Gone Phishin' Thanks To The Illinois Lottery Anything’s Possible® Music Series! #APMusicSeries

I seriously felt like I WON The Illinois Lottery when we got the e-mail asking ChiIL Mama & ChiIL Live Shows if we'd like to partner up with Illinois Lottery and cover the Phish Concert Saturday night! My friend, D'Arcy, and I got the VIP treatment courtesy of The Illinois Lottery Anything’s Possible® Music Series! The view from the VIP deck at First Merit Bank Pavilion, Northerly Island was fabulous and we had a rockin' good time.

Disclosure:  Thanks to The Illinois Lottery Anything’s Possible® Music Series for providing me with 2 VIP tickets. As always, all opinions are my own.

Of course I couldn't get my pro camera in, so I made do with the kids' point n shoot and my phone, so the photos don't do the experience justice. If you follow ChiIL Mama on Instagram, Twitter, and/or Facebook you've already had a real time sneak peek. 

It was truly a night to remember! Here's our Full Slide Show and we've embedded favorites below.

We had both ends of the continuum represented. My +1 D'Arcy had never seen a Phish show, so it was an incredibly fun way to see a first show. 

And I've been seeing Phish for 20+ years. I've traveled to see them at The Gorge in Washington State, Las Vegas, Alpine Valley, Deer Creek, NYE 2000 in The Everglades and every Chicago show possible...UIC Pavilion, Northerly Island (back to the early days when they fit in Aragon Ballroom and even further back to the tiny Cubby Bear!)  

My kids both heard Phish in utero (and jumped around, kickin' to Fishman's drums) and then saw a bunch of shows in jogging strollers and baby backpacks. Phish is a great, family friendly show with all ages appeal. In fact, we saw quite a few kids and babies in slings. There were numerous pregnant women on the VIP Deck.

The last time I caught them before this, my now 13 year old son went with me to Northerly Island for Phish's last tour. I've lost count of how many shows I've seen, but even my kids (11 & 13 have seen 17 & 27 Phish shows respectively).  VIP is just 18+, though, so this time was a well deserved and much needed Mamas' Night Out.

Phish fans have somewhat of an undeserved reputation for being homeless hippie nomads. Phish attracts a wide range of ages and types of fans and many are intellectuals with advanced degrees and well paying jobs (despite fashion sense that includes renditions of drummer Fishman's infamous red doughnut dotted MuMu that he wears at EVERY show.)

Their fans are some of the kindest, most colorful & creative folks out there. Phish are hilarious, accomplished musicians who really know how to bring out the energy in a crowd and create a microcosm of magic and wonder. They truly shine live. 

We lounged around on pillowed chairs (cushy & down to earth) with candle light for most of the first set, with a great, front on view of the stage. Then we went to our actual seats Section A--Row 1--Seats 1 & 2!! which were pretty rockin' awesome too. 

The whole set was phenomenal, but I was stoked to hear "Carini", one of their darker, more intense songs and a favorite of mine. I also loved the geeky & glorious "Grind", where they do an acapella, Barbershop Quartet(esque) piece in which they sing their individual actual and combined ages broken down by days they've been alive! I was also happy they began the show with "Moma Dance", a sailing song and a play on word "The Moment Ends"-- a great choice for Northerly Island's lake side digs. It was especially amusing to me because I had JUST finished telling D'Arcy about Moma Dance as a primo example of classic Phish style, humor, wit... when they launched right in and played it. 

They've always had that type of energy around the shows. It's the same magic way we walked right up and found a whole group of my friends (even some in from other states for the shows), in the lot outside, among thousands, without using cell phones or even looking for them! 

Watching the light show with the Chicago city skyline as a back drop and Chinese Lanterns launching was a breathtaking immersion. Chris Kuroda, Phish's lighting designer, improvs the lights along with the evolving set, and has a devout following of his own! Unlike most arena shows on tour, where every night is more or less the same and the lights are a predictable cycle, Phish create an utterly unique show every night, and Kuroda steps up to feature them in the best possible light!

