HAMPTON REUNION - 1 YEAR LATER

Phish General
#1

Just was talking to the accountant in my office about what was going through my head a year ago this week.

Remember the build up?

The 6 months of pure anxiety?

The waiting and waiting?

The planning and organizing of trips and making it all work?

The travel down/up/over to Virginia?

The sleepless nights leading up to the 6th?

The child-like-feeling-the-night-before-Christmas that we all were feeling?!

I just wanted to go back in time for a moment and relive that hype, that sheer feeling of awesomeness.

The clouds parted on the 6th, the sky was blue, it was like 70 degrees each day, the circus was in town.

It was something that could not have been scripted any better, no matter how much you imagined it.

The line outside the Mothership, the robots in the fountain, the pink puffy stuff in the trees, meeting new friends and old buddies for the first time in a LONG 5 years.

The chaos that was when the gates opened and the mad rush began.

Walking into the Mothership with the blue-hue gracing our presence, and the odd white balls ominous overhead?

The lights dropping.

THE song being dusted off and the nozzle on the hose being turned on.

Here is a visual recap:

vimeo.com/3756784

It was P-E-R-F-E-C-T :wave:

#2

“Hide it in your shoe.”

#3

That weekend was everything I wanted it to be and more. They really laid it down and sent a message. Thank goodness they waited until summer to play around with new material. They made up for Coventry and set the wheels in motion for the future all in 3 short days.

I will forever proudly display this Pollock so I never forget!

#4

March 6th 2009…Best birthday ever!!!

#5

It was an intense week, and an ever greater weekend. I wasn’t at Hampton, but I remember it was a good week.

It was the beginning of the second set before I got to check the setlist, I flipped my shit!

#6

I remember looking at a computer screen and going :astonished:

#7

This is the moment that made me a Phish fan. I was slowly getting into right before the concerts. Then livephish offered all three shows as free downloads I made sure to get them. And from that point on I was captured by Phish. I honestly don’t know if I would be into Phish if Hampton never happened.

#8

get ready for a great surprise this weekend on the 1 year marks :mrgreen:

What a blast, I loved every minute, so thankful I was able to get tickets and make it down there with very little problems.

Really can’t wait to get some summer dates and possibly get my son to a show or two :thumbup:

Thinking back on how excited I was, I really don’t know if I can ever get “THAT” excited about another show
There is no words to explain the joy I felt when I knew I was going and when I got there
I was GLOWING :mrgreen:

#9

yay! i’m glad you posted this topic. i was just thinking about that today…that a year from the day after tomorrow we were seeing phish reunite!! i’m SO thankful i had the opportunity to go. it was seriously the best day of my life (the first day that is). i’d never been to a show before and it was soooo fun!! the community was so united; it was awesome to just look around at people during the music and just smile at each other. i liked phish before hampton, but i knew going into it that the weekend was going to be life-changing. wooo!!

#10

I had seen Phish numerous times before Hampton, but there was no feeling like that first night
and you are so right on the smiles, EVERYONE was just to happy to be there, it was GREAT
The Energy was like no other show I have seen
When They hit the first few notes for Fluffhead I really thought the place was going to explode, with all the Energy that came pouring out
NOTHING WILL EVER COMPARE TO THAT FIRST SHOW!!!

#11

the days before the shows were spent on ebay and haggling with local scalpers trying to get them to come down to a reasonable price. of course there was no chance of that happening. i remember the day i called days inn to cancel my reservation. what a let down.

anyways by the day of the show i was felling somewhat better if still not a little pissed about getting shut out of what was a very significant event for me. wondering why they didn’t pick a bigger place and stuff like that. but looking back on it i’m glad they did it in hampton.

from the time the show started i stayed off of the internet except for mr miners no spoilers page to check for the first set download. it took longer than i expected for it to go up and when it did i got it and put it right into my mp3 player. it was late and i was very tired. when i heard those first notes it was like a huge weight lifted off of me. the weight of not being able to go, the weight of not having my favorite band anymore, the weight of having them go out like they did in coventry. hearing that fluffhead was the biggest thank you/i’m sorry i’ve ever heard.

