Phish ~ Festival 8 ~ Sunday, November 1st, 2009 ~ Acoustic Afternoon & Evening Sets

All photographs © 2009 Jason Kaczorowski Photography

Phish

Sunday, November 1st, 2009
Empire Polo Field - Indio, CA

Set One: Acoustic
Water In The Sky
Back On The Train
Brian And Robert
Invisible
Strange Design
Mountains in the Mist
The Curtain With
Army Of One
Sleep Again
My Sweet One
Let Me Lie
Bouncing Around The Room
Train Song
Wilson
McGrupp And The Watchful Hosemasters
Driver
Talk
Secret Smile

Set Two
AC\DC Bag
Rift
Gotta Jibboo
Heavy Things
Reba
The Wedge
Guelah Papyrus
Undermind
Sparkle
Split Open and Melt

Set Three
Tweezer >
Maze
Free
Sugar Shack
Limb By Limb
Theme From The Bottom
Mike's Song >
2001 >
Light >
Slave To The Traffic Light
Encore
Grind
Esther
Tweezer Reprise

Most of Phish's 40,000 fans strolled in Sunday morning to hear their first ever full-length unplugged set and were treated not only to great music by the band but also complimentary coffee and donuts shaped in the form of an 8.

Phish guitarist, Trey Anastasio warned fans “we’re gonna play a lot of mellow tunes” and encouraged them to sit down beneath the baking southern California sun which reached 90 degrees without a cloud in the sky during the 18 song set. Anastasio later apologized for asking everyone to sit while he admitted, “I have ADHD, I can’t sit either,” before closing the set with the classic “McGrupp & the Watchful Hosemasters.”


(above) The sun peeks in from behind the baracade that seperates the audience from the stage

(above) Mmmmmmmm, Festival 8 Donuts. This happen to be the last batch of donuts distributed for free to the afternoon audience.

(above) A fan dresses as her favorite donut.

(above) Police surround a man who was rumored to have eaten the last free donut.





(above) 40,000 fans collectively take their seats beneath the blazing 90 degree sun.











The band returned to the stage at 5:30 pm and again at 8:30 pm Sunday evening to complete their eighth full set of music over the 3 day festival.

Phish ~ Festival 8 ~ Saturday, October 31st, 2009 ~ Halloween

Please click on photos for enlargements

All photographs © 2009 Jason Kaczorowski Photography

Phish

Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Empire Polo Field - Indio, CA

Phish performed three sets Saturday, October 31st, 2009, covering the Rolling Stones’ famed 1972 release "Exile On Main Street" as part of its Halloween tradition of covering another artist’s album in its entirety.

The band broke the news by handing out a “Phishbill” - a riff on a traditional theater playbill - to 40,000+ fans as they entered the concert area of the band’s Festival 8 site Saturday afternoon.

Sharon Jones, the lead singer of the Dap-Kings, sang backup with the group in addition to Manhattan native, Dave Guy on trumpet, David Smith on trombone, Tony Jarvis on sax and Saundra Williams on back-up vocals supporting the group during its double album set.

Set One
Sample In A Jar
The Divided Sky
Lawn Boy
Kill Devil Falls
Bathtub Gin
The Squirming Coil
Runaway Jim >
Possum
Run Like An Antelope

Set Two
Rocks Off
Rip This Joint
Shake Your Hips
Casino Boogie
Tumbling Dice
Sweet Virginia
Torn and Frayed
Sweet Black Angel
Loving Cup
Happy
Turd On The Run
Ventilator Blues >
I Just Want To See His Face
Let It Loose
All Down The Line
Stop Breaking Down
Shine A Light
Soul Survivor

Set Three
Backwards Down the Number Line >
Fluffhead
Ghost
When the Circus Comes
You Enjoy Myself


(above) Thousands of costumed fans pushed through the security gates that lead into the festival grounds on Halloween.

(above) Phish poster artist, Jim Pollock and his son, who's beginning to look a lot like his dad.

(above) View from on top of the Ferris Wheel looking out over the concert grounds as Phish prepares to take the stage as its musical costume for the evening as the Rolling Stones album, "Exile on Mainstreet".


Burble (above) floats above spectators in response to infra-red signals and its immediate environment, changing color as pulses of light controlled by the public creating coherent patterns across its surface. It's a spectacular, futuristic sculpture made from helium-filled balloons packed with LEDs and infrared sensors and strapped to a hexagonal grid.

Each of the 140 hexagons has seven large helium balloons attached to it. These contain the sensors, LEDs and microcontrollers that enable the balloons to converse with each other and the participants below to create patterns of color across the honeycomb grid.

The grid is assembled on the ground, then tethered as the balloons are inflated. When the rope is cut, the whole structure floats upwards, anchored by a 30m long handlebar, which the participants hold on to.

Participants then “interact” with Burble by twisting, turning, pulling or pumping the handle, resulting in pulses of colour spreading throughout the floating structure.

