Fink's Travels

Sunday funday, 10:00 AM, already been queued up at the venue for an hour. Yeah it's pretty crazy although not that crazy relatively speaking....something like 30 or 40 people slept outside MSG in New York City last night. All in order to get a good spot for the show.  My happy place for most of this tour has been 3rd - 7th row middle.  The past few tours I have found myself getting closer and closer to the stage. Not coincidentally this has occurred as I have been seeing more shows with Holly. Holly is the initial reason I started "riding the rail" (not literally - I don't like the first row) and remains a major factor in me wanting to be up there. However she is not the only reason. It took me awhile to admit it but  I really love it in the Vortex. It's not a desire to be close to the band - I know what they look like and they don't want to see me. It's not a desire to watch the band - I dance like no one is watching with my eyes closed. It's  no...

Hey now! Apologies for dropping off the face(book) of the earth the past week but I have been too busy living my liphe to take the time to sit down and write. Well that's part of the reason. I also wasn't the best version of myself last weekend and really hurt the feelings of one of my best friends in the world and a true brother of mine. When I write well - and by well I mean truly honestly - it's akin to taking a hard look in the mirror. One of the reasons that I am generally a happy dude is that most of the time when I look in the mirror I'm (too?) proud of the man looking back at me. Well last weekend I did some things that made me not as proud as I typically am of the person staring back at me.  Sometimes I get too wrapped up in the Phish bubble. I get stressed and can lose sight of what's really important. What matters in life. As always I have learned some lessons this tour. This one was a critical one that I'm still processing. Hopefully I will unders...

Never Miss a Tuesday.... or a Wednesday. Or to cut to the chase, never miss a Bakers Dozen Show. Stream, webcast, get to NY; whatever you can do to see the Phish in action the time is right here, right now. They are executing and playing on a level with a consistency that hasn't been seen in almost 20 years. That's also 18 years longer than my memory seems to go back these days so as far as I am concerned we are at peak Phish. I probably sound like a broken record but it's a really beautiful and special time to be a passionate, loyal and dedicated follower of the P fish.  What they might not have in youthful dexterity and the unrelenting raw energy they had in the 90s, they more than make up for it with the experience of playing for so many years, surviving, the knowledge and comfort of who they are and where their place in music history stands. It's really a beautiful thing to be comfortable in your own skin. I was younger, stronger, faster in my 20s. However today ...

Never Miss a Tuesday Prior to the Dayton show last week, I told the tale below. Based upon what we witnessed last night, it bears repeating. My buddy Jonny ran into Trey in NY a few weeks before the Bakers Dozen. Trey asked him how many of the 13 shows he was attending. Jonny said all of them. Trey laughed and responded "Never miss a Tuesday." Johnny is part of the new generation of hardcore phans. One of the things I have noticed about Phish is that the fan base is regenerating. There is an entire generation of younger people that have fallen hard for the Phish. It seems that there are as many, if not more, of the younger generation doing the full tour.  Unlike just about every other band I have loved for a long time, our base has a new wave of fans coming in. I see so many more younger kids that get IT at Phish. This is such an important component of what makes Phish great today - young, new, fresh, optimistic, healthy and eager energy. It's good for the ...

Coconuts It appears the gag is going to be exactly what Page said it would be in an article from July 2007 during the hiatus: " One casualty: creative touring concepts were rejected because they weren’t economically feasible....Another idea had them playing a “baker’s dozen” of shows – 13 nights in Madison Square Garden.... Riffing on that absurdity, the band imagined giving away free donuts and even basing the theme for each show around that night’s variety. For “Boston Crème,” a setlist might have included covers of songs by Boston and Cream. Such tours, of course, never saw the light of day. Says McConnell, “Even if creatively it made sense to the four of us, the management – I don’t want to say they wouldn’t let us do it, but really, they just wouldn’t let us do it.” One of the things I have learned as I have gotten older is to pursue my own happiness and desires, follow my instincts, trust myself as opposed to what others and society believes I should do. F...