I've had a series of emails and questions from people about what actually happened in Holmdel during the second set on the first night (7/15/99) and I've seen a range of reviews of that show with people saying "there was something positive happening between Trey and some girl/guy in the front row," and also "Trey walked to the edge of the stage" etc. There has also been some lively debate from Webcast viewers about the 2001/SOAM during the set and how they were playing two songs at the same time. The questions I have received directly, though, have been mostly from people who were on the lawn, who saw a great deal more action as a result of the big screens that showed a lot up front.

In any case, I thought I would share the story for those who weren't up close enough to see... My son, Sam, who is eight years old, has been to about 15 shows now, and started touring with me last summer. He's an outgoing blond kid who likes glowsticks and Pokemon cards and well, Phish too. You may have seen him around, he's pretty friendly and not shy at all.

He had quite a good time last summer on tour and some of you might have read a story I wrote about his adventrues that circulated on the Net - it was called "Sam and the SOAM," and if you haven't read it you should stop reading right now and read it, I've reposted it. It'll give you the backgrounder.

Now - the fickle Gods of mailorder smiled upon us enough to give us second row tickets each night at Holmdel, which is a really good thing if you're a little kid because you get to see what's going on without a lot of pesky tall grownups in front of you. Sometimes if you're a little kid someone will be nice enough to put you on their shoulders, but then if you happen to weigh almost 70 pounds because you're not such a little kid anymore, then that person might get tired and you might feel bad. Also maybe you're at the age where you might really like to dance now, and you can't dance on someone's shoulders, although you can wave your hands around and shake your butt a bit.

If you're a little kid people are pretty nice about letting you go RIGHT up to the front, because you're small, but then if your mom comes up it might be that one person too many that makes it too crowded at the rail, but if your mom's in the second row, right behind you, that's cool too because you still get to hang out with her.

So that's where we were at the end of the middle of the first set, and Trey spots Sam, it seems, because he seems to be looking at him, but with those glasses you can't really tell, because they reflect light -- you guys know what I mean. Sometimes you think Trey is looking at you but maybe he's looking at the person BEHIND you, because of the glasses sometimes a whole bunch of people in a big huge radius think that he's looking at them, like a big spotlight... which is cool because a lot of people get to feel kind of special.

Anyway - during You Enjoy Myself it became kind of obvious that Trey was looking at Sam because he was grinning, and then he lifted one hand off the guitar and did a funny wave, like a little kid would do, back and forth. And Sam's face lit up and he waved back, and he turned to look at me (Mom! Mom! Trey's waving at me), which was cool too. Then when Trey said boy/man/God/shit he was laughing, and so were the people around us - it was like, BOY!

So the set ends and off the boys go, and Sam is glowing, and all these folks are hi-fiving him, and then the building security guy who was handling the front row, about halfway through setbreak, called us up out of our seats into the aisle, and he said:

"Now, I'm not promising anything, but would you and your son like to come up here right by the stage, on the edge."

And I said (apprehensive), what's going on? Because, it's an enormously weird thing to happen to you, at a Phish show, to have it suggested to you that you or your son might have something to do with the show itself. Especially when you don't know what is to happen, you know?

"Well," he said, "perhaps you and your son would be more comfortable, and could see better, you know? I don't really know, I can't really say. Is that alright with you though?"

By the way, this security guy was a mensch, you know, one of the chill ones, wearing sunglasses during the show and chillin to the vibe, etc. Not really giving anyone a hard time, you know?

Anyway, so up we went with him to the very edge of the stage, on Trey's side, just slightly on the side, so that I was leaning my elbows on it, and Sam was able to put his arms up and have his chin on his folded hands. And out the boys came again, and they did the Meatstick dance, with demo.

-- Sam, that's Page's wife, Sofi -- Mom, Sofi's pregnant! Yes, a new life on the way...

So then what happens next is kind of interesting. I think they all started playing 2001, or so it seemed, but Mike, in his "funny, passive, aggressive way", decided to play Split Open And Melt, and so, you know, they were playing both songs for a while, with Mike playing the bassline from SOAM. And it's funny, you know, because they played it for him at the LemonWheel and it was actually Mike that passed the request to Trey, so there it was.

