I had been a listener of the recorded music of Phish since 1993 when I was introduced to the Rift album by a childhood friend. I recall a feverish amount of excitement from my high school peers who saw 2/4/93 at the Providence Performing Arts Center, two days after the release of Rift. When I told my sister I listened to Phish, she asked “Aren’t they weird?” Yes. Yes, and that was the appeal for me. I was mostly a metal and punk listener at the time, but I was habitually drawn to the bizarre.

Earlier in 1995, I had run into a high school friend who remarked that the platitude “There’s nothing like a Grateful Dead show” was also true for Phish’s live shows. “There’s nothing like a Phish show.” That statement gained significance when Jerry Garcia died in August 1995. There was already crossover between fans of the Grateful Dead and Phish, but many more fans followed Phish on the Fall ’95 tour.

I began university in Washington, DC in September 1994 and missed the chance to see Phish at smaller venues, like 10/8/94 at George Mason in Fairfax, VA. At the time, I was focused on seeing punk shows at clubs and the sort of folks who obsessed about Phish weren’t “my people” on campus. One year later, my musical interests had broadened considerably. I was interested in the relationship between psychedelic electronic music like the Orb and the “space rock” progeny of Pink Floyd.

Some neighbors in my dorm hallway were ‘heads, and when I got a hold of the tapes that fans traded of Phish’s eclectic, sprawling concerts, it was a done deal. Shifts filing away books at the Special Collections Department of Gelman Library became psychic explorations as I immersed myself in the April ’92 soundboards that circulated. When tickets went on sale for the USAir Arena show in nearby Landover, MD (18,000 seats), it was a must for me.

The show took place the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, so I forewent the trip home. My neighbor was from Maryland and he invited me and another dorm neighbor to his family’s Italian Thanksgiving, which was exceptionally kind. I rode with him to the show.

I am aware of a stereotype that the music of Phish “isn’t any good if you’re not wasted,” and that everyone at the concert must be high or frying, but these are misconceptions. I was deliberately sober for this show, I was sober for some of the other best shows I ever saw, and have since seen 15 years worth of clean shows. The music itself is everything anyone needs to be taken on the journey.

The “Cars, Trucks, and Buses” opener was perfect. Phish would play the New Orleans Jazz Fest the next Spring, and this tune is a taste of their affinity for New Orleans style funk. I learned later that the band were fans of The Meters.

We had lower bowl seats opposite from the stage, which is still my choice location for watching Chris Kuroda’s one of a kind light show.

A Live One, released that Summer, drew many curious new listeners to the band. “Wilson” opens the second disk of that set, and I remember the crowd being amped for it. Owners of the album and veteran fans alike knew the “Wilson” call and response that starts the song. My friend Jeremy was wearing a homemade “Can you still have phun?” t-shirt for the show. I looked up at the seats behind me and saw a teenage kid playing air guitar.

My Dad was a serious bluegrass fan, and I thought it was cool that Phish would shift styles and cover a bluegrass song, and even incorporated it into their own songwriting. “Uncle Pen” was a nice surprise that night. I hadn’t shared any overlap with my father’s musical tastes since he played the Beach Boys for me as a child.

We were treated to a 1995 rendering of “Taste” that subsumed “The Fog that Surrounds.” This was a transitional period for the song, before the future studio version was finalized, where “Fog…” became fully interpolated into the end of “Taste.” I want to claim that hearing it is a memory that stands out for me, but I concede that I may be swayed by three decades of playing the tapes.

I knew about “The Lizards” from friends singing it long before I ever heard Phish play it, so it was special to see the song performed live. The Gamehendge mythos, (“Phish’s rock opera”) was very interesting to me at the time, and it was a joy to experience a piece of it.

The first set ended with “Sweet Adeline,” a cappella. It was a nice touch to see one of the barbershop quartet numbers that Phish sings at the show I attended.

First set, not really jam-heavy, and I should note that this is not considered to be a stand-out show by Phans. But, as an intro to the band’s live show for me, I heard many classic songs, had a great time, and the band was in top Fall ’95 form in this listener’s humble opinion.

Second set is where things really broke through for me. It began with the song “Rift;” at least, part of the first verse of it. According to phish.com:

Rift was quickly aborted after the rhythm fell apart during the first verse. After they stopped mid-song, Trey said “We’d like to credit that last one to our drummer, Mr. Jon Fishman, let’s hear it for him.”

It was confusing, but soon forgotten when the band launched into “Free.” This song was instantly memorable for me as a no nonsense rocker. It evolved into a locked in jam with Trey moving to a drum kit, with a strobe light effect from the lighting rig, and then morphed into a dark, spacey jam. These 33 minutes were unlike any live music I’d ever experienced.

I knew “Bouncin’ Around the Room” as the opening track from A Live One and it was comforting to hear something I recognized. I was searching for something deep in that song, but I came to recognize that it’s a simple song, beautiful in its simplicity.

“You Enjoy Myself” is also featured on A Live One but I don’t think I was familiar with it prior to this show. This was a fitting song for a first show, since it showcases much of what makes Phish amazing: tight composed sections, “the note” of overdriven sustained guitar, strange/cryptic/nonsensical “lyrics”, some playful bass/drums improvisation, trampolines (I think), and the vocal jam… peak high weirdness.

