MONDEGREEN4 RECAP: WE KEEP IT ROLLING
[We would like to thank Brad Strode (@c_wallob) for recapping last night's show. -Ed.]
My first Phish show was in December 2003. Subsequently, my first Phish festival was Coventry. I have a lot of great memories of Coventry, harrowing though it was. Being 21 at the time, I didn’t mind the long wait in traffic, the 14 mile walk we took to get to the grounds, or even the mud; those were shared experiences with my friends and fellow fans. I remember the kindness of those around us, sharing with our neighbors to pool limited supplies we could carry in, and even that “Melt” jam was pretty fire. Another core memory of that festival was the trek off the concert field after the last song, “The Curtain (With).” I have never seen tens of thousands of people that silent, save maybe a sob from a disheartened fan (truly believing it was over), or maybe the occasional disgruntled shout of, “What the fuck was that?!?!?” Over the past 160+ shows I’ve had the privilege to see, I have frequently thought of the despair that everyone felt leaving that concert field, and I reflect on how fortunate we are to have this band back in our lives.
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Flash forward 14 years after Coventry, the stars had finally aligned for my wife and I to go to our first festival together, and my chance to get rid of any of the bad Coventry juju that stained my festival experience. However, as we all know, the band was forced to cancel that festival before sound check had even started. As with most fans who were not yet able to get to the grounds when the announcement was made, we found a hotel for the night, washed our sorrows in a couple of manhattans, and resolved to figure it out in the morning. Like Coventry, while ultimately a disappointment, we do have several fond memories from that weekend. We ended up camping at the “Knuckleball” pop-up festival with a couple hundred other stranded fans. We met several people who are still friends to this day, and saw some terrific music from the funk bomb droppers, The New Motif.
After these experiences, I have set my Phish-related sights on the next chance to attend a festival, should one arise. I fully understand how deeply wanting something to happen can lead to inevitable disappointment, since reality often cannot match the expectations you’ve set. Not to mention, once it happens, what else is there? Nevertheless, after a sleepless Tuesday night, my friends, family, and I set a course due North in a couple of RVs, extremely excited for the weekend that lay ahead.
From nearly the moment we arrived on site, we observed disorganization amongst staff and significant law enforcement presence, in addition to online posts we read about how volunteers were underfed, overworked, undertrained, and then yelled at by their supervisors. Mondegreen clearly was going through some growing pains. From the view of most in our group, however, a lot of things smoothed out over the course of the weekend (although the police intensity definitely peaked Saturday with their zero-tolerance policy towards nitrous).
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The campgrounds, while kept very clean by festival standard, are very spread out and difficult to navigate from one to the other. Lots of walking is expected at any festival, but it was extremely disheartening to find out that people in the GA North section had virtually zero opportunity to visit their friends in GA South without paying for a rickshaw, waiting for the slow-moving tram, or walking several miles through the venue or along the main road.
Nothing is perfect though, and our group had an overall great time in the woodlands of Dover. Phish delighted us with 3 terrific shows over the first three nights, and played one of the most superb pieces of music I have heard them play during the (not) secret set Friday night. The food and beverages (while expensive) were of high quality and served by friendly, hard working vendors. Although I did not have the chance to experience all of the art installations and various daytime activities, I was gobsmacked by the level of care and creativity that went into all of the exhibits, activities, and experiences offered within the concert venue. Enjoying a beverage with my family and friends after the show at the Cerealist Bowl was one of my favorite after-show hangs of all time. The DJs all provided great entertainment for those dancing off any remaining post-show energy. I’d give 5 stars to the creative team for delighting phish fans within the concert grounds.
As it is my charge to recap Sunday, I’ll summarize my thoughts on Mondegreen as a whole as this: Phish and their creative team still achieve excellence on a daily basis. It is my belief, however, that it is probably not possible to go back to the friendly way of festivals past. Phish is going to rely on management to execute the finer points of touring and production, so if there is ever going to be another festival, it will be in the vein of the more “corporate” Mondegreen, and less like anything remotely resembling the Clifford Ball. That absolutely does not mean I don’t want Phish to play another festival-I most certainly would love another festival-but I think all fans will have more realistic expectations. If the “See you next year” post making the rounds on Monday is indeed true, I have faith that Phish will hear the feedback from their fans and friends and work with the festival producers to make improvements.
