Philly’s Funktronic outfit Tweed has released a wild new music video for their latest single “El Sucio Grande.” The disco-inspired tune highlights guitarist AJ DiBiase’s voice in groovy choruses, and combines with Tweed’s signature outer-space synthesizer licks and soaring guitar riffs. Add in gigantic drums, bass bombs, and a trappy ‘big-dirty-style’ breakdown, and you have a powerhouse track.
“El Sucio Grande” features modular synth from Lotus’ Jesse Miller and was produced at New Jersey’s Brooksound Studios with Jeff “Mudd” Mahajan. The video was filmed in Philadelphia and directed by Kevin Shields (of hip-hop duo Little Stranger) and portrays keyboardist Jon Tomczak and DiBiase planning a heist while Philly Vice Cops – drummer Joe Vela and bassist Dan McDonald, are on the chase. The story comes together when the band unites in their getaway van.
Brooklyn-based nine-piece Turkuaz have released the video for “If I Ever Fall Asleep”, the second single off their upcoming album Life In TheCity, due out in September 28. The video was filmed live at vocalist/guitarist Dave Brandwein’s Galaxy Smith Studios, and was produced by Jerry Harrison.
“If I Ever Fall Asleep” is a powerhouse funk number, the first written by Josh Schwartz (baritone saxophone), has incredible energy as the Turkuaz signature upbeat funk channels the paranoid ramblings of an insomniac before embracing his own unraveling.
Turkuaz is currently on the road in support of the new album, traveling across the U.S. with performances at Red Rocks in Morrison, CO on September 23 and The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY on October 19 before the band closes out 2018 with a bang on New Year’s Eve at The Palladium in Worcester, MA.
TURKUAZ 2018 TOUR DATES:
September 14 Greenfield, MA @ Wormtown Music Festival
September 15 Fredericton, NB, Canada @ Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival
September 20 Steamboat Springs, CO @ Old Town Pub
September 21 Steamboat Springs, CO @ Old Town Pub
September 23 Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre October 4 Syracuse, NY @ Westcott Theater*
October 5 Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom*
October 6 Saratoga Springs, NY @ Putnam Den*
October 11 Chattanooga, TN @ Songbirds*
October 12 Mount Vernon, KY @ The Moonshiner’s Ball
October 14 Greensboro, NC @ The Blind Tiger*
October 17 Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street*
October 18 Providence, RI @ Fete Music Hall* October 19 Port Chester, NY @ The Capitol Theatre^
October 24 Greenville, SC @ The Firmament*
October 25 Nashville, TN @ Exit/In*
October 26 Covington, KY @ Madison Theater*
October 28 Live Oak, FL @ Suwanee Hulaween
October 31 Asheville, NC @ Salvage Station~
November 1 Greenville, NC @ State Theatre~
November 2 Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore~
November 3 Washington DC @ Anthem~
November 8 Pittsburgh, PA @ The Rex Theater%
November 9 Columbus, OH @ The Funk’n Beer Fest
November 10 Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue#
November 11 Grand Rapids, MI @ Elevation#
November 14 Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
November 15 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon#
November 16 Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Café+
November 17 Chicago, IL @ Park West December 29 Rochester, NY @ Anthology**
December 31 Worcester, MA @ The Palladium**
January 15 Miami, FL @ Jam Cruise
* with Butcher Brown
^ with Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles
~ with Lettuce
% with Dynamo
# with Andy Frasco & The UN
+ with Rubblebucket
** with Too Many Zooz
“My friends and family and fans didn’t seem to know how to talk to each other anymore without calling each other awful names.” This all too relatable comment from Mick Fury speaks volumes and is a statement that spans the country. So Mick, a Nashville singer/songwriter originally from Syracuse, set out to do find out how deep these divisions truly are.
Mick Fury‘s “Front Porch of America” debuts today with all four episodes available on YouTube and soon on the All Guitar Network on Roku, and features interviews with Americans across the country, with conversations on their front porches, with the goal to answer the question, “Is America really as divided as it seems?”
To that end, after traveling 8,500 miles across the country over 14 days, Fury has a mixed answer to that question. “If I answer that I would be spoiling the whole show, so I’m cheating when I say yes and no. The divisions are there and often there are those who are unreasonably angry about issues they don’t always fully understand. I don’t blame people for that but the places people are getting their news from are not helping them in this. I read New York Times, BBC, while others listen to AM radio and get polarized by those who try to skew their views in a certain direction. You see an anger and fervor to get their opinion out, but after 10 minutes, you see that people have the same goals in life and you’ll see both parts of that in these episodes, and see people being divisive and also very reasonable.”
