Trick or Treat?
6.12.09 Bonnaroo Late Night (J.Kravitz)
One simple flash animation and the entire community was whipped into a frenzy. Leave it to Phish to fuck with us until the end, and if my supposition is right, that is exactly what they are doing. Yesterday, on Phish.com, the Save the Date map saw California lifted off the map by hot air balloons- supposedly meaning the Halloween festival will not be in Indio, CA- the location that everyone and their mother assumed it would be. Due to all of the hype and anticipation, Indio hotels have been booked for weeks and some fans have even gone as far as purchasing plane tickets to southern California! (Questionable decision making in my book.) But with the airlift of California off Phish’s animated map, everything was thrown into question, and the Phish community turned into an all-out freak scene.
The Mystery
It took no time at all for rumors to begin circulating about the festival’s “real ” location, Datelan Army Airfield outside of Yuma, AZ. These rumors spread like wildfire on message boards and Facebook, and before long, people had RVs on lock-down in Phoenix and Tucson for the festival in the middle of the desert. It made sense- an old military airfield out in the middle of nowhere- much like their former festival sites, and it still fit in with the heavily rumored fall dates that start in the southwest and move up the west coast. Leave it to Phish fans- the most obsessive sub-genre of people on this planet- to get to the bottom of this.
Halloween??
All of a sudden, plans were changed. Whether it was Arizona, New Mexico Georgia, or Vegas- all ideas tossed around the web- it wasn’t gonna’ be Indio. Or was it? To be honest, my initial thought was that Phish was pulling a prank on us. But that thought didn’t stop me from booking 30 footers out of Phoenix and Tuscon just in case! But there had been too much talk about Indio; locals had confirmed the plans, there were all the semantic correlations with the suffering date crop of the region, people in the organization freely talked about it at Alpine Valley- and all of a sudden it fell through? It just didn’t feel right.
My first thought was that because the animated California never got destroyed, pillaged, or blackened- like the other eliminated states- it would somehow survive. Possible clue number two- the design on the balloons had arrows pointing up and down- “What goes up, must come down!”- of course. At the end of all this, when all the other states are gone, California would float back down and be presented as the official site. That’s what I thought, but who really knew? I could definitely picture the band members and Flash animators laughing their asses off as they watched the community spin into a tizzy over the newly-created mystery.
California Hovering Out of Plain Sight
And then later in the day, it was discovered that California wasn’t gone at all, it was in Canada! If you held down the command button and pressed “+,” the animation zoomed out showing California-very much intact- hovering over the lower 48. It was brought up that it might just be a fault of the Flash animation, but come on! If they wanted to take California off the map, they would have- bottom line. Theories, obsession, mystery, hype, adrenaline….this is all part of the Phish game too, and five years later, it was funny to be in the midst of another full-on freak scene! Some things never change.
6.14.09 (J.Kravitz)
Once people saw California hovering over the country, the consensus seemed to shift back to a festival in Indio, but the mystery is still out there to be solved. Regardless of where Halloween ends up- and I’m 99% sure it will be in Indio- it’s great to see Phish’s prankster spirit alive and well in 2009. Taking their fans on a mental scavenger hunt to find the next site, and boosting their heart rates for a while, the organization shook things up on Monday, making the normally mundane start of the week far more exciting.
It’s so great to have Phish back- not only for the music- but for the sheer excitement they bring to everyday life. Nothing else could have caused such a hectic, yet positive, stir in all of our lives yesterday, and that just speaks to the power of it all. Reason number 1001 why the world is a better place with a happy and healthy Phish around. But keep those reservations- wherever you may have them- because who knows what the next twist will bring!
See you in southern California! Probably.
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Phish Thoughts Jam of the Day!
With the new Flash audio player, I thought that I’d add a new feature to the site! Every day I will feature one standout jam to listen to, separate from the day’s post. Sometimes I’ll write a paragraph, sometimes a sentence, but there will always be some quality Phish to listen to every day! You will always be able to download the selection by clicking the orange song header. Enjoy!
