Show Recap: Jones Beach - Night 3 - Drenched

There is only one current band that I'd stand in the rain to see. And that's Phish. It rained. It poured. It pissed and dumped on all of us. Think Forest Gump type of rain, rain that is coming around from all angles! It was nasty but we quickly accepted the mission. Phish in the rain.

We were 90% prepared. I didn't think it would rain that much, that hard, and for that long. It tapered off into showers and stopped for about a ten minute period, but for the most part, it sucked.

However, despite the inclement weather and the uncooperative skies, the band delivered. There were a few flubs and a handful of low spots, but overall they played more consistently than the previous night. And the second set? Near perfection on paper that was well executed on stage.

Due to the torrential downpour, our pre-lot hijinks were limited to sitting in the car and standing under a easy-up of some friends of the Joker and BTreotch we by luck ran into. They were selling ponchos for $5 when the retail price was $1. Talk about disaster capitalism at its finest. The Joker half-heartedly sold t-shirts. It was too wet to walk around so he held up one under the tarp. He had quite a number of sales. I was more than impressed with his product. Click here to see his funky fresh LOST lot t-shirts.

Anyway, Bruce eventually arrived and we enjoyed a wet pre-party as he sold the last of his extra ponchos. As I told everyone, little Chinese girls made those ponchos by hand for 3 cents a day, so they could used to Phish concerts.

I saw more spacekids getting busted by the cops. As someone said in the Maybe So, Maybe Not trailer- "We aren't hippes, we are the kids from space." They wrote plenty of tickets for possession. Even though Shakedown and the lot was not as crowded due to the rain, there was still heavy police activity.

Phish 6.5.09, Jones Beach, NY

Set I: Wilson, Buried Alive > Kill Devil Falls, AC/DC Bag, I Didn't Know, My Friend My Friend, Ya Mar, Theme from the Bottom, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Split Open and Melt

Set 2: Down with Disease> Twist*> Piper> Backwards Down the Number Line> Free, Twenty Years Later#, 2001> Slave

Encore: Day in the Life

* with Oyo Como Va (Originally by Tito Puente and also covered by Santana) teases.
# first time play

Another consecutive sober show for me. No party favors and not a drip of booze. I'll spare you the flowery fluff job of the Phish and cut to the chase. Wilson pleased the drenched crowd. Buried Alive made me all warm inside. Thought they would go into Possum but that was just wishful thinking. AC/DC Bag was well received. I had one of those existentialist moments during I Didn't Know where I realized that I was standing in the rain and listening to a fat 40+ year old guy in a muumuu play a vacuum cleaner. The highlight of the set? A smoking hot Boogie On. The boys brought the cow funk. Melt was rocking at times but parts of the jam lost me. They flirted with the dark side a few times and they didn't veer off into a dissonant jam like they did in Hampton. It struck me as indecisive playing more than anything else. But hey, I fuckin' dig every second of it.

Boogie On and Melt on Friday and Ghostalope on Thursday. Phish is getting into the habit of making a statement to close out the first set.

I hung out with Kid Dynamite during the set break and rains died down, but that was just temporary. The rain picked up as the band re-took the stage and intensified through Piper.

So second set? I dug everything except the new songs. At set break I had four songs on my wish list... Piper, MoMa, 2001, and Slave. I put the vibe out there and Phish picked up on it. They played three of those four. Highlights were Slave and Twist, especially the Santana-laden licks of Oye Como Va, a song originally performed by Tito Piente. Latin Jazz in the rain. I can dig that.

We danced through the bad weather. I gave up on trying to smoke though a monsoon. When I couldn't get anything light or to stay lit, I just looked at the rain pelt my hands and catch in the lights. The rain and the music made it special.

Not perfect. A little sloppy at times. Tight as fuck other times. The band delivered. Two shows down. Looking forward to Great Woods.

On my way out, a tweaker sold me a chicken burrito and I helped the Joker sell some stickers. ABC - Always be closing.