how did jocelyn take over the phish vegas thread?.....
ha. nice penetration!
heres what i have up to the moment....and i still havent had a chance to relisten to any of the shows.
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So phish in Vegas has finally almost expelled itself from my system and all i can say is that Las Vegas is the most insane place in this country and possibly the most insane anywhere in the world when phish is in town. the whirlwind began for me on wednesday 4-14 when i arrived at the mandalay bay at 9am. i didnt get checked in until noon, but i did get to meet this chick amy from the pt board with whom i was planning on hooking up with to get one of the suzy greenberg shirts her and her kidz came with.
once i got checked in, i unpacked took a bath in the soaking tub, a rinse in the shower, and then a most enjoyable cigarette in my room overlooking the strip and the desert all in one fucking amazing view.
i then hit the hard rock cafe for a burger, which turned out to be 1 of the only 3 full meals i had out there. i did finish my first vegas meal with a nice slice of key lime pie and a cup of coffee before i cracked the first of what would end up as 10 million budweisers i would consume on this run.
10 beers into the 10 mill, i met up with gray and todd at the luxor, which is the hotel right next to mandalay bay. there is a tram that runs 24-7 between mandalay>the luxor and > the excalibur. in all 5 days other than going to the shows, i never made it past the luxor tram stop and the crazy labrynth sarchophagus that is the luxor. and the luxor was like a den for the heads. it was a great scene. i guess the whole scene at the luxor must have pushed all the whores over to the island bar at the mandalay bay because if i see one more atlantic city hooker in las vegas, i will begin to lose my faith in this society. but i digress...
we waited for the arrival of leith, on 4-15, for as long as we could before we were drawn to the lot. it must have been 6:30/quarter to 7ish when we left the luxor for the show. we were so excited to get out there we took off onto the streets of vegas and ended up catching a cab outside the tropicana about a mile or so up the strip.
i didnt buck the tigers odds on trying to bring a stash on the plane with me, but literally 2 minutes after walking into the lot, my concerns on this matter melted away as was the afternoon of this day. the rush to get inside was hectic but not frenzied (a la albany 12-1-03). some of grays pals were saving seats for us about 10 or so rows off the floor, back of the house page side. nice seats and a great way to start off the first night. preshow i twisted up a decent bone with some fantastic westcoast lot bud and passed that shit all over.
good and stoned the lights go down and fucking like a flashback to hartford 2000, buried alive.... then a real nice bag. i was still back in hartford. the limb by limb was not where i wanted things to go, but it was played well according to my pulse. when old home place started thats when i realized that i was out in fucking las vegas for 3 nights of phish. things started flowing at this point. and flow they did. the moma dance was my get the fuck down tune of the night. i was being called to my spot pageside and high. i never made it there this night.
i missed roggae in transition. i am bummed cause this is one of my favorite tunes to burn to at a show. it did turn out to be a good time to move, because i remembered that the roggae lights are a georgous compliment.
let me stop here to say that this whole run was tainted for some with the absense of chris kuroda. from what i saw however, most were ready for 3 legendary nights of music. there was such a mellow low, but not down, vibe in the thomas and mack on 4-15. through the whole show this vibe seemed to overtake. However it grew to an awesome feeling for me. it felt that the mostly mellowness of this evening\'s showgoers was a collectively subconscious "moment of silence" for the absent lighting master.
i ended up sky high in the midst of rows of empty seats high behind the stage leaning page side of course. water in the sky is a fave of mine and keept the grassy feeling going. All of These Dreams is a nice ballad, had a white spotlight in my face for this whole tune. everywhere i moved to avoid it...it was there. Stash>Timber would close out the first set. I have been wanting a Timber and it was nice to get right out of a lighter Stash.
