--------------------------------
Dan Hewins
hewins@cec.wustl.edu 

My thoughts on the Clifford Ball


Please allow me to begin by saying that the Clifford
Ball was the greatest concert experience I have ever
been a part of. It was not the best phish show I
have seen if you consider the music and jamming by
themselves though. (That might be Halloween 95 or
Murat 93)

I had no idea what to expect before I arrived except
six sets of phish and camping. And I guess a whole
lot of people. And maybe some surprises too. That's
about it.

So here's the Clifford Ball from my perspective:

I was in Vermont at a friend's house about three
hours from Plattsburgh. We (three of us) decided to
leave on Thursday about 11 o'clock. We thought we'd
beat the traffic by arriving at two and that there
should be some people there since the gates opened
at noon. Well the surprises began immediately upon
entry. There were so many people already there, the
lots were filling and the camping areas were already
fully inhabited. The place was booming when we got
there so we quickly closed up the car and began
moving about the masses. We took a walk to get our
bearings and see what we could see. All I could
think for a while was, Damn. All this for one band?
Anyway we explored, danced some by the DJ bus, and
explored more. Saw Mike wandering the parking lot in
a golf cart; almost expected to see him hearing
about his bike rides before. Stayed up till six
partying, wandering, and wondering.

Night, night...

The Clifford Ball Radio was the first of many
special treats of the weekend. I thought this was a
great idea and a good way to get most of the crowd
information. We flipped it on as soon as we came in
the gate and heard Bitches Brew, that was a good
place to begin. Later the music got a little
weirder. There was some reggae-type-stuff early on
Friday morning and one of the CDs was skipping for
about 45 minutes. The radio told us about the
wristbands so as soon as we woke up we went and got
them with no lines to wait in.

So we're the idiots who came supremely ill-prepared.
Yes we were most definitely outclasses by pretty
much everyone there. We came in a small car, a
Civic, with no tent, and one sleeping bag between
the three of us. We chose not to ignore the No
Alcohol rule which was pretty dumb and evident to us
as soon as we were on the lot. We figured that
peanut butter and jelly and a loaf of bread, which
was slightly crushed in the trunk, some fig newtons,
and chips would take care of our Epicurean needs for
the weekend. We were sorely mistaken. I look next to
us and there are these guys who have two pickup
trucks parked next to each other with a tarp up
between them. The brought a damn full size gas
grill! With the big propane tanks and all. I'm
looking at a pb&j in my hand and then at their feast
across the way. Oh well. We slept on the tarmac on
blankets until it started raining when we moved to
the car and slept (may not be the best word) to the
delightful sounds of KE2XZK (or something like that)
88.9.

Yay, gates open at one o'clock for a six-thirty set.
The walls of the compound (as one of the security
guys liked to call it) were painted like the sky.
Night sky turned to day sky and back again. It was a
long wall and it must have taken a long time to
paint. I added this to the list of things that made
the Clifford Ball more and more amazing. When the
gates opened there was a small marching band that
started playing along side of people on stilts.
Everyone was in high spirits at the time of the gate
opening and this just made it better. Shit, we lost
Alan and it's quarter till one. Oh well, We're all
going to the same place. An hour or so later we
found where that same place was. We knew because
Alan was there and he knew because we were there.
Are you getting all of this? From the same place we
went and found a place to sit and wait for musics to
begin. We played cards. The planes with messages
were an interesting monotony breaker. Stunt planes
later excited the crowd.

I knew to expect surprises but I thought they were
all going to be related to the sets that Phish was
going to play. I had no reason to expect a small
village inside the concert area. I couldn't believe
it. For those of you who weren't there I'll describe
it, if you want to skip it go to the next bloody
paragraph. There was a town square replete with
Barber Shop, Ball Court, Ball Diner, Some kind of
chapel, General Store, and a statue of Clifford Ball
himself in the center. On the outskirts was an
artist area where people were making, building,
painting, and creating. There was another building
that contained giant asphalt balls. One was about
five feet in diameter and some of the others were a
bit smaller but they were all painted like a street.
Outside of that building there was a guy standing in
front of a huge log about three feet in diameter. He
was chopping at it with a hatchet, a tiny hatchet,
he was making very slow progress. There was a theme
here and if you can guess what it was you win. It
was Clifford Ball. Ball was the theme. Artists were
sculpting and decorating balls of all types. Inside
on of the buildings in the square there were plaques
up on the walls with words: orb, sphere, dance,
globe, testis, bullet. I got orb, globe, sphere, and
dance but I wasn't sure what testis was. I know
testes though. At our time of great mental anguish a
helping friendly man arrived. It was the Barber of
Clifford Ball. He also knew what testes meant but
was not sure what testis meant. He consulted the
nice woman in the Diner but she didn't know either.
He sat us down in the Diner to wait while he located
someone with the answer. I was into this whole role
playing thing, it was fun. I always liked to go to
places like Sturbridge Village, Plymouth Plantation
(are you from Massachusetts?), or Colonial
Williamsburg. The Barber was playing a good part, he
was funny too. Anyway, he came back with the answer:
testis is the singular form of testes. Many of you
probably know that already so sue me. Bullet, how is
that a ball? Our only guess was the fact that
bullets used to be balls oh so long ago. I was
looking for something more clever than that so there
are two verdicts: it's not the real reason or that
reason is NGE. Enough about all that. Jim Pollock
was in a tent signing art that he had done. There
was a special deal, if you were wearing a shirt he
designed you got a dollar off a purchase. I bought a
three dollar sticker for two bucks.
 [Image]
There was a music tent too, there was a saxophone
quartet, that's all I remember. There also was a
place to "confess to Phish." It was attached to the
chapel. It was a small room with a mic and a podium
that you would sit behind and "confess" in front of
a camera. Hmmm. The barber that I mentioned before
gives haircuts too. He only cuts one hair though. I
found him giving a haircut to a camera crew guy's
fuzzy microphone. I chose the hair that he should
cut and then presented the cut hair to the guy
holding the mic. So basically Clifford Ball square
was cool.

