dvd from 6/17 & Coventry

[VA $l!m]

Coventry was like a funeral

Yeah, one where your aunt gets smashed and vomits on your grandfather's casket.

Heartbreaking, cathartic, and cringe-worthy all at the same time.

just to be clear , i don't have any personal opinions about coventry one way or another---
... just thought this was a funny metaphor/ good visual.

[CRAZYED]

There are definatly Telesyncs of Coventry, i've seen them and they are pretty nice.  Although pure dvds would be great.  I dont really get why they dont just release them.  I mean like it would really take a lot to just take the theatre feeds and press them to disk.  Even if it was horrible they'd still make money to keep trey's habbits going.  I'd watch the ACDC Bag =]

[rowjimmy]

yeah but must we watch Trey baggin it too?


--------------
i'm sorry. that was rude and mean spitirted.
It made me laugh tho.

[jedifunk]

i dont think drugs had as much to do with it as the emotion of the whole thing.  and the fact that they stayed up all night trying to figure out a way to get everyone into the venue, etc.

or maybe i'm just living in a dream

[rowjimmy]

I suspect you are probably parts right AND wrong on both counts.

But what the hell do i know. Just like you I work off of what i hear, hope and, imagine.

[Gumbo72203]

id really like to see the 3rd set second night personally...

i mean, even when i listen to it... the whole metaphysical thing of whats going on when Trey talks to the audience about the band, and the speech before Curtain, it gets me; i choke up.  ill admit it

im sure ill bug out and actually cry with it, but for some weird reason... i want that to happen


crazy?

[jedifunk]

not crazy.

i have an mpeg file of the 2nd set of 2nd night that i watch on occasion just to cry @ the velvet sea part where page can't sing.  that gets me every time.  that really sums it up for me... that moment, i stood there holding my wife and we just cried....

[Gumbo72203]

id really like to see that..

[VA $l!m]

... @ the velvet sea part where page can't sing.  that gets me every time.  that really sums it up for me... that moment, i stood there holding my wife and we just cried....

damn, i get chills , just reading this, and i totally get what it must've felt like...i wasn't there , but if i was i'm sure my honey & i would have been doing the same thing.
my question to jedi is this though:
you always seem like a positive person-- this being such a bittersweet moment, how did you feel about it when it was all said and done?
(complete?,sad?,confused?,alive?,etc.)

[jedifunk]

to be completely honest, i felt very very complete, like i had come full circle.  i remember when i started seeing shows and then doing tour, i wanted it to last forever.  then sometime between fall98 & summer99, i really started to feel like my life needed a new direction.  but i didnt want to give up the magic that was phish tour.  i felt a little trapped by the experience to be honest, like i couldnt escape tour.  sure tours would end and there was a break, but the minute an announcement of tour dates came out, it was 'ok, time to quit the ole job and get on the road.'

then during most of fall99 & definitely all of the year 2000, everytime i heard DWD and they sang 'waiting for the time when i can finally say, this has all been wonderful, but now i'm on my way' i would get chills... like the band was talking to me and only me, and telling me to get on with my life.  but again, i couldnt, i felt trapped by it all with no end in sight.  i wanted to move on, but could bring myself to do it, for fear of missing that next great show.

so when hiatus came i was really disappointed because i really really wanted to quit on my own terms, but the band had beaten me to it.  so i was pissed also.  but of course that wore off, and time went by and i started my life anew.  i started a graphic design company, my wife got pregnant, the company failed, and life went on.

then of course they came back, and all those feelings came rushing back.  of course I HAD to be at that 1st show, and i was (my wife was 5 months pregnant at the time).

then we saw shoreline 1st night 2003 (only because my brother lives in napa and was getting married), and that show was amazing for me.  start to finish, not a single complaint (which had become kind of hard for me).  but i think alot of it was because i knew i could never tour again, and had to cherish each and every moment i got to see phish.

then came coventry... i feel kind of lucky in the respect that the band could have totally announce it as their last show, at the show, and i wouldnt have been there.  but they announced before, so we made arrangements to go.  we were gonna go out with a bang, pimpin it out, and on top.  we rented an RV, filled it with good food, drink, and friends, and were off.  and we all know what happens next.  TRAFFIC for miles.  so we sat and sat and sat.  then i took a nap, and was woken with news that mike had just told everyone to go home.  i was in disbelief.  then i was like, lets get out of here, and get to the nearest movie theater as quickly as possible so we can at least see it.  but my friends said lets at least drive up as close as we can and see what the situation is.  so we did, then stopped for gas at the nearest station, where we got  a flyer for a campground, so we tried that, but were denied by the cops.  but by that point we were like, nothings stopping us!

so we parked it and started walking... and then the shows... while not the best i've ever seen, they had their moments.  but it wasnt about that for me.

for me it was about saying goodbye, not only to the band, but to the person i once was, and to a period in my life that i will love and cherish forever as some of the greatest ever!  and so the weekend was perfect.  i laughed, i cried, i enjoyed phish one last time.  and i realized that i had other amazing things to live for.  i longed to get home to my son, to watch him grow up, so i could show him the magic of phish.

so yeah, i was sad, i cried, i was confused, but in the end, i was able to finally close the book on an amazing chapter in my life.

whew, sorry that was a lot, but i feel that when someone asks this question i have to give them the full and complete answer.  much love and respect to the greatest band that ever was!