As terrific as Thursday through Saturday were at Mondegreen, Sunday was (in my view) a disappointment. Upon landing at our Page-side spot Saturday night, we were alerted that due to inclement weather, the Sunday show would start at 1pm. Few other details were offered regarding how many sets the show would be, or how the schedule change would impact the anticipated Questlove DJ set. Even as Saturday night progressed, the forecast looked certain to bring rain and dangerous conditions to the venue at some point in the evening. But thankfully, by the grace of Miles the Monster, the storm missed us and we were able to enjoy a great evening of phish, friends, family, and dancing. As we settled in for the daytime set, the sun beat down on the concert field, and I was alerted by a friend who had an early entry spot that security was expecting to clear the venue by 2pm due to weather. Ultimately, throughout the day, the weather never truly materialized, in spite of several warnings from the Mondegreen producers via the app. There were a few gusty times, and a few light rain showers, but any dangerous weather stayed safely in the distance.
The Sunday daytime show itself was completely perfunctory. Phish never seemed to get out of “Jukebox Phish” mode and break into anything resembling a “festival-quality” jam until the encore: a spicy “Fuego.” Other highlights were the mini-jam on “AC/DC Bag”, a subdued yet creative run through “Stash”, and an always crowd-pleasing “Izabella.” It seemed like Phish maybe didn’t even know how long they were going to play, which could have been a reason why there really was no “take off” point in the sole set. Ultimately, the decision to play the daytime set in the extreme heat and humidity was far more dangerous (not to mention musically unproductive) than it would have been to keep the original start time and just get in whatever music they could in before curfew. I personally witnessed several fans really struggling with the heat, with many going down with heat-related illnesses. I also believe it was unfair for people who paid for a Sunday ticket to get a show that was not festival-worthy, paired with the venue closing down for good at around 4:30pm (again, without any weather actually impacting the grounds). After 3 fantastic days enjoying Phish’s vision of Mondegreen, it is truly unfortunate that the festival ended the way it did.
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make Mondegreen come to life. Travel safe everyone, and I hope to see you out on the road real soon.
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Comments
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Phish.net
The Mockingbird Foundation
I will always say that even a "bad" Phish show is still one of the best live music experiences around, but Sunday really tested that. They didn't even proactively offer a refund on the Sunday day pass, in case we preferred to skip the show. We wouldn't have taken it, but I think that lack of consideration speaks to the some big holes in the planning that I'd hope they'll patch up the next time.
Phish was in a tough spot Sunday. The weather is (somewhat) unpredictable and they made a call without the benefit of hindsight. I agree they didn't know how long they'd play. The flipside was to hold out for a night show and then it gets canceled altogether.
I enjoyed the day set (though of course 2 sets at night would be better). The song selection was fun; Trey shared his frustration about the weather not coming in. Yeah, I wish they'd planned the encore differently (Antelope, anyone?).
Can't wait for the next one!
Phish are leaders in the large festival world, and if something had gone really wrong due to them not being proactive about ending and evacuating, the entire world would have seen their mistake. I think they made the right call.
I know it was inconvenient that parts of the festival shut down early, particularly the food vendors and bathrooms near my camp, but I understand. Safety phirst after all, and here we are ready to dance to them again. Plus last night's shower was one of my best ever!
I’m so happy to have spent my honeymoon with such an incredible group of people, and to create so many wonderful memories. I hope we can do it again soon.
The storm was very intense and while it is lucky it broke around Dover - there was never any guarantee of that. To say it was more dangerous to perform in the day is incorrect. Not sure if you were at the campground but there were times the wind was fierce - and a pretty heavy rain did rip through around 6. Now consider that's just the outer edge of the storm, if the eye of it goes through the camps, you have the potential to have tents, easy ups, and unsecured items flying everywhere, or worse, people loaded up onto the Ferris Wheel in a lightning storm.
Event management is about risk management - they cancelled an entire day of While We're Young due to strong winds.
It is regretful that by the time the regular show time rolled around the vibe in Dover was very pleasant weather with lightning in the distance, but if that lightning had landed above the venue there would have been no music at all. Given the daytime set or nothing, I will certainly take the daytime set.
