This is a tour for the ages!

[GBL]

I love this band, and this board, but the amount of hate in this thread is a turn off so I'm gonna step away for awhile

seriously tho don't get mad because I have a better time than you

[Hicks]

I love this band, and this board, but the amount of hate in this thread is a turn off so I'm gonna step away for awhile

seriously tho don't get mad because I have a better time than you

Was this post intended for the Goose thread???

[mbw]

I love this band, and this board, but the amount of hate in this thread is a turn off so I'm gonna step away for awhile

seriously tho don't get mad because I have a better time than you

Was this post intended for the Goose thread???

 

Damn, one return post from Augusto and gbl quits.

[anthrax]

I love this band, and this board, but the amount of hate in this thread is a turn off so I'm gonna step away for awhile

seriously tho don't get mad because I have a better time than you

Was this post intended for the Goose thread???

 

Damn, one return post from Augusto and gbl quits.

makes me sad.  i blame hicks.

[GBL]

lol I was kidding obv 

[Hicks]

I love this band, and this board, but the amount of hate in this thread is a turn off so I'm gonna step away for awhile

seriously tho don't get mad because I have a better time than you

Was this post intended for the Goose thread???

 

Damn, one return post from Augusto and gbl quits.

makes me sad.  i blame hicks.

"Shithole"

[Gumbo72203]

man i haven't seen this much tension since I was riling you guys decades ago       

[rowjimmy]

man i haven't seen this much tension since I was riling you guys decades ago       

Can it n00b

[Caravan2001]

Welp, on another note, besides getting the plague last weekend, here's a bit more, ok a lot more, about my Vegas experience. 

After missing yet another off the charts Thursday as I did in 2016,my boy Drew and I hit the ground running Friday afternoon. We started it off with a couple tallboys at the baggage claim while we waited for my suitcase which was typically one of the last off the plane. Checked into the Marriott and found the accommodations to be to our liking and then headed exactly six floors below us, like in the precise suite six floors below us, to hang out with the paug crew briefly pre-show. Finally got to meet GBL and pcr for the first time, I guess the dudes who use their initials on the paug just don't make it out West very often! I left behind a bottle of Dickel 15 Year, which I'm told RJ enjoyed some sips of later that evening.

Then it was on to the show, was in the beer line when the band struck up Olivia's Pool, but made it in for the second half of the song which of course was my first. Our spot on Friday was section 7, row J, which was a primo location and filled with friendly folks who were receptive to our antics. Next was another first timer with Axilla II, although I have seen Axilla I. And what an Axilla it was! This one went deep and though I've yet to revisit it, was the perfect way to kick off the weekend for me. Without a doubt the band was keeping up the momentum from their outstanding Summer and Fall Tours. The boys kept the hits coming with a fiery and somewhat extended Mike's, the best in recent memory and the always welcome Hydrogen and Weekapaug to round out the classic Groove. The only true breather of the show came in Shade, and it's one of the best 3.0 ballads that has really grown on me over time. The refrain is an earworm that pops up on the old mental radio station from time to time. I'd like to say I remember I Always Wanted It This Way, but things were a little blurry at this point. But, I do remember them actually jamming Ass Handed into Tweezer, which had me dancing furiously in the aisles. I felt like we were due for a Tweezer in Eugene, so I was especially happy to see it rear its gnarly head at my very next show. And not only that, they squeezed a couple of them in there, at least 2.5 Tweezers in my estimation. After that the big highlights were an exploratory mid-set Reba and an absolutely uproarious Walk Away, only my second one ever and one of my favorite Phish covers from my days of listening to mid 90s shows incessantly. Night two was in the books. Overall my main take away is that the band was just plain inspired and laying down the foundation for a very satisfying run. We headed to the MGM casino where I attempted to gamble but found myself too inebriated to make it happen. In fact, I only managed to gamble away three measly dollars on slots all weekend, epic failz. We eventually wound our way back to the room where we unceremoniously crashed with a big Saturday awaiting us.

I woke up to a tweet from Phish's Twitter advising me not to bother with the outside merch table as there would be no posters that morning. Apparently some doucher had started an unauthorized number system and had ruined it for everyone. There would be no Welker for me, oh well. After taking it easy we made our way to Meow Wolf in the afternoon. We met up with the paug posse once again, this time including RJ, and headed in to get our minds bent. I don't want to give too much away, but suffice to say I thought it was awesome. Kind of like a children's museum for big kids. Pro tip though, the slide is just a fucking slide, don't stand in line for them when you could be exploring way cooler stuff. There were several sound based installations which were naturally my favorites and I spent a lot of my time playing with them. RJ and I checked out an "ancient" scroll which actually was pretty key to the whole backstory of the place. If you want to dig into that aspect there is tons of detail packed away in different corners, you could easily spend an entire day there piecing it together. But, I was already too much in party mode to deal with much of that minutiae. We custied up for some souvenirs and then briefly checked out the rest of Area 15, which actually had a ton of other stuff going and then looked at some of the impressive sculptures outside before we bounced.

