"A THANK YOU TO PHISH" (FROM SAL ORSINO)
[A relatively new Phish fan, Sal Orsino, who first saw Phish at MSG on January 2, 2016, was so inspired by the Baker's Dozen, and by the ten shows he's now seen, to write this piece, which is his answer to the question, "What do the Baker's Dozen shows mean to the community?" Sal is a senior computer science student at Montclair State University in New Jersey. If Phish has inspired you and you're interested in writing something for the dot net blog, email it to charlie at phish dot net. While there is no guarantee it'll be posted to the blog, you'll always be able to post it in the Forum, of course (and we encourage you to continue posting about the greatness of the run there). Thank you, Sal.]
The Baker’s Dozen has ended. We return to our normal lives for those who took off work for the whole run, and for those that didn’t our work week has become that much less exciting without five, absolutely jaw-dropping concerts to attend each week. But that matters not, because we know what just happened this past month. We felt what happened this month, and we lived at these shows. These shows weren’t just a stunt done by the band to give out free doughnuts, or to confuse the hell out of all those outside of the Phish community. While those were simply added bonuses, this run of shows meant so, so much more than that to the band, to the phans, and more importantly, to the community that connects us, and them.
CHARLIE MILLER'S AUD RECORDINGS OF BAKER'S DOZEN
FYI, you can download Charlie Miller's aud recordings of the Baker's Dozen shows in one (1) giant etree torrent. Charlie taped every show from the same spot, Section 2 Row 1 Seat 20 with the mic stand 9 feet high beside CK's booth, using Schoeps CMC6/MK4's.
HELPING FRIENDLY PODCAST: BAKER'S DOZEN WRAP UP W/TOM MARSHALL
[Post is courtesy of dot net user @swittersdc.]
Today, the team at the Helping Friendly Podcast released a Baker’s Dozen wrap up episode, featuring an interview with Tom Marshall from the live event we hosted in New York on Saturday, July 29.
We also recorded conversations with three fans who had been to all 13 shows. They gave us their perspectives on the entire run. We also played a few tracks from the run as well. It was a fun episode to record!
MYSTERY JAM MONDAY PART 287
Welcome to the 287th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second and second-easiest of August, the easiest MJM month of this year (just because). The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday. Good luck!
Answer: Congrats to @Hamphish, who now has as many wins as @MiguelSanchez (two) by idenitfying this week's MJM: the 12/6/97 "Tweezer" (intro). If you're new to the band or have been living under a rock the past 20 years, go ahead and spin that second set, featuring one of the band's greatest song pairings in history (recent bust-out "Izabella" follows this glorious "Tweezer," forming what many call "Tweezabella"). F5 phish.net at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET on Monday, when the MJM288 drops – we'll stick with a single clip all month, but next week's will (hopefully!) last more than six minutes.
SET 1: Long Black Line , Whirlwind , Sugar Shack , Peel > Marissa > How Do I Know > Crazy Sometimes , Face [1], Victim 3D [1]
DONATE SPARE CHANGE TO MOCKINGBIRD WITH BSTOW
Katie B., user @phtreehuggr, was interviewed by Bstow early this year in connection with her donations through Bstow to The Mockingbird Foundation, the all-volunteer-run 501(c)(3) organization that runs this site. Bstow is an easy way you can donate what would be the spare change on your purchases (e.g., 30 cents on a charge of $20.70 to your credit or debit card) to a particular non-profit. Check out her interview.
We greatly appreciate Katie's ongoing donations to Mockingbird, as well as those of you who are subscription donors, of course. We encourage those of you who have yet to donate to the Foundation to do so in any way you can manage. Thank you!
SET 1: River Niger
HELPING FRIENDLY PODCAST: BAKER'S DOZEN RECAPS FOR ALL 13 SHOWS
[Post is courtesy of dot net user @swittersdc.]
The team at the Helping Friendly Podcast (mdphunk, rowjimmy and brad10s) and I were hard at work throughout the Baker’s Dozen, doing a Quick Hit podcast recap of every show the day after. We also included guests who were there as often as possible. We also did a Quick Hit on the 5 shows before Baker’s Dozen.
