SUPERNUMERARY SHOWS: A DISCOVERY!
A "Triple Nipple" refers to any show in which Phish plays all three* of their original songs that refer to nipples**: "Fee", "Punch You in the Eye", and "The Sloth". They've been an item of amusement for decades. But even the FAQ's Triple Nipple page has until recently had the numbers wrong.
Corrected numbers reveal something that's long been elusive, partly because we didn't even know to look for it: There have only been two such shows, such that the next one will be the one, the only, Third Triple Nipple - the cubed cube, the apex of nubbin allusion, the supernumerary of supernumerary shows.
Now, knowing that there have only been two, seeing that "2" pulsating from the middle of a Venn Diagram***, may make you start to wonder, when will the Triple Nipple Trilogy be completed?
But it's not the kind of thing for which you can campaign explicitly without seeming either immature ("Tres Trip Nip, Trey?") or overly sophisticated ("I want my ternate supernumerary!") So, we're here for ya', with a solution: Special Mockingbird-supporting shirts and tanks that promote the cause without using the "n" word... or even that "s" one.
By the way, triple nipples are less common at Phish shows than on humans: Those two shows are pnlyl 0.13% (an eighth of a percent) of the 1,510 shows Phish has performed to date, much rarer than the 2% of women and 5% of men blessed (or cursed?) with a third nipple.
Methods notes:
* Some would include others songs: A nipple is mentioned in the version of "Sanity" that appears on Junta, and including "Sanity" in Triple Nipple counts increases the total to 10 - but none of the 10 versions of "Sanity" that would be counted, mentioned a nipple. The count would double again to 20 if we include "The Oh Ke Pa Ceremony," the title of which comes from a tribal ceremony painful to nipples - but the song is not clearly a nipple reference, either for Phish or as understood by most fans.
** Note that all three of these lyrical references are about nipple slicing. That's not really a methodological note, but the nubbin trouble seems weird.
*** Unlike the earlier Venn-like graph (with nested sets but aggregated numbers), numbers here are incremental. There have been 166 shows with Sloth, of which 9 also had "Fee", of which 2 also had "PYITE" - but there were only 106 shows with just "Sloth" (no PYITE), 7 with Sloth and PYITE (but no Fee), and, again, 2 with all three.
PHISH YOGIN ANNOUNCE POSTER CONTEST
The wonderful folks behind Surrender to the Flow Yoga have raised thousands of dollars for the Mockingbird Foundation through a series of yoga classes, set to Phish music, on show dates, near venues. Now, they're planning for some special yoga classes in conjunction with the coming Fare Thee Well shows, and are asking for your help via a poster design contest.
I HOPE THIS HAPPENS ONCE AGAIN
The following reflections on the Miami New Year’s Run come to us from an old time Phish fan who last saw the band on July 26, 1992, at the Big Birch Concert Pavilion in Patterson, NY. On that date in 1992, Phish played a 1-set, 7-song opener for Santana. To underscore the significant gap in time between shows, the last time the writer saw Phish, more than 22 years and 1011 Phish performances ago, Bill Clinton had not yet been elected President. The writer is a musician and bard himself, and here are his unedited reflections on seeing Phish for the first time in 22 years:
"When I think of Phish, I think of phar out melodies and a phuriously phunky rhythm section. If I could I surely would dance till the lights came up and when they did I would shout out loud "Whoo Hoo!". Phunking all right!
Phish is the little band that could. Trey, Page, Michael and Jon, old buds who formed and forged their sound in the little old state of Vermont. They stuck together through the turbulence and turmoil and learned how to make magic. It always begins with a little love, some sweet nectar and a dream.
Now my love does not eat meat, so I am going Phishing. Won't you join me?
When I first saw Phish I was a much younger man. They played a seven song set in support of Santana. Carlos saw what I saw and when they played together I knew that Phishing would never be a waste of time. A bevy of beautiful people came together to ensure that no matter who you were, what you are and what will be, it will be alright. That was the Phish message, not Santana's. I know why that message survives, thrives and inspires. If you love Santana as I do, remind him of the lessons he learned by jamming with Phish and encourage him to do it again. It makes us all stronger.
Now it's the New Year's Run 22 years later and the message means more than ever. The Beatles knew it...it was the mantra for a generation. Be here now! The meaning of those three words is slipping away as technology fosters the growth of materialism and the "we" increasingly becomes "me". Don't let the words "I love you" become "what can you do for me?" Give me a home where the buffalo roam...When the Phish play time is suspended. There is a sound that you just know is right, theirs is a sound that can get us all through the night. We, the audience dispense with our seats and we boogie, we let the music carry us along just like in that old John Lee Hooker song. Right now in front of me are two of the prettiest women you would ever want to meet dancing and waving a Prussian flag. They never stopped dancing as long as the music was playing. Be here now!