Simply put, this changed my life.
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DOWNLOAD OF THE DAY:
10.11.95 Compton Terrace Tempe, AZ < TORRENT
10.11.95 Compton Terrace Tempe, AZ < MEGAUPLOAD
Rumors spread faster than a California wildfire that the Halloween scene was shifting to Arizona- and it still might! Here is one show that Phish did play in Arizona back in the Fall of ’95. A sparsely populated affair that served as my wife’s first, Phish brought out a great second set featuring the rare “Mike’s > McGrupp > Weekapaug”, a hot second set “Gin,” and a bust-out in “Crossroads.” I love the ’95 Phish, and this one gets glanced over most of the time.
I: Stash, The Old Home Place, Cavern, The Divided Sky, If I Could, Fog That Surrounds, Acoustic Army, Julius, Sample in a Jar
II: Possum, Bathtub Gin, Mound, Mike’s Song > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > Weekapaug Groove > Llama, Suzy Greenberg > Crossroads, Hello Ma Baby, A Day in the Life
E: Chalk Dust Torture
Source: unknown (possibly Tascam PE125 > DAP1) fob?
Tags: 2009, Halloween
Sure returning the shit is great idea but trying doing that shit after a fiasco like deer creek this year where everything was soaked and covered i mudd. It took me an hour to get back to my campsite 3 miles away in a cab only to find all my shit soaked and slept in a 3 inch puddle of water.
you might be able to get new equipment for the cost of extra luggage now adays.
Just curious,
Assuming this is in Indio, What is the temperature day vs. night??? at that time of year, assuming hot as hell all day and then chilly at night.
Sure someone knows, thanx in advance…
Thats a great idea bringing a cooler and putting your camping gear inside.
If I would’ve thought about that, I may have flown to Tennessee for the Roo. 16 Hours was a loooong time to be on the road. Not to mention there was a detour on Intestate 81 Friday early monring that cost us about 2 or 3 hours. Still made it with plenty of time to spare to see the B-Boys and the first night of Phish.
Great idea with the cooler though, for sure.
Def use a cooler as checked luggage. I’ve gone to Burning man this way a few years in a row. I can fit my Tent and a few other things in the cooler. Duct tape the shit out of it and it will be fine. This way you can have cold beverages too.
Really a great idea, folks. Thanks for the suggestion. We were definitely debating paying extra for checked pieces vs. buying new, but we’ll see how much I can cram into a cooler now!
^”Simply put, this changed my life” Was that the moment you donned the ‘nickname’?
The ’95 NY run was a gift to myself for graduating from MSU. Couldn’t have picked a better way to celebrate. And no, I wasn’t one of the clappers : )
Well, thanx for the ‘Jam of the day’. Good way to start out. Time to fix the water line.
I’ve gone back and forth about this floating California thing but the more I think about it, the more I think Cali is toast. The only thing that gives me pause is that I heard the Indio rumor from someone who has proven to be very reliable. However, this person has been pretty tight-lipped the last few weeks which makes me think Red Light may have gone all-Cheney on the leakers.
In my mind, there are essentially two options here:
1) Phish is fucking with us.
Why would Phish do this? Certainly the boys have a sense of humor and maybe that’s what is going on here. However, I’m not sure how involved the band is in making these decisions. They might require a final ‘go ahead’ from the band but I’d be surprised if it were more involved than that. Beyond having fun for the sake of it (which isn’t exactly foreign to Phish), the prank doesn’t serve any purpose.
2) Indio didn’t work out.
If this is the case, obviously, Phish is not responsible for people acting on rumors but the *respectable* thing to do if the deal fell through would be to kill California immediately. The physical evidence is apparent, too: The CA polygon left on the map is blacked out like all the other removed states plus California no longer wobbles when you put the cursor over it.
Personally, I don’t think this is a prank anymore. I think they (unsuccessfully) tried to nip the Indio thing in the bud after the contracts fell through so those hurt financially by the rumors could get their shit straight. That’s just me, though.
