Phish, John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville, Virginia

It was the first snow of the year as I climbed into the car with Schiz, Rick, and Jason in the early afternoon to drive down to Charlottesville, Virginia to see my fourth Phish show of the year (as tallied by the system that Schiz and me agreed upon during the car ride down), and their final of the 2009 Fall Tour. It was a nostalgic drive down to Charlottesville for me, as I recounted the landmarks on the route that I drove many times to UVA to see Lauren.

The show was at John Paul Jones Arena, where the Cavaliers play their home basketball games, in front of a sold out crowd of over 15,000 phans. To my surprise, there seemed to be a plethora of tickets available outside the venue, with one phan in line next to me at the gate remarking that she just bought a floor ticket for just $20. This is in stark contrast to the last show I went to at Merriweather in August where you couldn’t beg, borrow, or steal a ticket outside the venue. I have no idea why there was such a discrepancy. The four of us had 2 pairs of tickets, though we were all in the same general vicinity in the upper section. The ID check line for beer was way too long for me, considering I was driving us home, so while the others waited in line to buy beer, I headed to my seat for the start of the show. I made it to my seat as Phish took the stage.

Phish started the first set off with a bang, beginning with “AC/DC Bag”, then transitioning to “Chalk Dust Torture”, and “Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan” before tackling one of my person favorites, “The Divided Sky.” In the middle of the song’s extended jam, the entire band stopped playing for a full minute and a half while the crowd happily made up for the silence with deafening applause. Afterwards, I left my seat to go meet Schiz and Rick in their section. During this time, a naked phan jumped onstage, requiring four security guards get him under control and off the stage. Trey commended him for having the guts to attempt such a feat.

It was no problem to find a little extra room where Schiz and Rick were sitting. Unlike most other shows, I’d estimate that few phans were actually in their assigned seats. For the most part, it was a free for all. The GA section on the floor was flooded with people, many of who were probably not supposed to be there as was the bottom end of each section and the aisles. It seems like security knew that trying to stop phans from doing whatever they wanted was an exercise in futility, so they didn’t bother. What can I say, hippies don’t like rules. Jason, who I’ve started many concerts with, was nowhere to be found as is his MO, and he was one of many trying to work his way through the crowds and security. I still have yet to spend more than a few minutes with Jason while a band is playing.

The latter half of the first set was a little less memorable for me, though it did include a couple great songs including “Cavern” and an amazing version of David Bowie featuring an extended jam. The second set started well and picked up midway through with renditions of “Suzy Greenberg” and “Golgi Apparatus” despite some annoying feedback noise that seemed to happen one too many times on the watches of the professional and experienced roadies that I would expect Phish to be traveling with. The tail end of the set also included a version of “Run Like an Antelope” where the chorus of was changed to “You’ve got to run like a naked guy out of control.” Too bad the naked guy was most likely sitting in a jail cell somewhere and couldn’t hear Trey paying him tribute. Also included in the setlist was “Loving Cup,” a Rolling Stones song that while nothing new for Phish to be covering, has new context for phans as it was played as part of Phish’s most recent Halloween musical costume when they covered the entirety of the Stone’s Exile on Main Street at Festival 8. Finally while approaching the 3 hour mark of the show, they launched into “Tweezer Reprise” to close the show. Since they began the set with “Tweezer,” I knew they would end with the reprise version. It’s one of the few predictable elements of a Phish setlist.

The crowd poured out of John Paul Jones Arena and I got to catch another glimpse of the entertaining phans, one who was casually (and drunkenly) smoking a cigarette in the crowded hallway without any concern for who it might be offending. I found another drunken phan on the walk to the car highly entertaining as well. He was tapping against the glass of the drive-in window at Taco Bell asking the teller for some food. She refused his request on the grounds that he would have to be in a car to use the drive-in window. His response: “so you WANT me to get a DUI?” You can’t argue with that logic.

Set List:
AC/DC Bag
Chalk Dust Torture
Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan
The Divided Sky
Ya Mar
Sneakin' Sally Thru the Alley
Old Home Place
Cavern
Funky Bitch
David Bowie
The Wedge
Bold as Love
Tweezer
Light
Piper
Free
Sweet Virginia
Harry Hood
Suzy Greenberg
Golgi Apparatus
Run Like an Antelope
Loving Cup
Tweezer Reprise