So what I think happened - and I have no idea how Phish telepathy works, but you know, there was some tension for a while, because both grooves were going on for a while, and I think that the rest of the band had already committed to 2001. So then Trey went over to talk to Fishman, and I don't know what he said. Maybe he said, this kind of sounds cool together, let's play them both together as long as we can, and then do SOAM. Maybe he said, let's do SOAM. But both of them seemed pretty happy, all smiles... I know someone said they thought there was some tension in that conversation, but I had a pretty good view, and no, that wasn't the case.

So then, of course, they played this really long SOAM. And at certain points Trey would stare at Sam and smile, during the jam. Okay so then they did this really cool Kung and back into SOAM and then -- at the end of the SOAM, during the close -- Chris shined a light directly on Sam, and Trey came several feet out towards Sam, just grinning at Sam. It was a weird moment. Sam looked at me (is this for me?) and I hugged him.

So then they played Challkdust, and during "can't i live when I'm young" all these people were just pointing at Sam - it was pretty funny. Trey was grinning like an idiot. During the jam moments when Trey wasn't singing, he would just come out from behind his mic, and walk as much forward towards Sam as he could, smiling. 

Sam smiled back and was sort of frozen between wonder and horror - he told me later, "I was just thinking, Trey, this is UNBELIEVABLY cool, please don't pull me onstage," --because there were 25,000 people there, and he's an 8 year old kid, you know?

So anyway, Chalkdust ended, and then Trey unplugged his guitar, and walked to the edge of the stage, looking at me a couple of times on the way, kind of checking in -- "is this okay, Mom?"

This is okay, I guess. I don't know what you're going to do, but I guess it's all good... in Phish we trust.

So he came to the edge of the stage, and crouched down in front of us. For a minute there was just this intense moment where the two of them stared into each other's eyes. Then Trey shook Sam's hand. Then he opened Sam's hand and slipped his guitar pick into it. Sam flipped it over and looked at it and his face lit up. This is what people saw on the lawn panels... Sam's face lighting up, I think, and Trey's face bent next to him.

On the way out, Sam, fingering the pick, said -- "Mom -- never in a MILLION years-- never in a MILLION THOUSAND YEARS -- did I expect this. I've been SPOILED ROTTEN, Mom. "

The next night Sam was up front again, playing air guitar with Trey with the pick.

Now there's a little postscript to this story. I ended up in Tokyo on business, and was able to attend the shows in Japan, which were delightful. On the third night, after the last show of summer tour, everyone was clearing out of the little round clearing where the band played, the Fields of Heaven, and there was nobody on the right side of the field; it was deserted.

As I walked by the right hand side of the stage, there was this gap in the tarpaulin there that separated backstage from outside. I saw Trey standing there with a bottle of water, peering out of the gap. I went up to talk to him.

"Hey," I said. "HEY!" he said. "What are you doing here?" he said. "I'm doing a deal in Tokyo," I said. "What kind of deal?" he quizzed. "A software -- it doesn't matter," I said,  the absurdity of discussing Internet software licensing deals with Trey hitting me. I'm fairly sure he's digitally illiterate, anyway, but so what? I can't play guitar... "What matters is, I can occasionally make my Phish shows and my business trips coincide...and this has all been really special," I said. (I meant Japan, but you could take it in a wider context, you know?) 

"You're right, it has," he said. Then he said he had to go, his bus was leaving, but... "I really like your kid," he said suddenly. "I know," I said. "He really likes you too." Then I had this wicked little impulse and I said: "Thanks for the pick. We got fifty bucks for it in the parking lot." 

"YOU SOLD THE PICK? HE DIDN'T HANG ON TO THE PICK?" 

"Trey -- I'm actually fucking with you," I said. 

"DON'T sell the pick," he said, laughing. 

"We won't...we'll GOLD-plate the pick..."

Anyway, there's the story. Thanks to Sam for helping me to recreate the memory at the rail... Peace and good vibes out to all you people who help make the scene such a great one for me and for Sam... Stay happy.

- Katie Holloway (kholloway@mbs.ca)