Monday, December 7, 2009

MSG with Tom Marshall

"Who the heck is Tom Marshall?" you may ask. Tom is the singer/songwriter responsible for many of the lyrics behind about 100 Phish songs. "Why do I care?" would be a likely follow-up question.
Well, I had the pleasure of sitting right next to Tom during the opening set of the Thursday, December 3rd Phish show at Madison Square Garden. In fact, before I even recognized who he was, Tom was kind enough to inform me that I was 'squatting" in his seat and would have to move. It was my friend, Jeremy, who was kind enough to point out that it was in fact the Tom Marshall next to whom I was now sitting.
I took the liberty of telling the history of how I met my wife. On July, 16th, 1999, I met my wife on the lawn of the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. Surely enough, it was at a Phish show. I took the liberty of telling Tom how at that very show, the band called him onto the stage to sing as they backed him in their cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run."
"That was me!" exclaimed Tom.
"I know," I replied, "I was there!"
Super nice guy. Tom was just as interested as my group as to what songs the band would play that night, and he was really into the show. A family man, he was there with his wife and 2 children. In fact, one of my highlights of the night, as we debated between songs what the band would play next, I was tickled to hear Tom say that he hoped they would not play "Time Turns Elastic," a newer composition that much of the fan base has not supported to this point.
As my good friend Jeff texted to me from the show, Time Turns elastic was a chance for him to use the bathroom, grab a soda, and check the out of town sports scores, all while returning to his seat on time to catch the end of the song.
Alas, Tom Marshall and his family disappeared during the set break and did not return. Despite my telling several would be squatters that they could not stay next to us in our section, that in fact they were in "the Marshall Family seats," a 2nd set with the Marshalls was not to be. Of course, Jeremy took a quality photo of me sitting in Tom's seat during set break. Unfortunately, we never took an actual picture of Tom himself...
Oh well!