One of the high points of our evening was running into Jim Pollock, one of Phish's renowned poster artists on the VIP deck. He's a great guy, super personable and immensely talented. I've met him (and his wife and son) a few times over the years and he's very down to earth. His ties with Phish go way back to college days at Goddard when he roomed with Page McConnell. Since then he's done numerous t-shirt designs and highly coveted, numbered collector posters that have become crazy valuable.

He's also married to an amazing children's author, Esme Codell, which impressed my Montessori teacher friend D'Arcy more. I think her exact quote was, "Oh WOW. Cool! I love her books. I'm waaaay more impressed you're married to her. No offense, but I don't really know anything about you." That said, I'm impressed with Pollock's prints, and I'm lucky to have seen his studio where he hand prints his carvings. Collectors the world over agree! It was a treat to bump back into him Saturday and it's all thanks to our smokin' VIP seats via The Illinois Lottery. 

We'd hoped to meet some of the AP Music Series people, to thank them in person and shoot a few photos, but Phish was on a 3 night run and they worked the night before we were there, but not Saturday. 

Still, we're nothing but ecstatic at the opportunity, and thrilled to be chosen. It was a stellar experience.  Want to find out more about the Illinois Lottery Anything’s Possible® Music Series? Click here for all the details.  You too could have a lucky live show experience!

ChiIL Mama's Phone Favs:
(highlights from our real time social media blitz during the show on FB, Twitter & Instagram)

Carini -- one of Phish' darker, heavier songs and a long time favorite of mine!

ChiIL Mama ChiILin' in Chi, IL with Jim Pollock, Phish artist, and musician, Christopher Ferrer!! 

Cobalt blue nails, or as D'Arcy said, "Tardis blue". Goes great with a Kuroda light show!!

VIP Selfie!

Section A... Row 1... Seat 1... Feeling #1 special thanks to The Illinois Lottery Anything’s Possible® Music Series! 

 Rock Star Seats!!

Thanks again Illinois Lottery Anything’s Possible® Music Series. You made my summer!

Disclosure:  Thanks to The Illinois Lottery Anything’s Possible® Music Series for providing me with 2 VIP tickets. As always, all opinions are my own.

Alpine Valley Phishing 2010: Freaks, Fairies and....Families?!

25 years...25 shows.

  

Love 'em or hate 'em, the band, Phish, has been around for 25 years and they can still pull in the crowds.

When people see Sagezilla and Du-Jay at shows each year, someone inevitably asks if it's their 1st Phish show.   Sunday at Alpine Valley actually marked a milestone as Du-Jay's 25th Phish show and Sagezilla's 17th.

Du's now big enough to wear MY shirts.   This one is from Phish 2004 at Noblesville, AKA Deer Creek, concert mecca and unrivaled Midwestern outdoor venue.   Du and Zilla were 1 and 3 when they saw that show, in their all terrain Baby Jogger stroller.

We also like to DIY and make our own Phish wear with a color copier, dark t-shirt transfers and an iron.   This one is for the Phish classic, Hood.   Waaaay back in the early days, Phish rehearsed across from a Hood dairy plant.   

Their playful song, Harry Hood, speculates on the adventures of the Hood dairy mascot pictured on Sagezilla's shirt.   They muse about what he does when the fridge door is closed, with the lyrics "Harry Hood, Harry Hood.   Where do you go when the lights go out?"   We Googled Hood Dairy and found an image of their mascot, Harry, and we were good to go, with our one of a kind concert tee.

Phish called it quits in 2004, after touring nearly non stop since 1985, and members moved on to other side and solo projects.   They didn't reunite until 2009.   However, their fans from back in the day, were busy reproducing over the hiatus, and now a new generation of fresh Phish fans are coming to the shows in backpacks, slings and strollers.   We saw more families than ever before, dancing on the hills of Alpine Valley's ski resort.   It is a gorgeous venue, and under 2 hours north of Chicago.

Double click slide show for full screen.

Of course, a large part of the show is the audience.   

The party in the parking lot, playful costumes, and people watching are a huge part of the fun.   We met a bunch of friendly people around us who all introduced themselves.   Then we all shared snacks, bottled water, and fun toys like bubbles, balloons and Sharpies to draw or write on them, and lots of glow sticks.   How many concerts have fans that friendly?

