Coventry Journal on the way....

Long Live PHISH

Here is a nice group of shots of the stage and venue area from a redsident of the area. He also has a great photo site of the event located here.
Here is the beginning of my tale...culled from my tour journal and my oh-so-fertile memory. More to come later.

Note: This exploration is a lengthy, quasi-Gonzo-styled piece. It is merely a recollection of moments and incidents almost as they occurred chronologically, simultaneously and spontaneously. Some of the content is legally damning, stylistically liberal and overly emotive, but what the hell- life is for living at 23! In other words, this is a snapshot of a wonderful five-day excursion into Vermont that knows few legal and reasonable boundaries. Not many conservatives tread this trail, so perhaps the experience is a half-hearted trailblazer in certain respects. Perhaps not. You’ve been warned.

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coventry (n) – a state of ostracism or exclusion from society of one’s fellows.
- Webster’s
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Preface (6-24-04)

So apparently, Phish is done. These will be the last two shows in which I put my life on hold for five days to prepare for the great pilgrimage.- the Phish festival. I will be traveling with Judd in a Volkswagon Jetta. The ticket was $168, and I got it two days before they sold out. Tix were on E-Bay for $500, $600, even $900. Justin Time. We plan to skip the Camden show to avoid the traffic like last year in Limestone. The gig is at the Newport State Airport in Northern Kingdom. It has all the makings of a grand finale. I am psyched!

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In the beginning…God created STORMS
8-12-04 – including drive from Philadelphia, PA to Newport, VT

We packed and left Philly at about 5:30 pm. Shitty storms rode on top of us for the length of the initial leg. There were devastating thunderstorms surrounding NYC, and lightning struck a building across the Turnpike (heading northbound approaching the Jamesburg exit), maybe 500 feet from our car. A good omen, to be sure.

Luckily, this show was about 250 miles closer than the Limestone shows last summer. Driving up to the top of the United States takes longer than you might think! We spent the entire night driving, and even got a free tank of gas from a closed gas station on the way up! It was the only break we had caught that day.

We arrived at the day parking facility (a field) at 3:30 am. We hung out and rested for a spell, and later attempted sleep in the car as others slowly and steadily trickled in. Rain was also beginning to trickle, and blanketed the newly cut horse grass with a fine white dew. Sleep was on and off for about five hours, but it happened in there somewhere. There were people blasting their favorite Phish concerts, their Led Zepplin, their own groups' CDs all night- it was truly a feast for the open-minded ear (or whatever organ you were tuned in with).
Awakening to the pitter-patter of rain, we summoned our energy and spent the first three hours of our day filing out of the day parking. It was a Godless, fruitless mess at the gate – three or four vehicles had already become digested by the mud, and this was the first 1,000 of an estimated 75,000 to attend. Shit. While being among the first to get in seems at first to be a true gift, it would later prove to be demonically fatal and detrimental to our mental health.
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And also - Color is good!