[FYI: I wrote this immediately following Coventry, with no knowledge as to whether Phish would ever get back together. As such it contains a lot of navel-gazing autobiographical stuff. Sorry!]

Most people grow out of adolescence so gradually that they don't even notice it. Some people cling to it forever. Last weekend, at the final Phish concert ever, I think I saw the last part of my childhood disappear. Cheesy, maudlin and melodramatic, I know. But maybe a little bit of background is in order. I've being seeing Phish concerts since I was 16 - nearly 11 years ago. Some of the happiest times of my life involved going to Phish concerts - with Jake and Doug at first, then with Beth, and especially my wife Ann (and Kristin who made it out once!). I've told the story before how Ann and I met because of the Phish sticker on my dorm room door freshman year. That one sticker changed my life forever. Phish changed my life forever. Now I'm married, we just bought a house, I'm starting graduate school and we are expecting our first baby on Dec 1st - I'm hoping for the 2nd, since it would be the 21st anniversary of the first Phish concert. It just would seem appropriate.

So with all of these things going on, I hope you can understand why I my emotional state at Coventry was complicated, to say the least. But Phish concerts always have something that brings me back: brings me back to the subzero temperatures of Portland, ME on 12/30/93, brings me back to my first encounter with the lot scene at Great Woods in 1994 playing frisbee with some hippies; brings me back to the epic 40 minute Providence, RI David Bowie; brings me back to my first two-show run with Jake and Doug from Great Woods to Sugarbush in 95, smoking half a pack of butts among us, watching the show from the 5th row on a ski slope, Jake not making it back on the shuttle bus for an hour; brings me back to the Clifford Ball, standing in a field with 60,000 other people who were obsessed with a band that most people had never heard of, drinking cheap beer and eating 3 foot long twizzlers (ahem) at our campsite; brings me back to dancing in the luxury box at the Fleet Center in our socks on 12/31/96, my first show with Ann, and the first time I told her I loved her; brings me back to the Lemonwheel, Big Cypress, IT, NYE. All of these great memories, and all of them due to four guys who played some of the quirkiest music ever.

As soon as they announced their breakup, Ann and I knew that we needed to be at the final show. We felt like we owed Phish so much that we needed to be there, cheering as they walked off the stage for the last time. I worried about Ann being 6 months pregnant at the show, but she was as desperate as I was to be there.

A couple of weeks before the show, I got word of a chance to get VIP camping passes in exchange for volunteering to cover the first shift at the House of Live Phish through the Mockingbird Foundation. So, VIP parking permit on the dash, Ann and I left Lebanon, NH for Coventry at around 10:30 AM on Thursday. We made a quick pit stop in St. Johnsbury and then took off down the home stretch to the festival. Our VIP pass enabled us to take some back roads to the site and we were probably about the 15th car to park in the campground (this turned out to be a lifesaver - without VIP access we would have been stuck in a day long traffic jam - any complaints that I might have later are in full recognition that they are small compared to the people who hiked in or took the threats of the police seriously and didn't even get to see the concert). Then the rains came.

We set up our campsite as quickly as possible and then retreated to the car. And there we sat for 2 hours, waiting for the rain to subside. It didn't. We had to make our way to the House of Live Phish for our shift, so we put on our coats and flip flops (we didn't bring boots) for the long slog uphill to the tent. It took approximate 45 minutes for us to walk what must have been about a half mile, and we were completely drenched as a result. And then we find out the the tent won't even be opening that night! To tell the truth, we were relieved - we were so cold and wet that 5 hours of telling stoned people how to burn CDs wouldn't have been much fun. So we made our way back to our campsite, changed our clothes and got into our tent with our books and radio and zipped it up tight, since the DJs on the Bunny were warning us to batten down the hatches. It rained and rained and rained some more, but at least we were able to listen to the Camden show on the radio. Thank God for Sierra Designs, though - our tent never leaked.

Friday was more of the same. Off and on downpours. The one time it was looking a little bit brighter, we trekked through the mud to the shuttle bus stop to check out the commons where food and other interesting items would be for sale. Of course, as soon as we got on the bus, the sky opened and we just decided to ride it in a loop around the site and go back to camp. We got drenched again, and decided at that point to not venture from our camp again until we saw the sun.

Saturday morning came and we got our wish! It was a beautiful partly cloudy day; perfect weather for a concert, dry and not too hot. We put on the radio with our breakfast and heard a disturbing announcement from Mike. In a extremely depressed tone, he announced that the band had discussions with the State Police and they determined that due to the mud, the venue couldn't safely accommodate any more cars. People would be turned away if they hadn't yet reached the exit off I-91 and given refunds. After the literal damper on our spirits from the previous two days, the metaphorical one was just as sad.

