March 5, 2009

Between the anticipation, excitement, and the nerves, this week has been a roller coaster ride. I knew the emotions would be crazy, but between thinking through travel planning, avoiding missteps with tickets, hotels, traffic and wondering who we might run into from the days or yore, coordinating meetups, and so on; it’s freaking hard concentrate and man, I’m nervous.

I’m sure we’re all in the same situation this week; clicking mercilessly from emails, to message boards, to YouTube, to blogs, and back to emails. The waiting is getting unbearable and working is getting tougher by the minute. We’ve hashed over every topic to the point of even having discussions about what various friends will wear to the shows (that’s easy, Quadrophenia shirt). Don’t lie; I know you’ve thought about it too.

Anyway, I couldn’t really think of anything worth adding to the conversation this week until listening to Harry Hood the other day. I vividly remember trying to listen to Hood after Coventry and feeling really pretty bummed out. I didn’t leave Coventry with a bad feeling at all about the band or foster any ill will whatsoever, but strangely in the few months that followed, it became kinda depressing. That song in particular really struck a nerve and didn’t sit well at all for quite a while and became sort of a symbol of growing up, something I wasn’t really excited to do.

READ ON for a list of 100 Reasons Why Phish Should Reunite…

We asked a number of our favorite folks from around the scene for their Phish opener picks and here’s what they came up with…

Name: Joel Cummins
Occupation: Keyboardist – Umphrey’s McGee
Favorite Phish Song: Reba
Number of shows attended: 33
Hampton Opener Pick: You Enjoy Myself

Name: George Miller
Occupation: Drummer – U-Melt
Favorite Phish Song: McGrupp
Number of shows attended: @ 30
Hampton Opener Pick: Destiny Unbound

Name: Marc Brownstein
Occupation: Bassist – The Disco Biscuits
Favorite Phish Song: Down With Disease
Number of Shows Attended: “A fucking boatload”
Hampton Opener Pick: “The new Phish song, ‘Couldn’t Care Less.’ I’m not going to be there & I stopped caring about what Phish played in 1999”

READ ON for more picks from around the scene…

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals hit their stride last fall during a brief European Tour. The folks at Ryan Adams Archive have compiled the best tracks from the run for

The members of Phish have remained awfully quiet since announcing their return in October, until today. On the eve of their three-night run at the Hampton Coliseum the band members

Everyone has some sort of numeric equivalent that occasionally happen into their lives. It’s how we reasonably explain coincidences. Relate them to a common occurrence and they become less rare. The less rare something is, the more it is accepted as fact. Therefore, in an effort to explain our universe to ourselves, mankind has come up with some numerical correlations that see them through the day. Celebrities die in groups of three, right? Bad news, in general, comes in threes. In bowling, three strikes are known as a Turkey. In hockey, three goals by one individual is called a Hat Trick.

Three on a match is bad luck. Three’s company. Three’s a crowd. Third time’s a charm. I’m certain there are at least dozens more, but I do try to keep it readable, after all.

I am a firm believer in the vaguely scientific phenomenon known as “The Law Of Twos”. Similar in concept to the above cited rules of three, this one requires much less verification. Take for example what happened a couple of Fridays ago. In conversation over lunch, I mentioned to the wife that I hadn’t gotten a drunken, “I love you” phone call in a long time. You know the ones, from an ex or a long lost college buddy, where in a tequila haze they find your number and call you to remind you that they were there first, they loved you before and they still love you or they still can’t forget that pass you caught in a pickup football game in 1976.

READ ON for more from AJ on The Bridge at the Goodfoot Pub…