I have heard that some fans don’t care for “Strange Design.” To each their own, but it is another song that became instantly memorable for me. I enjoyed the introspective lyrics, beautiful melody, and Page McConnell’s vocals and playing. Lore has it that this song was comforting for fans who were having bad experiences at shows.

The encore began with with what one Usenetter described as the “Taco Bell commercial version” of “Poor Heart.” This was a Fall ’95 thing where the song, played at a fast bluegrass tempo, was slowed down to regular country music speed. This is another song to which I attempted to ascribe deep meaning, where there probably isn’t that much. The “Frankenstein” closer was heavy and maniacal, a wonderful finish to an incredible night of music.

Loving the music of Phish and seeing the band live represents to me a gradual movement away from being a miserable, self-centered person who related primarily to angry music to someone who is able to get outside of one’s head and experience bliss and wonder. It did not happen overnight, and it is still in progress 30 years later. Finding this music led me to seek out the influences of Phish — electric Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Bill Monroe, Del McCoury, Sun Ra, Syd Barrett, Jimi Hendrix — musical treasures through which my soul fleetingly transcends the brutish world of physical reality.

I look back fondly on the anniversary of this show every year, but this year is a special one. When this date arrives, I make a donation to the Mockingbird Foundation, Phish’s nonprofit that benefits kids’ music education. I firmly believe that the gift of music is life transforming, and I am supremely thankful that I have access to it, to bring me stability and happiness.

• 11/22/1995 phish.net setlist
• Reddit Post Celebrating 25 Years of My First Phish Show
• Listen to 11/22/95 at phish.in
• Flop Sweat essay by Rob Mitchum
• Donate to the Mockingbird Foundation

The Parks on the Air program encourages licensed radio amateurs to visit, enjoy and operate portable equipment in public parks, always respecting other park users and local regulations. There are “hunters,” who attempt to make contact with people in the field, and “activators” who operate from parks and take calls from hunters.

I have enjoyed hunting parks since I first got on the HF bands in Fall 2022. I have had multiple unsuccessful activation attempts in the past due to inexperience, the wrong gear, and bad luck. This time, rather than pack a table and chair, set up in the freezing cold and raise a vertical with a tripod and radials, I obtained a triple mag mount for the top of the car, so the car would act as the ground plane for the antenna. This required packing and hauling much less gear.

I placed the new triple magnetic mount on the roof of the car and mounted my Wolf River Coil Silver Bullet Mini into it with a 102" stainless steel whip. I adjusted the collar on the coil and measured the standing wave ratio with an MFJ 259B antenna analyzer. I got the SWR down to 1.3:1 which is good enough for the transceiver’s onboard tuner to get an acceptable match.

The driver’s seat was not the most comfortable location to operate from, but it was acceptable as a trade-off since I was able to “stay warm” and not transport a table and chair. I ran the transceiver and laptop from a portable LiFePo battery pack. Usable Internet at the park contributed to my success, since I was able to tether my laptop to my phone and spot myself online.

Late afternoon seemed like a good fit for the 40m band. 10 contacts are required for a successful activation and by the 9th contact I was starting to get drowned out by interference. I moved up the band, re-spotted myself using the website, and made my final contacts of the day. I was trying to get back on the road to beat an oncoming snow storm, but it had begun by the time I was breaking down, and I drove North to New Hampshire in the snow anyway.

I had a lot of Northeastern US contacts on the 40m band — CT, MA, NH, NY, NJ, PA — and some Canadian. It was short, and I’d like to plan to spend more time at the park next time, but I have to balance my radio hobby with visiting family and friends and, in this case, weather conditions.

I definitely will be trying to get back out to the parks to activate again soon, to refine and optimize my operating strategy and have more fun with Parks on the Air.

Hanging the Antenna

I have been using the Wolf River Coils “Silver Bullet Mini” vertical with a mini tripod for all of my portable operations since last year, but I recently became interested in trying a wire antenna. For this deployment, I wanted to ensure that I did not have a vertical antenna with coax and radials on the ground that could endanger people or create a tripping hazard. I bought a Reliance Antennas End Fed Random Wire “Bugout Mini” 9:1 unun and a 53' silicone wire assembly for 40–10m this summer. While testing, I damaged the wire and decided that I wanted something more heavy duty. (I was able to repair the damage to the sheath on the silicone wire with some heatshrink tubing.) I constructed a similar wire antenna from 71' of DX Commander DX50 wire and received a Palomar Engineers 9:1 “Bullet” unun as a birthday gift.

This was only my second time attempting to hang a wire antenna in trees by myself, and I faced a number of challenges and failed frequently. My mentor Mark, K1RX, told me early on that a significant amount of time doing ham radio would be spent untying knots in ropes and I found that to be true on Saturday morning. I learned that wrapping around oak leaves and pine needles makes for unearthly knots in rope and twine. I was using an 8 oz. arborist throw bag with some masonry twine to try to get over a sufficiently high branch, after which I’d raise rope, and then the sides of the antenna. I was going for a “flat top” configuration to get the wire up high enough to ensure the safety of my fellow campers.

I was attempting to point the wire Southwest, but found that my 71' wire was too long to hang the far end in the trees near the road and too short to cross the road. Running due South, I had a similar problem where the wire reached past the trees to the middle of a camp site. I decided to try using my new “Bullet” unun with the 53' Reliance Antennas wire assembly and that was a good compromise. It was still slightly too long, but I adjusted the duplex wire clamp on the end to slightly shorten the wire and wrap it around.