Sitting by the sound board waiting for many hours to
roll by I noticed there were many cameras all
around. I figured they would use them for the three
giant screens they had behind the sound board
structure. There were too many for just that though,
and all the roving camera crews, and the confess to
Phish thing. My original thought was that they were
going to cut together stuff and play it at
intermissions but they didn't do that. Maybe they'll
make a video of the whole thing and sell it. That
might be cool.

By the way, free water idea: good. Plenty of
porta-potties: good. Mist tents: good. Huge slice of
watermelon for a mere dollar at one of the food
tents: good. no shade to speak of while waiting for
music: bad. Sunburn: bad. Sunburn: ouch. Huge plate
of Indian food: good. Bringing a deck of cards:
good. Phish soon: GOOD.

Now, for the music review I'll not go song by song,
other people have already done that anyway. I will
talk about what I remember and leave out what I
forgot. So some things may be out of order too. I'll
try to get the Friday/Saturday distinction correct.

My favorite game, what will they open with? I
thought they might do Sanity or something crazy like
that. Nope, maybe Runaway Jim or My Friend, My
Friend. Nope. What was it anyway? They opened with
Chalkdust. That was pretty good. Nice pumped up
opener. Next was Bathtub Gin. This was great,
looking back it was one of my favorites of the
shows. The jam was very cool, Trey was playing with
the melody always in mind, a Monk like approach. I
liked to hear how he tweaked it and played with it.
This just ended too, no restatement of the lyrics,
no nothing, Trey just looked sided to side and when
he was sure he had everyone's attention it just
stopped. I liked it. Ya Mar, and AC/DC Bag followed,
this is when I begin to think to myself, "Have I
seen and listened to too much Phish?" I just was
bored by this stuff. And I know that it's the same
stuff that I liked when I first heard it. More on
this later. Divided sky peaked my interest slightly
except I knew that there was going to be those long,
pointless pauses where people cheer for no reason.
The fist slow part though was interesting, Trey used
some infinite repeater effect and basically recorded
a few notes and had that repeat in that background
what he played on top of it. Through all this
testing, fooling, and playing, Trey has really
discovered/invented some cool things one can do with
effects. During Trey's pause he watched a helicopter
fly by. Fish also took a long pause before the "ding
ding" reentry to the tune. The jam was standard
Divided Sky. This was right about sunset by the way.
Any significance, probably not. Everytime I hear
Esther I love it. That song is so well written,
everything about it. From the way the time change
works to the way each part's mood reflects what is
happening in the story. Yeehaw for Esther! Halley's
Comet was a good treat. Bowie I remember being above
average but I don't remember why.

Set break, more card games. This time we played
Crazy Eights.

Set two contained SOAMelt. This one was nothing very
special. I liked the Sparkle -> Free. This was the
same transition they did at Halloween, I like it. I
liked the Rift -> Free better though. Free rocks,
this tune always pumps me up big time. The Trey on
the mini-drums and playing with effects is not too
bad. An acoustic portion was nice. There were the
three new songs that I hadn't heard before. The
Waste seemed kinda cheesy but it was a nice song.
All three had interesting twists to them, they are
not standard songs. I like them, I would like to
hear them if they are on the new album. Strange
Design is still lame no matter how you slice it.
Sorry if anyone likes it. After the acoustic came
the Mike's songs portion of the show. Mike's Song:
good. Simple: good. Contact: ok. Weekapaug: good.

Set break, too dark to play cards. pick nose
instead. oops I forgot that this set break, we
didn't stay close to the stage, we moved back.

Set three. We found ourselves on the hillside near
Ball Square. Makisupa Policeman. The screens are way
ahead of the sound when you travel farther away.
That was annoying. Trey says, "Dank" and the crowd
loves it. Seems weird to me. 2001 was great! Page,
by the way, is showing more and more good stuff
everytime I see them. Page rocks this tune which was
taken much longer than I have ever seen it taken
before. Something like 10/15/94 but longer. I really
enjoyed that one. I expected Down With Disease to be
funky and cool because I heard that about one
earlier this summer but it was standard. I always
tie this to Divided Sky, the sound similar in the
feeling of the jam. NICU is lame now compared to
tapes from 92. I think it may be for the little
reason that Trey omits the high note in the chord
sequence of the tune. I liked that little part.
Harry was good. I find myself liking the jam parts
right when they begin when Trey is playing
melodically and it seems more well thought out. This
goes for Antelope, Harry, Possum, Bowie, SOAM,
Chalkdust, AC/DC Bag, and some others. Towards the
end of these jams they revert to build, build,
build, Trey's guitar screams, drop off to some
dissonant thing, then it builds again. Ok, this
doesn't really go for Harry but Harry always does
end in a similar fashion. The fireworks were great.
Amazing Grace encore was fitting. You can't really
top a Harry -> fireworks. Plus there's always
tomorrow.

Sleep on tarmac, to tired to party. Starts to rain
again, go in car. Listen to radio, hear weirdo
versions of Halley's Comet and I Didn't Know. Mouth
feels like a sewer.


Dan Hewins
hewins@cec.wustl.edu