Phish Berkeley 2010: Home of Elvis and the Ancient Greeks

The Phish shows in Berkeley at the Greek Theatre included probably the most ridiculous ticket debacle I have ever seen as people tried desperately to score tickets for the 8500 person theatre playing host to the only west coast Phish shows of the summer. I saw everything from $350 tickets to tickets that had been sold on Stubhub and subsequently canceled to people buying three fake Ticketmaster tickets outside for $250 each. $750 in fake tickets?!?! I think I would be deeply depressed had that happened to me. Luckily, I was able to get the first two nights on the initial onsale and trade a friend's extra for a Saturday. Tickets in hand, locked and loaded, I began my voyage down the coast to the Bay Area. After a stop at the Bier Stein and Ninkasi Brewing Company in Eugene, Mad River Brewing in Blue Lake, and Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, I was fully Pliny'd and ready to roll.

I arrived at the Greek around 3PM on Thursday to find line duty fully underway. When we got inside, I realized it was tarper city, with people for some reason thinking it would be OK to put tarps down on the best seats to save room for their 12 friends that didn't wait in line all day. I was in a good mood this night, so I took a first row lawn seat in the center (one of the only flat spots on the whole lawn - you need grappling gear to dance on the rest of it). Possum opener and the crowd was VERY energetic. The Wolfman's Brother had a nice jam in it that made me excited for the potential jamming to come the rest of the weekend. Divided Sky was nice as it was in such a great venue, and Funky Bitch and Haley's Comet were fun too. I found the rest of the first set to be a little boring, and the Antelope did not hit the peaks and valleys that it did in the ATL.

Second set opened with Down with Disease (surprise, surprise), and the Free that followed felt great after Hornings and the good drive to SF. More snoozing until Maze, which was high energy. Then came Joy, which I love. The funny thing is, seemingly, most other people do not care for it as the energy was quickly sucked out of the venue and everyone started chatting, sitting, heading for the bathroom, grabbing a beer, etc. Essentially, whatever it is you do when you are bored and unhappy at a show, everyone was doing during Joy except me. Which is fine by me, I can carry the load for a little while. The Tweezer had some decent jamming in it, and they closed the set with Fluffhead (always been a little too composed for my tastes). The Loving Cup encore apparently saw Trey on a new guitar, and the Tweeprise closed the show, of course. All in all a decent show, but not great. I would say it was about average for the Phish shows that I have seen with me being bored about 50% of the time. No late night for me that night as I really needed a good night's sleep.

Friday saw the same ticket and line insanity out front. Luckily I was able to score a couple seats in the concrete near the top on the left side. What a difference it made for the sound, sights, and overall experience. I had been to the Greek a few times before but never sat in those seats. Now, I will make it a point to try to get them every show. I don't know if it was me getting a better seat or what, but Friday's show was night and day with Thursday. I was only bored 15% of the time, and I was VERY impressed with the jamming coming out of the VT boys. Kuroda was amazing on lights all weekend, but I thought he particularly shined Friday night. The show opened high energy again with Chalkdust Torture, and then they gave us a two song pee break with Guyute and Ocelot. The It's Ice brought me back to my seat just in time for the Cities->Moma Dance->Bathtub Gin->Stealing Time. This segment could have been great. Like really, really, really great. And the Cities->Moma Dance were. But they kind of phoned in the Gin jam and rushed through Stealing Time. Still, the Cities->Moma and the jam in between had me ecstatic at set break. Finally!! A jam band that jammed!!

Second set on Friday opened with Rock and Roll (again, surprise, surprise), and quickly got very interesting. The Ghost->Mike's Song->Simple->Backwards Down the Number Line was again top shelf Phish, with an amazing jam coming before and after Simple. Trey destroyed any hope of a smooth transition between Ghost and Mikes by disregarding the rest of the band and beginning to play the next song (a la Caspian->Tweezer in ATL and I'm sure dozens of other times in Phish 3.0). Again, maybe I'm being overly critical, because the jamming took me to a place I don't know that I've gotten to in 2010. Show of Life sounded like a great song with awful, cheesy lyrics (par for the course these days I suppose). Seven Below was short (thank goodness) and segued into a decent Weekapaug. The You Enjoy Myself was awesome, and the drum and bass part before the vocal jam was especially funky. Good Times Bad Times encore, and I just saw my favorite Phish show out of any I've seen in 3.0 (Knoxville, Bonnaroo, Gorge, 8, ATL, Greek).