The result was something that looked and performed like an antenna should, in my humble estimation. I brought my Icom IC-7300 radio and LDG Electronics Z-100A autotuner to match the impedance of the wire to the coaxial feedline. I set up on a wooden platform that had metal scaffolding for a tent and I secured my coax line along that with a hook and latch wrap and tied rope off to it so that there were no tripping hazards. Finally, I had a Palomar Engineers snap on choke on the end of my 50' foot coax cable and wrapped the jumper cable from my tuner to the radio through a ferrite toroid to try to prevent common mode current from entering the radio.

Making contacts

We were lucky to have very good band conditions for the event. I tuned up on 40m and the band was busy with activity. I made some POTA (Parks on the Air) contacts and logged many stations participating in the New York QSO Party.

Our pack of scouts was interested in the radio and antenna and I answered questions about what people do with the hobby, the meaning of “Q” signals and phonetics, signal reports, what contesting is, and how to calculate the length of the antenna. I described the difference between calling CQ and the “search and pounce” method that that I was using.

I made my first Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) contact of the day with a group of scouts north of Toronto. The scouts at my campsite were listening in and interested, but unsure about getting on the air. I wanted to make sure that their exposure to ham radio was positive and did not pressure the kids to talk.

I continued to scan the band for stations calling CQ for JOTA and made contact with another group of scouts at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. I have family in the Scranton area and had made a trip there the previous week. The University of Scranton leads the Ham Radio Citizen Science Investigation (HamSci), which uses large user-gathered datasets to study the effects of solar eclipses on the ionosphere. This is very exciting to me. Unfortunately, they were not receiving me well and the contact was short.

I moved to 20m and found a group of scouts operating from Camp Tuscazoar in Ohio. My son got on the air and spoke with the scout who was calling. They talked for about 5 minutes about their levels as scouts and interests.

I heard other JOTA stations talking to POTA activators throughout the day. I did not call CQ, and I will need to become more comfortable with finding a place to call on a busy band to take my next steps as an operator and contester, and more effectively run an event of this kind.

While putting up my antenna, I talked to the pack leader at the campsite next to us and he told me that he’d be taking scouts to operate JOTA on Sunday in Maine. He brought one of his scouts over to see my station in the evening and the scout was excited to learn about the radio and hear stations from all over. I tried to hunt for JOTA stations for him to contact, to no avail.

I made 9 contacts over a period of about 6 hours and I was happy to be able to demo ham radio to kids and talk to scouts participating in the event. Though Cub Scouts does not have “adventures” that are directly fulfilled by Jamboree on the Air, Scouting BSA (Boy Scouts) has the Radio Merit Badge for older kids. I hope that the scouts will remember their exposure to amateur radio as being positive, and that it will further the interests of some kids over time. I became active in amateur radio just over 2 years ago and I am still learning continuously. This experience provided many memorable lessons.

Glossary of terms

Source: ARRL Ham Radio Glossary

Coaxial cable — Coax (pronounced kó-aks). A type of feed line with one conductor inside the other.

CQ — “Calling any station”: the general call when requesting a conversation with anyone.

Feed line — The wires or cable used to connect a transmitter, receiver or transceiver to an antenna.

Ionosphere — A region of electrically charged (ionized) gases high in the atmosphere. The ionosphere bends radio waves as they travel through it, returning them to Earth.

Phonetic alphabet — Standard words used on voice modes to make it easier to understand letters of the alphabet, such as those in call signs. ITU Phonetic Alphabet

QSO — A conversation between two radio amateurs.

QSL — “I acknowledge receipt.”

RF radiation — Waves of electric and magnetic energy. Such electromagnetic radiation with frequencies as low as 3 kHz and as high as 300 GHz are considered to be part of the RF region.

RST — A system of numbers used for signal reports: R is readability, S is strength and T is tone. (On single-sideband phone, only R and S reports are used. Example: “You’re 5 and 9.”)

Unun — Contraction for unbalanced to unbalanced. A device to couple an unbalanced load to an unbalanced source, or vice versa. The unbalanced load in my case is the one-conductor wire I’m using as an antenna.

Vertical antenna — A common amateur antenna, often made of metal tubing. The radiating element is vertical. There are usually four or more radial elements parallel to or on the ground.

Wavelength — Often abbreviated λ. The distance a radio wave travels in one RF cycle. The wavelength relates to frequency. Higher frequencies have shorter wavelengths.

WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporting) is a protocol used by a network of stations transmitting beacons at low power, the results of which are used to measure radio wave propagation on different bands. WSPR belongs to the WSJT-X family of digital protocols. WSPR can be run using any radio with a digital interface, and on specialized hardware, but the Raspberry Pi is also especially suited to the task.

WSPR is engineered to use forward error correction to increase the chances of successful error-free reception. The protocol is efficient and excels in low signal to noise ratio conditions. Narrow-band four tone frequency shift keying (4FSK) modulation is used. The bandwidth of the transmissions is 6Hz and, by using randomly allocated time slots, dozens of signals can fit into 200Hz segments of the bands.

