They are akin to snowflakes and fingerprints, Phish concerts, Bloody Mary's and potato salads.

While they share common characteristics, no two are just alike."

Kevin Stevens, a sports columnist writing in the (Endicott, NY) Press and Sun Bulletin, about golfers' different styles of swings in the Dick's Open Golf Tournament.

A selection of 34 tracks from prior Phish festivals is now available for free stream or download at LivePhish.

The collection includes all time favorites like the Great Went Bathtub Gin, Runaway Jim -> Free from Camp Oswego, and the Mike's Groove from Big Cypress.

Hand selected by archivist Kevin Shapiro, Live Bait Vol. 5 spans festivals from Ian's Farm through Festival 8 with even a little Arrowhead Horn Tour thrown in for good measure. It is an absolute treasure trove of tracks that fans have been dying for official releases.

Humorously, to add the flavor of summer festivals, Track 18 is former road manager Brad Sands' announcement of inclement weather during Lemonwheel.

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In very exciting news to audiophiles & vinyl lovers and collectors, Phish will be selling never before released vinyl editions of a couple of albums at the JEMP Record store as well as a limited re-release of "Two Soundtracks" that quickly sold-out on Record Store Day. The store will be located next to the House of Live Phish. The "White Tape", "Party Time" and "Two Soundchecks" will be available.

For details, see Phish's Facebook page.

Full text below.

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Some new merch in store, by your request: ball caps in charcoal and tangerine colors, and beverage coozys. The hats are embroidered with the beaniephish logo and "phish.net" on the back. Can coozies are $3 each or "lot priced" discount, two for $5. Bottle coozies with a zipper back are $4 or two for $7.

Now at the Phish.net Store (Click "Store" in the main navigation bar)

We won't be selling these at SBIX (merch gets messy when you take it to a field show), but if you buy hats and shirts now, you'll have them in time to wear to the SBIX .net meetup.

(Not to encourage anyone to wait, but we'll also be giving out .net store discount coupons to at the SBIX .net "Meetup", and there will be more new items in the store then...they are on their way from the factory).

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No other band on the planet has had their music dissected, catalogued, reviewed, and archived as extensively as Phish. There are scores of resources fans can use from Phish.net’s setlists, to zzyzx’s Stats, to the famous Spreadsheet, to phish.com’s own setlists, to LivePhish downloads. But what about searching for the treasure chest of fan videos available on YouTube? Daniel Saewitz has an answer for you: PhishVids.com. He was gracious to answer some questions about Phish.Vids, the inspiration behind the site, a little technical babble and some general thoughts about Phish.

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For the 55th consecutive week, it's Mystery Jam Monday. As usual, we will be playing for an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). The hint will come on Tuesday and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Tuesday Hint: No hint needed this week either. Blog carnage continues...

Wednesday Answer: After long and often bitter deliberations, the judges have come down on the side of the rule of Roolz are Roolz: benhatley is thus our winner with the 12/29/98 "LxL" > "2001" transition. However, because we're not completely heartless, we do have a consolation prize for pauly7917. That's right, a private Phish listening party with @Icculus!! Complete with all the top shelf booze you can drink. Oh and he also mentioned something about a gimp suit. Weird. Anyway, if you manage to return safely, please let us know how it went! See you all (except for maybe pauly7917) on Monday....

MP3 Downloads Courtesy of LivePhish.com

All in the Family

Portsmouth, VA. The end of another long, strange trip. The final show of this summer’s first leg, on Sunday Phish arrived at by far the most intimate venue of the tour (~7,000) on Father’s Day. This tour has been somewhat unconventional in that its strongest shows (Bethel2, Pine Knob, Blossom) were bunched at the beginning, whereas most tours tend to gather strength as they progress. The phenomenal Charlotte gig threw a huge kink in that narrative, but Raleigh, while fun, failed to fully capture Charlotte’s momentum. Their signature festival event of the summer, Superball IX, is just around the corner. Would Phish coast to the finish line, or go out with a bang?

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By Elayne Best (@jugglerswithfire)

Seeing Phish at Walnut Creek Amphitheater has been like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Historically, shows have ranged from spectacular (7/22/97) to uninspired (6/25/00). So what would we get on 6/18/11? The night before was a standout in performance for this summer tour. How would they respond in a venue with as mixed quality of performances such as Walnut Creek?

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Phish kicked-off the final weekend of the first leg of their summer tour in Charlotte, a venue that has been host to notable past gigs, including the stellar 7/25/03 performance with an epic “Harry Hood,” and the “Fuck Your Face” mega-bustout last summer (7/2/10). Following a two-night run of shows in Georgia that included spectacular highs (6/14 “Bathtub Gin,” “Light Up and Leave Me Alone”) and a perplexing, flat performance in the face of a dramatic thunderstorm on 6/15 that provoked a deluge of commentary, how would the band respond? Roll tape!

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Tour packages including party bus shuttles, hotel, restaurant accomodations and even side tours to wineries and ballgames are available for Phish's California, Denver, and Nevada shows for the western leg of Phish's summer tour from a new operator, Greg Yance of Bobby D-Tour.

More information is available on their website. Greg describes his service as "a hybrid of [the recently blogged about "party"] charter bus services combined with [tour package operator] Consider it Dan."

Leaving the driving to Bobby D-Tour seems like a good alternative to rental cars and "do it yourself" accomodations for those flying to the west coast for the end of Phish summer tour.

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Samba in the Rain

Wednesday night in Georgia, Phish played like a nostalgia act—a band older than its years, still possessing sharp technical skills but almost utterly disinterested creatively. Like a great boxer who tours the country knocking out pretenders in exhibition bouts, or a veteran stage actor who spends 15 years playing the same part in a hit show, Phish this night seemed to be a band with great powers that was fully satisfied with pleasant mediocrity.

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Tonight's live stream from Alpharetta, GA has been postponed until 8:00 pm due to thunderstorms in the area.

Though last night's show didn't start until after 8:00pm, the stream went live at 7:00pm. Phish tweeted, "We will not be starting tonight's Phish stream until 8PM EST due to thunderstorms"

Presumably, this means the show will start later than last night's 8:15pm start time to allow for people to get the stream working properly after it goes live. EDIT: Live as of 8:10pm enjoy!

Reports from the area indicate a ferocious storm with heavy rain, high winds, and even some downed trees.

Read On for Pictures from venue.

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