Phish, The Jersey Tour: 5/31, 6/1, & 6/10/11

Phish: The Jersey Tour^
5/31 & 6/1/11, PNC Garden State Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ
6/10/11, Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ

TUESDAY, 5/31/11

Jersey. It's so much more than one word. It's traffic. It's swampland. It's peeeeeeople-- OH GOD, JERSEY IS PEEEEEOPLE.

I actually really like the (PNC) Garden State Arts Center as a venue. It's the first place I saw/heard God Street Wine and quite a sentimental favorite. I don't recall it ever being a particularly violent place, which is why I was so confused as to what all the State Troopers combing the parking lots could possibly be doing there. It's as if they were looking for something. We were able to play a few nice rounds of Spot-The-Narcs before taking the infamous walk from the far lot through the woods to get over to the venue. There was no way I was getting rid of my extra, so we headed right in and got situated on the Lawn.

The Po Po

"The Prophet"




After hearing the returns from Bethel, my expectations were pretty inflated and I'll be honest, I was kind of meh'd by this set. There were some fun moments in Roggae & Tube -> Divided Sky, but they just need to retire Rock and Roll already. It totally lost me... again. Maybe cuz it was still light out, but I wasn't as immediately sucked in by the music as I'd hoped to be. That said, it felt really nice to be hanging out with friends at a Summer Tour show.


During setbreak, I met up with a fantastic Greek and we headed down to the 9th row, Fish side. The view and sound were definitely an improvement. The show kind of kicked into action for me with -> Maze starring Page being a TOTAL FUCKING BADASS ANIMAL. Damn! Alaska was pretty super -> Let's Fuck With the Hippies, where they slowed down time, stopped it, reversed it. For a split second I got excited and thought they were going into Timber Ho, but alas... DAMN YOU, YEM!!!!!! Why must you mock me like this? This would technically qualify as my first YEM of 2011, but I know those boys are planning more and I clearly haven't gotten over the YEMs of 2009-2010. They're floating around out there just waiting to slap me repetitively with their non-Timber-Ho-ness. Totes cereal, would it kill them to play Uncle Penn or Nellie Kane?

This is what happens when you meet people at the Carvel.

9th rowage


Trey rockin' out to Mike's solo in YEM.

The Fire encore was pretty rocking and totally eery, cuz earlier in the day a Lot Wook had predicted not only this, but also the Chalk Dust opener. During post-show discussions, Melissa would dub him "The Prophet". WEEEEIRD.

meh. 9th row was fun, though.

SETLIST
Tuesday, 05/31/2011
PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ
Set 1: Chalk Dust Torture, Roggae > Punch You In the Eye, The Moma
Dance > Rock and Roll, Sand, Tube > The Divided Sky, Character Zero
Set 2: After Midnight > Possum, Drowned > Maze, Dirt, Alaska, You
Enjoy Myself
Encore: Fire

(All setlists courtesy of phish.net)

WEDNESDAY, 6/1/11

Wednesday started off with a Jersey State-wide NWS Tornado Warning until 8PM. Thank you, Climate Change. With full rain gear packed, I hit the crowded Parkway and hoped for the best. According to my car, it was 95 degrees F in the Oranges. The skies were conflicted. There were some nasty isolated storm cells heading in our general direction and I at least wanted to beat them to Holmdel. Which I did. And just a few minutes after pouring some classy tequila into an even classier Red Solo cup, the first downpour began. Luckily, I had AC, the Yanks game, and aforementioned tequila to keep me occupied while it passed. As the skies cleared, I also got to watch some uniformed Police hop out of a silver minivan with tinted windows (& a Yin Yang sticker on the back--- ohh, ha ha FOOLED YOU!) and proceed to bust some kids 2 cars over. Here we go!

After the first downpour, the temp dropped 13 degrees.

Pregame was an energized multi-gathering of epic proportions smattered with chocolate cookies, more tequila, and at least 1 more downpour. Next thing I knew, El Herno was speeding past us in the parking lot screaming wildly about taking a shortcut through a HS Track Meet. He also told the tale of a magically skilled deer who successfully jumped on/off two car hoods in moving traffic in order to cross a road, only to disappear back into the woods. Obviously, a part of the Deer Track Meet. El Herno believed it was a sign The Phish would play The Antelope.