    Creative car finder

The kids favorite Phish lot game to play is guess the set list.   It seems to be almost universal.   Everyone loves to shout out or sing snips of the songs they want to hear, or guess Phish will play.   With an extensive repertoire of songs to choose from, and every night different, it's always a fun guessing game to play.

Saturday night, Du-Jay and Sagezilla got to hear Reba and Run Like an Antelope, that they had guessed.   Sunday night, we correctly guessed Tweezer and Moma Dance.   Du-Jay is already chomping at the bit to play the next level of that game...correctly writing down the set list as the show progresses.   He's fairly good at it already.

Phish is renowned for "glow stick wars", a man made meteor shower of glow stick that rain down on the crowd, only to be picked up by the hand full and thrown again.   It's a sight to be seen. 

When the kids fell asleep on our blanket and backpacks, half way through the 2nd set, I gathered the glow sticks around the sleeping kids, so they'd be highly visible and not get accidentally stepped on.   They rallied for our walk to the car, and woke up enough to appreciate an impressive display of fireworks from the numerous parking lots.

There are a lot of misconceptions about Phish.   In much of mainstream, suburban America, the name Phish conjures images of nomadic, dread locked hippies living in micro buses.   

Certainly, some of their fans fit that profile, but our friends we've been going to shows with for 15 years are high school teachers and college professors.   They're smart, articulate people with advanced degrees and full time employment.   We also met more teachers at the Toyota Park shows and at Alpine, too.   

Our punk friends tend to rip on Phish, because they dislike the jam band genre and their self indulgent noodling.   

But they get heavy and really rock the jams with some of their songs, like Carini, and covers of Led Zeppelin, Hendrix and even Rage Against the Machine.   They did a dark, fun Big Black Furry Creatures From Mars, on Sunday that was much more reminiscent of 80's punk than Grateful Dead.

Just when you think you can explain Phish's playful, literate sense of humor and their sound to someone, they mutate and change again.   My parents have heard their long piano pieces where Page sounds classical, or more jazz influenced tunes, and really enjoyed them.   They often ask "Who is this?" and are inevitably surprised to hear that it's Phish.

The tickets aren't cheap, but they play long sets, so fans get their money's worth.   Where else can you see a drummer in a polka dotted muumuu playing an Electrolux vacuum into a microphone.  

Where else can you see a guitar player and bass player bouncing in sync on mini trampolines to a piano solo?

    Trey and Mike do a synchronized bounce in all directions on mini trampolines.

For sheer, wacky fun, performance art, and accomplished, clever, genre crossing music, a Phish concert is something to be experienced.  I'll leave you with a YouTube video of Moma dance, a sailing song and clever play on words.

"Though I feel winds, the moment ends...the moment ends.   The moma dance the moma dance."   Enjoy.

Mellow Yellow Monday: ChiILin' With Our New Friend Zev

We had one last big rock finish to summer, with a double dose of Phish at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin.   Between the 2 nights of music, we stayed in our friend Dave L.'s family cabin on Delavan Lake.   Sunday, his parents came up along with 3 generations of friends, including a long haired boy right between Du-Jay and Sagezilla's ages.   The kids hit it off and had a great time.   


Our Mellow Yellow Monday entry is Boating with Zev.   We'll be reviewing and recapping Phish today, then we'll be back with a lot more Kidzapalooza features all week long.   Don't forget to enter to win The Verve Pipe's latest, A Family Album, through Tuesday midnight.



Click the image for more Mellow Yellow Magic.

ChiIL Mama Friday Recap: Celebrating The Blackhawks with a victory parade & Phishing with the Ultimate Jam Band

Friday:  Celebrating The Blackhawks--Stanley Cup victors for the first time in 49 years

CHICAGO -- Friday we joined an estimated 2 million fans for a ticker-tape parade to celebrate the Chicago Blackhawks' Stanley Cup-winning season. 

The Blackhawks beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 in overtime Wednesday in Game 6 to clinch their first Stanley Cup championship since 1961.