[ucusty]

yea your right about coventry, 6/17/04 on the other hand is something that all of us would watch.  The footage was amazing, venue is even sicker, and the show was one of the best from the phinal tour.  Come on phish, release the 6/17/04 brooklyn show (in its entirety)
hopefully it will be released soon

[Hokker]

After reading this whole thread I feel like weighing in here. I thought Coventry were some of the worst shows ever done by Phish. I realize the emotional context but the facts remain they were a shell of the band that played those great shows in August 93 or fall 97. I don't like to feel like having to justify the poor quality of the playing by saying they were "emotional" or "Trey was really high". Some of the jams were good but on the whole it just sounds forced to me. I apologised to my kids after the second night of Coventry(we went to theater to see it) because that was not the same band I fell in love with. I am reminded of "The Dead" and how they are now relegated to being a cover band of themselves. I know that this is my own personal opinion and I am a crackpot but just cue up the Glide from Coventry and then listen to one from 93 or 94 and objectively tell me which one shows a band that is hungry and trying to do their best. Jedi I know how you feel because I felt it was the end of an era when I was so disappointed by the GD in 92. I was just disgusted by the shows I saw and closed the curtain on that part of my life and just concentrated on my kids. I guess the short way of saying it is, IMHO Coventry sucked bigtime

[jedifunk]

i think your choice of Glide as an example is a poor choice.  listen to almost any Glide from 98-04, they all suck, trey couldnt put together 2 notes in a row in that song to save his life.

but i'm always reminded of trey's comments in bittersweet motel, when he's talking about the feeling at a show, and how he could care less if someone is pissed cuz he missed a change or a note, because to him it was all about feeling and the vibe.  and i agree with that.

i'm not saying coventry was great, but it hardly sucked.  i would go to a million coventrys if thats all i had to go to.  and i would much rather go to a coventry that see any other weak ass band thats around now.  

i'm not justifying anything, everyone has the right to their opinion, mine just happens to be that coventry didnt suck.

i guess coventry meant something different to me than just another phish show.  it meant saying goodbye to a great many things.  not just the band or the music, or the scene... but to my former self (it was also a hello to myself as a father and husband, and other things).

i knew it was the last, and kept it in that light. perhaps i'm more forgiving.  i used to be way more jaded about performance, setlists, jamming, etc.

[VA $l!m]

but i'm always reminded of trey's comments in bittersweet motel, when he's talking about the feeling at a show, and how he could care less if someone is pissed cuz he missed a change or a note, because to him it was all about feeling and the vibe.  and i agree with that.

i'm not saying coventry was great, but it hardly sucked.  i would go to a million coventrys if thats all i had to go to.  and i would much rather go to a coventry that see any other weak ass band thats around now.

AMEN.totally agree, --and i love that interview in the movie."----who said that, -brad?" :roll:
...and thanx a ton for your indepth response to my original question...  i have generally similar sentiments , though the details are different , concerning my own phish experience as a whole.
i also feel a coming full circle thing , but it came for me w/ destiny in 03 , so i guess i'll save my story for another thread someday.
...AND HOKKER: the whole thing started to remind me of the dead too, BUT  i think that they really got out before it got anywhere near to that point ...the last couple of years of phish were different and the energy was somewhat dysfunctional at times , but they didn't go through 10 odd years w/ trey in and out of comas, or having more than one major deaths in the band and still plowing on.
i think they saw a point of resolution that was best for the band and especially the fans , and prudently took it , saving everyone involved any sort of major cynicism, pain, or dispair.

[rowjimmy]

In place of Glide, insert The Curtain With.

After that wonderful speech, Trey blew it. high pressure, yes. But THAT is a song they should've gotten right and have always been able to pull off (the Curtain Part, at least.)

As if I weren't sad enough. I was already sad because going to an occasional Phish show allowed me to escape from my 'growed up' life back to 1995 when I was young and didn't answer to anyone except my gasoline tank and stomach. Back then all I wanted to do was see shows and thats what I did. After my first daughter was born and I got an office gig and then went on to get married and have another child, Phish was a possible getaway. Hiatus motivated me to see other bands but none of them offered the experience that Phish did. I never spent all day selling homebrewed beer in a lot outside an SKB show meeting new people and watching the sun creep away. these were things that seeing Phish allowed me as The grateful dead weren't out there anymore. And before you say, "dude, I was there for the music, not the lot." So was I man. But good music COULD be found at other shows. you know it's more than that. Although it wasn't as great as it was in the 90s, Phish's community was an amazing thing to be a part of.  (read this: http://tinyurl.com/5z6zx)

That doorway to my youth was closing. I could accept that but part of acceptance was the time of grief.

Then:

He fucked up my favorite Phish song.

I'm not angry or bitter. I'm disappointed and see clearly that Coventry was a perfect example of why Phish had to (was bound to/had long since come to an) end.

Oh, and why didn't I go there, myself? Honestly, when I saw where it was going to be i said to myself, "thats going to be a mess." No, I'm not claiming to be psychic and I certainly didn't expect it to go the way it went but i had that feeling. I had that feeling about The Grateful Dead @ Deer Creek in 95. Something told me not to go. That feeling is usually right. That feeling also told me to go to Providence for 12/29/94. You'd listen to it to. But anyway, I just said, 'no, thanks'. and went to the beach with my family the week prior and came home intime to listen to it online...
If the show had been in Limestone, ME. I would have been first in line.