How Hampton got his name

How Hampton got his name

(part of my "it's too damn hot to ride so I'm posting on whatever random subject I feel like" series) 


In March 2009, my favorite band played in Hampton, Va., for their reunion tour after a 5-year hiatus.

It was a 3-night tour, but of course everyone wanted to get in the show on Friday - the first night. The Hampton colesium doesn't hold many people - maybe 13,000. So tickets were very, very hard to come by.

Hampton - at night.

I ended up spending a SHIT LOAD of money on 2 tickets for Friday. I spent more on those tickets than I spent on Hampton. Or my saddle. And a lot of other things. This should tell you just how unhealthy my love for this particular band is.

At the last minute, another friend decided to join us for the ride over and hoped to score a ticket when we got there. For some reason, I had an unselfish moment and decided that we couldn't just go in the show and leave him out in the lot alone.

So, we ended up trading my 2 Friday tickets for 3 Saturday tickets. The women who traded with us seemed oddly normal for a Phish fan. She ended up having to call her husband to bring us the 3 Saturday tickets. We waited with her for about 45 minutes. Finally, her hubs shows up with the tickets and we make the trade. My friend, a very jaded veteran of these shows, examines the tickets and determines they are not fake.

So here I am, Friday night - NO TICKETS - but 3 for Saturday. I really, really, wanted to be in there when the lights went off and the boys took the stage for the first time in 5 years. I started to get mopey about it. The 3 of us decided to mosey up to the venue to "see what happens." I wasn't optimistic and continued to sulk while sitting on a sidewalk.

Meanwhile, my veteran friend is chatting with a very large security guard. Great, now he's going to get us in some sort of trouble. Am I going to have to bail him out of jail? I don't even know where the jail is in Hampton, Va!

At one point, Friend comes over - grinning - and says "We're going to get in. Be patient."

Yeah, right. There is no way to sneak into this venue. There are guards everywhere. Security is tight. I go back to sulking.

Within 20 minutes, he comes over and says "I need $100." My other friend coughs it up. Now I'm half concerned, half shaking from excitement. We wait another 5-10 minutes and the big security guard waves at us.

He walks us in through the back gate. All 3 of us were doing all we could to contain ourselves. The security guard didn't sneak us in - he escorted us in like we were royalty! We strolled right in to the venue and out onto the floor of the Hampton Colesium. Once we were in there, we could no longer remain composed. All 3 of us are now in - not one ticket - and we still had 3 tickets for tomorrow! I felt like the luckiest person on earth. This kind of stuff never happens to me. Ever.

The show was of course amazing.


Phish "Fluffhead" Hampton MultiCam 3-6-09 from Paul Unger on Vimeo.


Um, so on Saturday we walk right up to the venue with our tickets - quite proud of ourselves for scoring this deal. I got in. Check. Friend #1 gets in, check. Friend #2 ... bunk ticket. WTF?! It said the ticket had already been used. I watched him walk off to try and sneak in ... but I knew it wouldn't happen. And the security guard we had bribed the night before? He was no where to be found. And the others weren't going to take the bait. The two of us stayed in the show (hey I'm not THAT selfless to leave once in) ... Friend #2 was no worse for wear.  He hung out in the lot and got drunk.


In addition, here's what else happened during my Hampton experience:

• 2 random hippies ended up coming back and sleeping in our hotel room. Nice enough guys, but they smelled like sweaty feet. And by smell, I mean the entire room stunk like their feet.

• On Friday, a couple asked if they could set up their vending business off the back of my car since they did not have a vehicle. What were they vending? Burritos. We could get as many free burritos as we wanted in exchange for them using our space. As luck would have it, they made THE. MOST. MOUTHWATERING. awesome veggie burritos I have ever tasted to this day. I also drank too much and ended up shamelessly shoveling a burrito into my mouth while sitting on the back of the car.

On the right, the makers of the heavenly burritos.

• A drunk girl nearly pukes on my feet (this would become a theme all summer)

Sooooo when I was looking for a name for Hampton, I thought 1) The name actually fits him (his original name was Smitty, ew) and 2) The weekend was that awesome to me. Why not name my new horse after the city?

And so there is the really long story about how I named my horse.