My sons and I had tickets, and following the pleas from the band, waited until midnight Fri/Sat to arrive at Coventry. The trip from NY went beautifully until we arrived at stop dead traffic on 91N. As we stood outside our car at dawn, someone with a GPS (a big deal in 2004!) told us we were 25 miles from the concert site. Just doing the math, it seemed impossible that we were ever getting in.

When Mike came on the radio around 9am and asked fans to turn around, we discussed for a few seconds and returned home. Few words were spoken on the three hour trip, and we were seething. It was folly to have that many people waiting on the roads and highways and think they were going to get everyone in before the first set; the announcement should have happened long before Saturday morning.

We thought about going to the theater and watching the broadcast, but couldn't bring ourselves to do it, we were in such a foul mood. As the reviews began filtering out, at first politely talking about the glitches, and then admitting much of the performances were embarrasingly bad, we became somewhat grateful we had missed out on the carnage. When we got our free downloads, we listened and couldn't believe how badly the band had fallen from the performances we'd experienced at SPAC less than two months earlier.

The worst part was in the years afterward, knowing that this was how the band that had delivered so much joy had said goodbye. We hoped the band reunite and reduce the importance of that sorry weekend, but for four years, we only had solo shows and GRAB to fill the hole they had left behind. It wasn't enough. We wanted Phish back, and NOT the band that said goodbye at Coventry.

Fortunately, the band returned in 2009 and accomplished just that. Today, we have "The Line", which could very well be a metaphor for Coventry. Maybe Conventry had to happen. Phish had hosted a series of festivals, with few problems and memorable performances. At Coventry, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Horribly wrong.

I doubt I'll follow the author's suggestion and listen to Coventry. I have too many good memories of shows collected and attended that I want to focus on. Just thinking about listening to Coventry gives me a sick feeling. We've moved on and have thoroughly enjoyed the last five years. It's an important chapter in Phish history, and one that deserves to be told, but it evokes a lot of pain.