Phish Coventry Media Update (Hope everyone made it in time)

[DocEllis70]

Pretty emotional time in Coventry. Stressful, tiring, exciting and muddy. That place truly was destroyed by the rain before we got there. cars would drive in through the one entrance and sink right into mud.. had they planned for this it would have been better but theres only so much they could do i think. As for us..we jumped out of line after about  7hours of sitting on 91 getting stoned and drunk as possible and we went to a camp site (someones back yard) about 2 miles away, left our truck and hitchhiked into the venue. it was the best decision all weekend.
         
The music...deffinatley not the tightest or best we\'ve seen Phish, but isnt that why they\'re stopping. First day/night i think people were feeling so lucky to be there, including myself, that the quality of the songs didnt really get to me, until that awful Wedge or when Trey was talking about when he wrote Bowie to give phish a unique sound and then preceeded to hack it up. oh well. lots of things floating around about trey and his condition..i dont know if he really just doesnt give practice as much care or if hes just wrecked on stage and isnt playing the notes. Then you see them take off during Piper and you wonder how one could be doped up and still rippin like that..although Jerry did it for 30 years so i guess its possible. Either way, the people inside that place for the most part were all helpin each other out, gettin people out of the mud and feeling a part of something real special once it came down to that last set. And Ill admit right now i deffinatley choked up a bit when Page was streaming tears during Velvet Sea and they did the final extended bow. No band could ever do or replace what phish has in the mere 25 times or so i have seen them.

[leith]

Glad you had fun in the mud Jon.

[DocEllis70]

SIDE NOTE:  For some reason everyone there was convinced Dave Mathews Santana Willie Nelson Shania Twain and Danny Devito were all gonna be there.. Lots of people would ask me if i heard about the guests and every time i said \'who?\' everyone rattled off the same 5 names. i think the idiot dj on \'the bunny\' started the rumor or something. he was a real jack ass

[jefft]

Danny Devito was there..he\'s a phan!

[Stephengencs]

Tansley....I was wondering what your story was.....

Give us the straight dope kid......

Did you end up finding Finny, Jen, Jer......??

[ChrisPitch]

Phish\'s final performance was unquestionably the worst three-set show I\'ve ever heard. It made the Great Woods and Camden shows that preceded it seem like comparative classics. I truly feel sorry for the "devoted fans" who missed Camden by skipping it (that\'s devotion, huh?) to get jump on Coventry, only to bear witness to a pedestrian set list and a zillion fuck ups, virtually every one of them courtesy of Trey Anastasio, who apparently decided to get the jump on his solo career by completely isolating himself from Mike, Fish and Page during Sunday\'s show. If the goal of Trey and Phish in their decision to quit was to avoid becoming a "nostalgia act," then they were clearly one show too late in accomplishing said task.

By the end of the simulcast, I was thankful to have been spared the horror and boredom of viewing Phish\'s final notes in person. The Phish organization left a putrid taste in the mouth of me and thousands of other fans with their disregard for people\'s money, time, travel and effort; their lack of an apology or explanation about the traffic ordeal during the show; and of course, their lackluster performance. A band that has accomplished as much as Phish has deserved better for themselves in their swan song. The same could be said of their fans, who begged for a second encore, only to be left at the alter yet again.

I feel that over the last five years Phish lived off its reputation and took for granted its ability and situation, for which any person in the creative arts would gladly trade their left brain.

Chris "Pitch" Piccirillo

36 shows

10/23/96-8/12/03

[leith]

Originally posted by ChrisPitch


I feel that over the last five years Phish lived off its reputation and took for granted its ability and situation, for which any person in the creative arts would gladly trade their left brain.

Chris "Pitch" Piccirillo

 

Totally agree.

[boombox]

You know, when I heard trey and co were calling it a day, I was a bit bummed I\'d never got the chance to see them. For me, they were THE band of the late 80s and I bought every album there was on import (even the weird and wondeful SIKET Disc and Trey\'s first solo album), paying double normal UK prices.

But then again, I started to lose interest in them just before the "hiatus". SOTG had some great moments, but Farmhouse was only Ok in parts - the writing was on the wall then for me, to the extent that when Round Room came out, I didn\'t bother to buy it. Also live shows from this last period never seemed to have the **** factor earlier shows had.

Found myself listening to the biscuits, sci and then, pb, rather than phish - in fact, I can\'t remember the last time I played a phish cd or show. However, Coventry hardly seems to be the way to go out - the weather was well beyond there control I know, but if Trey\'s playing was even worse than it has been of late, it seems from what everyone is saying, they did us all a favour by splitting up while we can still remember the great years.

Guess I\'ll have to wait for the reunion tours!!

[boombox]

I know my above post seems to take into account the majority view that the end was coming for a while and that 08/15 was not a great Phish show to end their career. However, just seen on etree that the show is up to BT with 1000+ seeding or leeching. Is it really THAT bad a performance or is it worth downloading for the "last show" value? More to the point, has anyone here got it yet to comment on quality/performance.

Thanks in advance.

