Subject: Phish in Arcata, Ca.
From: Shelly Culbertson 

It's 2 am...I just got home from seeing Phish at the Humboldt
Brewery in Arcata.  Whoah, _what_ an experience; it's still hard
to grasp it all.

It started when I got there in the afternoon, hoping to do the
interview.  It didn't take long to track down Page and get a good
half-hour interview on tape (I'll be transcribing that shortly).
Incidentally, I did this with no introductory help from the
promoter -- just walked in and asked if I could do an interview
for "a computer network" ;-).  I was referred to Andrew, the road
manager, who was most accomodating.  In fact, the main thing I
noticed was how *nice* all of the people in the band and those who
work for them are!! Really sincere people.  So, I did the
interview with Page, and at the end asked if I could stay for the
soundcheck, which he had no problem with.  I didn't recognize what
they played, but it sounded great.  Oh, they did a wild acapella
gospel version of My Sweet One!  If only I had that on tape...
After the soundcheck, they had their dinner (the promoter asked if
they were hungry, they all yelled "yeah!" and dropped their
instruments) so I went to mine.

I came back for the show...it was awesome.  I was too transported
to write a setlist, but I remember Chalkdust, Foam, The Squirming
Coil, Split Open and Melt, The Asse Festival -> You Enjoy Myself,
Oh Kee Pah Ceremony -> Suzie Greenberg, Runaway Jim, Hold Your
Head-> vaccuum->Hold Your Head, Llama, Mammaries and Harry Hood
encore...

I had chatted a while with Jon (Fish) before the show, and he was
considering talking on tape, so I wandered backstage after the
show.  (Oh, in the meantime, Andrew gave me a t-shirt and a Junta
tape; and the promoter gave me 2 comp tickets!  I can't understand
what I did to earn all this!)  I was talking about the Dead with
Trey and John Paluska (JP went to one of the Boston Garden shows,
but Trey said he hadn't seen the Dead in over four years; we were
trying to figure out what, if anything, Phish have in common with
the Dead musically.  We decided that it was the "element of
transport" -- somehow people are able to achieve an altered
consciousness through the music.  I know I do.  Do the rest of
you?)  I started talking about the Phish-net with Trey, and he
just loved the idea!  He started running up to Mike and Jon,
saying "Wait!  You've got to hear about this!"  He said he wants
to get a modem for the laptop they tour with, so he can log in and
read, and post!  All he needs is an account somewhere - I suggested
he try John Greene for this; any other ideas?  He said that the
lyrics to Cavern were written by email:  Tom had a correspondence
with a friend, each one writing alternate lines.

Later he talked about the show they had just done in Olympia
Washington: they played all of Gamehendge.  It was totally
unplanned, it was just the right thing to do at the time.  In
fact, he was so excited about it that he came this -> <- close to
coming back to my house with the tape so I could dub it and start
a tree.  However, he was talked out of it due to his illness and
the fact that he needed rest.  I couldn't argue with that....

Gosh, all of them were so nice!  I was really overwhelmed.  They
were totally approachable and eager to talk about things.  I'm
totally looking forward to the show in Santa Cruz, of course; I
hope I at least get to say hello to them there.  Oh, I mentioned
the Mobo Sushi gathering to them, and at least Page seemed
interested in maybe stopping by... we'll see.