Each episode will detail the crew’s struggles to drive extreme distances on a limited budget, feature multiple interviews of Americans from their own front porches, and follow Mick’s musical journey along the way. “It started as way to integrate some new songs from my upcoming album into an issue that was really rubbing me the wrong way on social media.”
“I thought a cool element of the project was that a front porch was a place growing up where we’d sit around, shoot the shit, and solve the world’s problems over cheap beers or coffee. I knew that as we drove around America, everyone’s idea of a ‘front porch’ would vary based on where they lived. In DC, it was a picnic bench that a guy liked to hang out on in his complex. In NYC it was a Spanish Harlem rooftop. In Oregon it was a deck overlooking a pot farm. Everyone’s view (and thus their “view”) from their Front Porches was different, and I thought that was a critical part of our American story.
The drive found Fury, videographer Terry Little, friend Adam James plus their gear, heading from Nashville to Washington D.C., New York City, to Syracuse, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Standing Rock, SD, Kirby, OR, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Denver, Oklahoma City and back to Nashville. You can watch all the entire series of “Front Porch of America” on YouTube.
Acclaimed guitarist Marc Ribot has released “The Militant Ecologist” featuring Meshell Ndegeocello, the latest track off his upcoming Sept. 14 release, Songs of Resistance 1942-2018 on ANTI-Records. Ribot set out to assemble a set of songs that spoke to this political moment with appropriate ambition, passion, and fury, starting at the end of 2016, not just in response to the American elections but to the political trends he was seeing around the world.
“I am alarmed by Trump and the movement he’s part of,” he says. “I’ve spent a good chunk of my life running around the world on tour—I’m kind of an accidental internationalist—and I see that he’s not an isolated phenomenon. And if we don’t deal with what is going on, it is going to deal with us.” In releasing “The Militant Ecologist featuringMeshell Ndegeocello, Ribot repurposes the popular Italian resistance song “Fischia il Vento” (Whistling in the Wind). Renowned punk rock filmmaker Jem Cohen has also directed a video for the song featuring a green-tinged New York City skyline with a flag whipping in the wind.
For their new take, Ribot and Ndegeocello change the male partisan fighter in the original song to a woman fighting to stop global warming. “We changed the gender in our version and the flag at the end is green,” Ribot explained of his and Ndegeocello’s take on the song and visuals. “But Meshell projects the persona of a resistance fighter going on a mission perfectly: ‘strong her heart, and swift her arm to strike.”
The eleven songs on the record include a few original compositions as well as traditional songs that are drawn from World War II anti-Fascist Italian partisans, the U.S. civil rights movement and Mexican protest ballads. It also features a wide range of guest vocalists, including Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Meshell Ndegeocello, Justin Vivian Bond, Fay Victor, Ohene Cornelius and Sam Amidon.
Over a forty-year career, Ribot has released twenty-five albums under his own name and been a beacon of New York’s downtown/experimental music scene, leading a series of bands including Los Cubanos Postizos and Ceramic Dog. Since his work with Tom Waits on 1985’s Rain Dogs album, though, he is best known to the world as a sideman, playing on countless albums by the likes of Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, Norah Jones, the Black Keys, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Grammy-winning collaboration Raising Sand.
Along with his musical efforts, Ribot has also been an outspoken activist/community organizer in a number of causes, from affordable housing to musicians’ rights in the digital age. Portions of the album’s proceeds will be donated to The Indivisible Project, an organization that helps individuals resist the Trump agenda via grassroots movements in their local communities.
Prior to being Magnified and well before it Curved, it was Super. Phish’s third major festival in New York State, formally known as Superball IX, took place in July of 2011 at the esteemed Watkins Glen International located in Schuyler County. The move to “The Glen” served as a departure from the band’s previous festival locations at abandoned Air Force Bases which hosted the likes of The Clifford Ball and The Great Went and exchanged it for a world class motor speedway that may be most remembered for an event held almost 40 years beforehand.
