also skiing in Vermont this weekend and the apres urge is no joke. been enjoying athletic brewing co and sober sleeps however.
Another day, another dry.
Seeing Billy Strings play a bunch of covers for their Halloween set reminded me of the one and only time I saw Phish. I do like all kinds of music, but I never got into Phish. Maybe I juuuust missed their demographic, or perhaps they were a bridge too far for my natural prog tendencies. But they toured a lot in the 90s and I figured I’d eventually see them.
Phish was known for playing special gigs on Halloween. They’d do a set of their own material, take a short break, then return “in costume” and cover another artist. In 1994, they played The White Album at a show in Glen Falls, NY.
As luck would have it, 1995’s Halloween show had Phish in Chicago, at the Rosemont Horizon. I was intrigued enough to get tickets and make the drive from Purdue. We left early enough to avoid rush hour traffic, hitting I-90 around one in the afternoon. As we’re rolling down the highway, we noticed that the car in the next lane – let’s just say the passengers looked like Phish fans. We waved and gave them a thumbs up. One of them did the universal “roll down your windows” sign, so we did. At that point, a skinny arm reached out of their window. He had something in his hand. He wanted to give it to us… a sheet of paper with a bunch of dots on it.
We politely declined.
We got to the gig early enough to meet Trey and a couple other band members outside of their tour bus, then made our way into the Rosemont Horizon.
The first set was fine. I popped no less than twenty giant balloons that were floating around and obscuring my view. Like, people, I don’t care if you’re stoned but I’m here to see and listen to the band. Too bad there weren’t any cell phones to give them something to do.
The real action began when the houselights dimmed for the second set, when a recording of the intro to “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” reverberated through the arena. Holy crap, Phish is gonna attempt Thriller? That was quickly put to rest when the band came out and launched into “I Am The Sea.” Holy crap, Phish is gonna play Quadrophenia by The Who!
The whole thing was impressive, especially Jon Fishman taking over lead vocals on the album closer “Love, Reign O’er Me.” But my favorite part was when they returned for the encore. Trey came out holding a cheap guitar and Fish sat at a small drum kit. They proceeded to play “My Generation” and then DESTROY the instruments, just like Keith and Pete would have done. Sheer brilliance, I tell ya.
A piece of the guitar showed up on eBay about 15 years ago; I should have bought it.
Here’s a small bit of video evidence:
Stay dry, folks.
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I was at that show! So great!
Fifya
Whoops! I was sleepy. fixed
No way! Where were your seats? Mine were up and to the right, around Section 203. There’s a detailed recap on Phish.net.
Also, I’ve never seen so many stoned people in one place. 
We were up to the right, as well. I don’t remember the section.
I was so excited when they started playing Quadrophenia. (Thriller would have been awesome, though!)
It was my only Phish Halloween show. I’ve seen them many times since.
Congrats on making it halfway through the month! 
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Made it 3 weeks for myself. My goal is to hold off until my surgery follow up later this week. One of the medications I was on was impacting my taste.
I did sneak in a glass on Saturday after opening a bottle to make some beef stew. My palate is almost back to normal for wine, but it’s still a bit off.
On the N/A beer front, tried out a few more:
- Athletic Lite - Hollow, tasteless, like drinking fizzy water with a bit of stale beer flavor. This is worse than the Surreal Kolsch. At least the Surreal had a great flavor profile.
- Best Day Brewing Belgian White - A bit heavy on the spice and orange, but wow! I would never have guessed it was a N/A beer. Wish this wasn’t a seasonal/limited.
- Athletic Cerveza Atletica - Overall really good and refreshing. Near the top of my stack ranking for N/A beers and definitely on my buy again list.
I’ve noticed one thing about the N/A beers - it seems that the beers that are 50 calories or higher have better odds of me liking them.
A delay at the airport has me reconsidering the logic of all this.
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Question for folks doing Dry January ‐ if you are going dry, what is the point of NA beer or wine, why not just remove all beer and wine for the month?
To not have alcohol?
It’s a comfort thing for me, like a baby pacifier.
I like the feel of holding a bottle/can of NA in situations where I typically have a beer — at a concert, after surfing by the car, watching a hockey game.
That’s fair. I didn’t drink for a couple years and if I was out I usually had a Pellegrino and lime in a high ball so people jaut assumed I was having XXX and tonic/soda.
The taste!
(Which is also the punchline to one of my all time favorite jokes.)
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Force of habit. Much like the other post - I’m used to sitting down with a beer and watching a game. I also like beer with certain food, and it beats the hell out of milk.
After drinking water, coffee, and/or tea all day, I really want something different at the end of the day. Since I really limit added sugars, mocktails and juices are not in the cards for me. I’ve gravitated to N/A beer during this streak and have been pleasantly surprised.
I have gravitated to this with Topo.
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