I know that part of what is expected of me is to be a bit of a journalist. I am after all writing, but I am writing about music. How does one write about something you have to experience? Would I impress you if I wrote about their wondrous aeolian cadences or would you prefer to strike an acquaintance with some exotic birds? Words can't do music justice and besides most journalists these days are more inclined to become corporate minions so I don't believe a word they say. Maybe that's why I have more faith in music. Journalists can be bought and sold more easily than musicians, though I know that musicians are not immune to the call of capital interests.
Phish is one of the few bands out there that still have an open policy when it comes to taping and trading bootleg copies of their concerts. Way back when you would see a shipload of amateur tapers with their microphones on a stick trying to get the best recording possible. In fact if you were at that concert in 1992 at Big Birch Pavilion, I beseech you to send a copy to the people that posted this Phish Phantasy. These days the band will actually let you download a copy of the concert you saw straight from the soundboard with your ticket stub, so you don't even need to bring your recorder anymore. That's wild! I believe in the call of the wild but even the Indians wanted a few beads before they sold Manhattan. Phish let their music do the talking. No journalists, no words are necessary.
If you have been listening whilst reading these words it might well have taken an hour and a half to get this far so it's time for an intermission...
We are doing the New Year's Run so get used to those intermissions. They make the house happy and it gives those of us in the audience not surgically attached to their cell phones a moment to speak...and say hello. Phish fans are a phriendly bunch. Your neighbor is sure to acknowledge your existence and be here now. How pleasant! I would also like to make a point, perhaps it is a point that Vermont's finest will agree with but I can't really speak for them. I can however speak about the causes they care about because the intermission gives us all another opportunity to communicate. The Phellowship for those of us that have over indulged and the Waterwheel Foundation for those of us who still believe in helping out those we meet along the way are both worthy endeavors sponsored by the band and those who love their music. I want to live in that world, do you know what I mean? The world where we still care about each other and take the time to look into each other's eyes.
Phish, the little band that could, the band that I remember jamming with Santana and proving their worth is now the only band that could fill a Miami arena for four days in a row, just like the Dead in Madison Square. This is a testament to you, 'cause without you it all falls apart. You are the music. You sing the songs and dance the dance. You are the charity, the comfort, the goodwill toward men. You are the phellowship. You are the reason why the music is playing. So let the music play...I want to dance another day!
Phish music is what inspires these thoughts. Dancing and singing and carrying on in concert with my brothers and sisters who are all around me. Real music, that's what it's all about. The four individuals that make up Phish have an innate, magical ability to hear each other, to communicate on another level. A rarity in music, a rarity in most human interaction, but it does give me a reason to believe, another reason to pull out the old pole and go Phishing again."
PHISH PICKS SEATTLE OVER NEW ENGLAND
Until last fall, every announced tour brought a common lament: "West Coast screwed again." But the data has a different refrain: While the West Coast gets plenty of love, it's the band's home turf that gets routinely shafted - and moreso across the band's history.
The mantra "follow the line going south" did not emerge in lyrics or tour patterns until 1987, following four years solely in New England. By 2014, Phish had abandoned Patriots territory - but they still played Seahawks city.
And last fall was hardly an anomaly. There have been more shows in Pacific states than New England ones in 12 of 23 periods - including 1997 and 2004, in particular. New England has even fallen behind non-US shows in six periods!
Other patterns are apparent, as well: The Midwest had its hey day (esp. 98-04), but has slipped away since the "breakup". Non-US shows were tops in 1996 and 1997, but have barely been seen since the hiatus. And if there's a region that's been roundly ignored throughout the band's history, it's not Western states but South Central.
Methods:
This stacked-column flowchart is expanded from a 4-year chart (by the fabulous FrankensTeam) to cover 23 periods and with narrower columns, faded connectors, and percents (rather than proportions in decimal form). It might also be called a Linked Stacked-Column Graph, Platform Shift Graph, or Shifting Stripe Graph.
Regions are based on Census Bureau divisions, though these may not be ideal. For example, the Atlantic region is a long swath heading south, although DC was played four years before Florida. (Indeed, subsquent comments have suggested using FEMA regions, though there are of course problems w/ any alternative.)
Note also that I've left Pacific separate from Mountain, a distinction that wouldn't be made by some (such as those who divide the country by the Mississippi River). If those two regions are combined, Western shows dominate even more often.