The Grateful Dead, The Band and The Allman Brothers Band all combined forces in 1973 for an event that drew over 600,000 people to the racetrack for a concert known as Summer Jam, creating traffic and a scene that dwarfed Woodstock in size. That would be the last major concert at Watkins Glen until Phish was able to secure permission to hold Superball IX there and reopen the racetrack grounds for music. Let’s take a look back at some of the things that made Phish’s ninth festival so special. And make sure to also check out our retrospectives on the prior two that also called New York home, The Clifford Ball and Camp Oswego,
To say there was a (beautiful) buzz about Phish in the summer of 2011 is an understatement. Any and all rust in terms of the band’s cohesiveness and ability to communicate instrumentally had been wiped away since their return to the stage in 2009 after a near five-year “break up.” And while 2010’s Festival 8 at Coachella’s home in Indio, CA would technically be their first festival since the reunion, this was their first East Coast festival since coming back, where all the others had been. The buzz only grew louder after the summer tour was kickstarted with 4 notable shows at another legendary New York venue for music in New York – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, which happens to reside on the grounds of that aforementioned Woodstock festival.
By the beginning of July, with another 15 shows under their belt since Bethel, Phish was ready to end the first leg of their summer tour in style. The village of Watkins Glen rolled out the red carpet for phans and then some with signs welcoming them and deals catered to the Phish crowd as the locals seemed to embrace what was sure to be a brief but powerful economic boon.
Cars and RVs slowly began to line up and soon fill up the festival grounds early Thursday morning in preparation for a full weekend of music. And it was clear Phish management had done their homework and learned from festivals of the past as the entry process was devoid of any of the nightmare-ish traffic jam tales associated with IT (2003) and Coventry (2004). With more vehicle entrances that allowed for a better traffic setup, getting in was a breeze for many. Having great weather all week and a venue that’s capable holding 100,000 NASCAR fans certainly helped as well.
Those that were set up early enough got to hear a pre-festival soundcheck, either within earshot from the stage or via broadcast on The Bunny, Phish’s traditional festival radio station that usually takes over a local FM radio transmission for the weekend. A light, whimsical sound check featuring songs like “Sleep Again” and “Ginseng Sullivan” displayed the band’s looseness and featured of plenty of improvisation to help whet the collective appetite for the weekend.
DAY 1
By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, everyone had gotten a good chance to stroll about the festival grounds and see all the art exhibits and other general weirdness displayed everywhere. Various sculptures and small buildings greeted patrons as they made their way closer to the stage and the plethora of food and beer vendors lined up aside it.
The first set of the weekend was fairly straightforward albeit with a powerful “Possum” that began the festivities, followed by a unique “Peaches en Regalia” > “Moma Dance” combination. Towards the end of the set, “Wolfman’s Brother” delivered a slow but funky groove that steadily grew in intensity and served as the first signs of heavy jamming. But the highlight of the set, for many, was the unexpected bustout of “Life on Mars?,” a David Bowie cover that hadn’t been played since 2003, or 175 shows to be exact. Lots of fans were finally able to take this one off of their respective “unseen” lists as the band played it before a gorgeous New York summer sunset.
7/1/11 Set 1: Possum, Peaches en Regalia > Moma Dance, Torn and Frayed > NICU > Bathtub Gin, Life on Mars?, My Friend,My Friend, Wolfman’s Brother, Roses are Free > Funky Bitch, Quinn the Eskimo
Friday’s second set opener was a harbinger of things to come as the band opened up with a dark, foreboding ambient second jam for several minutes before bursting into the Talking Heads’ “Crosseyed and Painless” which later gave way to the anthemic “Chalkdust Torture.” Later on, another precursor of future events unfolded in the form of an extended spacey jam emanating from “Simple” that oozed eerie and ominous tones.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s pro shot footage of Superball’s “Simple” and the ensuing “Bug” that features a powerful jam on the back end.
https://vimeo.com/25908783
7/1/11 Set 2: Jam > Crosseyed and Painless > Chalkdust Torture, Sand > The Wedge, Mike’s Song > Simple > Bug > The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Weekapaug Groove, Joy > Character Zero
Encore: Show of Life
DAY 2
Saturday brought with it three sets of music and and a sweltering heat to deal with for the opening one in the afternoon. Water and shade were at a premium as the sun beat down on a crowd estimated to be close to 30,000 – a far cry from the population of Summer Jam. This also meant Superball IX would be one of the lighter attended Phish festivals when compared to ones from the past that drew 60,000 or more. But all this did was make for a pleasant experience all weekend as lines for vendors were more than manageable and everyone was able to move around (and dance) freely.
