Moments in a Box - A Coventry Review
Source: Phantasy Tour

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Posted by: pglace
Posted on: 2004-08-19 10:36:23 ET
Last Updated: 2004-08-20 09:37:46 ET

Review by Dan Greenhaus

I can't spare a moment for the dog faced boy
I won't lend another hand to the worm girl of Hanoi
Don't deplete my oxygen for the guy who's turning blue
But ask me, and I'll do anything for you
Whenever I think of you it only makes me feel sad
Whenever I think of you, the best friend I ever had
Before I gave it up all for nothing
Well, I lied and I cheated
And it made me feel bad
It made me feel guilty for not being true
Oh the months I spend trying for a way to explain
In the end all I could do as turn my head in shame
Whenever I think of you it only makes me feel sad
Because you deserve better and once I was it
But somehow my good intentions just got up and git

- Trey Anastasio, “Dog Faced Boy”, August 10, 2004

Trying to adequately explain what transpired over the course of this final weekend of Phish is a difficult task. If you didn’t sit in that Vermont traffic and deal with the roller coaster ride of trying to get into Coventry, well then you just may never fully understand, and no show review is going to help. For starters, I’ve come to accept the fact that show reviews for the larger bands such as Phish are, for the most part, outdated at this point. With the internet spreading information faster than you can say “blog”, and with bands releasing their live performances before the attendees even get home, discussing the music in this format has lost its impact as its now easier than ever for anyone to hear just about anything they want to and come to their own conclusions.

That being said, what no recording, no matter how crisp the soundboard, will ever be able to tell you is what was going on inside that venue and what was happening on the stage and in the crowd on an emotional level. And we all know that Phish, to a large extent, is a “had to be there” type of band. Sure the music comes across fantastically on disc, but there are moments that just HAVE to be experienced live to truly appreciate. 2.20.93 is that way, as is the OJ show and, most recently, the Miami New Years Eve run. All are amazing shows, however if you weren’t there, understanding them on the most intimate level is nearly impossible. And now we have Phish’s final two shows from Coventry, VT (and the Cheese Fries for that matter) to add to that list for more reasons than one.

Firstly, there was a “feeling” in the crowd. Everyone obviously knew what was going on. It was the last two shows of Phish’s career, and presumably, a life-altering event for a majority of fans in attendance. As well, the effort that many people exerted to get to that point when the first set started was staggering. Hours and hours of driving, hours and hours in traffic, hours and hours spent walking miles and miles; people went through hell and high water to get into these shows and thus a general emotion was born, a palpable feeling of “we’re all in this together, we’re all equally upset about what just happened and we’re all equally upset about what’s about to happen.” No disc will ever properly convey that.

Secondly, if you just popped these discs into your player and judged the shows purely on musical value, there would be some roadblocks to enjoying the shows, not the least of which are the countless “flubs” that occurred in virtually every song. On the first day, which started awkwardly with “Walls of the Cave” as fans we’re just not ready for a jam, the band, specifically Trey, had problems getting through such concert staples as “YEM”, “Bowie”, “Guyute” and “Stash”. However, far be it for me to criticize the band for these lapses as they’ve been part of Phish shows since the hiatus ended as much as second set “DWD” openers. You simply have to accept them and go to the show expecting them. But its mistakes in songs such as “Wedge” that have no excuse, being that the song is about as easy to play as any Phish have in their vast repertoire. “Wedge” was a song that I personally wanted to hear at these last two shows, and as much as I loved hearing it, I can’t help feeling a little let down.

With all that out of the way, what would not be a roadblock to your enjoyment of these shows is the jamming. The jams in songs such as the second set opening “AC/DC Bag”, “Antelope”, “YEM” and “Ya Mar” were all played extremely well and should not be skipped over by any means. “Ya Mar” and “Drowned” specifically featured incredible passages by Mike Gordon, who without question, owned Coventry, further cementing himself in many fan’s minds as the most valuable and important cog in the machine that is, err was, Phish.