On a less buzzkill note, thanks to everyone who tuned in to the radio show last night! The PTs crew got some props and a Mighty Diamonds’ “Have Mercy” dedication. I don’t know if any caught the robot/Stephen Hawking voices discussing California being ‘held aloft by hot air balloons’ above Canada with the Mike’s Song intro playing in the background but that was for the PTs folks, too.
@Stupendous- Without having seen your comment until today, I coincidentally played Linval early in the show. If you missed it, I’ll play some LT for you next week.
@Miner: it’s not officially archived through KVRX for legal/monetary reasons but I can probably obtain a copy and put it up on the interwebs for your enjoyment.
i must say Miner, that is the PERFECT title for this article.
thanks for the shoutout, selector!
me and my buddy spent an hour with my now reworking vaporizer before the show, and we tuned into the show just in time to hear shout outs to col.joy and the mmpt crew. we also turned my friend’s dad onto reggae.
i’m looking forward to cowfunk’s live stream tonight.
thanks 🙂
what time does the c0w stream? And what music? I love this burgeoning community!
click on c0w’s name for more info,miner.
Turning your buddy’s old man onto reggae! Classic. Did the vaporizer have anything to do with that??
Oh, I’m sure the vaporizer did not hurt LOL!
Did Safari 4 do the trick for those having problems with Cali?
the vape definitely helped! 🙂
my friend’s dad is an old bluegrass picker, and i pointed out how the reggae chop on guitar is percussivly similar to a bluegrass guitar chop. i also told him to concentrate on the bassline and branch out from there. he’s taking a cruise to jamaica in the fall and now he is been shown the reggae light!
@ Selecta didnt catch the LV i ended up catching the last 10-15 min of the show…wasnt sure if it was live or not…very cool.
Ive been wanting to have a similar gig for years now…we’ll see….someday
“How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love Phish”
Cool article on NPR about the Phish bias that I am sure we’ve all dealt with
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monitormix/2009/07/how_i_stopped_worrying_and_lea.html
Why would they announce a festival without having a site? Seems like a solid deposit would have be laid down by now. Def thinkin the southwest because it is dry that time of year. The site near Yuma is in the middle of fuckin nowhere. Vegas, was there camping for vegoose on the soccer fields or some shit? Neither seems probable, but what do I know. I want to start a rumor that it will be held at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, its a road course with a gigantic field in the middle, huge bleachers, camping directly accross street for race events. Weather would be tits as well.
My prediction…the last state will explode and pop the balloons dropping CA right into the thick of it. Then its on…2 set fri, 3 sat & sun
Avg temps for Indio that time of year are mid-upper 80’s during the day, mid-50’s at night.
Glide>Gumbo opener
^ yup.. Though I’d go for Sears Point!
Ha! Sears Point, could you imagine? Little bit of wine tasting, and lots of Phish. Traffic would suck on the 101 > 37 though.
@Chalkdustin…. I believe all airlines will allow a checked cooler. You are not allowed to have ice in it. I have slipped thru the cracks on that rule, but have also been called out. I flew to Hampton this year with frozen boar meat. (had been hunting in Texas prior–shot 4) I was able to fly from Texas to VA with my ice. They called me out on the way back and made me dump out my ice. Dry ice is allowed. The ice thing probably doesn’t apply to most people because you will probably have camping gear in your cooler and not ice. If you do need to fly with cold or frozen items use dry ice. And as Jahvolunteer76 says “duct tape the shit out of it”.
Frozen boar meat??! That’s awesome. Must have tasted great grilled with a fatty Sierra Nevada.
I love bacon. I have yet to have wild boar, although I look forward to having some soon.
Duct tape generally works with anything that isn’t wet, or dusty. The stuffs great.
“Why would they announce a festival without having a site?”
I think they already have a site 100% confirmed, but that they also opted to go after a ‘better’ site that is/was unconfirmed at the time they posted Save the Date.