And, yes, you can hang a print of it over your bed.
MONDAYS ARE UNUSUAL... AGAIN
As far as we know, Phish didn't play any Monday shows their first two years. And except for some regular gigs in 1988, Monday (and the first half of the week) remained less likely to have a show for most of their history. I know, you're not surprised... But there are two interesting twists in the pattern.
But since the breakup, weekend shows are, once again, twice as likely as Monday. And now, even Thursdays are slipping away. The aggregate pattern now is fewer weeks, and 5 shows in each of them: Tues/Wed and Fri/Sat/Sun. (Two coming graphs will delve more into the related shift towards multiple-night runs in each venue.)
Methods Note:
Red dots indicate 5 or fewer shows; green are 20 or more.
Note that while previous infographics (1, 2, 3) had been posted on Saturdays, we've shifted... to Fridata.
SEEING SUMMER IN A HEATMAP
Already, rumors are spinning about various stops on an anticipated summer 2015 tour. Wherever it's stopped, and whenever it's announced (likely on a Tuesday, late February?), it's almost certain to happen: Phish 3.0 is all about the summer tour.
For most of this chart, each row shows a calendar year (Jan 1 to Dec 31), with a vertical blue sliver for each Phish show. Three heatmaps summarize those 32 years: The darker blue the sliver, the more shows occurred on that day of the year. In all rows (the 32 years and the heatmaps), dates without shows stay white.
The top multi-colored row is based on a sum across all 32 years, and shows that Phish shows have historically been distributed roughly evenly across the calendar year, with only three exceptions: There have never been shows most January days, several days around the start of the school year, and the third week of December. But glance down the chart (where each row is a different year) and see both noticeable gaps and shifts in where they happened.
Those shifts are summarized clearly in three more heatmap rows at the bottom, one each for three periods in Phish history. Shows from '83-'94 were year-round but with summer downticks reflecting, in part, the targeting of college markets. From '95-'00, summer was central, fall shifted from Nov/Dec to Sep/Oct, and the first three months of the year were thin. Since the hiatus ('03-'14), the first five months (as well as September and November) have been bare - and 3.0 has been decidely summer and October.
So, unless we enter a new pattern, and perhaps even a new era... get ready for the heat, and start brainstorming a costume.
PHISH IS OLDER THAN THE GRATEFUL DEAD
Though a summer event will celebrate "the music of the Grateful Dead" (emphasis added), the last Grateful Dead show was 7/9/95, 30 years and 65 days after their first. Phish reached that age February 5th of last year, will be a year older than that in less than three weeks, and arguably* became the longest-performing jamband when they took the stage 4/26/14.
Though they are said to have expanded rapidly (even exponentially), Phish's growth was far more gradual than that of other bands, including the Grateful Dead. It wasn't until Phish was perhaps** 7 years old that they played 100 shows in the same year, something that the Grateful Dead did in their 2nd year - and that Widespread Panic, String Cheese Incident, and Umphrey's McGee, for example***, all did in their 4th. (The fastest growing of these was SCI, who played 226 shows in 1997, their sixth year, after two spare ones - though they've played relatively few shows since their 15th.)
And while Phish is thought to have stopped suddenly, their decline was also more gradual: The Grateful Dead's performance frequency peaked (at 150 shows) in their 5th year then dropped (to 4) in their 10th, whereas Phish didn't peak until their 8th year (at only 143 shows), followed by a relatively slow decline until their 18th. Yes, the Grateful Dead (lost and) replaced some personnel, an approach sort of built into the band's music, mystique, and even name. But they also played every year for 31 years, bounced back with abandon after their pause (in 1975), and played more shows per year than Phish in each of the bands' respective 16th through 31st years.
Phish, meanwhile, actually came to a full stop, twice, for almost two and then more than four years. Only WSP has had a (single) sharper drop - but with the exception of that one, WSP has been far more prolific: Only 17 months younger than Phish, they grew almost as quickly as SCI (and in line with both the Grateful Dead and Umphrey's), have typically played more shows at any age than any of these bands, and have played the greatest total number of shows, almost twice the number SCI has played (not Everyday, but the closest to it, at about 24% of the days since they started.)
For their age, Umphrey's McGee wins for consistency and stamina. The band has played more shows at any age than Phish or the Grateful Dead, played more shows in its first 15 years than Phish has in 31, and show no signs of slowing. By 2018, at only 21 years old, they'll have had more stage experience than the Grateful Dead.....though not Widespread, seemingly destined to outlast them all.*
Methods Notes:
Annual counts were drawn from DeadNet, Phish.net, Cheesebase, AllThings, and Everyday Companion.