The Hardware

In my brief, short distance experiments with the 2m band, I simply connected a wire lead to pin 4 of the Raspberry Pi GPIO to act as the antenna. I later learned that the square wave signal of the clock has harmonics that make it noisy and introduce the possibility of RF interference. Even with the seemingly small amount of RF power output by the Pi (10 mW normally), connecting a resonant antenna directly to pin 4 does not conform to proper amateur practice since harmful interference could be propagated for thousands of miles. Additionally, the circuitry of the Pi is sensitive to static electricity, from lightning strikes for example, and ideally should be protected further.

I needed a way to filter the signal generated by the clock, and I found the TAPR WSPR HAT. I have known about TAPR — Tucson Amateur Packet Radio — since the early 2000’s, when the organization was renowned as pioneers of digital modes on the bands, but it turns out they manufacture and sell a kit to build a WSPR HAT (“Hardware Attached on Top”) that interfaces with the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins and provides circuitry for filtering and a BNC connection to more elegantly connect an antenna feed line.

I ordered and quickly received the kit from Bruce Raymond in Alabama and eagerly attempted to solder the capacitors and inductors needed for filtering on the 80m band. I am a novice at soldering, and I’m still not sure what went wrong, but I was able to transmit for about 3 hours with the first HAT I built and then it stopped. The setup guide has instructions for tuning and measuring voltages across the circuit and I was no longer seeing the voltage I originally recorded prior to my first transmission. The troubleshooting guide claims “It’s all fixable (except for soldering that 40 pin connector on the wrong side of the circuit board,” but I sadly introduced an exception to that axiom by tearing out one of the pads from the printed circuit board while attempting to desolder the inductors.

At this point, I was determined to transmit a WPSR beacon and I ordered a replacement kit. I was extra careful to do a clean soldering job and this time I had success.

The Software

To run WSPR on the Raspberry Pi, I turned to a fork of WsprryPi, maintained by my colleague Lee Bussy. The project’s excellent documentation provides a wealth of detailed technical information about WPSR and the Raspberry Pi. WsprryPi can be installed with a one-liner from the command line.

curl -L installwspr.aa0nt.net | sudo bash

After installation and configuration, one can change settings and options from a web interface. At a minimum, one must set one’s amateur radio call sign, the grid square of one’s transmitting location, transmit power in dBm (20 in my case, since I’m using the TAPR HAT) and the frequency designator for the band (80m, in my case.) Note that the transmit power value here is informational for the WSPR packet and does not affect the energy used to transmit the message. The call sign, grid square, and transmit power are included in the transmitted beacon. Settings can be edited at/usr/local/etc/wspr.ini but the user-friendly graphical web interface is accessible at http://localhost/wspr.

The wspr daemon runs as a systemd unit and can be controlled and monitored easily with systemctl commands, as described in the manual. Diagnostic commands are provided for troubleshooting, but if things are working properly, the daemon runs without user intervention. Transmissions occur on the even minute and last about two minutes.

Going Worldwide with 20 Milliwatts and a Wire

Receiving nodes automatically upload information to a database at WSPRNet and that site also provides graphical plots of which stations received your transmissions over time. You can observe propagation trends for a given band, or query your own call sign to see the activity specific to your beacon.

I have had great fun and a useful learning experience experimenting with WSPR. I’m learning about how radio wave propagation is affected by solar activity and the technical underpinnings of digital modes. I put my soldering skills to the test, and am helping to participate in a worldwide network that is useful to many radio amateurs.

73,

Jamie, KB1HFP

Resources

• WsprryPi Source Code at Github
• WsprryPi Project Documentation
• FSKView: WSPR
• VK3FS article on WSPR
• VK3FS YouTube Video on WSPR

I attribute much of the overall success of the adventure to the fact that I stopped at Guitar Center on the way to the show and picked up a set of EARasers noise cancelling earplugs. I’m mentioning the brand by name because they are excellent. Unlike foam earplugs that muffle sound, I was able to hear every detail at a comfortable volume. The medium size fit perfectly and were unnoticeable for the long duration of the concert.

The location of the Roadrunner in Brighton is a newer development that houses WGBH, New Balance, and the Bruins and Celtics training facilities, along with stores and restaurants. I was very impressed by the aesthetics and walkability of the complex!

The Soundcheck

I arrived at the venue at around 2:15 and a small group of fans was gathered outside. Soon after, venue staff established three lines: one for VIP, another for “Express Pass,” and a third for General Admission. I subconsciously intuited that this was setting up the audience for resentment of one another by means of a microcosmic class stratification.

The first benefit of the VIP package was attendance at Extreme’s soundcheck. I believe that AXS and Extreme attempted in good faith to design a package that would please fans, but I have some criticism of the results. First, for the cost, I was expecting to meet the band. Granted, there was no explicit mention of being personally greeted by the band but it would have been respectful to the buyer to set the expectations. There was no mention of not being able to have items autographed until we were in the lobby. The package vaguely described a “group photo,” but in practice this entailed dividing up the VIP crowd into two groups and a smartphone photograph of them in front of the stage with the band in the background. Speaking for myself, that has limited value. I don’t pretend to understand the rock business, but the way I rationalized it is that my hopes and dreams for a more personalized package would have cost much more, and it was already nearly unobtainably expensive. I must say, I am satisfied with the autographed tour poster and laminated pass that we received, which I appreciate as a rock n’ roll collector geek.

