by Terry Shea, Lansdale, PA

Sorry if this is long winded but this story means a lot to me so I need to tell it all.

It was a summer in the early 1990s (I researched the net and found Saturday, July 18, 1992), when Santana was playing at the Mann Music Center with Phish opening. I was a senior in college and about 6 of my friends and I without tickets were meeting to hang out with about 6 others who had tickets. Along the way, everyone without tickets bailed on the trip, and I ended up driving my friend’s car to meet the others. We had a great time in the parking lot, and my friends then decided to go into the show. I stayed behind and decided to walk around back to listen to the concert.

On my way to the lawn there was a police barricade, so I tried to go around the other side when a scalper offered me a ticket for $20. I talked him down to $15 and walked inside. I entered the left side of the theater which I wasn’t used to. When you go in on the right side, the bathrooms are along the large wall. The left side has identical doors so I proceeded to the “bathroom”. I noticed I was the only one walking up there and there was a bouncer at the door. Someone yelled something to him from the gate and he was distracted exactly at the point I walked past him. As I entered the room, I noticed a bunch of offices and people running around. This was not the bathroom. I almost asked someone where the bathroom was, but as I turned around I saw huge block letters STAGE along the stairs. I decided to go for broke.

I got to the top of the stairs and Phish was playing. I was right behind the sound mixer. A cop walked up to me and asked “When did these guys go on?” I said, “About 8.” He asked “When does Santana come on?,” I assuredly replied “9 or 9:30.” He called his partner’s name and said “Let’s go.” I knew something was going way right for me.

I watched as the lead members of Phish bounced on their trampolines and jammed for a while. Once they were finished, I actually walked out on stage along with all the other stage hands that were setting up for Santana. I needed my friends (somewhere in the audience, I didn’t know where) to see me on stage before I was kicked out or arrested. No luck.

Santana came on and I was stage left. It was me and only about 4 stage hands, I don’t know what they thought of me. Then someone came up behind me to watch the show. I thought it was Trey from Phish, but Phish was a new group to me at the time. I tried to make conversation by saying, “These guys sound great.” He must have thought I said, “You guys sound great” to which he replied, “Thanks.” So I knew it was him. I told him I really enjoyed their music and that I recently saw them at Jones beach a few months before. He stayed for about 5 minutes, told me how great Carlos is, and then said “Good talking to you” as he left. I couldn’t believe this was happening.

Then I spotted my friends… in the fifth row! I tried to get their attention without drawing attention to myself which was hard to do. Then I caught my friend Heidi’s attention. And one by one I watched as my friends’ mouths dropped when they saw me. Carlos jammed and jammed. At one point, he came behind his stack of guitars to change his shirt. We made direct eye contact and I think we spoke on a spiritual level. He knew I didn’t belong there and he knew I was just enjoying myself and not hurting anyone.

The next song required him and the lead singer to play maracas. When he was finished playing, he turned to one stage hand and threw him a maraca to put it away, and then… he looked at me and threw me the other one. I was jumping off the ground like you wouldn’t believe.

After the encore, I was waiting to grab a souvenir and I managed to get a copy of the set list. Then I made eye contact with one of the other stagehands and he asked to see my pass. I made up something about being with Phish and he asked me again where my pass was. I told him I didn’t have one and he nearly fell over. He grabbed my arm and walked me to the door. I thought I was going to be arrested and he opened the door and said “I hoped you enjoyed it.”

My friends were leaving their seats at that same spot and they started yelling my name. I walked to the top of the stairs and said “Oh my God.”