WORDSMITH. HELP FINISH TOM MARSHALL LYRICS!
What is Wordsmith?
By popular demand, Wordsmith is back! Once again, Tom wrote a verse of what might be a song someday, and he’s stuck with a bad case of writer’s block. Please help Tom by contributing the next verse.
ATTENDANCE BIAS PRESENTS: THIS TIME WILL BE DIFFERENT; 15 YEARS SINCE HAMPTON
[We would like to thank Brian Weinstein, user @AttendanceBias, for the Attendance Bias podcast and for this post. -Ed.]
Hold on a minute. Before you read any further, let’s time-travel 15 years into the past. Need a little help? Here’s a quick summary of where we were, as a nation, in the late-winter of 2009:
President Barack Obama has just been inaugurated for his first term as president. Seinfeld is airing a quasi-reunion episode via the genius of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. The Yankees won the World Series a few months earlier, and the Pittsburgh Steelers just won the Super Bowl. Taylor Swift is a successful but niche country artist, while The Black-Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga are at the top of the pop charts. And in the world of film, Heath Ledger just won a posthumous Oscar for his iconic performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight.
Are you there yet?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JON FISHMAN!
It's Fish's 59th birthday today! How better to celebrate it than to hear him speak (often insightfully) on a host of different topics with a fellow drummer and fan Nick Ruffini in two episodes of the Drummer's Resource podcast. For example, in the first of the two episodes, episode 368 The Art Of Constant Evolution, beginning around minute 69, Fish talks about how the band was really hard on themselves and made fun of each other, and the importance of “embracing silence” in improvising. He also discusses how life-changing the No-Analysis-During-Shows band policy was.
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HOW MANY LICKS DOES IT TAKE TO GET TO THE CENTER OF A QUAD TOP?
[We would like to thank Matt Nestor (@rhythmatt) for this post —Ed.]
What transpired during the third hour of this millennium on the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in Florida remains a source of wonder and enchantment in this community more than two decades after it washed over the everglades.
This is an exploration of “Quadrophonic Toppling,” the hard-to-define digital delay loop jam that spills out of a determined, trance-like “Sand” around 3 a.m. at Big Cypress. It’s a moment of sonic tranquility amid a raging flood of Y2K revel. And, it completes a 36-minute segment that serves as a keystone in the architectural marvel that is Phish’s all-night millennium set.
PART II OF II: REMEMBER MIX(ED) TAPES? NO? WHAT ARE TAPES?
This is a continuation of the “Remember Mix(ed) Tapes? No? What Are ‘Tapes’?” blog post from last year, which you may want to review before reading further. Simply put, in the late 1990s, I liquidated a lot of tapes in my collection for a number of reasons, and because, waaay waaaaay back then, it wasn’t possible to (re)listen to everything online with ease, I saved/preserved certain versions of songs on tapes aka mixtapes to listen to again. I have 22 of such tapes numbered as such, and you can see the first 13 tapes’ track lists in the original post, and the track lists of tapes 14-22 below.
Bottom line? Since I bothered to record (preserve) the versions below on new tapes before liquidating the shows/tapes that they were on, I recommend you listen to them, even though with the benefit of decades of hindsight, they may not necessarily be jamchart-worthy or "must hear." That said, I see my favorite normal-lengthed Stash (5/19/94) is here, as is the Linus and Lucy Hood, and my favorite FEFY (8/17/93). So there’s that. And there are definitely many other “must hear” versions of Phish songs below, like the 6/24/94 Antelope (and some hilarious versions of songs, too, e.g. Fish on Undun, the intro to the 4/27/89 Bowie).
And I’m just now finding out that apparently the 5/11/87 Clod (on Tape 14) doesn’t circulate online (I bothered to save it to tape so it must have been on my tapes of 5/11/87 that I liquidated decades ago, sigh). I will see about getting it digitized. More sighing. ANYWAY, I hope you find the following entertaining if not also useful and inspiring! And if you don’t? You just might, maybe, perhaps, if only a little, suck at Phish. -charlie
VOTE FOR THE 2023 JAM OF THE YEAR
It’s another new year and once again the Phish.net forum “Jam of the Year” committee is proud to present a curated selection of improvisation from the 2023 touring year as selected by Phish.net users. Look for weekly discussion and voting threads in the forum as we make our way through head to head matchups between the best jams last year had to offer.