We were at the front of the line for the soundcheck which gave us the privilege to be on the rail, allowing for a tremendous view of band practice. We heard a rehearsal of “Play with Me,” and the band worked through technical challenges for tour debuts of older material. They were focused on business and it was interesting to see and hear them hash it out in real time. The band then soundchecked the 12 string acoustic guitar and mini drum kit on an abbreviated version of “Tragic Comic” which would preface “Hole Hearted.” The soundcheck was an awesome experience that provided a rare view behind the scenes. After the soundcheck, guitarist Nuno Bettencourt tossed some picks to the crowd and I was able to claim one featuring the cover art from the new Six album.

Living Colour

We were given the chance to put the VIP spoils and any newly acquired merch in our vehicles and then line up for entry into the show. Once again, I was close to the very front of the line and we met some friendly fellow concert-goers who were longtime Extreme fans. We shared stories about the history of the band and seeing live music in Boston. The fellowship eased the prolonged standing and onset of hunger.

We were allowed to enter the venue at 6:30 and I made a critical mistake that cost me a spot on the rail. Rather than empty out just the metallic contents of my pockets, I nervously surrendered a Clif bar and packet of green tea in the tray at the metal detector and the resulting interaction with club security was enough of a delay for the rail to fill up. My meager dinner and lofty front row hopes were tossed into the trash. Luckily for all in attendance, the severe public safety risks of me eating a meal and getting mildly caffeinated were averted.

The situation behind the rail intensified as the general admission crowd filled in. The show was not sold out, but the venue looked to have been close to capacity. I contended with nearby drunken, belligerent meatheadedness, to which I was a hapless captive audience. In contrast, the front row at the Hampton Casino Ballroom in 2022 had a very chill older crowd that felt more like a mutually supportive community. I resolved to take the bad with the good and calm my anxious mind. When I experience negativity, I ground myself in my values: kindness, benificence, stoicism, respect… the supernatural forces of everything that’s good.

Middle-aged bodily discomfort and stiffness from hours of standing and having no space to move became noticeable, but when Living Colour finally took the stage, their music was the cure to my woes! I admit that I was familiar with this band only from their singles and did not recognize the opener “Middle Man,” but it typified the band’s characteristic style of heavy effects-laden guitar sounds, elastic funky bass, and complex drum grooves. The crowd was energetic and appreciative. Vocalist Corey Glover possesses an extensive stylistic range that seamlessly transitions between and intersperses hard rock, soul, and reggae.

When a lead guitarist takes a solo and an onslaught of extra terrestrial frequencies emit from the amp, these are prime concert highlights for me. I was delighted by Vernon Reid’s incredible speed, technique, and mastery of effects during his skillful, otherworldly solos. This is to say nothing of Vernon’s role as a proficient rhythm guitarist and author of many innovative riffs.

I was not familiar with the 1993 album Stain, but I immediately checked it out after the show and it is wonderful. The song “Go Away,” was a crusher reminiscent of Helmet’s style of noise rock. In the hyper-self-aware lyrics, the narrator angrily struggles with feeling powerless to transcend superficiality and affect change on a broken world and tells their guilty conscience to “go away.”

“Memories Can’t Wait” is a Talking Heads cover that appears on Vivid and the Heads’ funk translates smoothly and directly to Living Colour’s flavor of metallic funk. It is an awesome song, new to me, that was played well. A one-two punch from Stain followed. “Ignorance is Bliss” is an anguished lament of our tendency to be absorbed in our own problems, leading us to collectively fail to address the world’s problems, sung to the tune of a locked-in metallic groove. “This Little Pig” melded thrash metal, noise rock, industrial influences, and a chugging breakdown in a foray into the dark side of corruption, violence, and societal ills.

I was surprised and touched to hear the band pay tribute to Sinead O’Connor with an emotional rendition of the Prince song “Nothing Compares 2 U” for which she was famous. Corey Glover led the crowd in a sing along. It was sad, powerful, and beautiful. We are bombarded with so much nonstop bad news, it can feel impossible to take the time to grieve losses.

The tempo and energy spiked when drummer Will Calhoun kicked off the opening bars of “Rock n’ Roll” by Led Zeppelin. This song was an absolute rave-up with another searing Vernon Reid lead and a fully engaged audience.

Corey mentioned that Will Calhoun had spent some time in Boston since he graduated from the Berklee College of Music in the area. Will received enthusiastic applause from the crowd, well-deserved considering the performance he was turning in. I stood directly in front of bassist Doug Wimbish and was able to observe his technique and formidable stage presence.

“Elvis is Dead” from Time’s Up featured a crowd sing along, a satirical detour into “Hound Dog” which nodded to the hit’s ill-gotten source material, and then segued into “Type,” a sensational version of the epic composition and a set highlight for me.

Closer “Cult of Personality” was musically tight and a clear crowd favorite. The lyrics resonated with me since the song was prescient of our current dangerous political climate where charisma is prioritized over character. Corey Glover climbed into the audience for the ending. A fan behind me shouted, “They should have given you an hour and a half!” I echo those thoughts, that this band would definitely be worthwhile to see as a headliner.

