since the hiatus has been announced i've kept an unrealistically positive outlook. my first guess for a return was a NYE run for 2001. obviously dashed. then after the wedding gig, i KNEW it would be this fall. never mind with all the side things going on (as much as i love them all...damn oysterhead, damn TAB, and damn vida blue. ah hell, damn mike's movies and pork tornado). 

i think before they come back they'll want to hit the studio and kind of tour behind a new album. as prolific as trey is, that's still taking the time to write tunes, then record them, then probably hit either europe or japan (or both) before coming back to the states. i really think they'll do this so they can get tuned up and tight before playing for US fans. now i'm thinking, at best, fall 2003. dag nab it. this is just too long. 

when jerry died, at least it was a final thing. you knew you weren't going to see the dead on stage again. this hiatus is torture though. every day i hit andy's page, the phish.net, phans.com, here, jambands.com, jambase.com, anywhere that might, finally, say they're coming back. as tom petty so aptly put, the waiting is the hardest part. 

the one bright point for me is a small thing. i look forward to one particular moment at the first show back, and every day that the hiatus stretches on, i think this moment will build more and more. it's not a sick antelope. it's not seeing trey's head bobbing during maze. it's not gordon's bass led jam in YEM. it's the moment the lights go down at the first show back (for these purposes i pray it's indoors). 

the moment i'm waiting for is the sound of the crowd when chris kills the house lights. i shudder to imagine the sound that we'll make at that moment. can you even imagine this moment without getting chills? the sound of the crowd at hampton, woosta, albany, any NYE show, any show ever is gonna pale in comparison to that joyous noise we're gonna make at that moment. i just hate waiting any longer to hear it.

peace, 

kris