WHY .NET STILL DOES MEETUPS
In my life, I’ve been incredibly lucky to be an early and long-time follower of two of the world’s greatest rock bands, The Grateful Dead and Phish.
Sometimes, people ask me what the biggest difference was between “following the Dead” and “following Phish”, and I tell them it’s the deep and lasting friendships I’ve made with Phish fans from around the country.
And I also add how a bunch of those friends came together to do some wonderful things as a group: publish a couple of well-received and sold-out editions of a book about Phish that the band liked enough to sell in its store, formed a charity that has donated over $620,000 for music education programs for underserved kids, and refurbished the Phish.net website for Phish 3.0 as a monster up to the second Phish historical performance database, all still as non-commercial and “by phans, for phans”, as it was in 1994.
And the reason for any difference -- between the Dead and the Phish -- had nothing to do with their music or the fans of each band.
FROM THE ARCHIVES - SUPERBALL IX
Impossible as it may seem, and old as it may make you feel, Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro curated his first "From The Archives" show at The Clifford Ball. Nearly 15 years later, a Phish festival wouldn't feel like a Phish festival without "FTA", and the fanboy with the gig every other fanboy would gladly kill for can still deliver the goods.
Before I get down to the biz at hand, it bears repeating that just last week - and perhaps not coincidentally - Phish released Live Bait #5, a themed compilation of choice nuggets from Phish festivals dating all the way back to 1987 (Ian McLean’s Party at Connie Condon’s Farm). If you haven't picked up LB5 yet then get off your ass and do it now. It presents Phish as a band of seasons, a band of eras, and a band of epochs, whose evolution has been punctuated, among other things, by big balls.
And now, a super ball.
Tonight's Superball IX "From The Archives" show blasted off just like a Phish show - about 45 minutes behind schedule - and your intrepid Phish.net reporter stayed up past his bedtime to capture all the action. Here's how it went down on The Bunny...
BEYOND THE 'BOARDS: THE TAPING TRADITION LIVES ON
One can’t begin to discuss even the cursory history of Phish without mentioning the role of tapers and the taping community. After every show and tour, hundreds of padded envelopes criss-crossed the country and helped spread the gospel of Phish in a fashion similiar to the way bits & bytes travel the Internet now. From one to one trades, to complex trading trees, to blanks & postage offers, to taping parties, Phish tapes were constantly circulating. At the root of every chain and the beginning of every trade, was a taper who selflessley put recording the shows above all else.
Initially, it was with baited breath that people waited to receive tapes to even find out what was played last week. Likewise, with the arrival of a fresh batch of tapes it was an opportunity to hear a debut, to hear what all the buzz from a particular show was about or to hear a new cover torn to shreds the first time. As time went by, and set-lists become disseminated quicker through the internet, tapes were no longer needed to know what was played but rather as the first opportunity to listen to the magic that was happening elsewhere in the country. Though tapes have long since been replaced with digital, setlists are instantly updated live-time at current.phish.net or m.phish.net, LivePhish has the show available for download within an hour of the show ending, and you can stream the show as you leave the parking lot from the Phish app, there still exists an incredibly energized and dedicated taping community.
some of the taper rigs from Mansfield, MA 'Great Woods' Picture credit: Parker Harrington
MYSTERY JAM MONDAY PART 56
Monday? Time for the Mystery Jam. 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: Choda is probably closest.
Wednesday Answer: In a bit of near-Instant Karma, Pauly7917 is our winner, correctly identifying the 9/20/00 "It's Ice." Nice work, Pauly! Be honest though, how long many times did you check your entry before hitting "submit"? The Blog should point out, however, that while it may be a bit misleading to call this a hint-aided victory (since there wasn't much of a hint), the MJ did stand tall for over 24 hours which seems like the Blog's best showing in months. See you all next Monday.
MP3 Downloads Courtesy of LivePhish.com
SUMMER TOUR MAY/JUNE 2011: HIGHLIGHTS AND NOT-SO-HIGHLIGHTS
IT is not always easy to review a Phish tour. You are not going to please everyone all of the time, or perhaps even most of the time. The stronger your opinions, the hotter the heat. And “capsule reviews” of shows rarely do them the justice that they deserve. Even weak Phish shows -- or “below average” as compared with other Phish shows -- are still great rock concerts, involving a super vibe, excellent musicianship, and sensational lights and sound, particularly on this tour, which featured new, and amazing, light and sound systems. We have a blast at Phish shows. Period. That’s why we bother to attend them, at significant expense, often on multiple nights on any given tour. And, thankfully, Phish’s Summer tour ain’t over yet.
TAHOE TOPS SECONDARY MARKET
Dylan at SeatGeek sent over an analysis of top venues to see Phish during their 2011 summer tour, based on average ticket prices. The results as of 6/15/2011 are as follows:
1. Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena at Harveys, Stateline, NV - 8/9 & 8/10
2. Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA - 8/8
3. UIC Pavilion, Chicago, IL - 8/15 - 8/17
4. Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH - 6/5
5. nTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA - 6/19
6. Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH - 6/4
7. Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO - 9/2 - 9/4
8. Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Darien, NY - 6/8
9. DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston, MI - 6/3
10. Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte, NC - 6/17
SeatGeek - a search engine that allows comparison shopping across major secondary markets including StubHub, TicketsNow, and TicketNetwork - shows that of Phish's 30-show summer, the overall average price is $92.47 (excluding Super Ball IX).
PHISH SHOWS ARE UNIQUE, SOME METAPHORS
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20110624/SPORTS/106240395/Stevens-column-All-shapes-sizes-Dick-s-Open-swings-is?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|sThey 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.
LIVE BAIT VOL. 5 AVAILABLE
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.
PHISH VINYL TO BE RELEASED AT SBIX
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.
NEW MERCH IN .NET STORE
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).
PHISHVIDS
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.
MYSTERY JAM MONDAY PART 55
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
PORTSMOUTH RECAP
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?
RALEIGH RECAP
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?
Phish.net
The Mockingbird Foundation