Reflecting on their output, it is remarkable to me how this band always defiantly opposed racism in their music and message. Living Colour are iconoclasts in the white-dominated rock world and I wish I could tell my younger self to buy their albums and take their meaning to heart.

Extreme

The wait for Extreme seemed long and excruciating. I was packed in tightly enough with the people around me to be considerably outside of my comfort zone, and my “flight” instinct to escape to air and open space was active. But, such are the sacrifices we make for Rock n’ Roll. Money, time, physical and mental well-being… all blend into the slurry that is consumed by this voracious beast. No one was moving, and neither did I.

“#Rebel” from the new record opened and the fans sang along eagerly. This song struck me as having a Pantera-esque chorus. I’d be curious to know specifically what inspired it lyrically. On face value, it seems to reference the mobs of keyboard warriors on social media, a topic deserving of derision in my humble opinion. This was a serious rocker with bombastic Gary Cherone theatrics and a shredding solo by Nuno Bettencourt.

“Decadence Dance,” commonly a set opener, kept the energy, adrenaline, and endorphins flowing. We were hit with a “II”-for afterward with “It (’s a Monster),” also from the band’s sophomore 1990 album.

In 1992, I collected the III Sides to Every Story album on the recommendation of a musician friend, and I was hyped for an early set “Rest in Peace.” Extreme are full spectrum artists that excel in songwriting, lyrics, and performance and this song exemplifies that. I have fond memories of rocking this cassette in my car stereo as a teenager.

In the early 90's, I associated Extreme with the “hair metal” genre, which lost my interest in favor of heavier sounds. I can tell you that this was a grievous error in judgment, and this band is strictly metal of the highest order. “Hip Today” from the 1995 album Waiting for the Punchline addresses the culture shift in popular heavy music, where alternative became mainstream, causing identity crises for many bands. Staying true to their artistic vision rather than embracing current trends to try to appeal commercially to a fickle public is a formula that has long worked for Extreme.

Next, as previewed during the soundcheck, the band described a visit back to the early days of the Channel nightclub in Boston and began a medley of early material: “Teacher’s Pet” > “Flesh ’n’ Blood” > “Wind Me Up” > “Kid Ego.” I have to be frank that normally “shortened” songs like those featured in a Super Bowl halftime show are a disappointing no-no for me, but put into the hands of world class musicians, they were able to preserve the integrity of their music while maintaining a high-energy pace to the set and it worked very well. Witnessing what went into coordinating this — an experiment intended as a tribute to the longtime diehards in tonight’s crowd — made it even sweeter.

Singalongs are a major part of the Extreme concert experience, but that is just not how I experience shows. For me, it is cerebral, where I soak up the music and atmosphere and let it take me on an inner psychic journey. Even for my favorite bands’ songs where I’ve memorized the lyrics, my mouth is shut but my synapses are on fire. I’m sure there were no hard feelings for Gary and company, since most of the roughly 5000-strong audience was picking up my slack.

Other than the III Sides album, my other main association with Extreme is the awesome mall chase scene in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, perfectly soundtracked by “Play With Me.”

It was a thrill to see the song performed on the big stage. Compared to Hampton Casino Ballroom, the Roadrunner was the big time with full pro lighting and fog which was used to excellent effect. As a fan of live jam band music — Phish, the Dead, Disco Biscuits, String Cheese Incident, Umphrey’s McGee — I am a spoiled concert lighting snob, and this show’s stage lighting was top notch and did not disappoint. Nuno and drummer Kevin Figueiredo repeated the classical section of the song a second time to “prove that they could get it right,” which was good for a laugh.

Afterward, Kevin moved to the small kit and the custom 12-string acoustic and cowboy hat were brought out for a soulful take on “Tragic Comic.” Patrick Badger held down the low end reliably, as can be expected. This set the tone for “Hole Hearted.” When this song was a hit, I could have done without it; now I would not want to do without it.

The set shifted gears back to the new album, Six, with “OTHER SIDE OF THE RAINBOW” where Nuno remained on 12 string acoustic. It is a beautiful song and was great to hear live. Gary Cherone took over acoustic guitar duties during Nuno’s electric solo to cheers. “BANSHEE” from the new album took things back to straightforward rock territory.

The band seemingly never tired as they tackled the III Sides songs “Am I Ever Going to Change?” and “Cupid’s Dead,” but I was admittedly starting to lose steam until I was hit in the face by one of Nuno’s picks during “Midnight Express.” I will forever remember this as a milestone moment in my career of seeing live music! Not the same as “catching” a pick, but pretty damned close enough.

Let me tell you about “More Than Words.” By 1990, hair band ballads were some of the worst, most ubiquitous, most cliche´ overdone schlock on MTV. There was no room for another, and I would just instantly turn the channel and ignore this song. This represents the inherent danger of our biases and how we are capable of unwittingly shutting ourselves off from experiencing beauty and joy. When I saw and heard this song last year at Hampton Casino Ballroom it opened my eyes and heart to how beautiful and powerful this song is. Like so many distorted ideas I had when I was a teenager, I was wrong. Is it the perfect love song? It is somewhere at the very top of the list. Saturday night’s version was another incredible one, with great Boston audience participation.

I found out while waiting in line that Nuno Bettencourt sustained a serious knee injury only months ago and he has been on stage turning in peak performances in a knee brace rather than cancel this tour. That is deadly serious. Just so that you wouldn’t forget that he’s a musical virtuoso, he walked out and tore through “Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee.”

