Who: Phish
When: June 30, 2000 & July 1, 2000
Where: Tweeter Center/ Hartford, CT
With: Ben
Of Note: sweet, sweet freedom; the post-grad road-trip
As we've established, shortly after I began dating my high school boyfriend, he lost God and found Phish. As a result, he was determined to make some shows the summer after we graduated high school - thus, the graduation road trip...just like in bad teen movies!
Just a few short days after graduation, we started by caravan-ing with my Mom & Joe (my step-dad) to New York City where I had a scholarship interview. Awesomely, the folks at the place I was interviewing thought that Ben was my brother. We did some NYC tourist things (Empire state building, Staten Island Ferry), watched Joe & Ben get in some epic fights about how to use the Subway for public transportation, and had a lovely two days in the city. Ben & I got same day tickets to Jesus Christ Superstar, my first Broadway musical, which was awesome...right up to the point that we got kind of lost on the bus back to Seacaucus. All's well that ends well though.
Then, Mom & Joe went home and Ben & I journeyed on to Connecticut for two nights of Phish. Hilariously, in order to be allowed to take this pre-cell phone trip, I put together a folder detailing our itinerary: site seeing stops, campground information, concert venue, Mapquest route for his parents and my mom. I got Ben to compromise on one day of lots and one day of touristy things - we went to Mystic, CT which was lovely.
Okay, so, Phish. We spent the whole first day wandering through the lots. Ben was really adamant about having the "lots" experience; there was a lot of build up in his mind about going. (He had seen the band once before, the previous winter, with his dad.) Leading up to the trip, he went on and on about how everyone was going to be so cool and how we needed to dress a certain way to fit in. I remember a couple afternoons going through the head shops in Ithaca looking for a "Jen hippy dress", which just was not me. Even a little, at all. Spending the day wandering through, I remember feeling a bit uncomfortable and out of place - the peasant top wasn't doing it for me; I had no interest in recreational chemistry; Ben was being such a 'dude, man, this is the best thing ever' poser. I really wanted to fit in, to be the kind of girl that should be there, because Ben had put so much importance on the trip.
It was definitely interesting though - the concept that these people didn't have jobs - they sold food or jewelry or drugs out of a van that drove from show to show. Ben wanted to get on the lawn early, to get a good spot. So, we lined up way before the doors to the venue opened, sitting for a couple of hours before the doors opened, then another couple hours waiting for the show to start. There were these two guys at the very front of the line - they were college students at one of the Ivies, I think? One wore Tigger ears, the other devil horns. They were "Tigger & Satan" and were on an epic summer trip, to all the Phish shows, funded by their parents as a reward for their stellar academic years. Their goal was to be the first people on the lawn, for every show, all summer. We had a spot not too far away from them and I remember being really impressed that though everyone offered them a hit of something, the answer was always, "I love the music so much; I want to be able to fully experience it" (or similar).
So, on to the music itself. I remember liking the second night more than the first night. I remember that I really liked it when they sang songs - melodies and choruses and things I recognized. I remember that some of the jams were just too long. I remember Ben shushing me for being really excited about a pretty straightforward version of 'Farmhouse' (but, I recognized it and they played it almost like the album!). I remember watching all the people around me dance and flail and "join in the groove, man" and feeling like a fraud because there was no way that I could do that and not look like an absolute freakshow. I remember that standing for that many hours in my Birkenstocks really hurt the arches of my feet, but I was scared to step out of them because I didn't want to lose them. I remember loving 'Axila', 'Wolfman's Brother' and 'Weekapaug Groove'. I remember buying an awesome 'Got Milk' style 'Gotta Jibboo' shirt that I wore for years. I remember thinking the second night encore cover of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' was gorgeous. I remember being amazed at how big the crowd was and surprised that nobody got arrested.
When we got back to Corning, I told everyone that the trip was awesome, that the concerts were amazing. That was partially true - I'm so glad we did the "right after graduation rite of passage road trip" and we did have a lot of fun, goofing off while driving miles and miles, camping, being tourists. And, the concerts were amazing in that I had never experienced anything quite like it. But, part of the reason I've always said it was so awesome was because I wanted it to be awesome - I wanted to be the kind of person that was not at all self-conscious about "fitting in" to a group of people that was so different from me, the kind of person that threw caution to the wind and danced like a crazy person without caring what they looked like, the kind of person who was just a little cooler than my tightly wound, overachieving, 18 year old self. I'd get there eventually, my self-assuredness coming with age and a bit of practice 'concert dancing'.
You can stream both nights here.
