Phishy Mandate

It seems like a lifetime ago,

but I loved going to grateful dead shows.

Something about it just clicked.

A great excuse to go on a road trip,

hang out with friends and see a favorite band.

At the time I had dogs and VW buses.

Phish was just coming into the scene.

After Jerry Garcia died,

they took over that jam band slot.

I went to a few phish shows,

fun but not a GD show.

Over the weekend they played in San Diego.

I hemmed and hawed til the last couple hours,

and found cheap tickets on you guessed it - craigslist.

Sure there was a possibility of finding a couple stray tickets in the crowd,

but age has taken away that thrill.

My partner in crime was our first born.

Jaxon has definitely taken the reigns on liking music.

I'll come home to him cranking some obscure dead,

or his own radio rock pick.

This was my chance to let him experience what a GD show was kinda like,

in a way more controlled manner!

Funny cause our ticketed seats were ok,

but it seems like we were closer when sitting in the little boat at humphrey's!

Phish doesn't have a lot of playing time in the house,

and if it is it's the earlier tunes.

You can bank on the newer songs to have quirky vocals,

then a ripping solo section,

so musically there are some good new jams.

The weird thing we found out,

was that people knew these most random lyrics,

even if the song wasn't really that good!

(Yeah that's my take)

This gave us the opportunity to walk around the whole scene,

as a song will last at least 10+ minutes.

People will relate GD and phish shows to baseball,

as it's either a hit or miss.

To me this was a show with more songs I'd skip,

with a couple old favorites mixed in.

Sorry guys,

I don't understand how AC/DC Bag and Suzy Greenberg became fan favorites!

In the parking lot it was like old times with all the trinket sellers,

and guys getting publicly loaded on nitrous balloons and whatever else was out there.

Great to take your son to right!?

He was a trooper hanging out with his old man.

I did score a rather bright GD throwback hoodie,

always good to support the traveling shirt sellers!

Wish I had taken better picks of the lot,

but maybe not good to incriminate random people!

No $13 in-show beers helped to get me sober!

The van served us well,

not many old VW buses.

One thing I realized was how opposite this was to hot rodding.

Anyway it was a fun time regardless,

and this time one show sufficed!

TP