Those that did get up to get down that Saturday afternoon did so under a scorching sun and to another first set with some unique song selections. The show officially started with a rip roaring “Tube” that immediately prompted an all out beach ball frenzy in the crowd. Seemingly thousands of beach balls of various colors and sizes bounced around happily while Phish while began the day’s festivities and gazed at a sea of super balls.
Here’s some great fan shot footage of the opener and the ensuing “Kill Devil Falls” that puts you right in the middle of the maddness.
The rest of the first set was business as usual with staples like “Lawn Boy ” and “Divided Sky” being delivered in addition to “Cities,” another commonly played Talking Heads cover. But this set strayed off the beaten path a little in the form of two songs the band had never played before. The first of which was “Susskind Hotel” which came on the heels of the reverb ending of “46 Days.” Devoted fans recognized this as a song concocted and played by bassist Mike Gordon with his side project, but this was a debut for Phish. Then, after what appeared to be the fairly standard “Suzy Greenberg” set closer replete with a finishing flurry on piano from Page McConnell, the band stayed on stage for one last song, a completely unexpected cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Monkey Man,” as seen on the album Sticky Fingers and immortalized by the move Goodfellas.
7/2/11 Set 1: Tube, Kill Devil Falls > Ocelot, Lawn Boy, Divided Sky, Boogie On Reggae Woman > Camel Walk, Cities > Poor Heart > 46 Days > Susskind Hotel , When the Circus Comes, Timber Ho! > Back on the Train > Suzy Greenberg, Monkey Man
Those looking for an added challenge in the hazy, humid Saturday heat had their chance to do so courtesy of the second ever Runaway Jim 5K Road Race that took place right on the race track. It was quite a scene to behold as small groups of quasi-serious runners bobbed and weaved around others decked out in costumes and clearly there just for the experience. Fittingly, the second set of the day opened with “Runaway Jim” and the band took the opportunity to bring the winners of the race up on stage for a brief trophy presentation. Immediately after that, it was back to business and the band finished up the song and plowed through another set of fan favorites that included numbers like “Axilla,” “Stash” and “The Mango Song.” One of the more poignant moments of the set was the performance of “Scents and Subtle Sounds,” still a fairly new song at that time and only played once before since the band’s reunification in 2009. An emotionally charged jam lifted the crowd up before another appropriately titled song “Run Like an Antelope” closed out the set.
7//2/11 Set 2: Runaway Jim > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters, Axilla > Birds of a Feather, Stash, Sample in a Jar, Heavy Things > Horn > It’s Ice > The Mango Song > Rift > Scents and Subtle Sounds, Run Like an Antelope
art by John Warner
Phish had one more (announced) set scheduled for the evening and rolled out a doozy. With another cover to open, this time TV on the Radio’s “Golden Age,” it soon began a chain of progression that delivered both classic originals and other covers that the band has made their own over time. And it didn’t stop until the set was completed. From traditional behemoths like “Piper” and “Tweezer” that showcased Trey Anastasio’s inspiring guitar work to a rousing cover of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” to close it, this set offered up a little bit of everything as each song flowed effortlessly into the next.
7/2/11 Set 3: Golden Age > Prince Caspian > Piper > Tweezer > Julius > Backwards Down the Number Line > Twist > Also Sprach Zarathurstra > Harry Hood > Cavern > Golgi Apparatus > A Day in the Life
Encore: Loving Cup > Tweezer Reprise
Afterwards, most folks headed back to their respective campsites both with the glow of having experiences three great sets of music and wonderment as to whether there would be another “secret” set like in previous East Coast festivals. Harkening back to the unannounced performance on a flatbed truck rolling through The Clifford Ball grounds, Phish has typically pulled out some sort of surprise during the course of a festival. One of the defining moments of IT in 2003 was an unannounced “Tower Jam” that saw the band play at the top of an abandoned control tower in the control room while lights and acrobatic dancers graced the outside of the tower.
That performance was solely advertised by word of mouth and rumors that began to slowly spread and there was a large portion of the festival that never heard about it until the next day, sadly.. This was also 2003, well before the power of social media could be harnessed in a mobile setting like it is today. 2011 offered more help in this aspect as Twitter and other social media platforms spread hearsay much more efficiently. And by the end of night most people were sure Phish was going to do something, just not what it was.