I knew “Get the Funk Out” from radio play when the album was out, and I consider it a quintessential Extreme song, so it was a fitting way to close the set. The whole band gave 100% for the entire show, and they really didn’t owe us more, but they returned for an encore like the consummate professionals they are. “SMALL TOWN BEAUTIFUL” from the new album is a ballad that many fans were surely pleased to hear. A shortened “Song for Love,” an encore mainstay, lead into the finale “RISE.” This is a one of the strongest tracks off of the new record that was a rager live, and made for a satisfying conclusion.

It was a spectacular day of full-intensity rock n’ roll and friendship! I enjoyed being a VIP for a day, but I was content to quickly return to normal person life immediately afterward. By all accounts, Extreme seem like a good bunch of dudes, and they know how to throw a party. I wish them the best as they embark on the remainder of their world tour.

• Living Colour 8/5/2023 at setlist.fm
• Extreme 8/5/2023 at setlist.fm

The setlist for the night 1 tour opener looked like a nonstop scorcher on paper, and fan chatter confirmed my suspicions. The magic of a legendary Phish show is organic and is not guaranteed to happen every night, but the venue and crowd are important components of the formula and I was hoping for more of the same.

The Orion Amphitheater was excellent! It reminded me of pictures I have seen of the Greek in Berkeley. It is an 8000-seater, which made for an intimate show and was general admission. There was no traffic getting in, free parking, no long lines for admission, concessions or bathrooms, and the people in attendance I interacted with were exceptionally kind and polite compared to typical Northeast crowds.

Notably, I was handed a flyer in the lot from the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave in Colorado stating that July 12 was the 130th anniversary of Buffalo Bill’s pancake breakfast, exhorteing the reader to chant “Buffalo Bill” when Phish took the stage. Solely on the basis of strangeness, I intended to support this effort, even though lyrically the song’s connection to the cowboy is dubious or worse.

When Phish took the stage, I tried to listen for “Buffalo Bill” chants and add my own to the chorus, but it was for naught. The opening notes sounded like a slower “NICU,” but were in fact “Plasma.” We were off to a good start! I really enjoy this song since hearing Phish play it on the recording of 8/5/2017 and seeing an excellent version with a lot of playful reprises of the ending throughout the second set on 11/29/2019. This was a great version with solid improvisation to start the first set.

I have not carefully followed Phish’s setlists since they returned to touring in 2021 and am disappointed to admit that I don’t own Sigma Oasis (the only Phish studio album that I have not collected) but I am familiar with it from the webcast album premier. I was able to identify the title track “Sigma Oasis”. Musically and lyrically, I enjoyed the song. I did not expect the band to take it for a ride, but it evolved into an extended jam that I eventually noted separately in my journal as “Huntsville Jam.” More realistically, this is probably typical of what can be expected from first set jams in the post-Baker’s Dozen era. I was hoping to see a “Fee” with an outro jam, and this had a similar ambient feel for me.

After what I’d consider a standard first set “Wolfman’s Brother,” Phish slowed things down with “Evolve,” a ballad from Trey’s solo album Lonely Trip. The song was decorated by a beautiful piano solo from Page McConnell, and on re-listen has contemplative lyrics. Fans close by were excited for “Mull,” a Mike solo song with the signature feel of his tunes.

Earlier in my show-going career, I would not have been excited to see “Bouncing Around the Room,” but it served as a comforting return to familiarity. The blue, green, and purple stage lighting brought back warm memories. I first heard Phish in 1993, in a friend’s car while commuting to high school, and I collected the Rift album soon after. The “Bouncing Around the Room” opener on the A Live One CD released in 1995 essentially served as my initiation to the band’s recorded live output.

This was the start of a welcome focus on the early 90’s song catalog which continued with “Stash,” the one song from my “calls” for the night that was played. I joked with my cousin John that I can “sort of play this song on the guitar” which after 3 years of trying is somewhat true. I listened for the audience’s claps… Is it 3 claps? 2 claps? For me, it is 0 claps because in my estimation there can only be one person driving this percussion bus: Jon Fishman. The song winded into a major key jam before orbiting back to the ending. Pensively, I asked myself along with the lyrics, “Is it for this, my life I sought?”

High-hats can usually mean one of two things, but I recalled seeing “Maze” on the previous night’s setlist which meant that we would be treated to the classic showcase “David Bowie.” It was an excellent set closer that interplayed seamlessly with lightning in the near distance and Chris Kuroda’s otherworldy light display.

At setbreak, I attended a meeting of the Phellowship, a support group for sober fans. This marked my 11th sober show since getting clean in 2010. When I made a donation at the table, I was told that over 60 people attended the meeting the night before. These meetings have wonderful energy that I draw from, hearing emotional stories from veterans and newcomers alike. Participation in this fellowship has been a real source of inspiration and joy for me over the years.

The second set began with “A Wave of Hope” from Trey Anastasio’s pandemic-era Lonely Trip album. I was not familiar with this song, but the crowd was clearly into it, a rocker with poignant lyrics that fit in with the feel of the show so far.