#12

I have spent the past week and last night listening to the shows again. It makes me appreciate what I was able to see even more from 2009…

I tried so hard to go to Hampton. I had tears the day I decided I could not pay $5,000.00 for my Wife and I to go… just not a fair cost from asshole scalpers.

I wanted face or maybe a touch more expensive since it WAS a PHISH REUNION etc…

Anyhow, I died a little everytime the setlist was updated and yet in the end I was happy that they’re back…

They made a point, and listening to them again now from that show, it was not top notch playing/jamming but IT WAS top notch execution in what/when and how they played, it makes me smile…

I truly can say Phish is my favorite band of all times and I am thankful I have the chances I do, to see them all over this great country. I am VERY thankful for this place (OKP) and for the good people I have met here…

I love everything about Phish, good and bad - low and High etc… They have grown up in front of many of us and when you think about it, this day and age… that is a challenge in itself!

Love the boys and look forward to getting older with them. :thumbup:

#13

I will forever feel blessed to have gotten a Golden Ticket through the lottery and to have been a part of Hampton that weekend. I will always remember sitting down in front of my computer that night in
October(?)08, opening my email from Phishtickets, and flipping out in my apartment a few minutes after processing the information I had just received.

Getting on my flight from Islip to Norfolk there were so many emotions rushing through me. One that will always stick with me is the nervousness I had felt. I wanted the weekend to go just right for the band. It was like getting ready for a Super Bowl or World Series that your team is in. Confident in their abilities but having a definite anxiety about the uncertainty of the outcome. I didnt know what to expect and with the way the band had left us there was a little bit of apprehension. By the time the first set was over I was convinced of one thing:

THEY MEANT IT THIS TIME!

You could view Hampton in retrospect and pick apart the lack of improv or the tiny miscues. But one thing you still can’t deny a year later is that it was the perfect springboard for The Redemption song that was 09.

And the light IS growing brighter now.

#14

I had an incredible time in Hampton. From the first night’s bonfire on Chesapeake Bay to the last night’s Reprise. Even though the hotel we stayed at in Norfolk was about as bad as it get (Super 8-Air Force Base–don’t ever go near that place!). It was about as good as it gets…the vibe was amazing the first night. Great time.

#15

I didn’t get to meet up with Thom beforehand ( :cry: ) because he was “on an island.”

#16

I must say that I avoided this thread for a while because I couldn’t get into any of the shows, and hearing the stories depressed me. But, there’s been a bit of healing over the triumphant last year, and reading other’s stories of not making it, but making the most of it is good to know.

I was pissed not to score tickets. I grew up in Hampton. I graduated HS from within the Mothership! I felt entitled, dammit! I remember calling every old connection I knew to get me in that mutha. No luck.

I did print shirts and stickers and spent those nights in the lot meeting people and sharing in the communal groove that brought us all there. A buddy of mine that works for a beer distributor :shh: was going to be my access into the show :wink: , but in the end he couldn’t risk it. The bum! :angry:

I also have some friends that ran a campground at a baseball field less than a mile from the venue. It was pretty awesome when they played Friday’s show over the stadium speakers on Saturday night. It was pretty empty there though. I don’t think many people knew about the place. So next Hampton show, look the place up! Matisyahu was staying there, I don’t really know a lot about him, but did sort of meet him.

The best memory was when a bud and I sat up in the press box smoking and enjoying the tunes…a good second best I guess.

#17

Good read here, thanks for sharing, I felt like you but at least you were in the city of the Mothership…

#18

I had said all week that I wasn’t going to check the setlist and then Friday came around, got home from work and just couldn’t resist that siren song. Ended up sitting at the computer for like a half hour refreshing the page until nuclear bomb that was the revival of Fluff popped up and it was probably one of the happier days of my life. :crazy:

#19

wow, reading this thread sends shivers down my spine. i was just thinking about it yesterday.
i had been a 3 year phish fan before i had heard about hampton. i lucked out with a ticket to each night. 3/6/10 was my first show. nothing will ever beat it.
also got to miracle a couple with a free extra sunday ticket that i had. it truly was the greatest weekend in the world.

#20

^3/6/10…?. :wink: