Em and I went to Chicago this past weekend to see the first Phish show of the summer tour at Toyota Park. It was one of the best weekend getaways I've had in a long time.
We decided to try taking the Megabus instead of driving. I would suggest this to anyone who was taking a short trip. It was a 6 hour ride to Chicago, and that is about as long as I would want to be on the bus. Overall, it was comfortable, easy and cheap. The A/C on our bus went out on the way up, and it got pretty toasty. That's really the only complaint I have about the whole thing.
We went to the show and stayed with our friends John and Cristin (our in-laws thrice removed?). As soon as we got off the bus, we walked to the hotel where Cristin works. She was just getting off as we arrived. From there, we had to bust it across town in a cab to meet up with John. He was waiting for us at a bar that was running shuttles to and from the concert. Our group was about 10 strong, and the rest of the bus was filled with strangers. I think there were about 6 or 7 buses leaving from this bar. Now, I'm not going to go in to a lot of details about what goes on in a party bus on the way to a Phish show, but let's just say that it is a pretty wild place to be. It's flat-out weird on the way back home.
The stadium was cool, and the show was great. It was filled with classics and even a couple songs I've never seen live (yep, even after close to 40 shows). I won't get all Phish nerdy on you since I know most of you won't know/care about anything that I'm talking about, but I am going to throw in the set list.....
SET 1. Down with Disease, Wolman's Brother, Possum, Boogie on Reggae Woman, Reba, Jesus Just Left Chicago, The Divided Sky, Golgi Apparatus, David Bowie
Set 2. Light>Maze, Ghost>Limb by Limb, Prince Caspian, The Horse>Silent in the Morning, Antelope, Show of Life
ENCORE. Cavern>Julius
The rest of the weekend was spent chillin' with Cristin and John. They live downtown, so they are close to everything. The Chicago Blues Festival was going on in Grant Park, so that's how we spent most of our Saturday (after a long morning/early afternoon of relaxing in their apartment and listening to/breaking down the show from the night before). The Blues Fest was a great time, and we followed that up with sushi and sake at a thai place near their apartment.
We had a great time and A LOT of laughs with those guys. I can't wait for the next time we have an excuse to visit Chi-town. Now we're home in time to do some laundry and start packing for our trip to OBX for the Full-Bra wedding extravaganza.
