News

A Marathon and A Sprint (From The Phish Festival Newspaper)

Photo by Dave Vann © Phish 2011

Saturday, the second day of Phish’s Super Ball IX at Watkins Glen International racetrack, offered a full day’s worth of activities and music for the assembled masses. At this point most attendees had gathered their bearings and were comfortably situated in their homes for the weekend.

The day’s events started before noon for the annual Runaway Jim Memorial 5K Race and ended around 2:30 a.m. following an hour-long noise jam in Ball Square that ended with a synth’d out version of “Sleeping Monkey.”

The race, which was billed as the 101st annual Runaway Jim Memorial 5K race despite being the second running, was won by Ethan McBrien, who turned in a time of 15:23, on the male side, and Katie Harrington on the female side, who finished the race around the track in 17:19. Nearly every entrant took the event seriously with racer David Cook coming in just 12 seconds behind McBrien.

A smattering of clouds gave fans occasional cover from an otherwise scorching sun as Phish took the stage for their first afternoon set since Festival 8 in 2009. The quartet opened the 3:00 p.m. set with “Tube” and Page McConnell was quick to take the reins for a quick but blazing solo as thousands of beach balls were hit towards the stage by the crowd. “Kill Devil Falls” and “Ocelot” gave an immediate taste of more recent material after the band’s focus on older songs the previous night. Phish’s cover of “Boogie On Reggae Woman” has really shined in 2011 and Saturday’s version continued that trend with Mike Gordon thumping away on the bass as Trey Anastasio and McConnell traded funky licks.

The group borrowed a pair of tunes from side project repertoires in the first set with the Phish debuts of Gordon’s “Suskind Hotel,” which was a staple at both his solo shows and his 2006 tour with Anastasio, Joe Russo and Marco Benevento, as well as a cover of “Monkey Man” by the Rolling Stones which McConnell performed with his solo band during a 2007 solo run. “Suskind,” only the second original debuted by Phish in 2011, featured a straight-forward minor-key jam similar to that of “Birds of a Feather,” while every section of the Stones cover was performed flawlessly with McConnell adding the urgency to his vocals that are crucial to the classic tune.

A long break in between the first and second sets gave fans a chance to explore the grounds, eat dinner, meet up with friends and watch a Mets/Yankees game on the big screen within the venue among countless other options that the festival offers.