Phish reunion wrap-up

Photo: Jay Paul, NYT

Those of you who shampoo regularly may or may not be aware that the much-hyped Phish reunion went down over the weekend in Hampton, Virginia, and apparently lived up to expectations. The Times dished out a synopsis in yesterday’s edition. Some highlights (including a shoutout to the Burghtown):

When Phish announced in September that it would reunite and play three concerts here, the news instantly rekindled the Internet-fueled Phish fan network. Within days of the announcement, even before tickets went on sale, every hotel within at least 20 miles was booked solid.
...

“I was 5 years old when Jerry Garcia died, and 13 when Coventry happened, so I’ve been waiting all my life to come to a show like this,” Ben Cooper, 18, a high school senior from Knoxville, Tenn., said on Saturday night. Mr. Cooper said his family had pooled $900 to buy him tickets as a combined graduation and birthday present.
...

“You could offer me $20,000, and I wouldn’t walk away from these shows,” Olen Green, a 38-year-old truck driver from Pittsburgh, said as he sat in the first row of the balcony on Friday night. Mr. Green said he had paid $1,265 for his three nights’ tickets. “People say, ‘Oh, why are you going to all three shows?’ But it’s really just like one event.”

And those prices weren’t for luxury box seats. No such thing here. In an era of high-tech stadiums and fancy amenities, Hampton Coliseum is among the great old-school rock arenas. One of the few halls of its size still to offer full general-admission seating with an open floor, Hampton is known to rock fans as crowded, sweaty, stinky, smoky, loud and in every respect intense. Leave your seat without a friend to watch it? It’s gone.

You can read the full article here, and check out the weekend's setlists here.

They'll be at Star Lake in June. Thankfully, I'll be there too. Here they are jamming out "Mike's Song" on Friday night:

Mike's Song 03.07.09 from Jesse Borrell on Vimeo.