Hern's Magical Deer Path Map

The show opened with First Tube and it already felt better than the previous night. Camel Walk is always a plus. Axilla wasn't loud enough (on the Lawn) -> an enjoyable Split Open & Melt.





Set II started with Tweezer and the last storm cell I'd be tracking on my robot finally arrived. Lightning flashed, the skies opened up, and it was as good a time as any to get into the Pavilion. Now, I'm not sure if it was the best decision-- but it was still kinda fun, even after all these years. The mad rush resulted in a couple thousand extra people now crowding every free inch of the Pav. Then Phish started Led Zeppelin's No Quarter and the place erupted in excitement. It was super dark and moody with Page on lead vocals. Brilliant sound after the rain. Carini continued the dark rock fun. Great combo.



Everything after that kind of blended together for me. There might have been some good stuff happening in Backwards Down the Number Line, but I spent that entire song watching some Tweaker try to take on Security. It was a bizarre scene, oddly quiet, kind of in slow motion. Almost anticlimactic, because dude ended up being pinned down by his limbs and head against the concrete stairs, surrounded by 10+ security guys (ranging in age from 18-80), but it lasted more than 5 fucking minutes. Like at least tase the dude or dart gun him and kick him in the nuts-- make it interesting! But noooo, they just pinned the guy down for 5 minutes before eventually carrying him off with absolutely no blood shed. YAWNSVILLES.

The Situation (pic courtesy of Weiss)

Definitely enjoyed this show more than the previous night, except for my sweet location in the 9th row. Still, was expecting to be more wowed than I was-- at least by Phish. Dropping off a car full of Handsome at Secaucus Junction was pretty wow-tastic.

SETLIST
Wednesday, 06/01/2011
PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ
Set 1: First Tube, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, Camel Walk,
Heavy Things, Gotta Jibboo, Wilson > Seven Below > Kill Devil Falls,
Axilla > Split Open and Melt, Suzy Greenberg
Set 2: Tweezer > No Quarter[1], Carini[2] > Piper > Twist > Ghost[3] >
Backwards Down the Number Line[3]
Encore: Show of Life > Tweezer Reprise

[1] Phish debut.
[2] Unfinished.
[3] No Quarter teases from Trey.

FRIDAY, 6/10/11


Long week. Weddings, funerals, not gonna get into it. Despite my general meh-ness over Holmdel, friends were insisting I make the trek to Camden. They swore the show would be worth it and I had a nagging feeling they were correct. Though I might have mentioned a scene similar to Carrie if I heard YEM again. Except with Trey... and pee.

Camden, NJ. I have never before voluntarily traveled to Camden, NJ. Who does? But a Cortisone shot to the knee 72 hours earlier had me feeling stupid, confident, and lucky. Not sure if a Phish show qualified as "limited activity", but tequila would surely keep things on the level. A dead Stinkbug on the floor of the Ladies Room in the hotel we used as a carpool Park & Ride would serve as my Official Welcome to South Jersey. Welcome To South Jersey!

After a fantastic Wino pregame -> missing a turn and almost ending up in Philly, we instead wound up in the heart of Downtown Camden (which is worse?). At this moment I was happy that Weiss looks like a Narc. We survived the Scenic Route and eventually pulled into Lot 2, right across from the Susquehanna Bank Center. There was a definitely a strong Police presence--- perched Mobile Units and at least one HeliCopter overhead, but that could very well be Business As Usual in Camden. This still somehow seemed less oppressive than Holmdel. They looked bored with all of our non-stabbing-eachother-ness (wait til Fall Tour!).



The Po Po ask our neighbors to take down the EZ-Up.

People watching in the lot: Disco Johnny needs a boombox to pee. (pic courtesy of Weiss)

Lot Ginger.

Danny Freeballs

The Gabbagool Bros.

