Enjoy them one by one…or by 111

Phish’s Charlotte stop marks my one hundred and eleventh Phish show. Many fans would sight this number as inconsequential, not because they’ve been to more or less shows, but because that number isn’t associated with our normal anniversaries. It’s not a silver, ruby, golden, diamond, or sapphire jubilee; it’s simply 111. I do not fancy myself as someone who studies numerology. I don’t believe in paranormal or transcendental relationships between numbers and concurring events. Hell, I don’t even believe in ghosts, unless Phish is playing a good one! What I do know as fact is that I habitually look at the clock as it turns 11:11 without fail, hence the fascination. As a high school art teacher, my students have learned to celebrate this daily moment with me, mainly because as a Pavlov response to eating lunch, the 11:11 bell for the cafeteria is the perfect stimulus trigger. My second job as a college cross-country & track coach leads to even more excessive levels of admiration for the number. Sometimes our runners use their GPS watches to add .11 miles onto an already long eleven-mile route! Speaking of running, I often turn my Phish shows into trail running vacations. A couple days ago, I ran for half the day on the Appalachian Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I digress.

Show number 111, at the PNC in Charlotte, is a long distance from my local go-to, Alpine Valley, the sight of my first show in 1997. My morning Charlotte coffee was a Guji, Ehtiopian pour-over from HEX Espresso Bar. My afternoon run was on the Charlotte Rail Trail and my pre-concert craft beer was one small flight from NoDa Brewing Company. My random drive-in car music was Jethro Tull’s “Skating Away on the Thin Ice”, Wild Nothing’s “Midnight Song”, The Kink’s “Good Day”, The Stone Roses’ “Love Spreads” and Gary Higgins’ appropriately titled “Looking for June”.

The evening ‘s weather was perfect, and consequently, fans didn’t seem to mind waiting in long lines during the entry process even if they missed the first chords of Have Mercy. The smiles continued during the entire opening segment of “Gotta Jibboo” through “Ginseng Sullivan” and the playing was as idyllic as evening’s breeze. Sometimes Phish brings an “AC/DC” out of the bag in the one or two slot as a declamation point “to get the show on the road”. That point tonight might have been the five spot, when they dropped a first set “Tweezer”! We quickly figured out, though, it wasn’t an earmark for change or sinister in anyway; it was the perfect continuation of the honeyed playing which came earlier. The middle of this “Tweezer” was simply beautiful and demonstrates why many fans drive hundreds of miles to hear this kind of interplay. The bliss jam perfectly sequed into “Passing Through” as Page simply kept his lines congruous throughout. Mike turned up the bass a bit for the Kasvot number while Trey continued his flawless interplay. Fishman, wearing shades throughout, was spot on. A light “Ya Mar” was next and finished with the first extended breather in some time. “Mercury” was driving throughout (Trey’s solo had some Cross-eyed & Painless flavors before steering back into a super short “Tweezer” part-deux. Within minutes the band heads right into the set closer, “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.”, only the fifth version of the song and a perfect way to close possibly the best first set of the summer so far.
The song selection of set one was perfect (a blend of old an new) and opening with a set two “Runaway Jim” seemed like the perfect selection, although some Carolina fans who were at last year’s Raleigh show might complain that it was the centerpiece of that show too. I would like to point out that this year’s show was drastically different, with this year’s first set being much stronger, and “Jim” acting as one piece of a larger tapestry during this year’s stint. This “Jim”, moving through some of the awesome textures implied in “Tweezer”, eventually shifted to some interesting minimal percussive sediment at the fifteen-minute mark before the main theme reappeared four minutes later. The “Scents and Subtle Sounds” was not the song of the night, but the name alone definitely summed up the tenor of the evening. The brief “Tweezer” part III, only lasted for a few seconds and was the launch pad for another great DJ transition into “Sand”. The permagroove that ensued had the entire venue dancing. I think it’s fair to say that many wondered if “Sand” would go back to “Tweezer”, but it came to a normal conclusion. “Lifeboy” was the breather that some wanted and a great choice if that’s the direction you wanted in this slot, although I wasn’t finished with my prior headspace yet. “A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing” brought us closer to the finish line, and I was fine taking that route. This wasn’t the “ASIHTOS” with atonal abstractions (think Baker’s Dozen) found on many versions; this harkened back to the night’s earlier moments found in “Jim”. The “Taste” could be considered part of “ASIHTOS” and gave Fishman room to flex. “Twenty Years Later” served the same function as “Lifeboy” had a quarter hour before. The outro solo from “Twenty” could have been an opportunity for more Tweezer Kavot-madness, but the band went with “Possum”. The crowd responded very favorably. This is not usually one of my favorite songs, but I really enjoyed how they spun a little magic into this one. At the five to seven minute marks, the whole band pulled back from the chaos a bit to let a great diminished dynamic emerge. This allowed the band to sing a “Have Mercy” reprise over the “Possum” theme. Awesome. “More” and “Tweezer Reprise” put an exclamation mark on a wonderfully played performance by all members.

Drafted at 11:11a.m. (One day after the summer solstice, which occurred shortly after 11:11a.m. EDT)