2nd Wedding Anniversary

A couple months ago we decided to head back east for the celebration of our 2nd wedding anniversary (July 3rd). Two days after we booked our tickets home, a couple of bands booked a tour that we really wanted to see. It was only happening on the east coast. And the only show we could possibly see was the July 3rd date in Hardfort, CT. Fantastic. We bought us some shiny lawn tickets.

When we travel back to Newton from Cali , we always stay at our respective parent's house. We've been doing this for a long time. At least 7 years. Two years ago we get married. Both our respective parents put kings size beds in our rooms. Now everyone expects us to sleep over. We (or at least I) find that pretty silly - the fact we got married didn't change a whole lot in our relationship. We've slept in the same bed in Cali for 7 years. I like sleeping in my own bed in Newton. But, as our anniversary is imminent, Stina decides to break our streak and sleeps over on the night of the 1st. She wants to wake up together. Ok. I understand. This will greatly improve the odds that I'll get laid. Too bad she decided to do this after the hottest, most humid day of the week. Not the most successful night of sleep. Or sex for that matter. But at least we wake up together. And gripe about how uncomfertable we are.

Stina decided we should go out to a fancy lunch on our anniversary. She did a bunch of research. Found that many places were closed on Monday, especially on the holiday weekend. We eventually decide on some Malaysian place. After running some concert related errands (food and drink) we say f the Malaysian place and go to Jonny's Lunchenette. We both have coffee milkshakes. Life is good. It's even better with bacon - which I fully indulged in.

We get on the road. By the time we are getting close to Hartford, we see some streak lightning. Not the best sign. We park the car in a sweet spot in a $10 lot (yup - look at me - paying for convenience) and begin to meander through the 'lot scene'. Not the greatest, but not the worst either. Its starts to pour for about 15 minutes. Stina buys a $3 parker. Through our wandering, we run across some people selling tickets. Some dude is selling pavilion seats (which he claims are really good) at face. We buy them, and sell our lawn seats to the dude next to him. Aww yeah, trade up. Rain stops - we do some shopping. Lots of bumper stickers. An example of Stina thinking: she knows that our current car won't last more then a couple more years, so she has us buy multiple sets of stickers, so we'll be prepared for our new ride. I would of never thought of that - but I love it. Who knows when our next east coast lot scene will be?

We've traveled the lot - time to head in. The lawn is emptyish and inviting, so we setup camp there. Phil and Friends are first on the bill. Phil is Phil Lesh, bassist for the Grateful Dead. He puts together a somewhat different band for most of his tours. They play a mellow 55 minute set, full of tunes I don’t know. I sit on the lawn, take in the eye candy, and have a nice smile on my face. This is what summer is all about. Chillin on the lawn, taking in the good vibes. Then they take a short set break. I guess the slide guitar guy (Barry Sleiss I think) has some technical difficulties. It starts to Rain. The band starts to come out. No problem, lets head to our seats. Which turn out to be like 10th row! First song they start with: Shakedown Street. We used to live in a house named Shakedown Street - this song, which is pretty bumpin', has sentimental meaning to us. We are elated. It seems especially rockin - why? Holy shit. Trey Anastasio (guitarist for Phish, and for the next band on the bill) has come out, to replace the slide guitarist. And he's in complete control of the 7 or so piece band. He totally dominates, pushing the band in all sorts of new directions for the entire set. He's having a blast. I'm having a blast. Everyone's having a blast. This kicks total ass. Waaaaay higher energy second set. And we're taking this in from the 10th row. This is what we live for. Totally unexpected. After 1 hr 20 min set, its over. Phil is beaming. Hugs all around on the stage - they all know that was pretty special.

Another set change. The band coming up is called G.R.A.B - its a band called the duo, with Mike Gordan (bass player from Phish) and Trey. So what we have here is the basic formation of Phish - guitar, bass (both actually from Phish), keys and drums. They play a bunch of Trey songs. We'll I'll be damned, its sounds a lot like Phish. They do some phishesque jams. They play some G.R.A.B originals and covers. You can sometimes hear the duo influenced sound, but sometimes they just sound like a jam band. Which happens to be very phishy in nature. Whatever - its fun. They can all really play. And they do. And we soak it in. From the 10th row.

Then it’s all over. We head back to the car. Right through the little shakedown that's setup. Stina buys some fresh french bread pepperoni pizza. Its too crunchy she says. I'm delighted to be gifted with a pepperoni french bread pizza. She finds a chicken pita something that makes her happy. My pizza has disappeared. Oh wait, I ate it. Before we got to the car. It was so good. We are both feeling like we had a fantastic 2nd anniversary.

I have a great amount of photo documentary of this day. But I'm 3000 miles away from the cable that I need. So maybe I'll update later with some pics. I will also be scouring the net when I return to SF for the show. I saw 15-20 tapers setup on the lawn. That second set from Phil and Friends was freaking amazing. Highly recommended.