* The Allmans started earlier, and only recently stopped, so maybe they're the oldest - if they're a jamband? And iterations of "the Dead" continue. Don't over think it; just look at the pretty lines and smile. :)
** We are aware of 94 shows in Phish's sixth year, but recognize that there may be others, long forgotten.
*** Don't be offended that I didn't include moe., Wilco, U2, Celine Dion, or anyone else. Some didn't have data; others didn't add value.
FARE THEE WELL - CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD
“Fare Thee Well – Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead” – will take place at Chicago's Soldier Field on July-3-5. The official announcement follows:
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir will reunite at Chicago’s Soldier Field, nearly 20 years to the day of the last-ever Grateful Dead concert, which took place at the same venue. “Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of Grateful Dead” will take place over three nights – July 3rd, 4th, and 5th, 2015 – and mark the original members’ last-ever performance together. The band will be joined by Trey Anastasio (Guitar), Jeff Chimenti (Keyboards) and Bruce Hornsby (Piano), and will perform two sets of music each night.
In the tradition of the original Grateful Dead Ticketing Service, tickets will be available via a first come first serve mail order system starting on January 20th, followed by an online pre-sale through Dead Online Ticketing February 12th and will be available online to the general public on February 14th via Ticketmaster.
THE BOYS ARE BACK: THAT VENN, AGAIN
Referring to the members of Phish as "the boys" was fun, then "so last week", then ironic. Now, it's just sad. But there's always one way to revisit any issue: statistically.
A little over eight months ago, I posted a Venn diagram purporting to show the numbers of common shows with each combination of Phish songs that mention boys:
So, here's a revision, which includes Fluffhead (thanks @larvalcraze) - though not Harpua (which doesn't always mention Jimmy as a boy; sorry, @The_Crested_Hogchoker) or Little Drummer Boy (a cover; sorry, @markah).
This post also does more than update an old farce: This five-petal Venn diagram begins a series of more than two dozen graphs, each drawing on different aspects of Phish.net data, and each utilizing a different kind of graph. Each will post Saturday morning, to give you something to chew on (and perhaps share) over the weekend. Because whose weekend isn't more complete with fresh visualizations of data about the b-... well, you know.
And, by popular demand, yes, you can get it on a shirt - and lots of other stuff, too. Each chart design will be available on several dozen products, with royalties going to the Mockingbird Foundation. And while, sure, this "Five Boys Venn" works on a coffee mug (small or large), it works even better on a boy's toddler t-shirt or mom-to-be's maternity shirt. That's right: Be the first in your 'hood to announce your blue-hued news with a Phish-related visual riddle!
A note on methods: These aren't true Venn diagrams, since each number is total instances rather than unique instances. For example, there have been 191 total Lawn Boys, including the 2 shows that also had Dog-Faced Boy and the 35 that also had Fluffhead; and all three of those numbers include the 1 show that had all three songs.
MYSTERY JAM MONDAY PART 185
Welcome to the 185th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday! 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. Good luck!
Notes: Mystery Jam Monday was posted for the first time since September 8, 2014 (17 Mondays).
MIAMI4 RECAP: FROM RAGS TO RICHES
On Saturday night Phish concluded their season at Miami's American Airlines Arena. Let's cut right to the action...
Saturday’s first set opened with a classic five-song sequence that could have been lifted from a 1994 setlist playbook. “Maze” serves as a power-packed kickoff – along with 9/4/11 Dick’s only the second “Maze” show opener since 1995 – with Page and Trey trading confident and peppy leads. A compact but spirited “AC/DC Bag” set the stage for a sublime “Divided Sky” that anchored the set. “Cavern” kept the energy spiked, though with an odd digi-noise leftover plaguing the song’s beginning, one that would recur several times throughout the gig (feature or bug?). “Scent of a Mule” featured a (comically ‘off’) “Smoke on the Water” tease from Trey and a true Mike bass solo before the song’s “duel” portion, but was otherwise uneventful. First sets have been the achilles heel of modern Phish gigs, but this opening segment delivered solid goods.
