Reminiscing and loving it…

I am having a rough week and decided this morning that it would be an all PHISH morning… I have it slated in my Itunes to play the following albums back to back.

Picture of Nectar. Billy Breathes. Farmhouse. Rift. Junta. Hoist. Hampton Comes Alive.

Go back to December of 1995… Mullins Center.. .UMASS Amherst. The night I learned that I truly loved music- and these guys were the reason why…

12/04/95 Mullins Center, Amherst, MA

Set I: Julius, Gumbo, The Divided Sky, Punch You in the Eye, Stash, My Mind's Got a Mind of its Own, Axilla, The Horse> Silent in the Morning, Hello My Baby, While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Set II: Timber, Sparkle, Ya Mar, Run Like An Antelope, Billy Breathes, Cars Trucks Buses, You Enjoy Myself, Sample in a Jar, Frankenstein

Encore: Bouncing Around the Room, Rocky Top

(This morning) I was a meager hour into the playlist when TWEEZER REPRISE started.. I was instantaneously taken back to being 17 years old and standing in a basement in a Worcester Massachusetts house (1996) with my Epiphone Scroll around my neck (guitar). I was standing next to John Clarke (bass) Brett Robbins ( guitar) Dan Bourgeois (piano) Dana Etree (Drums) Shane Holloway (wire coat hanger) and thus the jam started with the first note… We played that song for what must have been about 10 minutes straight, and it was at that point that I knew there was a G-d.. Because the sheer power of that TWEEZER REPRISE cover was enough to make me feel invincible.

(As the playlist progresses) Fast-forward a year later (1997)… Standing in Aroostook County Maine. The Great Went… 70,000 plus people…I happen to come across (now, my brother-in-law) grooving in the mud… Just as “Character Zero” begins…. And at that moment the world was a perfect place.. Even if only for two days.. it was a time I will never forget- that I got to share with an amazing friend. Although we didn’t go to the show together- I really loved the fact that my sister’s boyfriend and I got to experience a once in a lifetime event together- meeting by happenstance.

I’m loving Thursday morning…