A week ago this moment I was sitting in my car. I had been there since 7:30am. I was wondering if I was ever going to move, if I was ever going to get out, if I was ever going to get home. Of course I was going to, it was inevitable, but at points it looked grim.
I push my clutch to the floor and put my car in reverse; the car doesn't start or make a sound, but the reverse lights illuminate. Almost instantly the three closest cars behind me turn on their engines. Haha.. tricked you. Everyone's going crazy, although you'd think we'd be used to it. It was but only 4 days ago we were all in our cars for 15 or more hours.
Of course, the fiasco I'm speaking about was Phish's last concert aptly named COVENTRY, located in the Northeast Kingdom of the band's home state - Vermont. Looking back at it now, it amazes me what some people will do in order to show their devotion to their favorite band.
My experience was mild, for the most part, compared to what some people had to endure -- but still a tale nonetheless. Lets rewind four days to Thursday, the day the gates opened for the show.
Originally I had planned on going to the show alone, I would have met plenty of people when I arrived there and would have seen many friends that I already knew. It just seemed that no one else I knew was able to get a ticket. They were in high demand and were going for multiple times their face value on E-Bay.
Then, two days before the show, I hear from my friend Dan. Apparentally he was able to get a ticket for $200 -- only $50 more than the face value. A steal for such a hot item, really. So I had someone to travel with, but his ticket wasn't in town yet.
The gates were to open at noon on Thursday, Dan's ticket was to come in the USPS Express Saver mail the same day. "The mail comes here at around 10am," Dan tells me. It sounded to me like we were going to get a nice jump. At 10:05am, I roll into his driveway.
"Did the mail come?" I ask, dreading his answer. The look on his face wasn't that of elation.
"Yeah, it wasn't there," my heart dropped. I had already planned on going up alone if his ticket didn't arrive. "But I called the Post Office," he continued. "The Express Saver mail goes to a different Post Office. It will be here by three. Guarenteed." That was good enough for me. We started to pack all of his gear into my car and then it started.
The rain, of course.
With all of the gear in the car and the windows tightly rolled up we were not sure what exactly to do. I was anxious to get there, pacing back and forth in the car port at Dan's house waiting for the mail to arrive. We call the tracking on the package a few more times -- it's still out for delivery. But sometimes it seemed it'd never come. What if the mail carrier got in an accident? What if it was a substitute carrier that didn't know the route and got lost? What if in fact there was no ticket in the package Dan paid so dearly for. The thoughts crossed both our minds.
Then at 1pm it came. Up the driveway in the pouring rain drove an SUV with US Government plates. Dan intercepted it before it could even get all the way up. Soaking himself in the rain he signed for his package. A quick thank you was exchanged and Dan ran back under cover. Ripping open the package he pulled out exactly what we were waiting for -- One COVENTRY Ticket.
It was finally here, it was finally time to go. A wave of relief came over me. The three hours it took for the ticket to get there seemed like eternity. Little did I know that it'd be the quickest part of my day and night to come.
The show itself was only about 75 miles away from where we lived, so once we got in the car it was pretty smooth sailing, to begin with. We stopped a few times -- to pick up a tent at one place, some beer at another, some ice and some gas. Each time forging more North toward our final destination.
We really had little conversation. We were both excited, concentrating on getting there. Keller Williams played on my car stereo keeping us zoned. Dan was sitting in the passenger seat reading an atlas.
"This is great," Dan speaks. "We're only about 6 miles out from where the concert is and we havn't hit any heavy traffic."
Of course he had to say something. No sooner did he finish his sentence than I came up over a little hill. Quickly I decelerated, as a long line of traffic was in front of us. Not moving a bit. We'd expected this, of course. We knew it was going to take a long time to get 70,000 people in through one gate. So we began to wait. Twenty minutes after stopping, the line began to move. We moved up a few hundred feet, and stopped again. From here we could see the rest of this road -- a mile and a half or so down, cars bumper to bumper.
This was our final resting place for a good portion of the night. I could go on and tell you everything that happened while we were sitting there, but I'm absolutely sure you'd be as bored as we were. There were of course some up points of the night.
Unfortunately it rained, and rained hard for a good majority of the time we were in the car. This made it almost impossible for us to get out of the vehicle and mill about the hundreds of other people waiting patiently for some sign of movement. So we sat in the car, engine on, car idling to keep the AC pumping. It was the only way we could keep the windows from fogging up.
Then at about 6pm the best news of the night was announced on "The Bunny", WMOO FM, the radio station that was taken over by Phish especially for this concert. They told us that they were going to broadcast the Phish show that was happening that night at 8pm in Camden, NJ, on The Bunny for us to hear.
Listening to a Phish show as it's happening hundreds of miles away. This was something new to all of us... and very cool too.
I guess at this point I can make the rest of this long story short.
At around 8:30pm or so, the rain tapered off. There was a light mist going on, but the outsides of everyone's cars became somewhat habitable. People began to get out of their cars, windows open and stereos blaring the Phish concert. It was a time to stretch our legs, have a drink or two and mill about.
Shortly after that, the line started to slowly move. Little by little we inched our way the six miles to the concert venue. Time seemed to move quicker when the car actually moved. Soon it was 4am on Friday, and woah, what's that up ahead...?
Come back for COVENTRY - Part 2 (Holy Shit! Are those the Gates?)
(My full COVENTRY Photo Album is posted and can be accessed by clicking:
Here)
