On June 19th, 2009 m’lady and I pulled into the Closeby Campground near(-ish) the venue in Deer Creek and set up her small, budget-quality tent. I think we were running a little behind or maybe we were being time-cautious, but we went to the show without lingering too long at the campground and (significantly, it turned out) we left the tent empty; with an eye either on the clock or on safety and security all our belongings remained inside my big SUV.

We were here to see Phish. I had recently gotten into collecting gig posters so I bee-lined to the merch tent and laid down $50 for a really nice print by a guy I had never heard of: Tyler Stout. M’lady and I found ourselves a spot on the lawn and enjoyed a great first set.

As the night went on the clouds collecting on the horizon grew more ominous, but even more frightening was the lightning storm. Y’know how you learned in science class that lighting actually moves up from the ground? We could see it; the lightning was flashing upwards and in slow motion taboot. Over and over a consistent webbing of light rose around the venue, sometimes enveloping the whole sky. I remember the crowd collectively holding their breath in fear as an airplane flew across the sky heading directly towards the lightning. Somehow it made it through.

When setbreak came the band announced that the second set wouldn’t start until the storm blew over. Fans with pavilion seating would be good, but everyone on the lawn should go back to their cars until the rains came and went.

We took their advice and headed out the gate as the first drops fell, fat and heavy. I wrapped my plastic rain jacket tightly around my cardboard poster tube and put my head own against the coming rain. Before we got anywhere near our truck the clouds opened up. Some kind soul yelled for us to join him in his pickup truck. We took him up on his offer and missed the worst of it.

I mean that rain came down. We sat in the cab of buddy’s truck sipping his cold beers and absolutely marvelling at the storm. It was coming down cats and dogs and the lightning was still hummin’ but we were safe.

But when it cleared up it cleared up just as fast as it came and we all marched back in and found new spots on the soggy but sloped lawn. When the second set started it was actually a beautiful night, and the set was simply spectacular. During the encore came another torrential downpour. This time it was raining cats and dogs and moose and gerbils; I mean it was raining man. Walking to the increasingly inappropriately named Closeby Campground after the show m’lady and I kept dryish in our matching Maid Of The Mist plastic rain ponchos. And here I was with a poster.

When we finally got back to the campground we discovered that we had left m’lady’s tent flap completely open. Inside the tent was a little lake – anything we might have left in it would have been soaked through or stolen so things had worked out pretty okay. The big leather front seats in my Mitsubishi Montero reclined almost 180 degrees so spending the night in the SUV was not only dry, but surprisingly comfortable.

And my poster made it through the night 100% unscathed; I’m looking at it as I write this. It’s become a pretty valuable poster too, not only because it was one of the first Stout Phish posters (he’s since done many) and it looks amazing, but I suspect because quite a few were ruined in the rain leaving the print even rarer than its relatively low run of 700 units would suggest.

toddmanout.com