There’s a reason Phish’s Summer trek only takes the band as far west as Commerce City, CO (where Phish will wrap things up with a trio of Labor Day weekend shows). The band will kick off a 12-date Fall tour that will take them to seven cities in the west beginning October 17 with its first-ever show at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, OR. Phish will play two consecutive nights at Santa Barbara Bowl (October 21 & 22), a venue Phish first played as openers for Santana in 1992, and its first show at Los Angeles’ Forum since Valentine’s Day 2003. The tour will conclude with Phish’s first shows at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The three-night stand begins on Halloween night.
An online ticket request period for the Fall Tour is currently underway at http://tickets.phish.com/ and will end Sunday, August 3 at midnight ET. Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning August 7. For complete ticketing details, please visit phish.com/tours.
Welcome to Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, episode 180. The winner will receive an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery jam clip. Each person gets one guess per day, with the second “day” starting after I post the hint. A hint will be posted on Tuesday if necessary, with the answer to follow on Wednesday. Now, bust out those Q-tips, open those ears wide, and get to work...
Hint (Posted 2014-07-22 11:06 am): To date, this is one of only two times that Phish has ever played this song.
Answer: This week's clip is taken from the 9/25/00 Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me & My Monkey, which was Phish's first -- and as of today, only -- post-White Album performance of the tune. Within less than 20 minutes of the hint being posted, @mcgrupp81 is now one win shy of becoming the fourth person to achieve emeritus status. After how quickly the past two hint-aided MJMs have been solved, could a move back to the hugely popular, absolutely indecipherable clues be in the cards? You'll have to check back here on Monday for MJM #181 to find out!
Phish is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get. The first two days of the weekend run at Chicago’s Northerly Island contained the usual assortment of hits and misses, peaks and valleys. Sometimes you could tell from the shape of the chocolates what you were likely to get, and that they would melt in your mouth – Friday’s “Reba,” “Golden Age” and “Piper,” or Saturday’s “Light” and “Hood.” Then there were the totally unexpected surprises – that funky pink chocolate that nobody knows what it is supposed to be, but turns out amazing, i.e. Friday’s out-of-nowhere type-II “Wombat.” We’re told to “never miss a Sunday show,” so let’s get to the action from the field.
The common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) is a marsupial native to Australia. Herbivorous, crepuscular, cuddly and muscular, the wombat is uniquely suited to life in arid regions, with a thick cartilaginous posterior that helps it fend off predators. The Phish composition, "Wombat," is a quirky, funky, funny, danceable tune uniquely suited to life inside a Phish setlist, that gets everyone moving their hind sections. Wombats can be dangerous if agitated – one is advised to climb a tree and wait for the animal to calm down; Phish fans are advised to dance their asses off should they encounter the tune. ...
CAPONE: “We’re takin’ out Wilson tonight and I need you to handle it.”
ANASTASIO: “Sure thing Boss, same deal as Tessio?” Anastasio pulls out a Tommy Gun.
CAPONE: “No, no, no you goombah.” Capone hands Anastasio a small pistol.
ANASTASIO (incredulous): With dis?
CAPONE: It’s called a Saturday Night Special. It’s a compact, inexpensive, small-caliber handgun with perceived low quality, according to Wikipedia. Just get in, pop him cleanly, and get out. When you’ve finished him off, dump it in Lake Michigan up on the North Side.
The one thing Phish has proven to us after half of summer tour is that we have no idea what to expect. Which is, generally, a good state of affairs in the Phish world. At every turn they’ve surprised us: they threw down a paradigm-shifting “Hood” at the first show of tour, they turned “Fuego” into a jam powerhouse, they’ve been trying the new material in almost every possible set position, they teased us with no covers before dropping two in one set. Once we thought there was a formula – song-heavy first sets coupled with six- or seven-song jammy second sets – they gave us the Pine Knob show with its eleven-song second set and no song longer than ten minutes.
Sitting on my couch, watching the wide-angle shots as the setting sun illuminated the Chicago skyline, I was excited to see what surprises Friday’s show might bring.
Some songs are flat-out meant to rock and roll. “Chalk Dust Torture” is a prime example. One of the most often-played songs since its debut in 1991, “Chalk Dust” has been a frequent set opener because of its ability to whip a crowd into a frenzy. The lyrics speak of teen angst and rebellion, as the narrator seeks to forego the mind-numbing trappings of adulthood while he still has a few spry years left. While most versions of the song feature "Type-I" jamming and screaming guitar work from Trey, it has also served as a large "Type-II" jam vehicle with increasing frequency over the years....
Screens ’n’ Suds, The Mothership Art Collective and PhanArt will host two poster events this Saturday, July 19 and Sunday, July 20 in Chicago to coincide with the three day Phish Chicago run.
On Saturday from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m., Screens ’n’ Suds' event will take place at TRIS3CT, 130 South Jefferson Street, 5th Floor in Chicago. Admission is free. Jim Pollock and Plastic Flame Press have created brand new prints specifically for the event (see illustration below). These prints will go on sale to VIP ticketed early admission guests first and then to the public at 1 p.m., if any are left. One print per person please. Previous Screens 'n' Suds prints will be available for purchase at the event as well. Tickets to the early admission VIP event are on sale now through tomorrow for $20.00 plus service charges at Eventbrite.