You can listen to them all through the player below (click the icon with the three lines to see all the episodes), but here are some highlights:
MSG13 RECAP: THE LIFE WE LOVE IS MAKING MUSIC WITH OUR FRIENDS
[The recap of the final Baker’s Dozen show is brought to you by James Palatini / @TheBull288]
There are rare occasions in life that we truly appreciate as we experience them. More often than not, only after a significant amount of time has passed, are we able to take a step back and realize how fortunate we were. The Baker’s Dozen is, and was, the former in spades.
Quickly in this run, it became impossible to ignore the fact that we were living something incredibly special. Tonight, our collective Baker’s Dozen journey with notes of Will There Be Repeats? (No) > Will I Get A Donut? (Debatable) > Will Jam-Filled Donut Night Be Jam-Filled? (Yes) > Will I FINALLY Get “Izabella”? (Yes x2) concluded with a joy-filled finale on Night 13 on “Phish Day,” dubbed as such per mayoral decree in New York City.
There was a palpable celebratory energy in The Garden tonight – an energy I’ve never felt at any Phish show before. We’re always happy attend a show with 20,000 of our closest friends, there’s always anticipation before a show, etc., but this felt different. This energy was akin to Game 4 of a Stanley Cup Final, when you’re at home and you’re leading the series 3-0, or leading the World Series-clincher by five runs heading into the ninth inning – victory is a forgone conclusion. Phish had won 12 straight at The Garden – and we knew we were in store for one final victory.
MYSTERY JAM MONDAY PART 286
Welcome to the 286th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the first* and easiest of August. The winner will receive two MP3 download codes courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Good luck!
*Reminder: For the first MJM of each month, only folks who have never won an MJM are allowed to answer before the hint. If you have never won an MJM, please answer as a blog comment below. If you have previously won an MJM, but you'd like to submit a guess before the hint, you may do so by PMing me; once the hint has been posted, everyone should answer on the blog. I have noticed that this seems too complicated for some, so I even drew up a handy decision tree to help guide you. If you're not sure if you've won before, look in the MJM Results spreadsheet linked below.
Answer: Congrats to @greenicle13 on his first win, taking home two LP codes and getting a sweet new .net achievement badge on his profile. This week's was easy – next week's will be too, but not today is the two year anniversary of one of the best second-set-opening pairings of the modern era easy. In case you've been sleeping under a rock (or you wiped your memory clean at the BD), this week's clip is the 8/7/15 "Chalk Dust Torture". See you Monday?
MOCKINGBIRD'S BAKER'S DOZEN #13
In celebration of Phish's 13-show run at Madison Square Garden, the Mockingbird Foundation is announcing 13 unsolicited "miracle grants" supporting music programs across the country. Each board member identified their favorite Phish show, and we found a worthy music education program nearby, part of the Foundation's long-standing Tour Grants program. We're presenting these 13 special grants chronologically, based on the dates of those favorited shows. Board member Peter Skewes-Cox picked the 8/19/12 show in San Francisco, CA:
Phish came to San Francisco for the first of four (and counting?) three night runs at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in 2012. The only other time any members of Phish had played BGCA previously was more than a decade prior, when my friends and I hopped the BART to Civic Center to get our Trey fix during the hiatus (12/31/02 wasn't announced until later that summer). [side note on 5/24/02: check out that Mr. C.] When the 2012 run was announced, I was beyond ecstatic; not just because I'd be seeing my first multinight run back in my hometown (and the band's first three night run in The City since Warfield '94), but because the third night was my birthday. Talk about total convergence of all things amazing: Phish playing a show 10 minutes from home on my birthday! What could top that?? It'd have to be something pretty epic...
SUNSHINE OF YOUR FEELING
On August 5, 2017, at Madison Square Garden, Phish performed a medley of Cream and Boston songs in an homage to the "Boston Cream" donut of this show, the 12th show of the Baker's Dozen run. ...