 

Check out the official Blackhawks Website for videos, game recaps, photos and more press.   We'll have our own slide show up soon.  

Friday night we continued the celebration with a Phishing Trip to Toyota Park.   We met up with many old friends who came from out of town for the show (Tim, Danielle, Mel, Deb) and made a few new ones.   Three of our friends are teachers, and though our seats weren't with them, we met a woman behind us who is an elementary school teacher and she excitedly exclaimed that she hopes to take her own kids to Phish shows in 10 years or so, when she has a family. 

We had a tailgate picnic in the lot, and Sagezilla made the rounds with her Sharpies to get her cast signed.   I got a good work out carrying 51 pounds of kid up and down the stairs in a backpack carrier!

It was well worth the extra effort, as our seats were close and the show was lots of fun.

Phish
6/11/10 Toyota Park, Chicago, IL

SET ONE
Down with Disease (9:38)
Wolfman's Brother (10:01)
Possum (10:11)
Boogie On Reggae Woman (5:15)
Reba (13:22)
Jesus Just Left Chicago (8:17)
The Divided Sky (14:25)
Golgi Apparatus (4:41)
David Bowie (11:28)

SET TWO
Light (13:41)
Maze (9:33)
Ghost (15:14)
Limb By Limb (10:43)
Prince Caspian (7:51)
The Horse (1:18)
Silent In The Morning (5:14)
Run Like an Antelope (11:14)
Show Of Life (7:17)

ENCORE
Cavern (4:12)
Julius (8:13)

They played many of our old favorites, for an overall excellent show.   Sagezilla and Du-Jay loved the glow stick wars and the light show.   And they had a blast decorating up and releasing balloons into the crowd and making creative glow stick hats.

It's fun when worlds collide.   We saw some Phish shirts at the Hawks rally, and we saw lots of Hawks jerseys at the concert.   People were even selling hybrid Phish/Hawks tees.  We spotted a Hawks flags and stickers on cars.   One even had the whole back window decorated up to declare WE HAVE LORD STANLEY'S CUP!!!!   We do indeed.

Psycho Killer Camping

I'm a sucker for the macabre and dark humor, so when I saw the Bonnie and Clyde sleeping bag I knew it had to be mine.  Does it go with the Jeffrey Dahmer camp stove and Robert Wayne Daniels tent?   Perfect for fugitives from justice and family camping, this versatile bag quickly converts into two bags or zips together.   Not recommended for disposal of victims.  

Du-Jay has outgrown his plush lion bag and Sagezilla's black panther is bulky, so we decided it made more sense to kick our good Slumberjack bags to the kids and get a set of square ones that can zip together for us.   So, the children will no longer rest in the bellies of large, predatory cats and we will cuddle up like killers on the lam.

We love to camp as a family.   Despite the 11 degree wind chill weather today, I am already planning, scheming and dreaming of camping possibilities.   My son and I both have birthdays this month and I asked family for a new sleeping bag and a roll up, wooden "table in a bag" to take to concerts, the beach etc.

Kettlemoraine campgrounds in Wisconsin are by far our favorites and Warren Dunes in Indiana are fun as well.   Both state parks are only several hours away from Chicago and good for a weekend get away.   I love living in the city, but tell the kids that I'm much happier and relaxed when we can spend some time "where the trees are taller than the buildings" to recharge.  

We will again be returning to Three Sisters Campground in Chillicothe, Il over Memorial Day weekend for Summer Camp, a 3 day music festival.   The kids' music education will continue the following month as well.   The band, Phish, is making a  comeback, with their first tour since 2004.   We will be camping on a small, lovely lake for two nights with a group of friends and taking the kids to Alpine Valley for their June shows.   It took 4 hours on line, right when tickets went on sale, to finally lock in 4 tickets for each night, but when I read about people paying upwards of 1,000 a ticket for their first Hampton shows, I felt like we got off easy with face value and a little time.

So, here's to summer, warm weather, camping out with friends and family...............and a killer new sleeping bag to die for.   What can I say?   It had my name on it.