SHARING THE SHOWS
Philly phucking rocks. I had a nice run at Penn’s Landing, which has quite the picturesque view of the Delaware River. I bopped around Philly (where it was definitely sunny and hot AF), writing and exploring. Amy’s train was supposed to get in at 5:30, but public transportation can be a bitch, so we met outside our hostel at around a quarter to 7. After devouring some authentic Philly Cheesesteaks, we hopped the ferry across. Now, I’m the kind of person who needs to be told things explicitly. The following conversational exchanges took place as I paid for the ferry ride:
Me: where I do place my credit card? Clerk: Oh, just in the trey below. Me (after getting wristbands): Where do we wait for the ferry? Clerk: Just behind me. While waiting for the ferry, we ran into my friend Chelsea from back in VA, along with her sister Ashley, where we talked music on the ride over. As we parted ways, I saw them buy those PBTM tickets for $30, and I was thinking, I shoulda done that! Oh well, next time. Amy had Pit tickets, in close proximity to the band, while I made my way to the lawn. We missed “Crowd Control,” a tune I’m pretty ambivalent about, so I wasn’t too bummed. “No Men in No Man’s Land” is an okay tune. I might have been upset about missing “Blaze On,” which contains some sage advice: “You’ve got one life, blaze on.” At that point, it began to rain (“and the rain came down”) and blazes of lazy lightning (pun intended) came down. I came underprepared (no poncho, no hat), so the rain hit my head. Not too hard, just a little annoying. Yet, the rain seemed to ignite the “dancer” in me. Feeling bloated from that Philly cheesesteak and greasy cheese fries (along with some of Amy’s onion rings), I wasn’t feeling the dancing spirit, but it’s amazing what a little rain can do. Amy texted me, “note to self – do not down a giant cheesesteak and then stand in a hot ass pit.” LMAO. The rest of the first set was pretty mellow, sans for the “Infinite” I had never heard before, “46 Days,” and “David Bowie.” All in all, pretty chill. The second set opened with the best “Down with Disease” jam I had ever heard, but I recognize the halo effect taking place, as I was present to see it. “Backwards Down the Number Line” is always boppy, “I Always Wanted It This Way” doesn’t quite do it for me, “Miss You” nearly has me in tears, and “Light” is one of my top 10. I’m normally not super crazy about “Mike’s Song,” “I Am Hydrogen,” and “Weekapaug Groove,” but this one did it for me. They encored with “Show of Life,” during which I was in a reflective state about all the things in my life. Phish shows do that. Another highlight: two separate dudes who had to be tripping on something wanted to talk to me about something I couldn’t quite comprehend. I must have one of those faces that says, “ you can tell me anything, I won’t judge you.” If this academe thing ever fails, I may have to become a bartender or a therapist. For real. My method: give them a high-five, smile, and slowwwwwly move to a different spot. And toward of the back of the lawn, there are plenty of them. After some confusion about where we were meeting, Amy and I met up outside the venue post-show and waited on a long-ass line to get the ferry back to Philly. My guess is that the people at the ferry aren’t used to such a big crowd coming from other areas to see the shows, which is why there’s only one. Typically, the last one leaves a half hour after the show, but they said “they won’t leave anyone behind.” Hey, gotta make that money somehow, right? Anyway, someone ahead of us said, “we’re gonna need a bigger boat.” I now have to go back and rewatch Jaws. Amy told me the story about how she won a battle against her daughter’s principal. He had banned her from wearing leggings because “no athletic attire is allowed.” Amy told her no problem as long as he applied the same rule to boys wearing gym shorts. And she won. #badass She sent me a blog posting about it, and as a result, she’ll be speaking to my Advanced Writing students about writing as social action in November. My students will love it. We pondered getting food, but there wasn’t a whole lot open that sold soup (Amy’s craving), and I needed to get to bed so I could be ready for a work-related phone call the next morning. I recently served as Interim Chairperson for my department at school, and I was ecstatic to receive an e-mail from the new (hopefully permanent) Chairperson wanting to ask me for some information. I pretty much passed out as I soon as I hit my pillow. One night down, one to go. Postscript: in a phone conversation, my friend Maggie had asked me what my favorite concert venue is. It WAS NYC’s Beacon Theater, due to its rustic appearance. But now that I’ve seen the skylights of Philly light up, I have to say it’s the BB&T Pavilion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2024
Categories |