MSG12 RECAP: GOOEY IN THE MIDDLE - BOSTON CREAM PIE
[The penultimate recap of the Baker’s Dozen is brought to you by one of Canada’s finest, Andrew Rose / @andrewrose]
“Only at the largest concert in the world can you get away with playing a song like that.” A younger Trey Anastasio jokingly offered these remarks on the last day of the last millennium, following a 25-minute, love-supreme-laden “Split Open and Melt -> Catapult.” To this day I’m still not sure if he meant the brief “Catapult” proper, or the miraculous jam over which its handful of absurd lyrics were laid. But no matter, both were true and still are. The irony of course being that such a big stage would be the last place you could attempt such a thing. The show in Big Cypress was the biggest concert in the world that night, and the fact that this silly band from Vermont was able to pull that off, and on its own terms, yielding music and spectacle at once absurd, but also a pinnacle of collective improvisation, was quite the achievement. Eighteen years and a standard dozen donuts later, is it safe to say Phish is about to wrap up a cohesive offering that more than matches it? That in its sheer scope surpasses it? Could we repurpose that cheeky line of Trey’s for 2017, the middle finger to the haters and doubters, and say “only at the largest string of concerts in the world can you get away with not repeating a single song like that.” I don’t think there’s another band in the world right now that could do two nights at Madison Square Garden and not repeat a song, let alone thirteen. (And I haven’t even touched on how consistently great these shows have been, by just about any metric.) So before I recap the band’s penultimate offering, and as we get ready for the finale, I’d like to take a step back and offer a deep acknowledging bow to this latest achievement. This sure has been fun. Am I right?
Phish.Net Forum Identifies $12k In Grantees
The Mockingbird Foundation has announced unsolicited grants totaling $12,000 to support music education programs in cities where Phish will perform this summer. They were selected by members of the Phish.net forum community, led by board member Johnny Demeter, recently identified as Director of Outreach.
The eight $1,500 "miracle grants" - supporting two music programs in each of four cities - are part of a long-standing Mockingbird effort to help bring music from the Phish community to the local community, and are one of many ways fans contribute to the areas in which the band performs. The eight recipients include a wide array of settings, genres, and populations served - and are listed here in order of Phish's tour dates (provided parenthetically):
- People's School of Music of Chicago, IL (July 14-16)
- Chime Music of Chicago, IL (July 14-16)
- Dayton Public School's Bring Back the Bands campaign of Dayton, OH (July 18)
- Stivers School for the Arts of Dayton, OH (July 18)
- Band Together Pittsburgh of Pittsburgh, PA (July 19)
- Girls Rock Pittsburgh of Pittsburgh, PA (July 19)
- Youth on Record of Denver, CO (Sept. 1-3)
- Swallow Hill Music School of Denver, CO (Sept. 1-3)
Update: Mockingbird Fundraiser In Chicago
Rock Bottom Brewery (1 West Grand Ave.) is celebrating Phish's tour-opening shows in Chicago this weekend with a fundraiser for The Mockingbird Foundation. On Thursday, July 13th, they are tapping a keg of an ale that they brewed for the weekend, called "Sample." It is being sold in jars, which will be available for purchase. For every "Sample" in a jar consumed over the weekend, Rock Bottom will donate fifty cents to Mockingbird, but they'll also donate $1 to Mockingbird for every jar sold. There will be music at the tapping party, from 6-8 p.m., specifically, Jon Sabal and Mark Hague from Helping Phriendly Orchestra (and other bands, inc. Hack and Wheeze and Mr. Blotto). Please support this fundraiser if you can. For more information, see the June 22 announcement.
FYI: 2017 Phish Ticket Code Redemption
Phish changed its ticket code download policy. Codes on tickets are now redeemable for a free stream of the show using the LivePhish mobile app, as well as a discounted MP3 or other format copy of the show (available from the website), whereas previously, the code entitled you to a free MP3 download of the show from LivePhish. (Free MP3 downloads are still available using any pre-2017 ticket codes.)
A portion of LivePhish revenue supports The Mockingbird Foundation, and has since the beginning of LivePhish. Mockingbird volunteers operate and manage this site. Your support of the band and LivePhish therefore indirectly supports Phish.net, and we are very grateful for it.
LivePhish deserves our continued support. Thank you.
Chicago's Rock Bottom Brewery To Fundraise For Mockingbird
Since Phish will begin the Summer tour at Chicago's Northerly Island Pavilion the weekend of July 14 with three shows, Rock Bottom Brewery (1 West Grand Ave.) is celebrating with a fundraiser for The Mockingbird Foundation.
They are brewing a special ale for the weekend, called "Sample," which will be sold :::wait for it::: in a jar. "Sample" is "a hoppy red ale brewed with copious amounts of Simcoe, Citra and Columbus hops for that pungent, heady hop aroma." It should therefore taste very good both before, and after, you hear "Sample in a Jar" at a show. It will be sold for $7, and will be served in a jar that you can buy for $3 (while supplies last). The jars were very popular at the previous fundraisers years ago (also held when Phish played Northerly), so we expect they'll sell out.