[leith]

I listened to the show on the web and though there were a few moments worth of pure bliss, this show is only worth the "last show " value. IMO

[Gfunk]

i havn\'t heard a recording of it yet, but having been there, second night ripped. mikes groove opener, nasty down with disease, an emotional wading in the velvet sea, piper,wilson. of course the main reason to get this show is the last show value and it really doesn\'t stack up well against older shows, or even earlier shows from this years summer tour. i still think this was a great show at times and despite treys fucking things up i know i will enjoy having this show on disc.

[freddiewaht]

by far and away the absolute worst sounding phish show ive ever heard...instead of going out in a blaze of glory,on a high note,they did the opposite and embarrased themselves.trey should be embarrased to show his face in front of phish fans...mikes grove opener was as sloppy as ever...wilson disgusting....trey seek help now!!!!!prescription drugs are #1 supposed to be prescribed to you,which i doubt trey needs oxycontin for any reason and #2 ive never read on a prescription bottle to crush up and sniff these pills..sorry to hear it trey!

[davepeck]

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/-thisweek/col/localmatters.html

      Phish or Foul

      Last month’s farewell Phish shows in Coventry were plagued by torrential rains, treacherous mud bogs and a 25-mile traffic jam that turned Interstate 91 into a parking lot. As if the swan song for the Vermont-based jam band wasn’t already enough of a mess — for organizers and fans alike — it now appears that some concertgoers may have also been exposed to sewage sludge that was spread on the site just 10 months earlier.

      About 66 acres of the 600-acre festival site at Newport State Airport were used for the disposal of municipal sludge from the city of Newport’s wastewater treatment plant, according to information provided by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. Approximately 1.2 tons of sludge per acre were injected eight inches deep into the soil in a process known as “biosolid application.”

      Ordinarily, humans aren’t allowed onto sludge-treated fields for at least one year. The DEC first learned of the sludge last spring when the city of Newport and the festival organizer, Great Northeast Productions, contacted the agency. “We consulted with appropriate state officials regarding this, and secured a permit from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources allowing us limited use of those areas during the event,” explains Great Northeast President Dave Werlin in a written statement to Seven Days. “To the best of our knowledge, we were in full compliance with that permit at all times prior to and during the event.”

      Christine Thompson, director of the DEC’s Wastewater Management Division, confirms that the DEC directed organizers to designate that area for day-use parking only. “Otherwise, public access to that land was supposed to be restricted,” Thompson says. “There was not supposed to be any camping or hanging around on that particular acreage.”

      But two environmental groups that learned of the sludge aren’t convinced. “We all know how festivals go, especially the Phish concert,” says Lindsey Hodel of the Montpelier-based Toxics Action Center. “There was a lot of flooding and tents ended up being pitched on the day-use parking areas.”

      Toxics Action Center and the Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the DEC seeking more data about what was spread and how much. Although sludge is not considered “hazardous waste” by the state or federal government, both groups oppose biosolid application because sludge often contains high concentrations of human pathogens, heavy metals, PCBs, dioxins and other potentially toxic components. Those compounds can not only contaminate nearby wells and groundwater, both groups say, but can also pose a serious threat to human and animal health.

      Exposure to class B biosolids, the most common form of municipal sludge and the kind spread in Coventry, has been linked to a host of health problems, including skin rashes, eye and respiratory-tract irritations, infections, gastrointestinal problems and flu-like symptoms. A 2002 report by the National Academy of Sciences notes that contact with sludge can even be lethal. In 1995, for example, two Pennsylvania youths died after contracting staph infections linked to a pathogen found in a sludge field near their homes.

      Toxics Action Center and VPIRG are concerned that some fans may have camped or walked barefoot through sludge-treated fields. A medic who worked at the concerts, who asked to remain anonymous, reports that he treated “thousands” of concertgoers with a wide range of foot injuries, including blisters, lacerations and the early stages of “trench foot.” The medic expressed concern about the difficulty of keeping those wounds clean and dry in conditions that often included calf-deep mud.

      The sludge spread at the Coventry site was heat-treated to kill some, though not all, of its pathogens, according to Cathy Jamieson, supervisor of the residuals management program at the DEC. Jamieson says class B sludge is routinely spread on fields that are used for growing crops.

      “If we’re worried about public health, I would probably be more concerned about the human waste I saw on the site,” Jamieson says, referring to the difficulties organizers had with servicing portable toilets due to the mud. “To me, that would pose a greater public health risk.”

      An estimated 65,000 fans attended the August 14-15 shows by Phish, the four-man band that has attracted an international following often likened to that of the Grateful Dead. Fans routinely spent days camping and hanging around parking lots. But weeks of heavy rains in August made the Coventry site a veritable quagmire, resulting in the State Police setting up roadblocks and turning many fans away.

[skalnbyc]

Ha Ha

What a g.d. mess

[Wolfman]

“If we’re worried about public health, I would probably be more concerned about the human waste I saw on the site,” Jamieson says, referring to the difficulties organizers had with servicing portable toilets due to the mud. “To me, that would pose a greater public health risk.”

Right on.  People piss everywhere at festivals, and everyone walks through it and lives.  Nobody goes to a Phish festival to be in a healthy environment.  Sometimes you just gotta go through some shit.  Heck, a nice sludge bath would probably make half the people there cleaner.