The Vermont foursome did not disappoint as randomly, around 1 in the morning, strange sounds started to emanate from one of the buildings that had been erected in the “square” area to resemble a self-storage facility, near all the other art installations. As weird tones and noises grew in frequency, it quickly became evident that everyone’s suspiciions were being confirmed and this was the “secret set.” What followed for the next hour or so was a giant, spacey jam that most people jenjoyed either sitting or laying on the ground. Opaque windows and heavy backlighting meant you could only see the sillhouettes of each band member, adding to the mystique. Heavy theremin playing from McConnell and strange ambient collective jamming soon gave way to the oddest “Sleeping Monkey” ever performed by the group and just like that another Phish legend had been created – The Storage Jam.
DAY 3
By Sunday, even though it was only the third performance day of the festival, Superballers had been treated to essentially three shows already with 6 sets of music in the last two days. But with everyone off for the 4th of July the following day, the party vibe was still strong as everyone geared up for the last two sets of the weekend. This general;mood was affirmed with a show opening “Soul Shakedown Party,” a classic Bob Marley song. There was also another longtime fan favorite brought back from the abyss with “The Curtain” and its first performance since September of 2000.
A “Col. Forbin’s Ascent” > “Fly Famous Mockingbird” satisfied the Gamehendge crowd and referenced yesterday’s late night audio exploration. Shockingly, one of the true highlights of the set and that day’s music overall was a song that usually doesn’t generate such shockwaves. But a truly unique performance of the song “Mound” blew the doors off of all its previous versions thanks to a ferocious Anastasio guitar solo towards the end of song that had never appeared in that spot before, and hasn’t been seen again since.
Arguably, the greatest “Mound” ever:
7/3/12 Set 1: Soul Shakedown Party > AC/DC Bag > The Curtain > Colonel Forbin’s Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird > Destiny Unbound > Big Black Furry Creature from Mars, Wilson > Mound, A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing, Time Loves a Hero, Reba > David Bowie
With one last set to play with, Phish let it all hang out with yet another set featuring some memorable cover selections. In a nod to the name of the festival, the last set of the weekend started with a rendition of AC/DC’s “Big Balls,” another first timer in the now expansive Phish catalog of songs. The quirky cover quickly gave way to much more customary second set jam vehicles, the first of which was “Down with Disease” which produced a soaring, rhythmic jam spearheaded by tenacious work on the drums by Jon Fishman and corresponding bass from Gordon. As the jam began to slow in intensity and increase in ambience, familiar notes played on the electric piano signaled another fantastic cover choice – the second ever performance of Led Zepellin’s “No Quarter.”
More traditional second set jam vehicles followed in the likes of “Ghost” and an impressively extended “Light.” And perhaps no sequence summed up the weekend better than a driving and powerful “Waves” jam that soared high before dissolving into spaciness and turning into the instrumental “What’s the Use?” At the end of the final set of the weekend, Phish paid tribute to America with an a capella rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner. The band collectively expressed their sincere thanks to all those who helped produce and set up Superball IX before a “First Tube” encore laden with fireworks put a bow on everything.
7/3/12 Set 2: Big Balls > Down with Disease > No Quarter > Party Time, Ghost > Gotta Jibboo > Light, Waves > What’s the Use? > Meatstick > Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, The Star Spangled Banner
Encore: First Tube
We hope you enjoyed this look back at some of the pictures, videos and moments that made Superball so special. Stay tuned to NYSMusic.com for more NY Phish festival retrospectives as we tackle Magnaball next, the sequel to Superball that was held at the same venue four years later. This is all in preparation for Curveball, the upcoming third Phish festival, also being held at Watkins Glen International, taking place August 17-19,
And here’s one last video, taken and posted by contributing photographer Jacob Silco, that shows a little bit of everything from the fun that was Superball IX.
Hard rock legend Dee Snider has released the official music video for “Become The Storm,” off his upcoming album For The Love Of Metal. The video was filmed by Douglas Quill and was originally released on Loudwire.
The Astoria-born Snider said of “Become The Storm”: “It can be a dark world out there for people being bullied, and I know it. With “Become the Storm” I’m hoping to lift them up and help them find the power within to defeat their adversaries. Sound serious? It is.”