So kudos to Trey, Mike, Page, and Fish for looking at the available options and doing their best to ensure we all got something on that last day as opposed to 40k people in the venue at 5:45pm being told to evacuate with no music.
And as much as the songathong was just that - the pace and precision with which they went through each number was electric. How are you going to get mad when a band that could as well have said "sorry all we're going home" said "naw we're gonna play 2+ hours with barely a 3 minute break, and then come do a 16 minute encore." Part of the fun was seeing how many they'd rip through, at a certain point I was in awe of the push (and loving the irony they skipped More!)
The only drag was they did seem to go in with a plan to skip some longer heavy hitters of the big composed variety like Lizards, Esther, or Fee because they didn't seem to want to stay in anything long enough to get the plug pulled under their feet.
I know it's not the final set we wanted, but to call it more dangerous than trying to hold a show with a massive lightning storm approaching is uninformed.
After 24 Years of Phishing across the Country, I feel beyond the Words to express how I feel but I'll try.
Typically, this is not the case but when it comes to this Band, the Phriends I've made, the Experiences I've had, and probably Most Importantly the Person that being part of this Community has made Me, I'm just Overwhelmed with Positive emotions.
Without the 70 Days/Nights that I've spent with All of Y'all over nearly 2.5 Decades, I'd certainly NOT be Who, What, or Where I currently am.
Just like a Partner that cares deeply, or like a Friend that can be trusted, Phish and Our Community has consistently been the North Star in My Adult Life.
Since 7/8/2001, on the Lawn at Alpine Valley, I've been Hooked on these Experiences that are Musical Journeys to places beyond the Realm of Normality. If I'm Up, Down, or Upside Down, Phish Concerts have corrected Me and My Path..
But in addition to that, I've met some of the VERY BEST People that exist. These Relationships I'm so fortunate to have exist because of the Music but also because of the Amazingness and Acceptance of those that Phish.
To sum it up, MondeGreen was a Bucket List item personally. But from the Details, to the Music, to the Phriends Old and New, to the Shenanigans that were had, Everything WAS Right!
I don't see any sense in searching for Negativity or complaining about the Festival because the Whole Point if You know and have Read the Book..
Is.
To.
Surrender to the Flow. See Y'all Down the Road..
PhanFromWI
Sunday was like being awoken. Cried at the end. Cried the whole drive home and fuck I’m crying now sitting in the kitchen writing this. They laid it down and it was magic. Mondegreen 25’.
Regarding the way Sunday played out, the only gamble Phish is willing to take in regards to their concerts (music aside) is booking some shows at a casino. We live in such a litigious society and management companies (as “Corporate” as they may be) are the only way events like this will ever take place because they mitigate risk for the artist in the event that something goes wrong. These companies are risk averse, so situations like a “secret set” will never again be “secret” because they cannot risk 40k people scrambling, nay stampeding, to a dark nether region of the festival grounds in the middle of the night to watch Phish repelling out of helicopters into large vats of glow stick ink while playing their instruments. Hence the reason Trey announced it.
With them (these management companies) come things like severely expensive food and drink and potentially disgruntled (and minimally trained) gig workers. And it’s all about the bottom line, reduced cost and maximum profits.
So Sunday played out like it did, as did much of the weekend, but that’s the only way that an event like this takes place. The time will come when we, as well as the band, need to weigh our options (5 lbs) and determine if a four night stand (such as Dicks or Mexico) is the better alternative to the festival experience. Mondegreen certainly was the hybrid of the two. And to be clear, I don’t have an opinion either way, but as I get older, beds, bedding, and a warm shower are certainly preferred.
Anyway, thanks for your recap, appreciate your perspective on the event and the music. And thank you to everyone who has recapped a show this summer. This is such an amazing community.
Thanks for the comment!
Also, the claim that people being in the midday heat was more dangerous than risking exposure to an intense lightning storm is pretty wild. There are hundreds of summer music festivals that have bands playing all day. Wear sunscreen, take breaks, drink water, sit down as needed, wear appropriate clothing. Sun/heat can be managed, and Mondegreen gave ample heads up for us to adjust accordingly.
Most of us would prefer the two night-sets, but in the context of the entire 4-day run, the schedule change feels like a minor footnote if I'm recapping the fest for someone.