Seems like a zillion years since my last post. Not to worry, I’ve got some good stuff on deck coming soon. Been a crazy busy summer, so the blog was left twisting in the wind a bit. Just figured out Twitter too (thanks LawnMemo), so you can follow me now at @backinmydaynet and be alerted when I get a new post up. Just a super quick one today to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Rink show in Buffalo (and get some new blood up on the blog):
Set 1: The Landlady > Bouncing Around the Room > Chalk Dust Torture, The Squirming Coil > My Sweet One, Stash, Eliza > Foam > Brother, Golgi Apparatus,Memories
Set 2: Llama, Guelah Papyrus, Sparkle, Cavern > Run Like an Antelope, Lawn Boy> The Lizards, Poor Heart, Magilla, Mike’s Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove
Encore: Contact > Big Black Furry Creature from Mars
A pretty classic show, this one is most well known for being the show where Trey rollerbladed through the audience during Weekapaug Groove. I couldn’t find any pictures of The Rink and don’t have a stub for this one because we helped carry equipment in to get on the list. However, through the miracle of the interwebz, you can peep the venue here. We had hit Ithaca on the 26th and the Warehouse the night before (with Glide debut) and this was third show we had seen before I turned around. The Duck continued on to Cleveland. We got to The Rink around 11AM so we could help the band load in the equipment in exchange for a spot on the guest list. In fact, I almost took Page’s finger off trying to push the load ramp into the back of the JEMP truck. Glad that didn’t happen! We were there so early, there wasn’t much to do. I went across the street to a bowling alley to play some pinball and Gordo came in to use the pay phone. I remember staring at him like a mental patient, he probably thought I was maniac. Anyway, we got back into the venue for soundcheck somehow and sat on the floor in front of the stage playing Pocket Boggle while the band soundchecked. Sometime during that afternoon, Trey had borrowed some Rollerblades from a fan at the show and was trying them out in the rink and outside in the parking lot. I forgot about it until later in the show.
The Rink was exactly that: A classic olden times roller rink. Pretty nondescript (inside and out) with your basic snackbar and maybe a few games. That was it. No bleachers or anything. You walked in, and the stage was right on one end of the rink (by the entrance) and the whole floor was the rest of the rink. It was a pretty big rink and the whole back half of the floor was pretty empty. It was kind of run down, but it was actually a pretty awesome venue. I don’t remember a ton from this show and need to give it a good listen (shoulda listened to whole thing but wanted to get this post up). They gave Henry from Palo Alto an award for traveling from California to Amy’s Farm the month before (longest distance traveled to a show). Funny thing, is after that show, I never saw him at any others except NYE 91, I think.
What I do remember (and maybe it just overshadows everything else) is the Weekapaug. I was in the back and there was a ton of space, literally half the rink was empty and we were rocking out to Mike’s Song. After Hydrogen, they went into Mike’s bass intro to Weekapaug and it just kept going on and on. I wasn’t really thinking about it, just enjoying it, but came to realize that Trey was lacing up his Rollerblades. All of a sudden, as soon as Weekapaug started, there was a handheld spotlight going through the crowd. The next thing I knew, Trey was whizzing by me, like 2 feet away! It was sick! He was going in and around all the people while wailing on the Weekapaug. We couldn’t believe it, it was so surreal. At one point he bashed into a girl right next to me and you can hear it on the tape, but for the most part, he just kept skating around and around everyone while the rest of the band was laying it down from the stage. It was almost like a dream, you could have literally reached out and touched (or tripped) him. It was so cool. They also did an awesome thing during Big Black Furry Creature where either Mike or Trey had their legs hanging down from the rafters while the other person was on the ground with their legs in the air going the opposite way. That was very cool looking as well. All in all, it was a really fun show. I am going to spin the whole thing during my road trip tomorrow, and maybe I will report back with other highlights.
Until then, here is the Rollerblade Weekapaug Groove:
The whole show can be downloaded here (MP3):
http://www.mediafire.com/?qgerdib0l641w
While we were leaving town we stopped a gas station and the girl at the register asked if we were in town to see Jesus Jones. I still get a laugh out of that…..
This was a good show. Pretty small for the time, it was held in the school gym/basketball court. I had caught the beginning of this tour, then some of the middle stuff in Colorado and this was the first one back on the east coast for me. Again, this was another marathon tour that started in the beginning of February. Almost 3.5 months, culminating with the masterpiece that is 5/8/93 (Hi Carlotta!). This show was the “Spring Fling” concert for Colgate and as such, there were a wide variety of attendees, only about half of which were Phish heads. I do remember getting into this show was one of the greatest squish-fests of all time. I think I may not have even had my feet on the ground when I was crushed through the door. Same thing happened to me for Pink Floyd in ’87 at Giants Stadium, but that’s to be expected at a stadium show, not a Phish show on a college campus. By the time we got in, we were mostly all the way back on the floor, which was still really close to the stage. Phish was basically playing under where one of the basketball hoops would be and the back of the floor was pretty much the other hoop. It was small and packed. This was not the kind of college basketball arena you would find at a larger university, it was a small gym. Incidentally, the Dead played this same room in 1977 which is pretty unbelievable.
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