Yarrrlene

Meth Thom Yorke in Parachute Pants (pic courtesy of Weiss)


After a Panamanian drug mule style search at the Page side front gate, I was finally able to check out the venue. The view of Philly across the river is pretty fucking beautiful. There's a neato Battleship right over the fence. And the venue not only has a full bar-- but also a frozen margarita & daiquiri stand that uses actual tequila & rum (as opposed to Malt Liquor)! That is fantastic!




The Lawn was pretty cool (just as I'd heard). The pitch was not as steep as some other venues and we had a pretty great view of the stage from the spacious back on Fish side. Annnnd, once the show started, the sound was actually awesome back there. Totes chill. Didn't have to fight the crowd and the quality of the show was not sacrificed in the least. Sweeeet.

J. Wook?

Oh and they opened with ROCKY TOP, which was AWESOME, because ROCKY TOP IS AWESOME. What followed was a fucking stellar set I. Mikes > Hydrogen > Weekapaug got the place moving. A beautiful Stash. Top notch Guelah > Scent of a Mule. This was the Mike show! Awesome Scent. Fun Cavern. Then a dirty awesome Slothsome. And gorgeous Curtain. GREAT set. Yes.



I briefly tried to find people during setbreak, but just didn't have the capacity to continue such a Quest. What was more my speed at that moment, was seeing with my own two eyes that they do indeed sell cups of melted cheese for $2. You know, to dip your balls in.

DWD was hoppin'. Free rhymes with pee, but Mike managed to have a lot of fun with it, which made it interesting to me for the first time in a looong time, so that was nice. Possum was pretty rockin'. BBFCFM was excellent and featured Trey's mic waaaay taller than him, facing downwards, and Mike sitting on the ground with his mic facing downwards, above his head-- so they could both scream the words more chillingly. They were having a lot of fun--- which was pretty much the vibe of the whole show-- tons of fun happening onstage. Laughter, light-heartedness, cute, etc... Swept Away > Steep, slowed things down a bit. David Bowie was large. Julius was pretty fun, but at that moment, these two frat boys decided to stand really close to us and shout every word at the back of our heads. Huh. I had to move. Ew. Golgi > Fluffhead was good, but > Joy kind of depresses me and almost seemed like a letdown after such a solid show. It sort of felt like THIS. Bold As Love was a sweet Encore, but about halfway through we got a Jaded Old Skooler head start to the car.

Absolutely brilliant and beautiful lights all night-- Chris Kuroda on FIYAH!!!

Traffic out of Camden blew, but you really can't blame everyone for trying to leave at once, yah? Luckily, we had cookies to bide the time.


My Jersey Tour started out meh but ended strong. It was great to hang out with friends on Summer Tour. I'm happy they convinced me to hit Camden too. Definitely worth the trek. After the Holmdel shows I was kind of down on the band, but Camden reminded me why I go see The Phish. The setlist was scattered but that's what made it strong. I got to hear things I don't hear ALL THE FUCKING TIME AT EVERY SHOW I SEE. That makes me happy. No pee was flung, at least by me. Meth Thom Yorke however, probably can't say the same.

The Phish, 5/31, 6/1, & 6/10/11, All Spots Jersey: 8 HUZZAHS!

SETLIST
Friday, 06/10/2011
Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
Soundcheck: Halfway to the Moon
Set 1: Rocky Top, Mike's Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Stash, Tube > Guyute, Guelah Papyrus > Scent of a Mule, Cavern, The Sloth, The Curtain With
Set 2: Down with Disease, Free, Possum, Big Black Furry Creature from Mars, Swept Away > Steep, David Bowie, Julius, Golgi Apparatus > Fluffhead > Joy
Encore: Bold As Love

Notes: Trey teased the Theme from Rocky before Rocky Top and Pop Goes the Weasel before Down With Disease.