When: June 30, 2000 & July 1, 2000
Where: Tweeter Center/ Hartford, CT
With: Ben
Of Note: sweet, sweet freedom; the post-grad road-trip
As we've established, shortly after I began dating my high school boyfriend, he lost God and found Phish. As a result, he was determined to make some shows the summer after we graduated high school - thus, the graduation road trip...just like in bad teen movies!
Just a few short days after graduation, we started by caravan-ing with my Mom & Joe (my step-dad) to New York City where I had a scholarship interview. Awesomely, the folks at the place I was interviewing thought that Ben was my brother. We did some NYC tourist things (Empire state building, Staten Island Ferry), watched Joe & Ben get in some epic fights about how to use the Subway for public transportation, and had a lovely two days in the city. Ben & I got same day tickets to Jesus Christ Superstar, my first Broadway musical, which was awesome...right up to the point that we got kind of lost on the bus back to Seacaucus. All's well that ends well though.
Then, Mom & Joe went home and Ben & I journeyed on to Connecticut for two nights of Phish. Hilariously, in order to be allowed to take this pre-cell phone trip, I put together a folder detailing our itinerary: site seeing stops, campground information, concert venue, Mapquest route for his parents and my mom. I got Ben to compromise on one day of lots and one day of touristy things - we went to Mystic, CT which was lovely.
Okay, so, Phish. We spent the whole first day wandering through the lots. Ben was really adamant about having the "lots" experience; there was a lot of build up in his mind about going. (He had seen the band once before, the previous winter, with his dad.) Leading up to the trip, he went on and on about how everyone was going to be so cool and how we needed to dress a certain way to fit in. I remember a couple afternoons going through the head shops in Ithaca looking for a "Jen hippy dress", which just was not me. Even a little, at all. Spending the day wandering through, I remember feeling a bit uncomfortable and out of place - the peasant top wasn't doing it for me; I had no interest in recreational chemistry; Ben was being such a 'dude, man, this is the best thing ever' poser. I really wanted to fit in, to be the kind of girl that should be there, because Ben had put so much importance on the trip.
It was definitely interesting though - the concept that these people didn't have jobs - they sold food or jewelry or drugs out of a van that drove from show to show. Ben wanted to get on the lawn early, to get a good spot. So, we lined up way before the doors to the venue opened, sitting for a couple of hours before the doors opened, then another couple hours waiting for the show to start. There were these two guys at the very front of the line - they were college students at one of the Ivies, I think? One wore Tigger ears, the other devil horns. They were "Tigger & Satan" and were on an epic summer trip, to all the Phish shows, funded by their parents as a reward for their stellar academic years. Their goal was to be the first people on the lawn, for every show, all summer. We had a spot not too far away from them and I remember being really impressed that though everyone offered them a hit of something, the answer was always, "I love the music so much; I want to be able to fully experience it" (or similar).
So, on to the music itself. I remember liking the second night more than the first night. I remember that I really liked it when they sang songs - melodies and choruses and things I recognized. I remember that some of the jams were just too long. I remember Ben shushing me for being really excited about a pretty straightforward version of 'Farmhouse' (but, I recognized it and they played it almost like the album!). I remember watching all the people around me dance and flail and "join in the groove, man" and feeling like a fraud because there was no way that I could do that and not look like an absolute freakshow. I remember that standing for that many hours in my Birkenstocks really hurt the arches of my feet, but I was scared to step out of them because I didn't want to lose them. I remember loving 'Axila', 'Wolfman's Brother' and 'Weekapaug Groove'. I remember buying an awesome 'Got Milk' style 'Gotta Jibboo' shirt that I wore for years. I remember thinking the second night encore cover of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' was gorgeous. I remember being amazed at how big the crowd was and surprised that nobody got arrested.
When we got back to Corning, I told everyone that the trip was awesome, that the concerts were amazing. That was partially true - I'm so glad we did the "right after graduation rite of passage road trip" and we did have a lot of fun, goofing off while driving miles and miles, camping, being tourists. And, the concerts were amazing in that I had never experienced anything quite like it. But, part of the reason I've always said it was so awesome was because I wanted it to be awesome - I wanted to be the kind of person that was not at all self-conscious about "fitting in" to a group of people that was so different from me, the kind of person that threw caution to the wind and danced like a crazy person without caring what they looked like, the kind of person who was just a little cooler than my tightly wound, overachieving, 18 year old self. I'd get there eventually, my self-assuredness coming with age and a bit of practice 'concert dancing'.
You can stream both nights here.
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