PHISH PHILOSOPHY CLASS RETURNS
Dr. Stephanie Jenkins will, for the 12th consecutive year, offer “Philosophy School of Phish,” a special section of the PHL 360: Philosophy and the Arts course at Oregon State University. The class merges the experience of Phish’s live performances with the study of theories about art, aesthetic judgment, community, and more. It is designed as a philosophy of music class, and will incorporate live Phish performances as case studies.
Along with readings from philosophers such as Kant, Tolstoy, and Nietzsche, students will be required to attend concerts during the band’s 2026 Sphere run,either in person or via webcast, and analyze their experience in written assignments. Class begins on March 30th and runs for ten weeks. It is a distance education course offered online through Oregon State University Ecampus, and enrollment is not limited to Oregon State students. Phish fans from all over the globe can participate in the course.
Additional information, including instructions for registration, are available on the course’s public website and social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, & Bluesky). The class is currently full; however, if you are a Phish fan and would like to take this course, email Dr. Jenkins ([email protected]) and reference this post. For information about OSU Ecampus, please visit http://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/.
Trey Acoustic Tour Announced
Trey has announced a tour of 12 acoustic shows that will feature longtime collaborator and keyboardist Jeff Tanski. Tickets go on sale this Friday, March 20th, at 10 a.m. local time.
The tour will cover 4,484 miles, from Trey's third appearance at Arlene Schnitzer to his 18th at the Capitol Theatre, a journey that Google says could be done continuously in under 68 hours. We recommend that you instead take 33 days (from May 26 through June 26th) and plan two nights each in Missoula and Port Chester.
SET 1: Fling Your Head, Mull, Universe is Calling > Pomp and Pride, Happy Friends > Tilting, Convince Me
SET 2: Spanish Moon, Guilty Pleasures > Peel, Louisiana Lady, Up Above My Head, I Hear Music in the Air, Carini
ENCORE: You Really Got Me
Slow Ride was teased and quoted in Guilty Pleasures and quoted in Peel. Mike teased Low Rider in Peel.
THE INNER REACHES OF OUTER
SET 1: Say Something, Steps, I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met), Marissa, Kissing My Love [1], Universe is Calling, Fling Your Head, Sughn Never Sets
SET 2: Sad and Lonesome, Carini, Call Me the Breeze, Soulfood Man, Got To Be More Careful, Louisiana Lady[1], Connected, Crazy Sometimes
ENCORE: Sweet Emotion
This show featured the Mike Gordon debuts of Kissing My Love and Lousiana Lady.
SET 1: Tilting > You Really Got Me [1], Sad and Lonesome[1], Connected, Peel [2], Spanish Moon[2], Mull[2]
SET 2: Fling Your Head[1], Convince Me[1], Meat, Happy Friends[1], Universe is Calling[1] > Pomp and Pride[1], Guilty Pleasures, Carini
ENCORE: The Shape I'm In[1]
This show featured the Mike Gordon debuts of You Really Got Me, Sad and Lonesome, Fling Your Head, Convince Me, Happy Friends, Universe is Calling, Pomp and Pride, and The Shape I'm In. Peel through Spanish Moon featured Marco Benevento on keys. Mike and Bob teased Dueling Banjos in Peel.
PHISH STUDIES ASSOCIATION OFFICIALLY INCORPORATED
Following the highly successful Phish Studies Conferences in 2019 and 2024, and establishment of a new area at the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association conference in 2025, the Phish Studies Association (PSA) is thrilled to announce that it has officially incorporated as a 501©(3) non-profit academic organization and is currently accepting memberships. The association’s ongoing webinar series, Phish Studies 101, continues Wednesday, March 25th at 8:00 pm EST via Zoom.
“This organization is the result of years of work and we are so excited that it has come to fruition. This formal incorporation allows us to expand our mission,” says PSA President Christina Allaback. “We are excited to continue creating a space for academics and fans to explore these ideas."
Mimi Fishman Foundation Poster Auction
The Mimi Fishman Foundation has launched a new auction featuring 14 posters from the 2025 New Year's Eve run as well as the recent Riviera Maya shows, all signed by all four members of the band. Proceeds will also benefit the band's own Waterwheel Foundation. Bidding started at $375, and closes at 7pm eastern on March 19.
Phish Purim Party
Brooklyn Bowl will host the 11th consecutive Purim Party for kids at noon on Sunday, March 1st. Produced by the Rock & Roll Playhouse, the event will feature Phish tribute band Uncle Ebenezer as well as Rabbi Daniel Brenner telling the story of Queen Esther, who saved the Jewish people in Persia from genocide.