It is worth mentioning, as I am sure most people know by now, Trey handed out the band’s trampolines to the crowd during “YEM”, perhaps the first moment where it REALLY hit the crowd that this band was coming to an end. Trey’s legendary guitar phrasing and Mike’s ability to ignore the root note of a jam, thus allowing the jam to happen in the first place, would no longer be heard in tandem. Fishman’s steady drum work around truly complex passages and Page’s layering, which allows the whole band to explore uncharted territory, would also be a thing of the past. A truly special moment such as this could never be found on disc, and was one of the many reasons that I am so grateful to have gotten into Coventry, to witness this in real time with my own two eyes.

As the first day came to a close, the band encored with “Harry Hood”, yet another of its concert staples for many, many years. In yet another instance of “had to be there”, both Trey and Mike climbed down from the stage, which besides being gigantic, was unusually far away from the crowd, and put themselves on top of the boulders that were placed in front of the stage, apparently to prevent it from sinking further into the mud. The idea of this, as Trey explained, was to put themselves closer to the crowd because they loved that they could, under normal circumstances, see out and look at people’s faces. Yet another truly genuine moment that could only come from this band.

And then there was the last day.

A day that will go down in mine and many other’s memories as one of the best and worst days of our lives; the final day of Phish ever provided fans with much of what they had grown to love about this band. The final “Reba” jam was nothing short of mesmerizing, and the segue from “Chalkdust” into “Possum” showed for one last time what the band is capable of when they are all listening to each other as they used to do on a regular basis. And yet another in the long line of spectacular post-hiatus “Wolfman’s Brother” was played, with yet another in the long line of post-hiatus duels between Trey and Mike. But, at least for me, it’s the second set that provided me with exactly what I came to hear.

In a recent review of a concert by the Phish cover band Phix, Jesse Jarnow talked about how there was something missing from the Phix concert, as there would be something missing from any Phish cover band you went to see no matter how powerful and perfect their jams were. What is that something? It’s a genuine affinity for the band members, their individual personalities and your genuine love for the band as a whole. An example of this was at Great Woods, when Trey asked Mike if he thought the Fishman tune killed or made a set, and Mike responded in typical fashion, “On a scale of 2 to 3, it’s a 3.” The crowd erupted into laughter. Show me a cover band that can do that and they’ll get my ten bucks. And for me, the second set was a perfect example of the types of things the band has done for years to earn my love, something that a cover band could never, ever give you at a show.

The “DWD” that opened was nothing short of phenomenal. The jam is a must hear, and I only wish that the band had set off the fireworks during this song as opposed to right before the encore. The crowd was going nuts, the band was going nuts, and one of the top three glowstick wars of all time was happening in the crowd. At that moment, fireworks would have blown Coventry right off the map. One of the more powerful jams in recent memory, it was post-hiatus Phish at its finest, pushing the boundaries and seemingly trying to pummel their fans with their overpowering ferocity. This song is a blueprint for what every single jam/rock band should try to do, and if they’re lucky, they can do it half as well. And on the other side of the spectrum was “Wading in the Velvet Sea.” Rarely anyone’s favorite tune, the first couple of notes seemed to cause some confusion in a crowd that was not expecting this song in such a prominent position. However, everything changed when Page began to sing, and wasn’t able to. Dancing stopped, talking stopped, and time seemed to stop. The crowd was in disbelief, and a quick glance at the screen revealed that Page McConnell was in tears, unable to sing as he was overcome by emotion. Nobody moved. But a few scattered cheers prompted Page to hold his microphone out to the crowd, to which the crowd responded to Page’s most genuine moment of emotion, with their own most genuine moment of emotion. The crowd burst into cheers and applauded the man who has seemingly never had a moment such as this on stage in his life. I doubt I will ever listen to “Wading” the same way again for as long as I live.