Phish shows and yoga can create a similar state of heightened consciousness. Through unparalleled improvisational communication the band profoundly unifies body, mind and spirit. This is yoga. Join us for an aligned vinyasa yoga practice set to the sonic spectrum of live Phish. Open to all levels of yogis and Phish fans.
[For this recap we'd like to welcome guest blogger Ben Hatley) -PZ]
For the first time in a year, Phish has returned to the Midwest. When tour dates were announced, many were hoping for a more extensive run through this region, after just getting the rain soaked Chicago run last year. Alas, that did not happen, but many, myself included, put a big fat circle on their calendar when they announced they would be returning to Pine Knob.
I was anxious for this show, in large part, because I am still a little bummed to have missed the monster show here back in 2011. When they didn't play here again in 2012 or 2013, I was thinking my opportunity to visit this fantastic venue had passed. While Midwesterners will not be getting to visit a lot of their favorite sheds this summer, I do not think there were many complaints about this being the one.
“…truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more.”
- Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Tuesday night in Canandaigua, NY was, for me, Phish at its best. We took our one chance to see the band this year and went to visit dear friends and fellow .netters Captain Pookie and Memmers, avail ourselves of their hospitality and general awesomeness, and (in Ivy’s case) boogie. Watkins Glen is a 20 minute walk from Pookie’s Place, and you can read about his experience having Super Ball in his back yard here. Pookie basically lives in paradise, surrounded by his amazing wife, impish daughter, four cats, and extended family. And, since he is Captain Pookie, he is surrounded by art.
Painting by Christopher Pike (a.k.a. Captain Pookie)
In “Crosseyed and Painless,” the rocket-powered second track on Remain in Light, Talking Heads and Brian Eno pull off stunning arrangements with power, precision and explosive energy. Adrian Belew's guitar solo rumbles like a train passing a station leaving its prospective passengers scratching their heads in the kicked-up dust. The arrangements are surgically precise, cutting, and exact, sucking even the most staid listener into the heart of the thick dance groove. The RiL studio track runs a tidy 4:48, and while live Talking Heads versions were similarly concise, the urgency and vitality of their early performances is as gripping today as when the members of Phish were making their way through high school....
The Mockingbird Foundation and Phish.net are pleased and excited to be
hosting our 3rd annual meet-up during the Saratoga Performing Arts
Center stand.
We have reserved the Orenda
Pavilion in Saratoga Springs State Park for Saturday, July 5. This
pavilion is conveniently located adjacent to the main venue lot (The East
Lot) off Route 50. Check out this Map - the pin for
"Geyser Loop Road" is the Orenda lot and pavilion.
Attendees can either enter the park (fee is $8 per car) and navigate
to the pavilion, or park in the main lots, and walk a short path which runs
perpindicular from the back of the East Lot to the paved Orenda parking
lot, and will be marked with a sign.
We should have
coals going from early afternoon through doors, so bring something to
grill, and there is plenty of room for all sorts of entertainment and
recreation. More complete details about the facilities, etc., are
available in the forum
thread.
Please stop by and say hi to some old
friends and new, or make an afternoon of it! (And grab a fuego-mas
commemorative laminate/nametag while you're at
it.)
Debuted as the third song of their Wingsuit set from 10/31/13 when Phish covered their future selves, the “moment of truth” song “The Line” could have been written by the band for that very evening. As Trey explained later in the set:...
The Phishbill for the 10/31/13 Wingsuit set promised "twelve brand new, never-before-heard songs" that would likely end up on the planned album. And while 99% of fans in attendance probably thought that's precisely what they heard, hardcore TAB fans knew better. Unlike the other eleven Wingsuit songs, “Winterqueen” actually made its debut over two years earlier as a TAB song on 10/1/11. Given the "one and done" nature of the performance, it's possible Trey forgot he had played it prior to the Wingsuit rendition (or perhaps he just figured it was “new enough” to 99% of the audience). ...
Phish released a stream of their new
album, "Fuego," via National Public Radio. You can listen here. Please consider ordering the album from the band
via Phish Dry Goods, and also
supporting LivePhish Downloads this
summer. Phish.net is operated entirely by volunteers as a project of
The
Mockingbird Foundation, a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit devoted to raising funds for music education for children. A
portion of the proceeds from LivePhish Downloads supports the Foundation,
so please support LivePhish.
In simplest terms “Steam” is a song of ice and fire. To generate steam a source of heat and a source of vapor are required. The combination of these two elements can be paroxysmal, ebullient, intoxicating, or industrious. Unfortunately, depending on the ratio of each component thrown into the mix or the rate at which the heat is applied to the vapor source, the same two things can produce nothing more than lukewarm water. Therein lies both the promise and the peril of this May 2011 Anastasio/Marshall composition. The lyrics are a somber epic tale of love and death in a land of wolves and the time of horses. Though assuredly not a “Dark Tower” song, “Steam” is certainly a dark tower song. It represents a musical phase transition somewhere on a ternary diagram with “Ghost,” Trey’s “Every Story Ends in Stone” and the Phish Halloween performance of Little Feat’s “Spanish Moon” as apices. It is as dark and foreboding as the furnace room in the basement of a seedy downtown hotel. ...
Phish 2014 Fall Tour Announced
