The Joker's Posters: Phish Coventry (2004)

Phish Coventry by Jim Pollock (2004). Framed 20x30

I recently bought my very own house in Denver and finally have gotten the posters I have collected over the years framed. I will be posting a series explaining about the posters I own in an attempt to (1) encourage you to get your own collection going, and (2) to reminisce a bit about the memories that come back as I look at the posters.

I thought it would be appropriate to start with the first one, Coventry. This poster I ordered before going to Coventry through the Phish web site. There have been so many opportunities for me to buy a Phish poster that I passed up and regretted, so when this one was on sale I immediately ordered one. I was going to be damned if I missed out on another Phish poster.

The big problem I have with posters from shows/festivals is this: When I am having the best time at a show or a festival I am never thinking about or in any shape to buy and take care of a poster. Posters are fragile and are not well suited for the spun out. Posters get crushed and bent. The things I buy after an awesome show are usually food, drugs and beer. I always feel odd buying a poster before a show, I feel like I am setting my expectations too high for a show or will jinx the show if I buy a souvenir in advance. As I have assembled my collection this past week I am really amazed that I have as many as I do. I see cool ones on EBay from great shows I was at for way more than I want to spend and wish that I bought one when I had a chance instead of buying a grilled cheese and a PBR.

The Coventry poster really makes me miss Phish almost every time I look at it. It is the end of an era. I met Trey in October 2006 and brought this poster for him to sign. He spelled my name wrong. There is some sort of imperfect energy coming from the poster...the festival was part disaster, I get Trey to sign it and he misspells my name. In a way it represents how great life can be, and how things often do not go as planned and we get surprised...which is a way that I also sum up Phish.

Visually I would say I like it overall. I like the colors and I think it is interesting that it has an image of a man walking. I can't say that I saw any fire breathing cows at Coventry but whatever.

For this poster, and most of my collection, it is an odd size and I did not want to spend the money to get it custom framed. I simply watched out for a good sale of a basic frame it would fit into (20x30) and cut some matte board for the back and mounted it. Pretty simple and easy, overall it cost about $30 to get this one in a frame and on the wall.