I was thinking about the song “Fuego” earlier in the day, and was pleased to hear the opening. This was an excellent version with some of the best jamming of the night and the crowd responded enthusiastically to it. I had to re-listen to the recording to catch the segue into “Piper.” This was a pleasure to hear live! One of my greatest Phish regrets is leaving the Oswego County festival early and missing the legendary 7/18/1999 version.

Phish debuted “Ether Edge” next and at the time I didn’t think it fit well into the flow of the set, but on re-listen it occurred to me that the lyrics extend a “flight” theme that thread throughout the show. It is a beautiful song, well-played in this instance and demonstrates the continued maturity of the band’s songwriting.

“Mercury” was received well by the crowd! I had seen a couple of others in the course of my travels, including another pairing with “Fuego” in the second set of Fenway Park 7/5/2019. This was a special one for me where the music and lyrics resonated:

but the net’s unbreakable
so don’t worry about falling
the voice that you ignore
might be your future calling
alone we’re tossed about
like a bottle in the sea
but together we ascend
and only then escape this gravity

I was reminded of support of the Phellowship and my family as the “unbreakable net.” The idea of “together we ascend” was another metaphor for that experience.

Following the composed sections, the improvisation morphed into a segue into “Free.” This was apt, considering its Southern rock undertones. This song holds special significance to me, since the 2nd set version from my first show 11/22/1995 represents one of the most thrilling rides I have taken with the band that converted me to a life-long fan.

That sprawling version predates the composed ending and as a result I admit I have never really enjoyed the “finished” song. However, in this case, I tuned into the grooves of Mike’s bass and witnessed as the jam shifted through multiple forms, including one that suggested “That’s All” by Genesis. Trey locked into variations on a Clapton-esque theme that weaved in and out of the written song ending into a screaming finale and a high energy interaction with the audience.

The last time I saw “Alumni Blues->Letter to Jimmy Page->Alumni Blues” in Camden, NJ on 6/25/2010, it was a genuine bust-out, with a 587 show gap. This night, as the encore, it represented a self-aware re-visitation of the beginnings of the band’s oeuvre. Phish finished the night with another classic, “Run like an Antelope,” which I always welcome. Lots of playfulness, more magical artistry from Chris Kuroda, and off-the-charts crowd energy punctuated an incredible night of music and fun.

Overall, this was another unforgettable Phish experience, and I was happy to share it with members of my literal family, and the figurative recovery and musical family that I’ve been lucky to have opportunities to visit with from time to time. I can wholeheartedly endorse Huntsville, AL — Rocket City, if you will — as a fabulous destination for music tourism. I congratulate Phish for 40 years as a band, and thank them for 30 magnificent years as an admirer of their work.

• Official recap from phish.net
• “Mercury -> Free” from Phish on YouTube

While searching the web for a design to build an oscillator, I learned an interesting fact about the Pi: the board has a Spread-spectrum clock controller that operates on the frequency range 1MHz to 250MHz, which is in the VHF range typically used for FM radio.

Full disclosure: I am doubtful of a practical application for this and it is intended just for fun and novelty. I’m unsure of the power of the transmission, but the Pi itself runs on a 5V power supply. The range is limited since I’m using a short jumper wire as an antenna. This project allowed me to experiment with RF on the Pi quickly and easily with materials I had on hand.

I found the article How to Build a Raspberry Pi FM Transmitter which is geared toward playing music audio files on a wideband FM frequency. The article links to the original project which is documented in the post Turning the Raspberry Pi Into an FM Transmitter. Originally, I tried to follow the latter because it is more explicit about the technical details. I also appreciated that it uses a Python script because I could read the code and try to make sense of what it was doing. However, I ran into problems because it calls a precompiled C binary that would not run on my 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS, despite my efforts.

I cloned down the fm_transmitter repo linked in How to Build a Raspberry Pi FM Transmitter, which contains a C program that properly compiled on the Pi using the directions.

sudo apt-get install gcc g++ make
cd fm_transmitter
sudo make

I copied a .wav file of a recording of me keying my amateur radio callsign on a practice oscillator onto the Pi using a thumb drive.

I prepped the Pi by putting on my Adafruit reference card overlay on the GPIO and connecting a jumper cable to pin 4 (4th down on the right.)

Since I’m a licensed amateur radio operator, I’m permitted to transmit on the 2 meter band, which falls in the range supported by the clock controller and the program. I set the program to use the 2 meter simplex frequency.

sudo ./fm_transmitter -f 146.52 -r kb1hfp_call.wav

The linked video shows a demo of the program where I transmit a file containing a recording of my callsign in morse code using the Pi Spread-spectrum clock.

Why is sudo needed? Why is GPIO pin 4 used? Turning the Raspberry Pi Into an FM Transmitter explains: “The C program maps the Peripheral Bus (0x20000000) in physical memory into virtual address space using /dev/mem and mmap. To do this it needs root access, hence the sudo. Next it sets the clock generator module to enabled and sets it to output on GPIO4 (no other accessible pins can be used).”

I have not yet been able to determine why the pitch of my tone is so much lower and slower than the sound on the original file.

I tried to dig into how this works and got out of my depth very quickly reading the Stack Exchange post How does the RaspberryPi radio hack convert digital GPIO signals to an FM signal? There is a lot of interesting information, many explanations, and diagrams in the post.

The experiment was relatively quick to set up and it was fun to test out the proof of concept for an interesting hack.

73,

Jamie, KB1HFP