SLIDESHOWS & HI-RES GALLERIES:

HOLMDEL


CAMDEN



^ "The Jersey Tour", Copyright, Michael Weiss, 2011

cheap trick, poison, def leppard, 7/1/09, gsac, holmdel, nj

cheap trick, poison, def leppard, 7/1/09, garden state (PNC) arts center, holmdel, nj
Can someone please tell me why there are no signs to the multi-million $$$ Secaucus Junction Train Station "hub" off the NJ Turnpike? NO SIGNS. I'm talking to you, Jersey.

I found Erika and her crew out of sheer luck at a hidden train station off an unmarked exit off the Jersey Turnpike. Secaucus: the only proper place to begin such a bizarre adventure of arena rock madness. Here's some quick Turnpike word association: Swamp. Yellow. Glowy. Forever Daylight. Smelly. Black T Shirt. Hair Metal. Staten Island. But enough of that, we were on our way South to Exit 116- Holmdel, home of the fabulous Garden State Arts Center--- oh, what's that? PNC Bank has pissed all over the name? So it goes. For tonight was the night we would rock out to Cheap Trick, Poison, and Def Leppard.

Shit. We agreed to what and you have the emails to prove it? Very well then. A trek to Holmdel would at least be better than hauling out to Wantagh to see a triple-bill of cheese with no alcohol. In fact, that was my one stipulation- I would go to this show, if the venue served alcohol, because who in their right fucking mind would sit through this sober? Tickets were pretty pricey taboot, thusly we could only reasonably afford lawn admission.

Let's back the fuck up for a second. My very first concert when I was 13 years old was Def Leppard at the Brendan Byrne arena (now the Izod Center... Gross.). Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora got up and played Wanted Dead or Alive with them. It was in-the-round. It was fucking awesome. 2 years later I was already immersed in the jamband and indie scene, leaving arena rock in the dust. In maturity I've learned to embrace, rather than deny the cheese. I'm okay with it, but just like my 10 year HS reunion, for the most part it's a scene I'd rather avoid.

Holy fuck, the place was packed. Ask me if I was surpri--- YES, I WAS ACTUALLY SURPRISED THE PLACE WAS SO PACKED. I've seen this place less packed for Phish shows. How is that possible? Wow, there were a lot of black pickups. Anyways, we parked 10 feet from the parkway onramp, made vodka drinks, chilled for a few minutes, and then started the 5-10 minute walk through the woods* from the satellite lot to the ampitheater, cradling our red solo cups like they contained the only jesus-juice that could save us (because they did).



Aw, mannnnn. We only heard the last 3 Cheap Trick songs as we walked closer-- they sounded AWESOME and I was pretty disappointed we missed them. Cheap Trick are the muthafuckin' BOMB. In honor of having no pics to share, here is SURRENNNDAAAA! SURRENNDAAAA!


Rick Nielsen is sweating pure glycerin!
Don't ask where we hid our cameras. We went in. It was a weirder scene inside the gates. I chose to not wear my straw cowboy hat because I didn't want to look like a piece of leftover Hair Rock trash. Crazy accents, animal prints, and un-ironic denim jackets everywhere. But the venue is awesome and it's one of my favorite ampitheaters. People addicted to Jones Beach need to take a field trip to GSAC. Ha ha, SAC. It's closer to NYC than Jones Beach, takes half the time to get to, and they are not dry. Oh, not dry at all. Drunk, crazy, pickup-truck driving, black t shirt wearing people around every corner. Every once in a while I stray from my typical favored genre of indie rock into strange, dark, and clammy realms such as this. I know what to expect but that doesn't make it any less jarring.
"Jesus, the accents are incredible. Are they from Staten Island or the Shore?"
"I- I- I don't know."

Poison got onstage as the sun started to set-- but what will happen to us after dark? If you guessed "pyrotechnics" you were right! They were pretty conservative and totally entertaining with the fire until they got to Unskinny Bop, that's when they sort of blew their pyrotechnics load so-to-speak. Other than the fire, the band were also pretty solid. It was a high energy set, CC was a flailing lunatic on guitar, Bobby Dall kinda ruled, and Rikki Rockett still weirds me out but his drumming was-- well, he's Rikki Rockett, does anyone care? It's hard enough to take Bret Michaels seriously with all the eye makeup and the bad wig, but then he plugged the VH1 website and that's when I tasted bile in my mouth. Their rocky fun songs were much better than their limp-dick rock ballads, but that's just personal opinion. They sounded exactly how they should have sounded. That's good, right? It's what they do.




