Actual live interviews from a 32 year storied rock radio career with Bob "the Blade" Robinson
Behind the interview on 96Rock Raleigh, NC 2010
Video: The Love Of Phish And The 27-Minute Version Of "Tweezer" On Commercial Rock Radio
Nobody at 96Rock knew who Mike Gordon was.
Just me.
As the emcee of the afternoon drive 420 Smokebreak, I was given the liberty of picking and playing the song each week day that was a jam band song. The air shift was Foster and The Blade and I ran board and controls as Foster manned the second of the five microphones we had hooked up to our sound board in the control room.
Four hours of total bs and rocking around with the traffic girl, Robin Fox.
You needed five microphones, at least, for the live performances of the bands that came by in the afternoons before their rock shows at the various venues in Raleigh, NC. The PM drive from 3-7 daily and it was the greatest air shift to have because the bands could come by and play a couple of songs live on the air before they headed over to their official sound check.
Perfect.
Brian McFadden is a long-time radio disc jockey currently in Raleigh and he hosted the afternoon drive rock show on the legendary WRDU-FM for many years in the late '80's through the mid nineties, and he always called the afternoon drive "God's own air shift".
Sleep in, run errands, live your life, come rock out for the people from 3-7PM and get off in time to feed the dog, hang out with the family, or go out for pizza, then hit the game or the show.
But Nobody Knew The Guy
July 1st 2010 was the date, the show was that night at Walnut Creek Amphitheater, they had various sponsors for the shed's namesake but I have forgotten the sponsor in that year. None of the air staff knew anybody in Phish except possibly Trey Anastacio, but I did.
"Mike Gordon is available for this afternoon's Smokebreak" Foster told me as we signed on.
"No shit?" I said.
"Bring him in!"
At 4:30 in comes guitarist Mike Gordon from Phish and I have long said that you can pretty much tell what kind of interview it would be just by watching whomever it was that day walk down the hallway and enter the room.
Everyone has an aura and he had the "regular Joe" aura.
He looked like one, walked like one, and acted like one.
The problem was ongoing, but this is a band that is at least twenty-five years old, and where do you start? I always defaulted to;
"Hey what's on the docket today after I finish my poking and prodding?"
Their answer was always enough to get this thing rolling right along.
Listen:
The Interview with Mike Gordon 96Rock 2010
Starting with "Llama" and kicking ass all the way through on this rare, gorgeous night with very little humidity made it an "EPIC!!" and one of the greatest Phish shows I have ever enjoyed. The fans say "it was great as always", but if it was REALLY great that night or two, it was "EPIC!!"
I am no Phish freak, I've only seen five shows, but I've listened to at least ten. I realize that's a joke when you talk about Phish fans, my Phish buddy Taylor Traversari listens to a particular show almost every day though.
"I subscribe to a monthly subscription on live phish. It's their site so it's all board quality. Not too compressed. Costs $10/mo but access to pretty much every show they've ever played."
-Taylor Traversari
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