go now, you are forgiven

status check - exasperated
background ambiance - same old, same old

it hasn't ceased to amaze me that "the last dispatch" flew so low beneath people's radars up here. band forms at a vermont college. band plays up here numerous times, as does several solo offshoots of band. band prepares to play final show - free show expected to draw a large crowd. show ultimately brings between 60,000 (boston herald) and 110,000 (boston globe). yet people up here say nothing. i'd think they didn't even know about it, but i made numerous references to it.

but mention phish and everyone goes nuts. countdown to coventry in full swing. it frustrates me to a ridiculous degree.

and it's not even that i had an amazing time at the show. i'll be honest - i didn't.

sure, i had a fun time hanging out with friends on the esplenade. i enjoyed taking a weekend roadtrip for musical purposes. i enjoyed catching those few lines of "much ado" matinee on the common. a couple of the songs i was able to hear were great - hearing "the general" played live for the final time was fantastic.

but my experience during the actual show was lousy. our seemingly fabulous seats wound up being obstructed by cooler-toting, beer-spilling sorority types who refused to listen to the music. twice, i feared the bottles being thrown from everywhere would hit me - one would have, had it not slammed into the sign right in front of me. i yelled at the people behind me, yelled at the people cutting over our blanket. i was kicked, i was stepped on, i had water and beer spilled all over. i even got into an argument with a guy trying to sell free samplers for a dollar apiece. i was reminded a million times that the yankees suck (big shock). i couldn't hear most of the music and only saw a bandmember or two on three occasions.

i had a very idealized notion of the show - perhaps based largely on my positive experiences at woodstock. with over 200,000 people there, i was still able to hear every song of every band i wanted to see at the time. i remembered lying in the grass listening to rusted root and knew this would be the same way.

unfortunately, the crowd that would have been rocking to limp bizkit back then was in full force at saturday's show.

with all that, i'm glad i went. as i said, the day itself? lot of fun. during "elias," people were dancing and i was able to forget temporarily that the crowd sucked. got to say hi to someone in my college journalism program i hadn't seen since graduation. "the general" rocked (particularly interesting point made by beth - final encore of a farewell show includes the audience singing back to the band, "go now, you are forgiven." coincidence?) getting to tell off free music exploiter felt really good - and perhaps stopping the people behind from throwing glass bottles into the crowd was a huge relief.

if we hadn't gone, we would have wondered what it was like and wished we'd been there. we went, we were there AND we survived. definitely an expereince for the great american novel.

hey, look - a photo.

p.s. regardless of his injuries this season, despite his bitterness over the arod attempt (for which i don't blame him), i was in mourning upon hearing the "no more nomar" news. he's been my favorite player since his rookie season and i even have a nomar bobblehead doll. i think the trade will, all in all, be good for boston, but it marked a sad day for yours truly.