Photo © Scott Harris
The band shifts to more current material with the new-to-Phish TAB classic, “Plasma,” Fuego’s “Devotion to a Dream, and “Water in the Sky,” that offered opportunity for the obligatory south Florida cheer in response to the “filter out the Everglades” line. “Split Open and Melt” sticks the band’s foot in the improvisational door, with Trey’s digi-noise popping again which kicks the song off with a trippy darkness that they pursued vigorously in the jam. Trey’s playing early in the jam is melancholy, sweet and poetic, soaring softly, a honey rather than vinegar enticement even within the dark confines of the song. Page forms the perfect envelope of support for Trey to explore, the pocket is subtle but super effective. The jam’s climax does get a little dirty and chaotic before pulling in the reigns and taking the set home with “Character Zero.” Low though the bar may have been, front to back that is your Miami run’s best first set, and by a non-trivial margin.
Photo © Phish
“Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan” made its first ever appearance in the second set opening slot, but would only serve as a brief launching pad to the greatness that would follow in the “Down with Disease.” Trey and Page lead the fresh, bright, sunny jam early, letting the song’s structural confines melt away ever so gradually. Fish and Mike locked down in a manner that wasn’t always so evident earlier in the run and provided frictionless loft for Trey’s soaring ascent. At the 10:30 mark we’ve totally dispensed with “DwD” as a song, with the first and most dramatic of several major plot twists. Page laid down a riff that the whole band picks up on immediately, a thick, funky, ass-shaking groove that was so coherent in the moment of expression that one would be forgiven for thinking that moment of magic was in fact composed. “Improvisation that sounds composed” is a phrase often used when describing the essence of peak Phish music, but this passage was so stunning and on-point that if it wasn’t composed, it should be, for a future song!
Photo © Scott Harris
My personal jaw-drop moment of this inspiring “Disease” was at ~16:30, when the jam could so easily have glided to a satisfactory conclusion; but Jon Fishman was having none of that, with a driving, rumbling insistence that nothing is over until we say it is, paving the way to the greatest of rewards. As the jam rounds the clock past the twentieth minute Fishman is in absolute beast mode as the hose is in the full ON position, with Trey riding a wave with a “Manteca”-infused sustain that filled the biggest moment and allowed true collective release, then playfully oozing bliss for the balance of the jam, with a final dose of aggressive weirdness from Trey and Page and an affirmational series of rings from Mike’s fight bell. This “Disease” was twenty-six minutes of dazzling artistry that we will be listening to for the rest of our lives.
Rather than reaching for a breather at the end of such a satisfying-if-mind-bending jam, “Light” takes the handoff and blasts off with the full momentum of the “Disease” as its tailwind. The jam is so chunky that it defies even the most sedentary to not get off their ass and move. This jam is a super active conversation, where all voices yearn for the listener’s attention as one, a textbook example of being “locked in,” offering enough complexity and challenge to hyperactive attentive listeners, while also being fire-under-seat danceable and broadly accessible, this “Light” was simply brilliant. A flawless “full arrow” -> to “Sneakin’ Sally” was the money move at the inflection point of the set, this wave was gaining steam and would not relent or yield. “Sneakin’ Sally” always titillates and delivers in the big moments, but this version ditched its traditional casing and went for a totally bonus if very un-“Sally”-like sonic excursion after the vocal jam.
Photo © Phish
When “Sand” finally washed on stage it was clear this would be a “no-breather” set that would hang ten until the final note. A short tour’s worth of highlights already in the bag from this set alone, Trey approaches this “Sand” with an active persistence, the freshness of the ideas radiating one after another, as if he traded in the glider that has been his aerial transport for so much of this past summer for a stunt plane ready to perform death-defying feats that will shock and amaze! “Harry Hood” starts with Trey in a super playful mood, one that would persist through the balance of the gig. Trey offered a “Happy Birthday” tease, apparently to someone on or near the rail, and threw in a few Pete Townshend windmills for good measure. This “Hood” is delightful, and while it doesn’t go nearly as deep as many of the abundant selection of great versions of 2014, it didn’t need to, as the greatness of this set was long before cemented. A classic closing combo of “Suzy Greenberg” (with a brief “They Attack!” quote from “The Birds”) and the “Good Times Bad Times” encore ended the show much as it began, letting the engines out on the greatest improvisational rock band alive for one last celebratory release before we go our separate ways until next summer.
This show exudes brilliance, with the jam-packed second set immediately in a top tier of 2014-15 sets alongside 7/13/14 Randall’s, 7/27/14 MPP2, and 10/31/14 II Vegas. The show ends the season with an emphatic exclamation, leaving the best memories to linger as we wait for the days to get longer. This show has it all and represents the core of why so many of us are Phish fans. Treasure the memory and let it propel you all to health and happiness in the new year. Hug your friends, hang on to the smiles, until we meet again in summer 2015!
Photo © Andrea Nusinov.
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