Since it was Friday night, and we were in one of the greatest cities in the world, I decided to run over to one of the greatest venues in the city and check out Bill Kreutzman's new band the 7 Walkers featuring Papa Mali, George Porter Jr., and some dude on piano. The band was OK, but the room was really fun and Greek->Great American Music Hall is a sick one-two punch. To everyone's (seemingly) surprise Jon Fishman took over drum duties for Deal and Morning Dew. A few songs later, Mike Gordon emerged to take over bass during Going Down the Road Feeling Bad. Neither of them rocked it like they had the previous few hours, but it was cool to see them out and having fun nonetheless. A quick bite at Tommy's Joynt, and that was a wrap on an amazing Bay Area day. Did I mention the weather was phenomenal the entire time we were in the city?

Saturday I was a little more disorganized and did not get to the venue in time to get a concrete seat. No way I was going back to Mt. Everest on the lawn again, so I got a nice spot on the floor. I braced myself for crowdedness, but it did not get that bad the whole show imo. Maybe I was just burnt out from such a good time the night before, but Saturday let me down a little bit, and I didn't feel like the jamming was anywhere near as innovative or deep as Friday. The first set bored me to tears, though the Reba had a decent jam.

The second set did not interest me all that much either. Of course there was a pretty jam out of Light, but that song is so bad imo that the jam can never make up for it (unless, of course, we're talking Gorge Light). Hood was good, and everything else seemed fairly well played. The Theme->2001 was good but not very experimental. I never liked Suzy, but it was energetic, and Slave was a good version to close the set. The Lizards encore was way cool, and (gasp!) they finished the show with First Tube. Again, the playing was good, but it seems like I see most of these songs every show and there is never any creative jamming (Type II) that differentiates one experience from another.

Since I had to fly out early on Sunday AM, I decided to pull an all nighter and check out the EOTO with Kang and Kyle and Hamsa Lila party in Richmond at the Craneway Pavilion. Again, I didn't bring my camera in (I definitely suck at that game come late night). After a short drive to one of the sketchiest cities in the country, I was pleasantly surprised to find a good sized venue nestled in the dock with a great view of Berkeley, Oakland, Bay Bridge, SF, etc. I got there just in time for Hamsa Lila, who I had not seen in probably five years. I thought they were as good if not better than they were back then. There were three large screens spanning the whole warehouse behind the band with decent visionary and psychedelic artwork projected on them. Hamsa Lila brought out Earnest Ranglin to play guitar. Jason Hann joined them for what might be the best 'Drums' I've ever heard, and Mike Kang added some guitar licks.

Next up was EOTO with Kang and Kyle (SuperEOTO). The first song was ambient and awesome, but the rest of the show seemed to alternate between superb and mediocre. To be honest, I do not like EOTO's music generally speaking, so anytime I thought it sounded like EOTO, I was bored. Kyle was the MVP as he could really make even the boring parts awesome. Kang had some nice fiddle work as he went through the themes to Valley, Rivertrance, and Bumpin Reel in the same song (I think...). The only other SCI part I definitely recognized was the latin breakdown in Texas. About 20% of the show was spectacular, meaning I would have been super stoked if it had come out as a jam at an SCI show. The rest was fairly mindless and uncreative imo. If you had told me 10 years ago that I'd be watching these guys play dubstep, I would have called you a liar (and asked what dubstep was). But, they are doing it now, and at least the vibes on stage seemed amicable with no Nershi. During the second or third dubstep jam, I was over it and headed to the airport.

Leaving the West Coast is never my favorite part of the trip, but at least I'm coming home with some beautiful memories. I ate my favorite burritos, drank my favorite beer, saw some of my favorite people, and went to some of my favorite venues. It is a bittersweet feeling to have to say goodbye to these things, but I know I will be back.

