Everyone should do a full tour once

Phish General
#1

Hello everyone. I just got back to Chicago after 3 weeks of Phish and I thought I’d give my opinion of the shows and why everyone should try to do a full tour at some point. First off, I’ve been seeing Phish since 93, I’m 31 and Ive seen well over 100 shows, yet I had never been able to attend a full tour until this fall. Phish is truely back, I have rediscovered my mid 90s dancing abilities because of this tour. They kept us all guessing each night with a lot of great setlists and inspired playing, a very very good tour!!

While I did meet up with friends in Cincy and stayed with a friend in NYC (he lives 3 blocks from MSG and he got us 3rd row all three nights!!), I did the rest of the shows and driving solo. I couch surfed in syracuse, philly, and albany (if you dont know about couch surfing, you need to check it out www.couchsurfing.org) my hosts were Phish fans and added a lot of fun to my tour. I meet the beauty of my dreams in Cincy, got my pipe and stash taken while going into the 1st night of Philly, (I always crotch it and have never gotten caught until the security guy grabbed my junk and felt the pipe. He pocketed the pipe and nugs, wouldn’t sell the pipe back to me but he did let me into the show, first time for everything), made new friends along the way, and got to see Phish 13 times in 18 days!! It was a great adventure and all should give it a try.

My rankings reflect both the performance, setlist, and overall fun I had at each show.

#1 Albany2 #2 Albany1 #3 Cincy2 #4 Syracuse
#5 Portland #6 Cincy1 #7 NY3 #8 Philly2 #9 NY2
#10 Charlottesville #11 Detroit #12 NY1 #13 Philly1

Hope you all had fun at the Fall shows you saw and see you all in Miami!!!

#2

Nice… im planning on touring with them next fall… lets just hope that all goes as planned… :sunglasses: :mrgreen:

#3

sounds like a blast…for some reason I dont see myself ever being able to do a full tour, but if the opportunity ever arose, I’d be all up on it. I have to ask…why Philly1 at the bottom of the list? it looked and sounded like one of the best of the tour…was it just because of the pipe incident?

#4

that couchsurfing sounds pretty cool…being brought up in a pretty conservative place makes me wonder how safe it is…were you just willing to throw caution in the breathe(not sure if thats the exact saying haha)? or did they somehow assure you that everyone was straight?

#5

i would love to, but i have a wife, a one year old child, a job, and little money. too many things against me. damn.

#6

I have rediscovered my mid 90s dancing abilities because of this tour.

I feel you!!! but Philly 1 at the bottom???I have a similar history to you(92’ 100+)and that was one of the best shows i’ve seen in years…they didn’t play a song I didn’t like and they were playing really well…and Mango…
Yes everyone should do a full tour! I did summer 95’ and got into every show except Mud Island and tried to do Fall 95 but was only able to see about half -2/3 of that run…It’s hard work and you have to scratch to survive but it was the most fun time of my entire life…

#7

Yeah, this is something that is near the top of my to-do list. However, it is below “graduate college and get a real job”, so it’ll have to wait a few years. No biggie, I’m sure they’ll be around when the time comes and I’ve got the money to do it right. I’m sure if I really tried I could tour now and survive, but I’d rather earn some good money and do my tour kinda nice; like hotels every night and decent food in my stomach and some spending money to buy some shit for my head and all that.

#8

Put your nugs in your shoes… :silent:

And I would love to do a Full Tour, but my boss and home mortgage would not… :thumbdown:

#9

Sadly enough, the best time for me to have gone on an extended tour run was actually one of my favorite eras in Phishstory - summer / fall 1997. I’d just graduated from college, didn’t have a job yet, and could have taken a month or two to have one last hurrah before signing up to be a working stiff for the rest of my life. :angry:

That’s great that you did a whole tour though, congratulations. Those are definitely some memories that will last a lifetime. :slight_smile:

#10

I support this thread.

#11

Not tryin to take anything away from your experience but this was kind of a mini tour. This one looked like a cake walk compared to the 40 days cross country Fall tours they used to do. I totally feel where your comin from though. Knowing you will not miss one note or one bit of Phish craziness is a great feeling. There comes a certain point where you feel like you are one with the tour. It’s an ultimate tune out from society if you choose. I loved coming home and hearing about all that happened in the world while I was gone. Realizing just how into my own thing I was. The feeling is intense. Enjoy it while it lasts and I hope to see you on Miami.

#12

^this didnt look like a cakewalk compared to 40 show fall tours because there was a much higher % of good shows than most other fall tours…with phish I think at least for me quality is better than quantity…the same principle of why i prefer this years 10-15 minute nailed-every-second-of-it jams as opposed to the 30-40 minute jams that are half noodling and dabling

#13

^I think he means that it was easier getting to the shows. Plus there were lots and lots of multiple night runs at the same venues.

#14

Forget 3-4 night runs, we need 16 night runs… :clap:

#15

full time job and graduate school keep me from touring, but i don’t have a desire to tour these days anyway.

#16
#17

I need to keep it close for now.
I never had a chance to do a full tour before I became a husband and then a father.

The wife and I will do one, hopefully with the kids with us.

If it comes down to camp or a tour.

#18

Awesome stuff man…I am very happy for you!! Sounds like you had a great time…I remember back in the late 90"s when I was 18-19 and could do this. These days, if I could I would, but I don’t know how.

#19

Vermonster / soundboy1 / and anyone else confused about why I would place Philly1 last, I messed up, Philly 2 was my least favorite show not Philly 1, I got confused.

To gratefulphish and anyone else interested in knowing more about couch surfing, it is a totally legit and safe organization. I have used it for my European travels over the last couple of years. 60 days in Europe all surfing peoples couches. They have some security measures in place such as verifying you live where you say you live. The main reason why it is safe is because the members police each other, through refrences and vouching for each other after surfing ones couch. I now have friends all over Europe and I made a few new ones on tour as well. Most cities have weekly couch surfing get togethers so one could meet people already involved and ease and worries about how it works and if it’s safe. It really is an incredible way to travel because you immerse yourself in the culture by staying with locals.

I have thought that a Phish fan couch surfing organization might be a great way to make traveling on tour a cheaper and more fun adventure. Or even an oh kee pa couch surfing thing might be something to think about.

#20

By Cake Walk I meant the traveling aspect. I completely agree with the rest of your post.