From: dsteinbe@nmsu.edu
Subject: Story
Reply-To: dsteinbe@nmsu.edu
Organization: The Internet
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 15:34:38 GMT

O.k.  People have been asking for Phish stories.  This show was one of
my more eventful.  Tell me what you think...
-David "ZZYZX" Steinberg
**********************************************************************
*"There's a dog in the station  *"I can't believe I'm a junior and a *
* With a bad reputation         * film major, when all I really      *
* That's a sign of the nation's * wanted in this life was to marry a *
* Decay"                        * lobsterman and cook fish."         *
* -Phish                        * -a letter from Christie Searing    *
**********************************************************************

     Aiko's Saratoga Springs, NY     3/8/90  

O.k. I was talked into this one.  It doesn't usually take much to get
me to go to a Phish show under a hundred miles away, but I knew that this
one was sold out.  But Kelly kept pleading, and my resistance wasn't
that strong anyway, so up to Saratoga we went.  Now the thing about
Kelly is that she is very pretty and enjoys to flirt.  So when we got
there and the bouncer told us the show was sold out, she took a deep
breath batted her eyelashes and said, "But we came all the way from
Baaaaah-rd."  It worked; he told us to pay the cover price and in we
went.

We arrived at around 10:02.  Much to our surprise, Phish were already
on stage playing the opening song (Dinner and a Movie).  I immediately
understood why they didn't want to let us in.  The place was packed.
Wall to wall people.  This was true not just by the stage, but all
throughout the club.  Completely insane.

The first set was quite good.  The highlight was probabally Page
playing the Andy Griffith Theme during the Antelope intro.  During the
break, the club let everyone outside, and- since it was really cold- I
went to talk with Claw Me Down.  I was wearing a shirt that I had made
with various possibilities for the line in YEM.  He promptly grabbed a
sticker, wrote the correct line on it, and handed it to me.  Ah for
the good old days, when I never had to pay for Phish merchandise.

During the second set, The First Phish Equation kicked in:
 Cold weather = hot show.  For this set, I moved to the back of the
arena.  Claw Me Down had set up some cups and pennies and made a
little drum set.  We were playing along with Phish on that for a
while, and then I whipped out my ocarina and we were styling.  During
the amazing Lizards they played that night, Claw Me Down sang the
mystery lyrics to the song.  Apparently, during the jam in the end
(the part on the album where Trey talks about Rutherford being saved)
there is a set of lyrics about a dog.  He sings about all of the
things he would do if he were another animal, but then concludes that
he's glad he's a dog.  I only heard them that only time, so I don't
remember the words very well.

Towards the end of the second set, there were some electrical
problems.  Claw Me Down went up to fix it, and told me to staff the
booth.  Fortunately, the band was playing Curtis Lowe and no one
wanted to buy anything.  So I just sat behind the desk nd pretended I
knew what I was doing.  Finally he fixed the problem and came back.

The encore was quite nice: Good Times Bad Times and Contact.  After
the show, I went up to talk to Fish.  I had just met him the week
before at the Wetlands.  I got to hear the stories behind the lyrics
to My Sweet One and You Enjoy Myself.  Finally I found Kelly and we
headed out.  It was 2 in the morning and I still had a long drive back
to Bard, but I didn't care in the slightest.
 
Newsgroups: rec.music.phish