Thighs Wide Shut

Phish
The Baker’s Dozen – Night 1
Madison Square Garden
July 21st

David Bowie is no longer with us, and yet I was super lucky to even see him 1.2 times in concert.  Junior Senior are no longer together, but caught them twice and super loved it.  I missed out on those Page/Plant shows of the 90s, but I did get to hear Robert Plant some Led Zep tunes in my ear once!  The incredible Harry Nilsson barely toured when he was living, but I only grew into his genius 17 years after his passing

As for Phish, I’ve now seen them 3 times – which means I’ve seen them more than I got to see David Bowie and Robert Plant play live combined!!!  In my mind that is plain wrong, but life doesn’t work on plain wrongs – it works on plain truths.  I’ve said before that I care not for Phish and their original music, BUT they are certainly a ball of fun to see live, and are perhaps the greatest cover band of all time!  And in fact, they covered ALL the artists I mentioned above and I loved all them covers!

Donuts are handed out every night of Phish’s ‘Baker’s Dozen’ residency at MSG, and the night’s chosen flavor sets the tone for the show.  Night one’s flavor was coconut, and while Nilsson’s ‘Coconut’ was an obvious cover choice, much to the crowd’s surprise, and to mine – they opened with a cover of Junior Senior’s ‘Shake Your Coconuts’.  The Phish phollowing probably knew zero about Jr Sr, which is fitting cause I know next to nothing about Phish, and am well versed in the Denmark’s duo oeuvre, but after 3 minutes of tearing through the rip-roaring track, band, audience and me were all on the same page from the get-go

Just keep on dancing now
Just keep on getting down
Just keep on having fun
The party’s just began

it was all such awesome plain truth!

so much so, that I won’t even bother to make up a faux setlist like I did for the previous two shows I done saw!  if only Phish did a whole Junior Senior show.  that would be something… and maybe even count as my 3rd Junior Senior show, and not a 4th Phish show  

here’s another plain truth – I will probably see Phish a 4th time.  COVER ME GOODD!!

Set One – Shake Your Coconuts (Junior Senior cover) / Martian Monster / Timber (Josh White cover) / 555 / Pigtail (Trey Anastasio song) / Halfway to the Moon / Reba / Moonage Daydream (David Bowie cover) / Walls of the Cave

Set Two - Tweezer / Seven Below /  Billy Breathes /  Sparkle / Everything’s Right (Trey Anastasio Band cover) /  Slave to the Traffic Light / Suzy Greenberg /  Coconut (Harry Nilsson cover)

Encore - The Mango Song / Good Times Bad Times (Led Zeppelin cover)