Permalink for Comment #1375531220 by rhombus91

, comment by rhombus91
rhombus91 Seems silly to post at the bottom where nobody will read it but I was so moved by the original piece that I feel compelled to. I don't want to get into my entire "Coventry experience" in too much detail because everyone who was there has their own similar story but the bullet points:

-Abandoned my car on the side of the road at the time having no idea what would happen to it but never considering for a second that I would miss the last 2 concerts from the band that had helped see me through from my teens to adulthood.
- Walked what I later found out was 14 miles with 4 total strangers who became close friends in the difficult hours it took to make that journey.
- Never found my friends who I was supposed to meet there due to nonexistent cell coverage and the general chaos. My friends of course had all our gear including our tent.
- I won't review the music here as others (and particularly the OP) have already done so quite admirably. I'll just say that among the countless examples of sloppiness there were most definitely trancendent moments.
- My ultimate point is this: for the first and only time in the 200+ Phish shows I have seen- the music itself is not what mattered to me. After the first day, I slept on a pile of mulch in front of the gate to the stage figuring if I didn't have a tent I might as well be in position to be in the front row for the last show (of course it rained during the night). But it was worth it- I had a front row vantage point for perhaps the most emotional event of my life that did not include the birth or death of a friend or family member. Sets 2 and 3 were such a roller coaster of feelings and memories for me that my emotions were stripped completely bare right there in front of these titans of my musical life and amongst thousands of strangers/friends that were all going through a similar experience.
- From the start of Disease through the end of Curtain With I laughed, and more than anything, I cried. Later, online, I read many comments making fun of and disparaging Trey and Page for losing control of their emotions and sharing their tears with us that night. All I know is that as I looked around me during set 3 and saw that nearly everyone else had tears streaming down their faces as the sadness and even celebration poured off the stage, you would have to be nearly heartless not to feel it and appreciate it.
- That weekend was far from perfect, in fact is was nearly a disaster. But I remember it with extreme fondness not in spite of that but because of it. Those of us who were able to persevere were treated to something that can never be replicated- a fleeting moment in time when the greatest band of our generation opened themselves to us more completely than ever before and we did the same for them. The resulting flood of tears as band and audience expressed how much we meant to each other is an experience I wouldn't trade.


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