Phish 11/4/1994 Onondoga War Memorial Syracuse, NY




Ok So I'm a huge Phish fan, I admit that. BUT, just because I choose to do my first post about Phish don't think that this is all going to be hippie jam-band stuff. Cuz it's NOT! But this particular show holds a special place in my heart, simply because it was such an incredibly fun experience all around. Let me explain....

I attended Ithaca College from Fall 1993 to Winter 1997 (hooray for the extra semester!). Ithaca is just a hop skip and a boring-ass car ride to Syracuse (or more frequently the Turning Stone Casino and Golf spa/resort, which was a wharehouse with table games when I was there). Being that I was in college and loved Phish, there was no way we were missing this show!

Turns out that year I lived on the 5th floor of the East Tower (WOOHOO!) with a bunch of friends and Fraternity brothers all together. We really lucked out with our RA that year as he was a really nice guy. He was also on the IC concert bureau. Turns out that IC had a deal with Syracuse concert buruea that they did this sort of ticket exchange where IC students would be able to purchase a limited number of tickets from a table set up in the student union. Our RA was kind enough to give us some advance notice, and told us that he would hold tickets under our name and we just needed to show up to pick them up. I actually have a poster somewhere in my basement right now that was hanging in our hallway that tells the date and time.

Problem is, I don't think anyone realized how many Phish fans attended IC. The line was INSANELY long, out the door and around the building, with people hoping to get their hands on these tickets. I bumped into my RA and he was freaking out that he was going to get in trouble and couldn't hold all the tickets he had promised to people if they didn't show up quickly. But hey, I got there in time, and I got mine. As did most of my good friends. So it was off to the 'cuse!

The cool part about the way this all went down is that first, we got great seats. Floor, 2nd section back. Second, all of the IC people pretty much had tickets in the same general area. so it was like a huge group of people were just picked up from one spot (the student union) and dropped right into those seats. It was fabulous.

Ok so there's a little bit of the story. Now, in no particular order, here are some thoughts from the show:

- I was still a relative Phish Noob at this point, having only been to my first show back in April (4/8/94 Rec Hall at Penn State. Awesome. Bumped into Kelman outside. Never forget it), so a lot of the songs were still somewhat new to me. But I swear that the first time I heard Suzy Greenberg in the first set it was my favorite Phish song. Of course it was a little different than the version that I had heard from my big brother in the fraternity that had horns (7/12/1991http://www.livephish.com/live-music/0,497/Phish-mp3-flac-download-7-12-1991-Colonial-Theatre-Keene-NH.html), but it was damn good!
- "is he singing 'Simple' or 'Cymbals'?!" Turns out, it was both
- my first Colonel Forbin's Ascent, complete with an explanation of the Vibration of Life. Pretty friggin' cool if you ask me.
- Slave to the Traffic light is a great song to end a show.
-Loving Cup was something completely and totally new to me. And thus began a lifelong love affair with the song, in all it's iterations. In all my days seeing Phish, I have yet to see a bad version of this song (though the boys did try to play a bad one in their farewell tour leading up to Coventry, but I'll give them a pass).


All in all, a wonderful experience. So like I said, this won't be all Phish. But there will be a bunch. Hang in there. I'm sure I'll find something you have heard or like at some point. And in the meantime, why not take a listen to this show. Email me if you want a copy!

Till next time, Later.

B

Comments

  1. You know what kills me about that Rec Hall show.... is that i've been to almost 100 shows, but yet missed that one. And it was literally down the road from my dorm! Not to mention the girl I was seeing at the time went...and I was like...whose Phish???? Such a dumb ass I was...

    great blog Biebs! looking forward to reading more posts.
    adam

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adam the funniest part was that I didn't get in touch with any of my PSU friends to tell them I was going, just ended up jumping in the car and going. Just randomly bumped into Kelman sitting out front after the show. It's those kinds of run-ins that made going to the shows so much fun!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anyone know of a poster from this show? A boy I'm pretty smitten by, well this was his first show and I want to get him this for a surprise present I found a tour shirt but a poster or even ticket stub or anything for that matter would be epic!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts