Bonnaroo, Phish, and the Art
Sitting high up in these bleachers, high above the the sweating drinking raging crowds with their glowsticks and pumping fists, all pressed against one another with others lying on the wet and muddied ground, the scent of beer, pizza, bodies all intermingling – high above it was good. it gave me a chance to enjoy the simple perspective of the music as the rainbow colored lights swooped over the crowds.
Hey man, i turned to adam, theses seats are pretty good.
He pointed to my wristband. They’re for people who know people.
I had made it for the last night of Phish’ s two nights . They’d played on Friday night, Bruce Springsteen played on Saturday night and now, Sunday night they were back on stage. Violet had come to see the first hour of the show then split off to take care of our vending booth and I was there to enjoy my turn. Phish had played some classics through the first set that I missed. As soon as I showed up tho, they crashed down the ending of Antelope and invited out Bruce Springsteen. I’m no fan of the guy, it’s no secret. They ended their set with Glory Days, rocking it out. Maybe it was good and there was likely some rocking stuff in there. But it just wasn’tt part of my vibe…. Then there was a long long set break and, upon their return… they meandered through some noodley crap (except for Number Line, not a terrible song).
What is this crap? I asked Adam.
It’s Phish, he replied, a tad annoyed. When did you stop listening to them anyhow?
i never listen to anything after 1997, I replied, over the music, except one song – First Tube.
They morphed into Prince Caspian…. I recall that, ten years earlier, when this stuff had started coming on more in their sets, I’d been sitting down with my friends bemoaning this, at the time. new direction for the music.
Then, suddenly, they lifted themselves up out of that meandering pit and played First Tube one of the songs on my list that i wanted to see – a freaking great rocking song – and I was reminded why I love this band and, also, how they inspired my artwork with Trey’s laser bam intense guitar. But that was the last song of the set – sort of an ‘o yeah, we sorta can rock too’. After a quick break there was a Suzy Greenberg into Tweezer Reprise encore and it was over.
I decided that the Phish I knew back in 1995 was never the Phish I’d get to see again. I mean, they’re good musicians and, when they stick to their pre-97 stuff, they are pretty great. But I’m not a rock’n'roll guy and, typically, I don’t really dig jam bands much anymore – but I do like Phish as they’ve always had something for me – at least those old shows that i like to listen to. When I listen to rock – it’s spaced in between lots of other stuff and, typically, it’s really just a pretty small selection – the classics like Pink Floyd, a little Jimi Hendrix, a select few from Cream and the Rolling Stones… but then anything new is more in the guise of what might be called Alternative, Indie Rock, whatever… and in there is a lot of LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead, Spoon, the Pixies and, somewhere between the two genres, a lot of Talking Heads.
Alas, Adam reminded me that i was there, ultimately, to share my artwork. We had a vending booth that was bedecked in red and copper satins, red velvet, some brownish fabric walls and my artwork hanging all over – prints of the Evolution and Illumination series’, and some others. People loved it. So many people riding the stories of the paintings and their colors and lines higher and higher… That was rewarding and a good time. We met lots of great people, had lots of inspiring conversations, etc… It was a lot of work, a lot of fun, not too much mud… And now, at last, it’s over and we can get back to California where we have all sorts of things planned for the next month. We only do one or two festivals a year and this one seems to’ve been it. If we’re going to choose one, we hope for it to be a good one – a big one with a wide cross section of people and if you happen to’ve been there and we happened to’ve met – then thanks for adding to a great experience!