August 7/8 2009 Phish!!!

So for anyone who knows me, you probably know that I followed Phish around the country for more than a decade and 120 shows. They broke up in 2004 for what seemed like the final time. But alas, they got their act back together and on the road. We left the wine tour, and basically went into the show. We had been given a few tickets to sell, and they were marked VIP, so we sold our tickets and took them VIP tix! We reused them the next day (not to get in the venue, but to get back to the VIP grass section…ahh…rule breakers…)

So The Gorge Amphitheater has won awards for its beautiful location. 20,000+ people drive hours into the desert to enjoy the sunset over the Columbia River. The venue is only open Memorial day through late September and basically gives most Washingtonian something warm the bones and put some tint on the skin before winter returns.

So Phish comes out just around 8 to greet the fans before sunset. The music begins and the whole place erupts. Five years of waiting to see them again made this crowd very hungry for Phish.  

So the band completes the first set around 80 mins later and take a short intermission. They return to darkness, where their light system takes its place in the sensory explosion they create.

So I chose to have pictures instead of comments. Describing a Phish show isn't done with words, nor can pictures tell the full story. So I also am uploading videos to our YouTube site which you can get to at this link

http://www.youtube.com/user/SCinEurope

I don't think the videos capture it much better, so you will have to go do the live experience yourself!

So I took the following picture of a Port-O-Potty toilet in the camping area at the Gorge. Let me just say the warning was self explanatory and I was not tempted to open the door.

So we pack our gear, head our separate ways. We take this one last photo at a rest stop near the Gorge before saying goodbye to Rick. Trent and I would continue on our adventure south to California. We drove 12 hours this day to visit our friend in Northern California on the coast.