Pre-show on Saturday I headed back down to the paug suite where I held a mini NW beerfest and shared some brews with the crew including a couple Phish themed beers from one of my favorites Block 15. Then I geared up for the show and met up with a brah to trade our lowers for floor tickets. I had been a little anxious about making this trade as the floor appeared to be jammed on Friday, but I had already set it up with this guy, so we went ahead and just did it. We'd already had our sweet lowers experience and now it was time to get lost in the sauce with the rest of the savages on the floor. And it turned out Phish was ready to get very loose too, as they unleashed the animal show, with some songs I've been waiting my entire Phish going life to see, like Sloth, Vultures and of course, the legendary Harpua. And on top of all that, I can finally say I've seen a song that caravan hasn't with Shaggy Dog, ah yes, sweet schadenfreude! I've heard some complaints about this show being gimmicky of sloppy, but honestly those folks are barking up the wrong tree, so to speak. All in all this was my favorite night, the band was having so much fun and we were getting down with another group of convivial neighbors in a somewhat uncrowded spot right in front of the soundboard. Getting an I am the Walrus to finish out the first set was a special treat and they even got especially freaky on the outro. In terms of jams, I have to say the Wombat and Your Pet Cat workouts stand up as some of the best that I saw this weekend. Although neither were particularly long, both brought a level of forward looking phuture phunk that uncovered new ground. For me, they definitely presaged the sci-fi vibe the band would attempt to conjure on Halloween and in some ways, accomplished that more emphatically. I'd recommend giving both another spin and I think you'll hear what I'm talking about. Next up after the tech'd out Your Pat Cat was Runaway Jim which featured a sublime segue into Piper and this combo stood out as yet another highlight with creative mini-jamming.

And then there was the Harpua that everyone had been calling for at setbreak. I was convinced they would be playing Octopus' Garden and had even had an episode where I envisioned that we were actually in the belly of an giant octopus that the MGM at large embodied, but apparently I was a bit enraptured with delusions of grandeur at this point. In any event, obvs the energy was through the roof for Harpua and the lengthy story in which Trey tossed out many references that would tie into the Halloween set and a hilarious prank where he got people to check Instagram in the middle of the show was classic Phish tomfoolery. It was one of those times where it felt like Trey was talking right to me, and addressing the never ending quest to "figure it all out" one day, which was particularly resonant to me in the state which I was in for the proceedings. When Trey referenced Jimmy's dad knocking on the door, I was sure that they were going to bring out a guest, maybe Tom, to do a cover, but alas, it was not meant to be. But, even without the traditional Harpua cover, it was another special moment in a show jammed full of them. By this time the floor was a soggy mess and one older dude had even shed his shirt. "Just keep your pants on" I quipped as he passed by me, and I'm glad to report he did. I will say that yes it was crowded, but the MGM floor goes hard like none other.

And then after The Lizards which had already felt like a bonus after what I had assumed would be a show closing Bug, Trey declared there was time for one more. And what did he decide to play? Why Farmhouse of course, fucking Farmhouse. Now, most of you know I have quite the history with this tune, including when Phish "ruined" my 40th birthday show by playing the travesticular Mike's > Farmhouse > Weekapaug in the middle of the second set. Not only that, but Farmhouse would appear yet again mid second set at the Gorge on Saturday night in 2018, which really did feel like Phish just taunting us. Now, while I still stand by the opinion that Farmhouse, should never, ever be played in that slot, especially on Saturday night at the Gorge, this Saturday night Farmhouse was yet again Trey speaking to me. This gorgeous, contemplative version was the universe telling me to back off on the criticism and to appreciate life's gifts, of which I have enjoyed many. By the end of the song I felt like Kuroda's light design had conjured a cathedral and we were all gathered under the steeple giving thanks and offering prayers. Another moment in the Church of Phish would come during the encore when we all harmonized the chrous to Sleeping Monkey, offering a hymn to the new christened Holy Blankenstein that we all may find enlightenment through music. Ironically, Sleeping Monkey was another song which I've slagged off over the years as being stupid, but on this night it was simply beautiful. I'll never hear it or Farmhouse the same way again.