NEW PHISH SHOW MAPPING PROJECT
[We'd like to thank Steven Gripp for this post, and for his work on this Phish mapping project. You can learn more about the project by watching Steven describe it on the Helping Friendly Podcast. We also wanted to give a shout out to The Phishsonian's show mapping project —Ed.]
For the past three years, I’ve embarked on a project that I feel really encapsulates the epic journey of Phish. Knowing that, while we have all gazed at the wonder of Phish’s illustrious 40-year career, reminiscing on how they’ve become what they have become goes back to all the places they have been. I’ve mapped out on Google Earth every Phish show, from their first performance in the back of the Harris-Mills Cafeteria all the way to their ambitious Gamehendge performance at Madison Square Garden. From their beginnings in downtown Burlington, to their cross-country tours, to their European and Japanese excursions, all have been placed for the user experience to see where Phish has traversed. I’ve been a phan since 1996, and I’ve always wanted to give back to the community. I feel that finishing this project right at their 40 year anniversary has a serendipity and timing to take the listening experience to the next level.
JOE CRIPE'S 2ND EP DROPS TODAY
Today marks the release of Joe Cripe's second EP, Bob's House, from which 100% of the streaming profits will be donated to the Mockingbird Foundation to support music education for children. As Joe describes it:
This project took many months of effort to complete, and all I want is this to continuously help those who need music the most. Playing music is beneficial for mental health, team work, creativity, stress relief, building friendships, strengthening motor muscles and expressing what words cannot. It’s never too late or early to learn an instrument!
If you feel so inclined, please donate directly through this post. I set the goal at $1, because there is no dollar goal, but I’m happy for anything that is received. Please enjoy Bob’s House in the meantime!
PASSING THROUGH ANOTHER CORRIDOR: GAMEHENDGE AND AN AMBITION FULFILLED
Sitting in a small, glass-walled meeting room with Trey Anastasio, Doug Wright and Amanda Green as they readied Hands on a Hardbody for its Broadway debut in 2012, I started to ask Trey—and yeah, let’s just call him Trey for our purposes here—about his long-running interest in musical storytelling.
"Gamehendge wasn’t a musical, but…,” I began.
“It was supposed to be a musical,” Trey broke in.
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WHY PHISH.NET RATINGS WERE DISABLED
[We'd like to thank Paul Jakus for this analysis of recent Phish.net ratings. Coincidentally, we've been analyzing ratings with him for a future blog series digging deeper into how Phish fans rate shows. Stay tuned for more on ratings soon! —Ed.]
At 3:42 p.m. on the afternoon of January 3, 2024 the ratings function of Phish.Net was disabled due to unusual patterns in ratings behavior. Here we’ll explain those patterns, but first let’s establish what a “normal” Holiday Run ratings pattern looks like.
For comparison, let’s look at ratings submitted between 1:00 a.m. January 1, 2023 through 3:42 p.m. January 3, 2023 (a time period that will match that of the 2023/24 NYE Run.) Some 1,004 ratings were submitted over nearly 63 hours, for 116 different shows. Of these ratings, 838 (84%) were for the four holiday shows, leaving 166 ratings to be spread across the remaining 112 non-holiday shows. The most new ratings any non-holiday show received was six.
So, what happened after the 2023/24 Run? Read on for more.
MSG 4 RECAP: CALL ME ISHMAEL
[We would like to thank Cotter Smart (@cotter_smart) for providing last night's NYE recap. -Ed.]
"Call me Ishmael." The famous first words of Moby Dick, a story focused on achieving the unachievable. Tonight was Phish’s unachievable, the White Whale. I could not have been more blessed to be in attendance and witness what unfolded. I was born in 2001, 7 years after the last Gamehendge. Never in my wildest dreams did I think tonight would happen. Trying to encapsulate the absolute madness Phish just unleashed on MSG is impossible, so forgive me in advance. I want to give a shoutout to my cousin who saw his first 4! shows consecutively. I was lucky enough to have my dad and little brother there as well. To the guy behind me who gave me tickets for the 31st, thank you (feel better). I got to dance with my family at the best Phish show I have ever seen. I have written two reviews before. One in 2018, when Trey got stuck. I figured I would be ok, no biggie they’ll have some dancers, maybe people flying and confetti would go off at midnight. Hahahaha boy was I wrong.
