Viva la Zone

Bryen on Monday, March 15, 2021 – 04:28 am

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So there I was...at a Phil Lesh show in Connecticut, super stylie evening, Phil absolutely brought it! Anyways...I kind of drifted off a bit & found myself alone in a motel room the next day. I woke up to a small amount of bourbon in a flask shaped bottle of Wild Turkey 101 on the dresser. I made my way to the front desk, they looked at me rather strangely, told me I had already paid for the room, and called me a cab.

The taxi showed up, I was able to score a 6 pack of Sierra Nevadas on the way to the train station. The cool thing about the trains near NYC is you are allowed to drink openly...so I'm drinking the last of the bourbon on the train, striking up conversation, LOVING IT!!!!!

All of the sudden, I'm in New York City, which is wonderful, as it's about as great a town as there is...anyways, I hop on the subway to 72nd & Broadway, I climb the stairs...at that point, I had already finished off the bourbon, I only had the Sierra Nevadas in a brown paper bag. For some reason, the brown paper bag was wet...I reached the top of the stairs, went to the curb, at that very moment, I was almost killed by a city bus, like "near death experience" almost killed. At that very moment, for some reason one bottle of beer separated from the others and smashed into 173 pieces.

I'm a little obsessive, so I had to make sure every last piece of glass was picked up from the street, or else I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the evening...so I picked up every last piece of glass that I could determine was a piece of glass. I was hoping to be able to wash my hands at the theater, but it was so early that the theater was closed, until a guy came by and almost like a telepathic wavelength was holding the door for me to enter.

So I walked in like I owned the place...I immediately went downstairs to the bathroom so I could wash my hands, while doing so I end up in a lengthy conversation with an older gentleman that worked there about Bagger Vance and "finding your swing".

When I went back upstairs I figured I'd just go back outside and look for a ticket, but when I arrived at the top of the stairs I noticed Phil playing bass behind the door, so...I opened the door, and sat in a seat. They played Eyes of the World > King Solomon's Marbles > Stronger Than Dirt > King Soloman's Marbles > Eyes of the World for a sound check, honestly, it was one of the absolute great moments of my life, it felt like a private concert, in just about my favorite venue, one of my absolute favorite spots.

After the sound check I became thirsty and wondered how I could make it to the corner, so I walked up to a lady at the front door and asked her if it would be ok if I stepped out for a few minutes, she said that'd be fine.

So I quickly scored a bottle of bourbon & a bag of herb, and went back to the door, they weren't even letting people in at that point, but I was gestured in.

So now I'm completely jazzed, living a dream, thrilled!!!!! so, I'm hanging with one of the guys from the soundboard, when all of a sudden there's a "backstage meeting", so, at this point, I figure "why not attend the backstage meeting?", so I go with my new friend to the backstage meeting. Then, after the meeting, everyone disperses...and I'm left there, by myself, backstage.

So there's a stairway, I climb up it...when I get to the top of the first flight of stairs it was so silent, you could hear a pin drop...so I wander to a room with an open doorway, there's a huge catered food extravaganza, the only person in the room was Phil, eating a cheese and cracker, we were the only two people on that floor, so he glanced my way and I said something to the effect of "Phil, I hope I'm not disturbing you, I just wanted to take a moment and tell you what a profound impact you've had on my life...you probably don't remember, but we met at the banquet after the last acoustic show at the Berkeley Community Theater, thank you! It was at that point Phil put his hand on my shoulder, and squeezed my shoulder firmly, looked me right in the eyes and said "I want to thank you, for supporting us all these years!" I said "God bless you Phil", he said "God Bless you too".

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Hey, look at that. It's March 15th. Happy Birthday Phil Lesh!!!!

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