It's fair to say by the Def Leppard got on, the crowd was "rocked" (see what I did there?**). Their stage setup was pretty fly. There were 3 levels, a runway into the audience, and it was all a giant flat screen playing images & gfx***. Theatrical, big, flashy- it was very "them". They sounded great, all still spot-on, harmonies, guitar solos, great performers. The crowd was totally loving it. Phil Collen still doesn't like wearing shirts and spent literally, the entire set shirtless and in man-heels. He definitely has the Chuck Norris machine and spray tan in the bus. It was contagious as by the end Vivian lost his shirt too. Rick Savage went the bare chest under Sgt. Pepper jacket route, Joe Elliot had the denim jacket / t shirt combo going, and Rick Allen was (no joke) in a wife-beater****. Oh, but I love him anyway! There was a Union Jack sewn over the left arm-hole. How very Martha Stewart of him.




All 3 of the bands played many their "hits". There's no need to list them, is there? It was enjoyable. So, don't be shy, go see this tour if you want to, whoever you are out there. But for fuck's sake, get in early enough to see Cheap Trick. It almost gives the rest of the night credibility. Really.

I listened to God Street Wine on my ride home so I wouldn't get the Bends.

7.99 HUZZAHS! Great stuff. Entertaining. It is what it is. Might see it again in 5-10 years. Or 12 for good behavior.

SLIDESHOW and GALLERY




* another feature GSAC has that Jones Beach does not.
** if you did, you should be ashamed of (or impressed with?) yourself
*** I had to take a migraine pill.
**** wife-beater, tank top, whatever you want to call it- we all know what it is.

black crowes, 7/19/06 @ jones beach & 7/22 @ PNC, NJ

okay, i'm running waaaay behind on these reviews. but it's for a good reason- i'm gainfully employed again. woohoo. anyways, let's get to this.

black crowes, 7/19/06, jones beach, ny & 7/22/06, PNC garden state arts center, holmdel, nj

i wasn't originally planning on going to the jones beach show, but liane called me a few days before it happened with a bargain i couldn't refuse. she had 4 phatty tickets in the orchestra section but her ride bailed and she offered me a ticket in exchange for transportation... so since i wasn't working, i said HELLZ YEAH. but then the next day i got food poisoning. ohhhhh, the food poisoning i did have. i had a day to recover but i didn't want to bail because i didn't want her to have to miss the show! i was able to eat a bowl of white rice before the show and that made me happy.

no alcohol at jones beach--- still lame. i mean, i couldn't drink anything anyways, but the whole concept is fucking lame. we made our way to the seats-- and they were AWESOME. they were in the beginning of the raised section of seats- but they were right on the water. literally. on the beach. so every time liane looked at me, i was standing next to the water, and she'd just start laughing. the band was pretty good, the crowd wasn't that great though. the place wasn't packed at all (probably cuz it was a weeknight) and the band had no energy to feed off of. some of the songs were okay, but i definitely wasn't blown away. it was also a "greatest hits" show. they played most of their singles and i enjoy hearing them, but they didn't mix it up enough. the hammerstein shows really spoiled me i think.

however, i also was having trouble standing up... and sitting up. my muscles were so sore from puking for close to 24 hours that it felt like my rib cage was collapsing into my intestines. good times. it's hard to rock out when you need to be taking a nap.

mooooooooooooving on... 7/22 in jersey...

i had these tickets for like 4 months- heinzy and i had been looking forward to the tailgating and the celebrations for about the same time- i think we had planned either right before or right after our simultaneous BC vacations. brett was supposed to show up (but he didn't because he's a lame ass that is afraid of the rain). we convinced mr. cifarelli to join us and he was on the fence until he felt how wonderful the a/c in my car was. we got down to the parking lot and fought off the rainy blues for a while- and i hold firm my contention for the corn cob pipe. why anyone would want to subject themselves to the lacquered flavor headache inducing plastic and corn concoction, i don't know. but i digress.