But we still had a concert to go to; after lounging around in the open air drinking beer and non-alcoholic beer (I'll leave it to the reader to figure out who was drinking what) we packed up our stuff and made the short walk to the venue. We got in pretty early, so we hit the Ferris wheel, the balloon walk and the little art installations scattered about. As 5PM approached, we decided to sit on our newly-purchased Coventry camp chairs to save out spot. A little before 6 the audience spied the band walking towards the stage from the backstage area, and the place erupted.

Walls of the Cave is a good song, but maybe not a rocking enough opener for the scale of the event. Runaway Jim was more appropriate, and the Gotta Jibboo that followed was one of the best I've heard. Then YEM. The quintessential Phish song. Silly lyrics, amazing composed section, incredible jam. This was the song where it really hit me that this whole wild ride was coming to an end. Specifically, Page's first solo in the song brought me to tears - not because it was better than usual (it was great as usual) but because I knew it was the last time I would be hearing this amazing piece of music performed live. And then they gave away the trampolines - such an amazing symbol of how much this band loves their fans, and how much they have given to us over the years, musically and otherwise. The rest of the set was rocking, with the appearance by Tom gaining a huge amount of applause. We tracked down Phillip Zerbo between sets and expected to find the rest of the Mockingbird crew with him, but they weren't there. It was great to catch up with Phillip, however.

Second set started with an amazing AC/DC bag with a great jam that lead into a very short 46 Days. Ya Mar featured some Trey/Mike interplay that was to become a feature for the weekend - almost as if they were expressing the differences about the end of the band through music. Trey was extremely talkative on stage the entire weekend. The complete opposite to his mute ways of the past few years. It was nice to see, even if a lot of the banter was basically just a thousand ways to tell the fans "thank you." He (and the rest of the band) seemed deeply touched by the fans that had hiked into the show after the announcement had been made. David Bowie was great, and the idea that Trey wrote it as a test to see how complex a song people could dance to gave it new meaning for me.

After the second set, Ann was freezing and I was a bit chilled myself, so we headed back to our campsite to listen to the 3rd set (I wasn't about to let my pregnant wife get hypothermia). We had heard the soundcheck loud and clear Friday night, so we knew that we would be able to hear the show and warm up at the same time. Highlights included Twist, the Stash>Free and the phenomenal, rocking jam out of Drowned. This was by far the best jam of the festival. Then they played Friday, about which the only good thing was that it wouldn't be played the next night.

The Harry Hood encore contained a lot of banter by Trey about how far they were from the audience in this particular stage setup and how he and Mike were going to come down closer to see if the interaction with the audience changes the jam. There was some wacky stuff in there about Mike playing sexy notes as well - I didn't quite catch it all. The Hood was good, although from my vantage point, the jam didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary.

But then at the end of the song, as the jam was winding up I heard one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard in my life. Instead of the band singing the final segment, the haunting sound of 60,000 voices in unison came rolling across the cornfield between our tent and the stage:

You can feel good, good, good about hood
You can feel good, good, good about hood
You can feel good, good, good about hood
You can feel good, good, good about hood

I'm getting choked up just thinking about it.

Low rating for this one, but I think that has a lot to do with the hive mind. Where all think alike, no one thinks very much. Feel me? Listen, and then go ahead and tell me that this Bag isn't one of the best ones you've heard. Walls > Jim > Jibboo are also great. And don't sleep on the Stash > Free. And, if you were there, you'd remember how special that Hood was. Drowned.

Sure, like most of Coventry, the vocals are, at times, horrendous, laughable, even cringe-worthy. But the playing was creative, uninhibited, even desperate. It was pure art at a time when even the artists themselves suspected they may never create as a unit again.

Coventry: Day One. I'm gonna take just a brief, cursory, overview-type perspective in reviewing Coventry. I was not actively following Phish during the 2.0 era, and that era of my life was a haze, anyway, but I'm thankful that we have recordings of these shows. There are grand heights to Coventry: huge, blowout jams that humble me. I particularly enjoy the sincere, effusive nature of the banter at Coventry, as elucidating as it is on some of the origins and milestones of Phishtory. There are people who won't listen to Coventry. I am not one of them.

The Coventry shows are often looked at/discussed as the worst Phish has played in their history, but a quick listen dispels that myth right away, atleast in my opinion. Here are some highlights.

Set 1 Walls>Jim>Jibboo (all noteworthy) to open the show are a sign of the many great jams that were going to be played, and also of some of the flubs. YEM though noticeably shaky throughout some of the composed parts, does eventually get together for a mellow jam and vocal ending. Antelope was also pretty good and has the novelty of Tom Marshall on vocals.

Set2 Acdc Bag opener had a great jam worth repeated listens which transitions to 46 days, David Bowie also was played well..