LAST DAY TO ORDER NEW SHIRTS WITH A THROWBACK DESIGN BY INKANDBRANDY
Artist Brandy Davis (aka @smilercontrol) donated her time to create the beautiful designs for the front (shown above) and back of the new shirt to celebrate the band's first 40 years and recognize Phish.net for the wide range of resources and community it has provided for decades. She has been a long time visitor to Phish.net since before she began using her talent to create special works that first focused on favorite songs before evolving to celebrate other aspects of the Phish experience as well. From the beginning, her posters were adored within this community as well as everywhere on lots across the country. Explore more of her exciting work at her website InkAndBrandy.com and follow her on your socials!
We are excited to offer Ts in a variety of colors as well as a long-sleeve T, crewneck sweatshirt, and hoodie as well! Visit this online store to purchase or keep reading for more details and pictures!
MSG 3 RECAP: EVERY RAINBOW MAY HAVE A BLUEJAY BUT EVERY 12/30 DOESN'T HAVE A POT OF GOLD
[We would like to thank Megan Glionna (.net @meganglionna; Twitter @the_megan_dance) for providing this recap. -Ed.]
I was lucky enough to write the review for last year’s show on this hallowed night of Phish, and I wrote about the power of expectations and how releasing those can lead to greater enjoyment and appreciation of a show. Those sentiments are usually expressed after you see a banger show though, right? It’s so easy to be gracious and say, “I didn’t care what they played, I just wanted to be with my friends and have a good time” after you have had a great time and seen an epic show. And I did have a great time last night. If you saw me on the floor, I was absorbed, dancing like I was possessed and enjoying this band. But I still get to look at the music critically if I want to. My two years on the Helping Friendly Podcast have changed how I think about Phish. The event of going to see the band is now somewhat separate from the music in terms of re-listenability and analysis. So, this review is going to include both my emotional opinions of being there and my critical analysis of the music when listening back. Buckle up.
MSG2 RECAP: FROM A BIRD'S EYE VIEW
[We would like to thank user SpltOpenAndMalt (Max Alter) for the recap! -Ed.]
C’mon, who built a bridge in the World’s Most Famous Arena?
After sitting far and wide across the varying sections in Madison Square Garden, the home of the New York Knicks, Rangers, and 3.0 Phish, I finally put a crippling fear of heights and a larger-than-normal susceptibility to get spun in New York aside to experience the band from heights anew: the Chase Bridge. After constant adhering to the communal messaging to avoid 200’s level seating above Row 15 (give or take) due to obstructed viewpoints resulting from the Chase Bridge, I’d expected my view on this brisk Manhattan Friday evening to be forgettable. And boy was I mistaken. Upon arrival, I’d noticed my seats in Section 324 came equipped with four electrical outlets (for maximum phone charging ability), a screen accessible during breaks in the show (enabling me to watch my beloved Ohio State Buckeyes), a bathroom right outside the section (for ease in bathroom break timing), and about three times as much dancing space as I’ve ever had on the floor at the Garden. For those who have yet to enjoy the wonders of the Chase Bridge, I implore you to take in a show from up above it all.
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MSG 1 RECAP: A TRADITION UNLIKE ANY OTHER
[We'd like to thank volunteer recapper Mark C. Lynch (@Mondo_Butts) for writing this recap. -Ed.]
Thanks to my friends @Sarahlyn710, @phishbiscuits11, @juju.campbell90, @FunkSuckle, @fgomezart - Appreciate the support with the recap.
Tradition is king when heading to a four night run at MSG. As I'm sure the majority of fans would agree, it's the tradition we’ve established all these many years that guides us ever so gently toward the focal point of the weekend. 12/28 was the band's 80th show at the Garden and it felt special. With the 40th anniversary looming, the 80th show was a special kind of appetizer for the hardcore excitement to come.
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