coupled with sleeping in a tent a few hundred feet from the venue.
Some things, though, were the same. The night before the show, we guessed what we’d get to hear the following night, and I got that same, twisted stomach feeling that one might have if they were waiting to meet a blind date, a really fun blind date, for the first time–nervousness, excitement, anticipation, and utter joy all mingling together.
We pulled into the parking lot of the venue, and the scene was just as I remembered: People smiling, listening to music, and selling goods ranging from t-shirts to artwork to burritos. I had heard that rain was inevitably on its way, but to this point, nothing yet, so I held out hope that my dry Phish concert streak would remain intact. After making our way into the venue and claiming our seats on the lawn, we waited rather impatiently for the four gentlemen to take the stage, a stage that, just looking at it from a distance, brought so many fond memories of concerts past rushing in.
What seemed like an eternity was in actuality just a few minutes, and before we knew it, “our boys” were back. They were playing, and the metaphors would begin to immediately fill the air. That lyrical dialogue, along with 25,000 sets of hips, would be in full swing before we knew it. The first set was almost a warm up set for both them and for the crowd, mixing new toe-tapping songs with Phish standards. The lyrics began to speak to the crowd almost immediately, most notably with “AC/DC Bag”’s “let’s get this show on the road.” It wouldn’t take long to figure out that Phish had heard the weather report also. Both through the song titles and lyrics, it would be a water-themed evening. The first set included the song “Water In The Sky,” along with “The Wedge,” which includes the lyric, “That it’s the ocean flowing in our veins, that it’s the salt that’s in our tears.” The first set also included such favorites as “The Moma Dance,” “Split Open and Melt,” and the rare yet smile-inducing “Fluffhead,” with brilliant strokes of lightning serving as the backdrop to close the set.
After intermission, we all took our seats, began to chat about the first set, and then, it happened. An announcement was made that the severe weather was fast approaching, and that all phans on the lawn must return to their cars immediately. So much for keeping that dry concert streak intact. They announced that the show would resume at 11:00, and they weren’t kidding.
Trey Anastasio
After a rain delay, we were allowed back into the venue. As most people were still rushing to their seats, Phish continued the water theme, opening the second set with “A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing,” and tying that directly into “Drowned.” It was then this sequence twisted and turned and found its way to fan favorite “Twist,” that we knew we were in for a second set treat. The energy was overpowering the weather, and the sounds coupled with perfectly timed, amazingly colorful lights seemed to not only stimulate the senses, but also ignite the soul. It was an energy that I didn’t remember feeling at concerts in 2004 or any previous year for that matter.
As they slowed down and began to play “Let Me Lie,” dialogue came back to the forefront. As the lyric, “Gonna take my bike out, take my bike, gonna ride it slowly, gonna ride just how I like” came softly through the speakers, I couldn’t help but think that what we were doing, what we were feeling, was just like riding a bike. It felt as if the five-year gap was five days. It felt as if the training wheels were not only unnecessary, they had simultaneously broken off the bikes of the 25,000 people in attendance, in addition to the four members of the band. As the band began to play “Tweezer,” I saw the band bounce around the stage smiling and laughing like I’d never seen before. They ended the set with the crowd participation, arm raising, scream-creating songs “2001,” “Suzy Greenberg,” and “Possum.” Needless to say, there wasn’t a single face in the crowd sans smile.
After a brief pause, the band took the stage for the encore, and were obviously having fun with not only the crowd, but with each other as they sang “Sleeping Monkey” and then played the heavy “Tweezer” Reprise just as the rain began to come down again. As 25,000 phans walked back to their cars and their campsites, that same buzz throughout the crowd was back–people discussing the contents of another show that we had missed doing for the past five years, but we all knew how to do so well, like riding a bike. As we returned to our car, and began to discuss the show in a dry setting, the dialogue was back. “Do you know what happened then?” Doesn’t matter. “Do you know why we’re still friends?” Absolutely.
Set I:
Backwards Down The Number Line, AC/DC Bag, Limb By Limb, The Moma Dance, Water In The Sky, Split Open and Melt, LawnBoy, The Wedge, Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan, The Connection*, Ocelot, Fluffhead
—Storm Delay—
Set II:
A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing -> Drowned -> Twist, Let Me Lie, Tweezer -> 2001 -> Suzy Greenburg -> Possum
Encore:
Sleeping Monkey -> Tweezer Reprise