Set 3 Great Twist opener, Stash though flubbed in the composed sections has a great jam >Free which was also noteworthy. Then comes Drowned and what ha been labeled the "Conventry Jam", another huge and the final jam of the night. Though even the Harry Hood encore was extended and includes audible audience singing the refrain.

I guess I am one of those individuals that Trey was talking about when he said " People don't come to see us like get through all the sections perfectly", I really am there more to hear them create music not perform compositions. This show has atleast 8 great jams that any one of which would've make me happy to have attended.

This was the first SBD recording of a live Phish concert I ever got... kind of a weird introduction, but I figured I'd review the music - as someone removed from the emotion of the moment (and now we are all more than a decade removed from 2.0).

The show opens with Walls of the Cave, which has sort of an odd feeling. The beginning is definitely melancholy and Trey's voice is noticeably thin. They play the song ok, which is to say, not very well. Trey hits a sour note here and there and the notes tend to ring out quite loudly with the uncompressed 2.0 tone. The jam, however, is quite good, and breaks from the mold finding a nice groove > Runaway Jim.

Runaway Jim is quite excellent. They jam this one well and it goes out there for sure. Features a nifty little -> Jibboo.

Gotta Jibboo is the set's highlight for me. This is an excellent version. I'd put it up there with the best versions ever. Definitely exploratory and rages pretty hard.

The opening three tunes are all excellent in their jams.

YEM is pretty good. Certainly not the best.

Sample>Axilla>Poor Heart is a run of songs of which there are plenty of better versions.

Run Like an Antelope actually has quite a good jam. There's still plenty of sloppiness, and Tom Marshall does the lyrics. It's worth a listen actually.

Fire closes the set in rocking fashion.

Overall set I has plenty of good and interesting music to offer, particularly the opening 3 tunes.

Set II opens with AC DC Bag.

AC/DC Bag is an all-time version. Excellent journey. Tons of awesome jamming.

->46 Days - a very short version.

Halley's was ok, but the vocal weakness from Trey is pretty evident.

->Ya Mar, which was pretty solid.

David Bowie has an endearing story, musically not quite as endearing - but truthfully not half bad, with a nifty jam portion.

Zero closes out the set.

Set II has the big take away jam in Bag (not counting the soundcheck, which remains one of my favorite pieces of Phish music). Not a ton else here from a music standpoint (although the Bowie is pretty solid).

Set III opens with Twist and this version is jammed out. It's not the greatest jam really, but it's longish (if that's enough for ya!). Not a ton of direction really. ->Wedge

Wedge was ok. Plenty of better versions.

Stash is sloppy, but like much of the music from this festival, manages to transcend those blemishes with a fine jam. Well-done, and well worth a listen if you can stomach flubs.

>Free, which was one of my favorite versions for a long time. Has a great Trey/Mike duel jam. It's definitely cool.

Guyute - seek this song out in another, less sloppy form.

Drowned contains perhaps the best improvisation of the weekend, but is a bit hard to tolerate for the first 15 minutes. Slog through that though, because the rocking ending jam is fantastic. They basically butcher the song and it culminates in Trey playing by himself for a bit before a mini speech. When the band does rejoin and they build a rocking jam, it's very serious business!

>Friday is weak. Trey's voice sounds as frail and weary as late era Jerry, which gives some of the songs humanity, but at the time must have been vary scary and troubling to hear. In hindsight, with everyone healthy and happy, his singing of this song is rather haunting.

Harry Hood has a ludicrous banter section that goes on for a while, with Trey rambling a bit. It's not a shining moment. The jam is ok and does take an interesting direction at times. That being said, it's not truly notable. The audience singing the chorus at the end though is a wonderful moment captured on the SBD.

Set III has some strong improv and some equally sloppy compositions/songs.

Overall I tend to look more favorably than most on these shows due to the quality of the improv (particularly this day). If you can handle the band playing the songs/compositions poorly and the sad, weary vocals you'll find a lot of music to enjoy here.

At the very least get the Bag, Drowned, Stash>Free and the run through WOTC>Jim>Jibboo - some of those tunes will remain in your rotation for good reason.

3/5 Great improv, but lots of bad playing & singing mixed in.

I honestly think 2004 gets a much worse rap than it deserves. Sure there are some abysmal points (That first show of the April Vegas run was downright hard to listen to) but the early part of summer, and even the august shows, all had some incredible jams. Some that rival the best ofs from any other era. The band was taking some huge risks, and it payed off a lot of the time. If you can stomach some slop, which I can after hearing the same songs so many times, than you will be rewarded with some incredible open improvisation.

The first night of Coventry is like a snap shot of all of '04. Lots of flubs in the composition parts but plenty of songs with tons of replay value. Plus, if you're like me, you'll appreciate the banter from Trey, impaired & rambling or not. I'll just note that I was not at these shows, nor would I start listening to Phish until mid 2013, thanks to my friend playing the Lawn Boy version of Reba as we came down from a mushroom trip (that jam blew my mind at the time, and still does).