Such a long long time to be gone, and a short time to be there... Until next time. MB

Hornings + Greek = West Coast Bliss 2010

I just got home from an amazing week on the West Coast. I was blessed by beautiful weather, beautiful people, delicious beer, great food, and, of course, good music.
String Cheese Incident - Horning's Hideout 2010

Unfortunately, I had to miss SCIde project Thursday and arrived Friday afternoon just in time to catch Bill Nershi and Scott Law's set on the side stage. The side stage had been decorated by a bunch of balloons and stuff that looked to me like they were straight out of Beetlejuice. After a short Lester poem, it was a nice acoustic way to get the week started, with Billy and Scott doing what they do best. Among others, they played Texas Town, Long Journey Home, and Song in My Head. The newer tune - Song in My Head has got to go imo - just terrible. It sounds like it belongs at a Hot Buttered Rum show (though this is String Cheese we're talking about...).

Onward and upward to Friday night - the return of SCI to Horning's started out as most of us remember it usually starting out - with Smile. 'I count the days while we're apart. I count the days, and I count the miles.' Indeed. Beautiful smiles and blissful vibes were all around the rest of the first set that night. Born on the Wrong Planet had a nice jam in it, and Miss Brown's Teahouse saw the Soul Rebel Brass Band come on stage to add a horn section. Once they got the horns microphones working (finally...), it sounded great and really brought a New Orleans flavor to Oregon.

The second set on Friday was also decent, with the highlight coming in the Water jam. Billy just ripping some beautiful notes as the music dripped over the crowd. Bend Down Low was also good. My gripes came with the Jungle Boogie in place of the usual Dirk porno-funk jam (snooze), and the new tune Song in My Head - good Lord is it bad. Nice Bumpin' Reel and Restless Wind closed the set, and the Hey Pocky Way encore with the horns may have been the highlight of the show. Man, I love me some New Orleans horns and am going to make it a point to make it to Jazz Fest this year.

The campgrounds were fun Friday night, and everyone was happy to be back together again. I checked out the late night on one of the side stages (Motet guys?), which was pretty good, but very quiet due to Bob's noise issues. This particular venue was decorated with day-glo grass and other glow-y things, including a glow in the dark type screen that would retain the light (for a few seconds) from a laser being projected on it in different patterns. The glow in the dark laser screen was no cube-a-tron, but was still pretty cool. The other side stage had fire dancers, which I didn't watch for very long.

Ah, Saturday at Hornings. Can you ask for a better feeling? I started the day off with some Pliny the Elder before making my way to Col. Bruce's workshop, which was more like a mellow show. He said they didn't know what to talk about, so they'd just play music instead. Alright with me. After checking out the Colonel, I wandered over to Everyone Orchestra where Matt Butler was leading the ensemble. It was funky from what I remember, but I didn't stay for long as I wanted to see Toubab Krewe. Toubab Krewe put on a mellow show during the middle of the day, which I thought was great. It was not as energetic as they can be, but it was also mid-day in the sun. Before seeing Bill Frisell, I stumbled into Toubab playing an acoustic unamplified set by the Furthur bus - gotta love the renegade sets.


Bill Frisell has been one of my favorite guitarists since I first heard his music in 2003. This is the second time I've seen him at Horning's (first being Strummit in 2008), and I was beyond stoked that SCI booked him for the show. His show was mellow and beautiful. I recognized the drummer from past Frisell shows, but the keyboards rounding out the trio were not familiar to me, though I thought he was very very good. Frisell has amazing energy and the smile seems to burst from his face. It is so good to see musicians love what they are doing.

String Cheese Incident Saturday night Hornings is always an incredible time (though sometimes not the most incredible music). This year was no different, though I think it might be the first year they only did two sets. The show started out very strong with Black Clouds->Rhum N Zouc, and SCI brought out Bill Frisell (dream come true) for County Road Blues and Freedom Jazz Dance. He added some nice licks, but didn't really get down with a duel or anything (jazz guitarist vs. bluegrass guitarist doesn't always work I guess). Kyle's new offering - Way That It Goes is funky and not too long, and the set closed with the boys going back into Black Clouds, complete with everyone taking their turn on the traditional Black Clouds jam.