After the show we had planned to go see the Disco Biscuits, because why not, I'd never seen them and a Vegas after party seemed like the time to do it. But we were too disorganized to figure out transportation to Brooklyn Bowl and honestly after a show like that, seeing more live music would have just been a farce. At 200 minutes, this was also probably the longest two set show I've seen, so we were spent. Although we did met up with Drew's girlfriend and friend who had seen Gwen Stefani and checked out their baller room at the Planet Hollywood, complete with view of the Bellagio fountains. Honestly it was one of the most fun days of my life and going to Meow Wolf and Phish within hours of each other made it seem like the whole thing was one psychedelic continuum of art and performance.

And then it was finally here, Halloween. Drew and I dressed up like Fred and Barney from the Flintstones, and we headed to the MGM to have ourselves a yabba-dabba do time. The show started out strong with a Buried Alive/Roses one, two punch and then the longest jam of the run with Ghost. Trey rolling up his sleeves before Ghost was classic and I definitely thought about the sick Festival 8 coat removal as he was doing it. The Ghost featured a sweet Drowned jam, which is really obvious upon relisten but I was too beat to ID at the time. The transitions between sections were a little disjointed in my opinion, but overall it was awesome to hear them tackle a truly meaty slab of improv. I used KDF as a piss break, which turned out to be a mistake as they would use it as a springboard for yet another dynamic jam, but I did make it back to my seat for the second half. They closed the set with a Bowie that started out as an absolute trainwreck, but ended up being one of the better versions in recent memory with a particularly strong ending.

What to say about the Halloween set. I enjoyed it, the production was off the hook from the holograms at the beginning to the costumes, to the truly surprising pyro and fireworks, which I never thought I'd see Phish use again after the flaming pod things in Indio. The concept was original and I like how it tied in Kasvot Vaxt through the comic book. It really did feel like the successor to the KV set, but this time the gag had more of a story line and a flashier visual element. Musically, I really loved Page's alternate set up with the synths, he definitely busted out some new sounds throughout the set which was really cool. Lyrically, it was pretty much nonsense, which is fine by me, I love me some goofy ass Phish. But some of it did get somewhat repetitive. Also, it did seem like they got a lost a few times up there and probably could have rehearsed a bit more to make things go smoother. And the songs for KV are just more polished and a little more "real" to me. I don't think anybody would've ever bought that this was the work of another band like they were able to pull off to some degree with KV. Obviously there were a ton of Phish references, but even without those, this was obviously Phish music at its loosest and most fun. Maybe a little too fun to be honest, more focus would have helped. But don't get me wrong, I don't think the set was a flop or anything, it was still brimming with creativity and humor, and it was another one of those weird coincidences that the sci-fi theme was complimentary to the backstory of Meow Wolf. Again reinforcing the feeling that Phish and what they were doing at MW were really part of the same performance. But, I will say that as far as the original Halloween sets go, it probably only really bests the Wingsuit debacle.

For the third set I discovered that I was only a few rows up from PG and RJ and got to chill with them for the majority of it, which was sweet. As for the set itself, what can I say, a bit of a letdown. Yes it kicked off with a rockin' Carini, but I was pretty bummed to get my third Lonely Trip in two months. It's an ok song, but there are so many other ballads I'd rather hear, and I don't think they'd really earned a cool down a mere 12 minutes into the set. After that, Soul Planet delivered a decent jam, but when Trey horse forced Twist, the set pretty much took a dive and then never recovered. Alas, the lessons of the night before to accept all Phish as a gift were already fading in my mind, just like the geometric revelations of Jimmy during that epic Harpua narration, it's always a struggle to keep those epiphanies from slipping away. The Hood encore redeemed to some degree as it featured a proper peak and was a reminder that the band is in fact delivering at the top of their game, but it was a bit of a disappointment that the third set completely fizzled with Drift When Your Sleeping. Personally I was hoping for my first YEM in 21 shows in this slot, but Phish, as usual, had other plans. Who would have thought that YEM of all songs, one they used to literally play every other night, would become my white whale.

But a great run and year for Phish!, Glad I made it back to Vegas and got to hang out with most of you. Sorry we never got to meet up emay, next time we will have to chill! Until then, take care of your shoes and give thanks and praises to Holy Blankenstein!

Not sure how I missed that write up but I throughly enjoyed it this afternoon.  Sounds like good times.  I am overdue for a Vegas re-listen.  I still think the Tweezer night is my fave but I haven't listened in several months to the others so I'm gonna.