Sleeping Monkey

I’ve been so busy lately never got to tell about the Monkey Road trip to Syracuse last week for the Phish concert. So do that up real quick.

Me and the infamous Jonnynat headed out of town to Syracuse, The drive was simple, not much traffic. I’ve been to the hotel we were staying at a bunch of times, but it’s a pain in the ass to get to cause the roads are all weird and split off and u turns and other shit. But in this day in age it’s impossible to get lost. Printed out the mapquest shit, and I also have GPS on the phone, which came in handy later on.

We got to the hotel and checked in. The hotel we were staying at was pretty much the closest one to the venue, easily in walkingdistance. BUT it wasn’t infested with hippies because #1 they don’t list it in hotels.com or orbitz or any of those things. And #2: It’s expensive as hell. It’s like 4 times more than the other hotels in the area. BUT it’s also the nicest, and closest, and I’d gladly pay even 4 times more than what I paid just to not be surrounded by a bunch of spun out hippies wandering around the hotel after the show. I’m such a paradox. I love the hippie music, but I hate the fans.

The hotel was nice, and we actually hd a pretty nice veiw from the room. Well as good as views in Syracuse go. It’s not exactly a pretty city

We hung out in the hotel for a while, watched the Bills choke away another game. Then headed off to the show. We walked to the show since it was under a mile, and the walk was easy as hell cause I pulled up the GPS on my phone which locates me within 2 meters and even has a walking option.

We didn’t hang around the lots like the hippies usually do. The concert was at the War Memorial, but they had a preshow party across the street at the Convention Center. It was nice. It was in doors where it was warm, they had live bands playing. They had a Magic Hat beer tent, they had a bunch of food tables, I got the best veggie Pita I ever had in my life. There were creepy hippies trying to teach yoga. There was a crazy dude doing tricks on a pogo stick, and then for some reason there was some chick belly dancing in the middle of the crowd for some reason

After that we went across the street to the show. OnCenter is a dump. It looks like a high school hockey rink. The place is tiny, only holds about 7,000 people, which for Phish is insane. They play there in that tiny little place, yet tonight and for the next 3 nights they are playing at Madison Square Garden. Obviously the show sold out and tickets were hard to find. When you walk around the place with their narrow hallways with puke green tile, it’s like walking around a museum, it’s filled with old War shit, and stories of people from Syracuse who did crazy things in wars, it’s like walking around the Baseball or Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Actually exactly like that.

Now a word about the security at this place.

There was none. It was like 10 70 year old people with a couple oblivious cops walking around. There were probably a few 100 people who snuck into the show since no one gave a shit, no one even looked at tickets. There were no ushers in the aisles, it was crazy, it was basically a free for all. When we went to find or seats, the entire arena was just one giant cloud of smoke

Despite the fact the place looked like it hadn’t been renovated since the 50’s and there was no security, everything there ran smoother then I ever saw in my life. There were NEVER any lines for Beer or the Bathroom. Even before the show and during set break. You could always walk right up and be the first person in like. It was beautiful.

Once the show started and people were in their seats, it was obvious just how packed the place was, it only holds 6800 but there were probably over 8,000 in there. I think that’s one of the reasons there was no security, they just gave up and figure they would step back let people do what they want and just be there in case something bad happened

You’re always going to see a non-stop flurry of crazy shit at a Phish show, that’s just par for the course. But at this show I saw the most bizarre thing I’d ever seen at a show. Normally a Phish show is 20,000 people, 19,000 of which are spun off their ass. Everyone dancing and having a good time. But at this show there was a guy who, I shit you not, spent the entire night, no paying even the tiniest bit of attention to the show, but instead sat there in his seat, with a laptop doing shit like checking Facebook and Football scores. I never saw the guy stand, or even look at the stage. I have no idea why the hell he was there, wasting a ticket for someone who would have given a nut to be there. There were probably over 1000 people outside the show who couldn’t get in.

Over all the show was good shit, they played a lot of the songs I wanted to hear, and some I didn’t want to hear which gave me time to go take a piss. The crowd was pretty good, the band played well, and CK5 was wreckin’ shit with the light show. That dude truly is a genius.

Here is the setlist from the show. Julius, and Big Black Furry Creatures From Mars (VERY Rare Song) nearly made me shit my pants.

Set 1: David Bowie, Julius, Sparkle, Kill Devil Falls, Lawn Boy, Heavy Things, Funky Bitch, Sample in a Jar, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Let Me Lie, Beauty of a Broken Heart, Stash

Set 2: Drowned > Twist > Piper > Big Black Furry Creature from Mars, Tube, Theme From the Bottom > Maze, The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Character Zero > First Tube

Encore: Good Times Bad Times

Notes: BBFCFM included several references to Syracuse native Jon Fishman (including shout-outs to his alma mater, his father and his father’s dental patients). Boogie On Reggae Woman (Stevie Wonder cover). Good Times Bad Times (Led Zeppelin cover)

And of course, what would this post be without the download of the show. So here it is, in a 288MB zip file

Download Link

And in closing, here is a video of the end of Twist -> Big Black Furry Creatures From Mars

And here is Julius