Set break was long, but the anticipation was building for the first dream dance without Peak Experience (to my knowledge). They opened up with Rivertrance to some choreographed dancing and fire dancers. I was a little bummed because Rivertrance is the get-down, and we were trapped on the hill - oh well - you can't win them all. The fire dancers gave way to lasers, a UFO hovering above the stage, and a female ribbon dancer suspended above the crowd by giant balloons. Sorry I didn't get any pictures, but you can check out Deadesq Dave's always fabulous shots at his website. They let the crowd down, and it was fun dancing under the UFO, lasers, and ribbon dancer. Joyful Sound was awesome and really seemed to be a combination of the original version and the new version with Kyle on the bass line played at Rothbury last year. I also thought the EOTO jam was pretty dirty (though a little too dub-steppy for my String Cheese). The rest of the set seemed like one long pee break song for me - just couldn't really get into it. It reminded me of the third set in 2005 and 2007. Oh, how I long for the adventurous super-jam third set days of 2003 and 2004... Throw away encore for icing on the cake with the re-worked version of Sirens (certainly better, but still bad imo), and a short unexploratory Texas. Again, fun in the campgrounds was had on Saturday night, of course.

Sunday Hornings is always special as everyone tries to reflect on the weekend (and maybe longer) of being together. I am always reminded how lucky I am to be able to have any of these experiences with people that I love. What better way to start the weekend than with the Colonel. Bruce is a living legend, and I was glad he came all the way out from Georgia to play at Hornings. He sounded and looked great, both on vocals and guitar when he played it. Next up were the Travelin McCourys to give us our bluegrass fix. I've seen these guys so many times over the years, and they never disappoint.

SCI Sunday started out strong with Lester Had a Coconut and some bluegrass with the Travelin McCourys. Col Bruce came out for Fixin to Die (awesome), and the set finished strong with Will It Go Round in Circles and San Jose. The second set may have been the most well played set of the weekend, but it, like the rest of the weekend, was short on any deep jams. The Howard came closest, and it was great to hear Emma's Dream and Don't Say, two of my favorites. Eyes of the World was well played and the Outside Inside set closer was rocking. Familiar territory with the Best Feeling and Good Times Around the Bend encore sent us off into the night to see what we could find one last night at Hornings...

This weekend went by as fast as any weekend I can remember, but I guess all Hornings weekends do. I saw so many people that have been such an integral part of my life, and I feel like I could only spend about 5 minutes with everyone. I seriously felt like I was at the Hideout for 10 hours, and did not want to leave. The music was good, but not great. It is what has brought us together for years and it is what brought us together this weekend, and for that I am grateful. Billy was quiet all weekend, Kyle was great as always, Kang was rocking. Keith was Keith, and Travis was Travis. Jason has started some skat like vocals - da diggy da diggy da. Jason, please stop...

I hope we can come back again, but I wonder what the place will be like if Bob wins the State Senate seat. Upon reflecting back on the past Hornings, the place has definitely changed. Maybe not for the better, but change is the only constant, right? This being my 5th time up there for SCI, I've watched it grow from an intimate family affair to one of the most hyped weekends of the summer. This year saw the removal of the beer garden, and in its place, about a dozen other places set up to hawk beer. This year also saw the installation of additional fences to delineate the campground stages (where, of course, they also sold beer). More food vendors (loved the local options) and more people there for the party. More space needed for parking, less space available for camping, and no Peak Experience added to the different feeling. The production seemed less elaborate and a little cheaper. I guess you could say that our little Horning's is growing up. It kind of felt like a mini-Bonnaroo in the Oregon woods. I still had a blast, and will always return as long as Bob has us, but I am a little sad to see such a pure, pristine place turned into Rothbury 2010.

Bigger isn't better, and money isn't everything...