VICTIM
CASUAL ENLIGHTENMENT
Phish Releases Centrum Show
Phish is releasing the historic 12/31/93 New Year's Eve show at the Worcester Centrum. The culminating show of the run that featured the aquarium stage setup, included the band members "diving" into the the aquarium from above and then being swallowed by a large clam - not to mention an epically classic setlist, a few dozen choice teases, and an appearance by lyricist Tom Marshall.
ART JAM
PHISH PERCUSSION, 40 YEARS AGO
40 years ago tonight, Phish played one set (setlist still unknown) and then every member of the band played percusison, backing Zenzile Khoisan, whom we recently interviewed for Phish.net. Watch that set here, with Phish starting around 6:19, following an introduction by a young Bernie Saunders and also includes readings by Allen Ginsburg and others:
Phish Summer Tour 2026 Announced
ICYMI, PHISH has announced a 21-show summer tour. The tour begins with two shows in Madison, WI, on July 7-8, includes three shows at Deer Creek, a pair of shows in Savannah, a Walnut Creek gig, two MPP shows (July 18-19), a 'cuse gig (July 21), five MSG shows (that will be shows 92-93-94-95-96 at MSG and have their own video announcement!), and two Fenway's on July 31 and August 1. There's then a nearly five week break before Dick's shows on September 4, 5 and 6.
The band's ticket request period (through TM's platform) concludes at noon on Monday, visit https://tickets.phish.com aka https://phish.request.ticketmaster.com/Splash.aspx to submit requests for tickets. The genpop onsale is Friday, February 27, at 10AM ET.
More info at https://phish.com/tours.
DEMONS
REMEMBERING JOHN GREENE
After a lengthy and courageous fight with cancer, on November 30, 2025, we lost John Greene - longtime Phish fan, one of Phish.net's very first users, keyboardist in the Bay Area's Phish tribute band Chum, and loving friend to so many of us in the community.
John was an important part of Phish's lore, not just in his faithful stylings of the band's catalog. He produced the "Esther" music video in 1991; his yeP! bandmate Matthew Laurence released the Amy's Farm footage on the blog in support of Mockingbird, and John was there filming it too (can you spot him in the footage with a camera on his shoulder?); and most recently, he let us interview him and release the long-lost Gamehendge CD-ROM footage that he had recorded 30 years prior and dutifully preserved in his archives. I was lucky enough to spend John's last Phish shows with him at Bill Graham on April 22 and 23, 2025.
Beyond music, John spent years openly sharing his experience living with cancer, writing honestly about treatment, uncertainty, and day-to-day life. His final post, written by his wife Heather as a farewell, is deeply moving and worth reading. In John’s memory, his son Orion has started a fundraising effort to support blood-cancer research. If you’re able and inclined, please consider donating to his Student Visionaries of the Year campaign to raise funds for Blood Cancer United here.
Trey Symphony Shows Announced
Trey has announced a pair of new symphony shows - June 7th at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony, and June 10th at Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts with the Kansas City Symphony. The preslae is tomorrow (password "lizards"), with the general on-sale this Friday, February 6th.
AN INTERVIEW WITH ZENZILE, 40 YEARS ON
For nearly 40 years, most of you have probably known of Zenzile (if you have known of him at all) only as a guest at Phish's 2/3/86 and 4/1/86 shows - and even then might have regarded him as a random interloper, interjecting otherwise unusual politics into Phish shows, and may have wondered who he was and why he was there.
The former of those two shows was actually a benefit performed for the African National Congress, a critical component in challenging and eventually bringing down the apartheid regime in South Africa. It therefore featured Zenzile, not arbitrarily but topically and intentionally, reciting some of his revolutionary poetry during the encore of four songs. (Phish has performed only one of those four a second time, as far as we know, at the 4/1/86 show as backing for more recitations.)
This was by far the most political of Phish's known performances (moreso even than the 5/16/95 Voters for Choice show, and much more than other previous benefits such as those for NORML, OXFAM, and Farm Aid). Zenzile was also the most political of the more than 300 guests the band has had one stage. Yet, still, few Phish fans even know who he is, other than from the show notes on those two performances.
I'm therefore honored to have been exchanging emails with Zenzile over the past 18 months, learning about his (and Phish's) early days at Goddard College, his time before and after those shows, and his broader historical role.
Phish.net
The Mockingbird Foundation