Inside each of the balloons, you’ll find a circuit board with six LEDS — two each of red, green and blue — and two batteries to power it. The circuit board has been programmed to generate colour sequences in the LEDs from signals received by an attached infrared sensor which is in “conversation” with both the other balloons and the handlebar below. This has been embedded with a number of sensors — like the one used in the Nintendo Wii video game controller that translates physical movement into a signal. That signal, in turn, creates a corresponding light pulse in the balloons overhead.

The color and the duration of the luminance depends on the spatial position of each balloon, in that each one reacts differently depending on how close it is to other balloons, as well as its history of previous responses to signals already received. In essence, each balloon has a memory, and this governs its behaviour, along with environmental factors.

At the entrance to the concert field was an elevated area partially covered by peaked tents that looked out onto the lush concert field ringed in palm trees that Phish lighting designer Chris Kuroda would individually illuminate at night. Here at "The Overlook" attendees got the chance to enjoy a Bloody Mary Bar, a movie area showing vintage Halloween classics, archival Phish video - not to mention The World Series and NFL games - a massive 100 foot Ferris Wheel and an internet cafe.

Between The Overlook and the stage was The Coil (above) - a large swirled snake structure that hosted multiple art installations, interactive works and performance art.

(above) Performance artists perform "L8SICK" Surgery behind a curtain on a patient which is projected on the wall and video screens.

(above & below) The outskirts of The Coil hosted an explosive group of fire artists which featured fused metal scultputes that breathed fire and life into the cold desert air at night.

Phish ~ Festival 8 ~ Indio, California ~ Friday, October 30, 2009

Please click on photos for enlargements

All photographs © 2009 Jason Kaczorowski Photography

Phish

Friday, October 30th, 2009
Empire Polo Field - Indio, CA

Set 1 7:30 pm

Party Time
Chalk Dust Torture
The Moma Dance
NICU
Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan
Stash
I Didn't Know
Poor Heart
Cavern
Beauty Of A Broken Heart
Ocelot
Time Turns Elastic

Set 2 10:00 pm

Punch You in the Eye >
Down With Disease >
Prince Caspian >
Wolfman's Brother >
Piper >
Joy
David Bowie
Harry Hood
Golgi Apparatus

Encore: Chracter Zero













Phish in 3D
AEG Network Live filmed all eight Phish sets for a 3D movie that will be released theatrically in 2010. The release comes after the company that is a division of the firm promoting Festival 8 releases another 3D concert film of the Dave Matthews Band Dec. 11-17 in major theater chains including Regal Cinemas that are equipped to show 3D movies. That film will include additional performances by Ben Harper and Gogol Bordello. Matthews, Harper and Bordello were filmed at the 2009 Austin City Limits, All Points West and Lollapalooza festivals, but John Rubey, executive producer and president of Network Live, said his crew is getting so much good footage at Festival 8, and Phish has such a large following, that Phish will be the lone artist in its concert film. AEG's Tim Cannon said "it might be a challenge to get all of this weekend's footage into just one film".
(above & below)

ATTN: Parents & Teachers! Buy the book "Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year, Expanded Edition" today!

Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year, Expanded Edition by Esmé Raji Codell features the photography of Jason Kaczorowski.

A must-read for parents, new teachers, and classroom veterans, Educating Esmé is the exuberant diary of Esmé Raji Codell’s first year teaching in a Chicago public school. Fresh-mouthed and free-spirited, the irrepressible Madame Esmé — as she prefers to be called — does the cha-cha during multiplication tables, roller-skates down the hallways, and puts on rousing performances with at-risk students in the library. Her diary opens a window into a real-life classroom from a teacher’s perspective. While battling bureaucrats, gang members, abusive parents, and her own insecurities, this gifted young woman reveals what it takes to be an exceptional teacher.

Heroine to thousands of parents and educators, Esmé now shares more of her ingenious and yet down-to-earth approaches to the classroom in a supplementary guide to help new teachers hit the ground running. As relevant and iconoclastic as when it was first published, Educating Esmé is a classic, as is Madame Esmé herself.


From the Author

Hey, everybody, before we launch into some fabulous new and recent back-to-school books, I have to shout out my good news! It's time to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the publication of the real-life diary of my first year of teaching in the Chicago Public Schools, EDUCATING ESMÉ! My publisher has just reissued the book to include a brand new guide I wrote for first year teachers, "Hit the Ground Running," featuring 25 pieces of practical advice and a "new teacher shopping list." The reissue also includes a new foreword by Katherine Paterson, legendary author of classic books such as BRIDGE TO TEREBITHIA and THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS and the soon-to-be-released DAY OF THE PELICAN (yes, I know, I'm breathing into a paper bag this very minute about it). In honor of the reissue I will also be launching a separate blog especially for new and high-spirited k-5 teachers, where in the coming weeks there will be conversation about the teaching experience, helpful hints, giveaways, inspiring artwork, links both useful and unique, book recommendations (well, of course!) and probably some things to eat (it's still me, after all). Hope you'll check it out and tell your teacher friends. Meanwhile, what could be a more apropos celebration than a merry stack of new back-to-school recommendations?