we skipped out on drive by truckers and robert randolph. i don't know if i've seen dbt, i've heard some good things... but robert randolph (i'm preparing to be scorned) just doesn't do it for me. in all honesty, i get tired of him after about 5 minutes. yes, he's talented, but somehow it comes off to me as more along the lines of "musical wanking". let the flames begin!

we ran into the vh1 crew inside by the beer tent, only got to see them for a few minutes, but fuck it, the show was aboot to start. there was an immediate difference in the crowd (vs. the jones beach crowd). this place was about to erupt with energy. the bandshell was packed and the band was feeding off of it. was it the weekend? was it the sun finally emerging from the clouds and drying up the rain? or was it the BEER? well, the beer was plentiful. i was still afraid to drink cuz my body was still adjusting to normalcy. but the band rocked, it wasn't a "greatest hits" show, but more like a "classic favorites" show. it was more in line with the hammerstein shows from last year. good stuff.

of course always a topic of conversation- when will a new crowes album come out? well, now that chris robinson and kate hudson have officially split, i gotta say- it's quite possible there will be a new and absolutely KICK ASS crowes album very soon. all that emotional rage has to be funneled somewhere! rock it!

so, let's see... jones beach show- a lame: 5.5 HUZZAHS... pnc show- a rockin' 8.5 HUZZAHS!

7/1/06, GRAB (and Phil Lesh), PNC (Garden State) Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ

you know what's great? i've noticed that less people read my concert reviews than read my inane ramblings. what's worse? what does that say about me? but more importantly, what does that say about YOU?

regardless. after picking up the affable lauren simms and forcing her to go to amish market with me, we headed down the parkway to exit 117- the (pnc) garden state arts center. once there, parked and baked in the hot hot sun. oh, and drank beers. some guys pulled into the spot across from us and proceeded to play God Street Wine's '$1.99 Romances'. it was a good spot. it was a really good spot.

we slowly made contact with the people we were meeting up with in various stages of travel. what made things a little difficult is that we just missed out on parking in the first lot- so i didn't get to park anywhere near: mattypie or 4dice. however, we were in the same lot as loughrey and we were able to snag the spot next to ours and reserve it for brett and his friend zeke. when they finally showed up (something about getting lost and ending up in camden- sounds fun, eh?) brett pulled a sandwich about the size of his forearm out of a cooler and ate the whole damn thing. for fun we put some meat on the pavement to see if it would frizzle. it started to sweat.

eventually loughrey lumbered over to us and... well, first we drank more... and then we motivated to walk over to the main lot, but by the time we got there everybody wanted to go in. unfortunately i didn't get to hear any of the benevento russo duo set, but i did see them at moe.down a few years ago and they were great. also, it doesn't hurt that both the guys are hot. joe russo actually kinda looks like mike ouweleen. dorks unite!

they were selling daquiris & margaritas for $8 and something called "the guitar" for $13. it looked like a twist of the two. i had a lemon italian ice for $4. we climbed up the stairs and found a nice spot on the lawn. phil lesh was playing. meh. joan osborne sang. that only made me angry. there were a *lot* of deadheads in the crowd. like, a **lot** of them.

but then, the set i went to see- GRAB. mike Gordon, joe Russo, trey Anastasio, & marco Benevento. i was really hoping to see a mixture of phish tunes, trey tunes, and sick jams. trey basically apologized upfront and said, "thanks for being patient with the new tunes". so, yeah, we got a nice tease for a little bit but i don't think he played any full phish tunes? i can't remember. mike sounded great. and the B&R were awesome too. they did some great harder jamming, they are definitely still learning to play together, but it was a fun set. some of the spacier trey tunes were a little lame- but altogether, way better than any of the trey solo shows i've seen in years. (the tsunami benefit doesn't count, that was a moe. show- trey was a special guest).

so, altogether- maybe 7 HUZZAHS? i dunno. i was somehow expecting more. to be blown away maybe.