![Phish Bids Farewell]( "Phish Bids Farewell")
Phish Bids Farewell
Mon Aug 16
After jamming on to the bitter end, the quartet offered up a tearful farewell to an estimated 65,000 phaithful early Monday morning in a farm field in Coventry, Vermont--not far from the spawning grounds where the band got its start.
Concluding the last of Sunday's three sets, Phish encored with concert rarity "The Curtain With," a song that, in the words of band leader Trey Anastasio, served as an appropriate coda to Phish's 21-year odyssey with the refrain: "Please, we have no regrets."
Before launching into it, Anastasio explained how he wrote the wistful ditty--while living alone in a cabin not far from Coventry in the mid-'80s at a time when the Burlington-based quartet was beginning to gel as a band.
It was "The Curtain With" that Phish agreed would be the last song the band would ever play.
With blue stage lights twinkling, Anastasio, keyboardist Page McConnell, bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jon Fishman took their final bow at 12:25 a.m.
Phish's last hurrah almost didn't happen.
The group and its promoter, Great Northeast Productions, nearly had to cancel the two-day festival at Newport State Airport due to inclement weather on Friday after 50 percent of the parking was deemed unusable following torrential downpours that left hundreds of cars stuck in deep mud, requiring a small fleet of tow trucks to extricate the cars.
Vermont State Police began erecting roadblocks and telling ticketholders, who were waiting in traffic for up to 30 hours, that they would not be admitted due to safety concerns. The police said parking at the venue had basically "become impossible"; the promoter, meanwhile, offered the promise of a full refund.
But that didn't stop the die-hard Phishheads. In a scene reminiscent of Woodstock--whose 35th anniversary fell coincidentally on the same weekend as the Phish fest--fans ditched several thousand vehicles along Interstate 91 and walked up to 12 miles with whatever they could carry (usually a tent and some beer), determined to share in the groove with the Phab Four.
By the time Phish took the stage at 6:10 p.m. for the first of three sets on Saturday, officials estimated that between 65,000 to 68,000 fans had made it in, mainly thanks to locals who converted their property into ad hoc parking lots and even shuttled fans to the site.
State police closed off part of the interstate late Sunday and early Monday so fans could find the cars they abandoned. They also had tow trucks standing by and even tried to hire buses to help ferry concertgoers, but several local bus lines refused for fear of getting stuck.
Not that fans minded the inconvenience. They were too busy noodle dancing in the muck and savoring the last performances of such Phish gems as "You Enjoy Myself," "David Bowie (news)," "Harry Hood," "Hailey's Comet," "Bathtub Gin," "Guyute" and "Run Like An Antelope"--and that was just the first night.
Anastasio and company kicked off Sunday's first set with "Mike's Groove-Mike's Song," "I Am Hydrogen" and "Weekapaug Groove"--three tunes that got the jam-happy crowd moving. That was followed by "Reba" and a latter-era Phish favorite, "Wolfman's Brother." For that song, Anastasio let fans in on an inside band joke (Fishman's the Wolfman's brother) and then he and Gordon brought their mothers and their manager out to join them in a "sexy bump" dance.
During the second set Sunday, a choked-up McConnell had trouble singing "Wading in the Velvet Sea" and needed a little assistance from Anastasio. A little while later, Anastasio--his voice breaking--thanked fans for all their support over the years, saying he wanted to express his "deep, deep love and appreciate for what you've given us." He was followed by McConnell, then Gordon and finally Fishman, each of whom offered similar sentiments.
"To always have these three people there with you...excuse me," Anastasio said, bursting into tears. He composed himself and added, "We're gonna blow off some steam now."
The band kicked into full jam mode, improvising until "The Curtain" came down.
Despite all the good vibes, the Coventry concerts weren't without incident.
Three Phish fans from Colorado were killed en route to the show on Friday, when their car veered into the wrong lane, striking a pick-up truck. The driver of the pick up and another passenger were injured.
And a twentysomething man was discovered dead in a tent early Monday morning. The man wasn't carrying any identification. Police have scheduled an autopsy to try and determine cause of death.
An estimated 37,000 fans who couldn't make the show watched the final gig from the rain-free confines of 50-plus Regal movie theaters nationwide. A Regal rep said it was the company's largest concert simulcast to date.
And for those who missed Phish's swan songs, the band plans to make clean digital copies available for download via LivePhish.com.
The band plans to donate more than $100,000 of the profits from Coventry to Vermont charities, with all the net proceeds from its music downloads to the Mockingbird Foundation, a charity created by Phish fans that supports music education for children.
