Wednesdays gossip: Phish ends benefit show shortly after curfew with encore

Phish ends benefit show shortly after curfew with encore

He then spoke about the reason for the concert: raising money for Tropical Storm Irene victims.

Its going to be a long haul and its going to take action from every single Vermonter, he said. Weve got a great need in this great state. Theres nothing better than the state of Vermont and nothing better than Phish.

Phish began playing at about 7:30 p.m.with Chalk Dust Torture, a song that debuted in 1991. Their first set lasted until about 9 p.m.

The second set, long on jams, extended to just about 11 p.m., the scheduled end time for the concert based on its permit. Among the songs getting a rise out of the crowd of some 12,000 people was Down With Disease.

Phish allowed itself a brief encore of Loving Cup, concluding at 11:04.

High hopes

Ticket-less fans who traveled to Vermont with high hopes and happy thoughts were rewarded when the band released tickets about 2 hours before the show was set to start.

Dalton Doehring, 21, drove 12 hours from Gettysburg, Pa., without a ticket. He called the hotel where he works in banquet catering Tuesday, and said he wouldnt be coming in.

I said, Im going to Phish, Doehring said.

Its intense; its awesome, he said, of walking up to the box office at the fairgrounds and buying a $75 ticket to the Phish fundraiser. Doehring was 14 when Phish broke up.

I knew of them because of my friends playing their music but I wasnt paying attention, he said.

Doehring was with fellow Phish fan, Will Salomon, 24, a restaurant manager from Boston who got a ticket online. Salomon said hes been to 14 Phish concerts; he didnt see the bands most recent Vermont show in the summer of 2004.

I kinda wish I was there, he said of the Coventry concert. But if I was into them at that point it wouldve been heartbreaking for me. After the sound check and before the first set, Salomon said, Im expecting big things: The boys are back in town.

Curt Hoffman, 19, a Buffalo, N.Y., college student said he had no doubt and happy thoughts while traveling to Vermont without a ticket. He, too, bought one at the ticket booth a couple hours before the start of the show.