For every "Sample" consumed over the weekend, Rock Bottom will donate fifty cents to Mockingbird, but they'll donate $1 to Mockingbird for every jar sold. So, in other words, if you buy a "Sample AND a Jar," $1.50 of your $10 will go to Mockingbird, and support the funding of music education programs. Rock Bottom will also have some "Phish-inspired" live music on their roof on Thursday, July 13, and will have the "Sample" tapping party that day as well. This promotion thus runs from Thursday through Sunday the 16th. The rooftop will be open (and serving food) until 10:30pm, and last call on the roof is at 11:30pm. But the restaurant will be open post-show on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with full menu until midnight and a late night menu until 1am, with last call at 1:30am. [Editor's note: I was there years ago after 1am post-show, and the place was full of fans.] The brewer, Raybird, and Kyle (an AGM) may be around if you show up at Rock Bottom, passing out Mockingbird information. PLEASE THANK THEM if you see them, as this is a very cool thing for them to do. (And you may see Kyle at a show as well, as he's a fan!) So, please, support this fundraiser if you can, and if you can't, at least tell your wook friends going to the shows to support it as well.
THANK YOU ROCK BOTTOM!
July And August WaterWheel Benefits Pre-Show At MSG
The WaterWheel Foundation has announced two benefit celebrations at MSG before the shows on Saturday, July 22, 2017, and Saturday, August 5, 2017.
Tickets for the shows go on sale tomorrow, Thursday, May 25, at noon eastern, HERE.
The first benefit celebration on July 22 will raise funds for four charities, each one chosen by a band member. The second benefit celebration, on August 5, is in honor of the 20th anniversaries of both The WaterWheel Foundation and The Mockingbird Foundation. It will raise funds for Mockingbird, whose volunteers operate Phish.net. The Mockingbird Foundation is once again enormously grateful to The WaterWheel Foundation and Phish for this honor!
If you have never been to a WaterWheel pre-show benefit at Madison Square Garden, here's some of what you can expect for the price of admission:
(1) being surrounded pre-show by generous, friendly people in what is basically MSG's VIP lounge;
(2) food and a full bar;
(3) a Pollock poster (edition of 300), and it's particularly cool that he's doing a diptych, with one poster for each of the two benefit events;
(4) early entrance into the venue;
(5) raffle or auction of certain items, including autographed memorabilia from Phish's Archives;
(6) access to the lounge where the event takes place, and its clean, spacious bathrooms, during setbreak;
(7) a specialty chocolate bar, created and donated by Asher's Chocolates, that I guarantee to be delicious (or you can give me the part you do not eat).
Note that YOU MUST ALREADY BE A TICKET-HOLDER FOR THE PHISH CONCERT ON THE EVENING THAT YOU ATTEND THE BENEFIT PRE-SHOW EVENT in order to get in to the pre-show event. You must PRESENT THAT TICKET in order to get into the pre-show benefit event.
Please support these events if you can! By supporting them, and also LivePhish, you support both Mockingbird and Phish.net. Thank you!
SOUL LOVE
Played by Bowie only twice on the 1973 Ziggy Stardust Tour, “Soul Love” was featured heavily on the Low / “Heroes” Tour in 1978, and again sporadically on 1983's Serious Moonlight Tour in support of Let's Dance. A beautiful song from a seminal record, “Soul Love” features Bowie on vocals, acoustic guitar and alto sax (because what can't David Bowie do, right?). “Soul Love” is a bleak but beautiful reflection on the implacable and often brutal nature of love itself....
HANG ON TO YOURSELF
Like “Moonage Daydream” (for which it was originally released as a B-Side), “Hang On to Yourself” was originally released by Arnold Corns. Corns (portrayed by fashion designer Freddie Buretti), mostly unknown to all but the biggest Bowie fanatics, was effectively the demo version of Ziggy Stardust. Bowie took some time making his idea of a fictional rock star a reality and Arnold Corns was his first draft, so to speak. However, Bowie soon realized that no one could play the role better than him and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was born....
Baker's Dozen 7/25/17
Baker's Dozen 7/25/17
Phish.net
The Mockingbird Foundation
