Music

20 Years Later: Phish 1995-06-17 Nissan Pavilion

My fourth Phish show (much anticipated after my third, 1994-12-29) marked the first of that Summer for me. Phish was coming to Northern Virginia to our brand new shed and we were ready to make it a great time. I can’t begin to tally the number of folks I knew at this show and, among them, how many were seeing their first show. Our tickets were acquired via PTBM and a large local crew gathered to pre-game at the home of some friends a short drive from the venue.

It was a brilliantly hot, early summer day with blue skies and few clouds. Hydration and sunscreen were top requirements. Other requirements being fulfilled, we hopped into our rides and attempted to get into the venue. It being new territory for all of us, we only had a general idea of how to approach the spot. This, coupled with construction on Interstate 66 and a general degree of befuddlement that sometimes accompanies such events, led to a hectic trip into the lots. Fortunately, we had our trusty tape of 1989-05-28 (set two) blasting in Modi’s car. This helped us keep cool as we zigzagged through the cones and chaos of Northern Virginia’s roadways.

The parking lot was a dust bowl. While the venue had been completed for the season, the lots had clearly remained an afterthought. The absence of order and landscaping could not dissuade us, but the hot moonscape of the parking lot held little attraction once we encountered the heavy security presence, so we made our way into the show a bit early. Continue reading →

My First Grateful Dead Show: 24 Years Ago

It’s been 24 years since my first Grateful Dead show. This piece, describing that day, first appeared on my website fourteen years ago. I have revised it somewhat but it’s mostly unaltered.

RFK 1991-06-14

It began, actually, as most any other day in my high school career. But, as I lay in bed, ignoring my alarm clock and blinking the sleep from my eyes; an unsettling thought crossed my mind. It entered, echoed and hung there a bit like an early-morning winter fog.

“The Grateful Dead are playing tonight.”

This alone was not too remarkable as they played on quite a few nights of the year, even in 1991. On this particular night, however, they were playing in my town and I was not going.

I’d never been to a Dead show before; nor any concerts, in fact. This was due to various parental reasons and the fact that I had never found anything so worth rebellion that I’d test my parents crazed midnight curfew. So, on this day, I knew the Dead were in town and I shrugged it off and let it go. Clamoring downstairs, I threw Workingman’s Dead on the record player and commenced my pre-school ritual. June 14 marked the last day of school for my Junior year. I ate my daily frozen-waffle breakfast, hopped into my (Dad’s) Camry and headed to school. Continue reading →

20 Years Ago: Unbroken Chain

Keeping the clock wound back to twenty years ago, I could be found, in the early morning hours of March 19, 1995, collecting my friend Joel and my girlfriend from their homes and aiming my ’83 Datsun Sentra toward Philadelphia. Several of our friends had gone up two days earlier for the Grateful Dead shows but, due to wanting to keep my job (as mentioned in a previous post), I had stayed behind to work. But, not on Sunday. We aimed to arrive early and scour the lots for tickets to that weekend’s third (and ultimately final) show at the Spectrum. It would be only the second time I’d gone to a Grateful Dead show without a ticket in-hand. It would also be the last.

It was still dark when we left Northern Virginia. I don’t like to be late for anything. The air was chilly with few clouds as we crossed the Susquehanna River Bridge in Maryland at sunrise. It didn’t warm up too much. We arrived in Philly for breakfast, laid back in a nearby park, and waited for the masses to arrive so that we could begin the process of asking each and every one of them for their extra tickets. This is a process that I never enjoyed and always sought to avoid. Walking through rows of parking lots with a handmade sign, shouting my hope to purchase or barter an exchange for an extra ticket. We met up with our friends. Only one of the three had gotten into a show so far. None of them had tickets for this Sunday show. Things were looking grim but I kept looking. Continue reading →

All The Years Combine

Twenty years ago, I was a twenty-year-old Deadhead with no worries beyond growing my small record collection and obtaining tickets for the next Grateful Dead shows. I’d been seeing them for nearly four years, listening for maybe eight, and I’d just come home from the Mardi Gras run in Oakland, California. My t-shirts were strictly music-related, my trousers corduroy, and my hair was a disaster. I had a girlfriend and a 1983 Datsun Sentra. Both were good enough. My life plans involved seeing any and every amazing concert possible; primarily, but not exclusively, Grateful Dead and Phish; and writing about them for any audience that might have eyes for such things. What could go wrong?

I only managed one show on the Grateful Dead’s East Coast Spring Tour that year. Money was tight after my California trip and I was disinclined to quit my record store job, so work took a degree of precedence. After all, Summer Tour mail-order would come around soon enough. But, I had the fortune to be inside the Philly Spectrum when they played the first live “Unbroken Chain”. That’s the way things went. You never knew which show would be the show. You went when you could and enjoyed what you found.

Dance. Wash¹. Repeat.

June rolled around and we caught some Phish shows, followed by the annual Dead shows at RFK Stadium and a one-nighter in Pittsburgh. We mail-ordered for Grateful Dead Fall Tour. My 21st birthday coincided with the scheduled Boston run and GDTS set us up with decent seats. Phish mail order soon followed for what was to become a legendary tour. Life was good. Even when it wasn’t. Who could complain about such riches? Continue reading →

2014: A Few Favorite Records

In this year-closing time frame of lists, reviews, recaps, and rehashes, I’ve gone back and forth on the notion of providing a favorite albums post for a variety of reasons. These range from vanity to the desire to operate in any mode that counters my hungry ego. I have done year-end lists before, and upon reading them, realized that I’m not qualified to tell anyone what’s the “best” anything. Foremost among the arguments against is the simple fact of scope. I’m not a professional music critic. By that, I intend not to imply that the pros have greater authority due to their receipt of compensation, but rather that they have the time and inclination to listen to a far broader selection of releases in the course of a year.

That said, I do listen to a lot of new music. I certainly miss out on plenty of it, but the years don’t pass me by the way they did in the 90’s. Then, I skimmed past the pop or rock hits of the day (remember when rock music WAS pop?) on my way to the classic rock station in between Grateful Dead or Phish tapes. Now, I buy albums in wife-aggravating quantities. It’s still hard to keep up but the rewards are rich.

Woods – With Light And With Love (Woodsist (072) 2014)

If you peruse my previous lists, you’ll find one artist prominantly mentioned time and time again: Woods. Their 2014 offering, “With Light And With Love”, constantly finds its way to my turntable. Jeremy Earl and Jarvis Taveniere continue to craft brilliant songs with melodies that seem to already inhabit my heart before the first needle drop. They tidily blend broiling tension into blissful Harrison-esque slide riffs while Earl’s upper register vocals deliver lyrics that kick the heart up into the brain. At this point, they’re on a run of albums few artists have matched since the 70s.

But they’re not alone in commanding my pre-ordering loyalties. White Fence moved to the big time (in indie label terms) with the release of “For The Recently Found Innocent” on Drag City Records. It’s likely no coincidence that Tim Presley’s sometimes collaborator (and recordist for this record), Ty Segall has put out a number of great albums via Drag City. Here, we get more of what Presley does best: bent melodies, sharp lyrics, fuzz boxes, and a disconcerting sense of time. This time, he’s moved on from his bedroom four-track to Segall’s home-studio eight track but little is lost in the upgrade. If you’ve ever taken my recommendation on White Fence before, you know what to do now. If you haven’t, this is the right time to jump in.

Speaking of Ty Segall, his album for Drag City this year, “Manipulator” is a garage rawk classic. Since its release, I’ve constantly gone back when I want to turn up the room and throw down with some high energy awesome.

But it’s not always time to rock out. Continue reading →

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