For The Love Of Metal was produced by Hatebreed vocalist Jamey Jasta and features contributions from Howard Jones (ex-Killswitch Engage), Mark Morton (Lamb Of God), Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy), Joel Grind and Nick Bellmore (Toxic Holocaust) and Charlie Bellmore (Kingdom Of Sorrow). The album will be released on July 27th via Napalm Records.
Tour Dates:
7/12/18 – Cadott, WI / Rock Fest Grounds
7/13/18 – Antioch, CA / Contra Costa County Fair Grounds
8/4/18 – Barbaroo, WI / Ho-Chunk Gaming-WI-Dells
8/25/18 – Huber Heights, OH / The Rose Music Center
8/26/18 – Warrendale, PA / Jergels
12/8/18 – Oulu / Areena Oulu, Fiji
12/8/18 – Lahti / Jahti Halli, Fiji
More dates will be announced soon
Let’s Be Leonard have shared the first glimpse of their crowd-funded album Static in the form of “Most Days,” the band’s first ever official music video ever. The full movie of Static will premiere on July 27 at Park Theater in Glens Falls, NY, followed by two sets of Let’s Be Leonard. More info can be found here.
Looking for live streams of music across New York, the country and the world? NYS Music and Fangeist have you covered! Today, we are proud to announce a partnership with Fangeist, an online global live music platform that lets users hear a curated list of live streaming music daily, discover new music releases and local shows.
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Bad Religion have released “The Kids Are Alt-Right,” a sharp takedown of the alt-right movement delivered with their signature brand of socially conscious and sardonic punk.
With a nod to The Who’s 1965 anthem, “The Kids Are Alt-Right” is poignant in a tense political climate, with lyrics that cut right to the core – “Humanity is a nowhere scene/When everybody has an AR-15.” A lyric video offers an onslaught of unnerving images, including girls taking selfies in KKK hoods and chalk body outlines as constellations. Southern California punk is awake and alive with Bad Religion and their powerful yet melodic Southern California hardcore sound.
Israel’s Idan Raichel, a singer-songwriter combining elements of Hebrew, Arab and Ethiopian music with 21st century electronic instruments, has released his latest song, “Beresheet (In the Beginning).” The song was written during his travels and inspired by several unexpected encounters with people from Africa and India.
The song is accompanied by a beautiful video created by the sand artist Ilana Yahav, who brings her visual interpretation of the song in a sensitive and moving way. Listen to “Beresheet (In the Beginning)” on iTunes, and learn more about the Idan Raichel Project here.
Cars and RVs slowly began to line up and soon fill up the festival grounds early Thursday morning in preparation for a full weekend of music. And it was clear Phish management had done their homework and learned from festivals of the past as the entry process was devoid of any of the nightmare-ish traffic jam tales associated with IT (2003) and Coventry (2004). With more vehicle entrances that allowed for a better traffic setup, getting in was a breeze for many. Having great weather all week and a venue that’s capable holding 100,000 NASCAR fans certainly helped as well.
Those that did get up to get down that Saturday afternoon did so under a scorching sun and to another first set with some unique song selections. The show officially started with a rip roaring “Tube” that immediately prompted an all out beach ball frenzy in the crowd. Seemingly thousands of beach balls of various colors and sizes bounced around happily while Phish while began the day’s festivities and gazed at a sea of super balls.
Those looking for an added challenge in the hazy, humid Saturday heat had their chance to do so courtesy of the second ever Runaway Jim 5K Road Race that took place right on the race track. It was quite a scene to behold as small groups of quasi-serious runners bobbed and weaved around others decked out in costumes and clearly there just for the experience. Fittingly, the second set of the day opened with “Runaway Jim” and the band took the opportunity to bring the winners of the race up on stage for a brief trophy presentation. Immediately after that, it was back to business and the band finished up the song and plowed through another set of fan favorites that included numbers like “Axilla,” “Stash” and “The Mango Song.” One of the more poignant moments of the set was the performance of “Scents and Subtle Sounds,” still a fairly new song at that time and only played once before since the band’s reunification in 2009. An emotionally charged jam lifted the crowd up before another appropriately titled song “Run Like an Antelope” closed out the set.
That performance was solely advertised by word of mouth and rumors that began to slowly spread and there was a large portion of the festival that never heard about it until the next day, sadly.. This was also 2003, well before the power of social media could be harnessed in a mobile setting like it is today. 2011 offered more help in this aspect as Twitter and other social media platforms spread hearsay much more efficiently. And by the end of night most people were sure Phish was going to do something, just not what it was.