The band awkwardly finished up the song, with the other band members assisting Page with the lyrics. The band then took some time to try to get it together; as it was clear they were all shaken up. “Glide” ensued and, despite being one of the most butchered songs of the weekend, was one of my top moments of the entire week. This was one of the most incredible things I have ever witnessed in my show going lifetime. The band was so emotionally traumatized that they were simply unable to play properly. Not one of them. And yet it was beautiful just the same. “Glide” was horrible and I loved every second of it.

After the song finished, the band milled around the stage for a minute, reflecting on what just happened and what was happening. Trey took the microphone and confided in the crowd that the band was dealing with some strong emotions on stage. Then each band member took a moment to say a few words to the crowd. Mike called it a “wild ride” and called himself the “luckiest guy in the world to be able do this with these three guys and all of you”. Jon acknowledged the thousands of fans that abandoned their cars and most of their camping gear to walk many miles to the concert site. Trey began discussing his relationship with the other three members of the band and in what was to be yet another “had to be there”, “only this band” moment, Trey lost it in front of 70,000 people. Words, audio or video will NEVER do justice to this moment in time. From the first notes of “Wading” through Trey’s speech, a pervading feeling of disbelief spread through the crowd as it hit EVERYONE that this fantastic thing called Phish was just about over. The band finished up the set in strong fashion with a “SOAM>Ghost”, which had its own fair share of composed section and singing problems, however every flub, every mistake in this set is priceless to me.

The band came out for the third set with “Fast Enough For You”, one of my favorites, and one of their most underrated and overlooked songs, and worked their way through an inspired “Seven Below” with impromptu chanting of the song’s title, “Piper” which was so ferocious it could peel the paint off of a car, the last “Wilson” and the set closing and fan favorite “Slave to The Traffic Light”. Knowing this was the set closer, and the second to last Phish song I would ever hear live, I couldn’t help but just shut my eyes and reminisce about the incredible moments this band has given me, the places I’ve been, the friends I’ve made as a result of this band and it was at that moment that the first tear dropped from my eye.

Going against just about every expectation, the band encored with “The Curtain With”. One of the band’s first songs, first played on 8.9.87, it would eventually be split up into three songs, and would not be seen for twelve years, over 1000 shows, until the impending hiatus in 2000 brought about its resurgence. Perhaps an even more fitting encore than the widely anticipated “Fluffhead”, “The Curtain With” was poignant on so many levels, not the least of which is the countless discussions the lyrics have spawned, with regards to the placement, if any, of a comma in the lyric, “Please Me Have No Regrets.” Trey, in his final on stage speech, explained how it was written right near by, and how this piece of music was part of this grand idea for a band that, really, hadn’t even been formed yet. It was the perfect ending to a week of Phish shows that gave fans a little of everything, and the last instance of Trey communicating with the audience through his lyrics.

As the band exited the stage, they immediately jumped on their tour buses, which exited the venue, leaving the crowd in an overwhelmed state. No double encore, no fourth set, no post show music. People just waited, and as time passed, it became clear that people were less waiting as they were just unable, or unwilling, to move.

Easily one of the most emotional moments in my lifetime, standing there after the show ended, just staring at the stage allowed me time to ask myself this question: Now what? I realized in that moment that almost every decision I’ve made in my adult lifetime has revolved around Phish tour in one way shape or form. You can’t make decisions about almost anything until you know the tour dates, and you know which shows you can hit and which you can’t.

Without Phish, there is this sense of uncertainty to some degree. Sure, life goes on. I’m not going to suggest otherwise. After all, this is “just” a band. However the prospect of not having Phish tour on the horizon is something of an unsettling feeling, at least for me. Phish has been at the center of many fans’ lives for years and years. It may seem ridiculous to an outsider, even absurd, but with the band breaking up, everything has changed. You can make a case that, in some ways, it’s a new sense of freedom. That now any number of things can be done without having to worry about saving up money or days off from work for tour. Lives can be organized, real vacations can be taken (not to Bonner Springs) and any number of expenses can be covered knowing that tour is NOT coming ‘round the bend. And that’s probably true. But I’ll tell you what:

I too have no regrets; I just wouldn’t have minded being a slave to the Phish just a little while longer.

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