7-31-01 - Virginia Beach Ampitheater, Virginia Beach, VA

Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2001 17:56:41 -0400
From: Michael Copeland phreeforlife@hotmail.com
Subject: 7/31/01 ...and Id like a review.
 
Ahhhhh the Virginia Beach Amphitheater, my home town and 12th show with Trey,
Tony and Russ (4th this tour). After running round the country tour after tour
its nice to once again have the man of the hour playing 10 min from my house.
yes the show was completely empty 3000 tickets sold, upper pavilion and lawn
with a few small groups of kids and nothing more. The seats up front were
sparsely filled aswell with the taste of tickets fresh in the scalpers mouths.
I was 3rd row above the ORCH pit and 2 feet to the left of his majesty. The
band came out and Trey was being very chatty and casual giving the small crowd
huge smiles and the fist pump. He went on to welcome a very very special guest
(who lives in Norfolk, VA by the way) Carl "Gears" Gerhard. Hadn't seen him
since the Amphibian show at the Norva in the winter...he was looking good. He
also mentioned it being the big Giant Country Horns reunion and what not.
 
Push: This song raged this time in the opener slot and had a very long and
intense jam in it, horns came out dancing in the middle somewhere. Trey was
clearly loving the small faithful crowd and it showed.
 
Axe: Was very slow, mellow, precise and long.
 
Done It: Seemed longer then usual this a fiery solo to close it.
 
Alive Again: This may have been the longest song of the 1st set, Had a very
long funky flute solo that peaked and Trey started making vocal guitar solo
screeches with his mouth (pretty freaking funny). Then it was the flute and
Trey trading licks...very funky and then the band came back in full force.
 
Last Tube: Ahhhhhhhh the reason I go to so many shows. This song and its jam
are The Hose! I felt it was more intense then the Red Rocks or Merriwaeter
version but they are so hard to judge as all versions of this song that I have
heard on this tour have just been the utter sickness! This is the real thing
folks! Very Long and Very intense the crowd was off the hook and my jaw was
once again firmly panted on the floor.
 
setbreak: security was pretty lax, as long as you didn't do any thing blatant.
 
Jiboo: Some one in the pit made a sign held it up Trey saw it and smiled then
bam off into the outer reaches of space funk. This one was very jammed out and
although it had its evil raging parts it was more based on the thick
funk/dance theme. Midway Jennifer and Trey did the dance...which is getting
kinkier and kinkier (no sword fighting tonight just bizarre hand energy stuff
like the Vegas Trey/Mike conceptual skit). Then back in the song minus the
horns then GCH only horn jam then the whole band which got back into the funk
and segued into...
 
Sex Machine: Yes James Brown's Sex Machine I kid you not...was only
instrumental but got super nasty and wound down seamlessly into...
 
Circles: The crowd exploded and Trey proceeded to do what he does best.
 
Drifting: Before drifting there was a bunch of confusion on stage as Jens Tuba
broke or something and she couldn't play the song Trey wanted to play so Trey
says "Oooo fuck it then, don't worry about it if its fucked up" "just fuck it"
all the time smiling. Drifting was beautiful as usual with some very strong
licks from trey to finish it off.
 
Pumps: Once again the band was taking their time and really digging deep into
some awesome jams and RAGED at the end for what seemed like an hour.
 
The encore was heaven. The crowd was calm quiet and respectable. Trey hit
every note in each song and it was really quite moving after all the
intenseness from the other sets.
 
Before Trey left the stage he commented on the crowd and how it made it a
very special night for him.
 
looking forward to the last 3....
 
Meaty

Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 14:27:28 EDT
From: KEz2slip@aol.com
To: dws@archive.phish.net
Subject: Virginia Beach Review
 
    This was my second Trey show ever, my first being this winter when he
came to Richmond Va. Well, I was very surprised when I showed up at the lot
because no one was there yet. It surprised me even more when I went into the
show and I was the second person in there. My tickets were on the fifth row.
But I managed to sneak up to the third row. There was no one in the theater.
There was probably only enough people to fill up the pavilion part, if that.
The scene was not there at all. way to many cops and security and not enough
Phans. that was the only bad part to this show.
    Trey came out a little after 7:30 and looked very excited. Maybe it was
the fact that there wasn't many people there but Trey decided to put on a
show. He told everyone that to the exact day ten years ago was the last time
the GCH had played together. They opened with one of my new favorites, Push
on till the Day, and then made their way into a slowwwww Battle Axe. Done
Done It followed and then a new song that I had not heard that extended into
a long jammed out Last Tube. The first set ended at around 9:00.
    My friends and I decided to see what the stage looked like from the lawn.
We ran into a friend and talked a while with him. The second set had begun
and we were still on the lawn, but that was fine, the view from back there
was incredible. Trey answered several people's plea, including mine, to play
Jibboo. We were up on the lawn when the band to a little rest, I thought the
song was over, but then that familiar bass line began again. Trey and
Jennifer did a little interpretive dancing in the middle of it. The song was
at least 40 minutes long, it blew my mind. The funked out Jibboo led into
another song I had not heard. Something about circles or something, but it
was very good. Then they played a nice Drifting that calmed everyone down a
bit, then back into a rigorously paced Burlap Sack and Pumps. Trey came back
out to do three acoustic encores.
    This was a very good show with long funky jams. Just goes to show that
you never know what Trey will do next.
 
Jack Parrish, Richmond Virginia

Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 16:23:28 -0700 (PDT)
From: Paul Jones pauljones94@yahoo.com
Subject: Virginia Beach
 
I've seen Phish over 250 times and more than half of
what Trey has done this year.
 
This show was loco.  Few people are going to
understand.
 
Who's Phish?
 
This was the show you dream about seeing.

Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 11:26:05 -0400
From: Bobby Moro BMoro@ABNB.org
Subject: Virginia Beach Review
 
SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All I can say is that the band was en fuego. The rumor in
the lot was that there were only about 3000 ticket holders and then I heard
that again. Well it was sort of confirmed when we got inside and saw the lawn
almost empty and the seats for that matter. I think the band really gave the
few thousands fans a treat.
 
This was a total jamfest and I was extremely surprised with the level of
jamming that we were privileged to see. The first set was very tight and as
the setlist shows it was short but very sweet. Carl Gearhardt joined the
horns for the evening. The people next to me in the second row had a Gotta
Jiboo sign and the band decided to meet the request and they met it big. They
jammed for what seemed like 30 or 45 minutes. I am not sure how long it was
because I got lost in the music as I am sure much of the crowd did as well. I
am still in awe as I am writing this little review but I just wanted to get
something posted for all who are curious. My friend Ted Enright said that
this was the best thing he has heard since NYE. I believe him. My suggestion
is to get the shows and hear for yourself. Don't ever miss a show is my
other. You never know what going to happen.
 
Thanks,
Bobby Moro 

click here to return to the 2001 reviews page


hits (many)