School of Rock

Sorry for the long wait friends. I’d like to give you some great excuse but it has just been my priorities this week has been looking for a job. My dream job would be getting paid to just follow around bands and party with them. Unfortunately that is not the case so I just have to live vicariously through friends fortunate enough to attend shows I cannot and youtube. Thank god for youtube.

Phish played a two-night mini-festival on Monday and Tuesday in the town of Telluride. This is the first time they have taken over the small town since 1991. Telluride holds special significance because it is the first time the band played outside of the east coast during their 1988 tour. The band definitely paid homage to their beginnings by playing “Camel Walk,” “Possum,” and “David Bowie,” all songs played in ’88. Possum and David Bowie show up regularly throughout Phish tours and are both crowd favorites. They played one of the best sets I can imagine on Monday including some new classics such as “Ocelot” and “Backwards Down the Number Line” off their 2009 album Joy.

This event really put Phish in perspective for me. Although I have been listening to Phish for 10 years I really don’t appreciate the days when they were up and coming, young, and fresh. Today they are sounding tighter than ever and have just built on what they’ve learned through the ups and the downs. When I spoke about String Cheese Incident a few posts ago I mentioned they didn’t have as many songs in their repertoire as Phish. One song they do share in common is “Quinn the Eskimo.” Cheese closed their Saturday night set at Red Rocks with this as their encore and Phish opened their encore on Monday with this cover. The thing that amazes me is that this is the first time Phish has played this song since 10/02/99 in Minneapolis. There were 209 shows in between. Phish is an institution of music. Although they have the songs that are on the regular rotation they have the ability to go over 200 shows without playing the same song. I hope they keep touring for another 20 years and so should you.

Next post is coming up tomorrow in order to highlight Mile High Music Festival. Stay phunky until then.