Anyway, the fest gets off to a really good start with WotC. It feels like a really somber version and you can tell right from the get-go that emotions are running high. It has a nice peak to it though. Jim comes next and explores some really cool soundscapes before a segue into Jibboo comes about, I don't think its quite as Type II as the jam chart dictates but it's still a really fine version. YEM was nothing to write home about but they got the composed part better than they had been for a while at that point. Not flawless but bearable. The trampoline give away must have been quite the moment to witness, especially with them crowd surfing for the remainder of the set.

Sample/Axilla/Poor Heart is a nice run of songs for these career ending shows but there's some flubs and when a song doesn't jam it's important to nail the composition. Antelope also isn't noteworthy sans the T. Marshall guest spot. Fire has a pretty sweet.jam tacked on to it with a spacey ending to bring the first set of the night to a close.

Bag bats in the opening slot in Set Dos and what a Bag it is. A multi-dimensional jam, full of direction, this jam is a great listen and one I'll certainly be coming back to again. In my opinion this is the jam of the night. 46 Days is short but rocking, same with Halley's. The -> into Ya Mar isn't perfect but the song has a unique part with the band clapping with the crowd. Trey tells a cool story about the origins of Bowie, and you can't go wrong with him giving you a lesson in Phistory. The song itself is played mostly ok and while the jam doesn't go anywhere too crazy, it does have a nice, tension filled ending. Character Zero ends the set on a high note. I'm sure the crowd was going nuts for the last time they thought they'd hear this song.

The final set of the night starts off with Twist which, pun intended, doesn't have many surprise twists in it. Trey just sorta noodles around for most of this one, which is a shame because I thought Mike & Fish were laying down some sweet rhythms that could have led to some interesting group play. The Wedge is pretty botched, which is a shame because I love that song and given the rarity of it at the time I would have been very disappointed. Stash on the other hand has some noteworthy moments. Again, nothing too out there, and the song proper is played poorly, but a decent enough version of the song. Free is also not incredibly noteworthy, though solid. Guyute is meh, Trey can hardly do the whistling part. Drowned is not as bad to my ears as some have said. And the Coventry Jam (as it's listed on LP) is the 2nd most interesting part of the night (after the Bag).

The beginning of it is straight forward until; everyone but Trey drops out. He addresses Kuroda for a moment before riffing off some sweet blues licks. Eventually the band rejoins after a bit and they all lock in for about 10 more minutes of thrilling improv. Hood as an encore works perfect here. Trey has some hilarious banter while keeping with the rhythm of the song. Unfortunately, again, the song is pretty bad and the jam doesn't make up for it much. The "You can feel good about Hood" chant at the end must have been incredibly cathartic & bittersweet and it translates well to SBD. With that, Trey wishes everyone a good night and the penultimate Phish show is over.

All in all, not an abysmal show, and not an incredible show. If there weren't some really amazing jams to make up for the botched songs I would say that the show deserves 2 stars. Given the open approach to the improv though and the great results, I'll be giving this show 3 stars, I honestly think it deserves 3 1/2 stars but I'm not giving it four stars.

I'll be listening to night 2 tomorrow and will also leave a review. I have already seen some youtube videos of it in the past (DwD, Glide, Velvet Sea) so I have an idea of what I'm in store for but I also look forward to seeing if there are as many noteworthy jams in the second show as there are in this one,

Walls is a great opener choice, and is played with the fire it should. It's a great little "warm up jam". Decent segue into Jim, it has a nice pulsing jam and Mike lays down a nice groove. Jibboo has a nice peaky jam, and Trey solos well. Sloppy intro into YEM, it's a fairly underwhelming so is the vocal jam. Another sloppy intro, this time into Sample. Antelope is decent and straightforward I guess.

Bag quickly goes into a tense jam then into a trance like groove and a pretty little jam. Halleys has a nice little breakdown jam. Followed by a Strong Bowie. And a straightforward Character Zero to close it's final set.

Twist goes into a nice groove and they seem to be firing on all cylinders. It's actually overall a great jam. An ok segue into The Wedge. Stash starts very sloppy but then turns evil (as it should). Another sloppy intro in Free, it has a different slow middle section in the middle instead of the tense pulsing of the normal versions. Drowned goes quickly into a kind of boring noodley jam and then Trey finds a little riff to hack at as it slowly picks up. It peaks up and down. Friday is oddly strong and feels like it kind of describes the state of the band at this time.

I wish I could say more good things about hood but the whole stretched out portion of it feels forced and it meanders quite a bit and never fully gets its footing.

I give this 3 stars because despite a few decent versions of songs and jams. It is also very sloppy in a lot of places.