2008

Welcome back to the second installment of our two part Tour Diary put together by the members of The Brew. Yesterday, bassist Joe Plante told us all about the band’s adventures at moe.down. Now, Joe’s brother – keyboardist Chris Plante – shares his experience from the road…

[All photos by Ashley Plante]

September 5, 2008

Stone Church, New Market NH

Legendary venue facing foreclosure. This should be illegal. So many great bands have played here, so much great music, it seems like a cardinal sin to let this happen, hopefully in the coming weeks we will learn that some saint out there didn’t let that go down. [Editor’s Note – Success!]

We have been playing this place for a few years now, maybe about 15 times total and after selling out our last play there in a blizzard, we decided it was time for a two night run (our first proper two night run I might add).

We have a couple great opening acts slated for the two night run, and up first is a band that we are very fond of, The Han Solos. Now close your eyes…wait leave them open you will need to read these instructions…

READ ON for more of The Brew’s Tour Diary…

Normally, we don’t tend to give much space to hardcore acts around these parts, but yesterday an interesting music video was making it way around the internets that featured the

Fifteen years ago, when Phish completed their three-night stand at the Roxy in Atlanta the shows were instantly thrust into the limelight as among the greatest evs. Apparently the band

While most musicians would use an unexpected break in their schedule to take a well deserved rest, Luther Dickinson isn’t most musicians. Earlier this week, the Black Crowes announced that

When Phish fans get together and talk about a potential reunion, every detail is open for debate and analysis. What should they open and close with? Will Trey bring back the Pepe Le Pew t-shirt? How pudgy will Fishman be?

[Photo via Phish.com]

When it comes to the venue, clearly “Brad Sands’ Wedding” is not a common choice. But the four members certainly owed it to their longtime man-behind-the-scenes to reunite for a few jams on his special day.

For those of us that were left off the guest lists, here’s a list of five venues (and one bonus) Phish should hit on its inevitable Reunion Tour…

1. Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

The world’s most famous arena has seen it all. From the Rangers winning the Stanley Cup after an eternity of heartbreak to legendary boxing matches when boxing mattered to the Knicks actually being a decent team that you could root for without feeling dirty. But as someone who grew up in the NYC area and has been to the Garden countless times for major events, I can tell you that there was no feeling like walking around and into that place on the night of a Phish show. The random slow-build of cheers that seemed to start hours before lights out could be heard up and down 7th and 8th Avenue.

READ ON for more venues where we’d like to see post-Breakup Phish…

Technically, as Scotty pointed out to me the other day, today’s band isn’t quite in the Jamband Graveyard. But when the band in question has only played a handful of

It’s been quite some time since we last brought you a new edition of Tour Diary, but our next installment was worth the wait. Former Blips artist The Brew recently made their first appearance at moe.down and then headed over to the Stone Church for what they thought at the time would be their last appearances at the landmark venue. Bassist Joe Plante gets us started…

[All photos by Ashley Plante]

August 30, 2008

Driving. It feels much better when you are driving to moe.down, even if a few early hitches come up. Hitch # 1: The night before we arrive at our hotel in East Burke, VT after a long couple of sets, find we are down a couple of beds and a room. It is 3:00AM. Chris Plante (keyboards) and Andrew May (sound engineer) are the self appointed “chosen ones” to deal with going back to the venue for a second option. Long story short, they drive around boondocks Vermont, get offered a potential sleeping spot, but it is the home of about 400, mythically gargantuan, hermit-crab-size spiders, which the owner ( a really cool, down to earth girl) loves. Andrew is just a little intimidated by this. Actually, he is petrified. After trying to sleep in a less than comforting environment for paranoid arachnophobes, they drive back to the hotel parking lot to sleep in the van with a hungry flock of mosquitos waiting. That was 4:30 AM. Two hours later is wake up call. The poor guys got about an hour of sleep and an hour of swatting. No time for bitching, just laughing this time. And time for moe.down!

We all pile into the van, turn on our GPS, affectionately named Gertrude (yes, she is a sexy bitch whom we spoon when nobody is looking), and we think we are looking at a 7 hour drive to moe.down. Little did we know Gertrude had planned on taking us through Canada to get there. I almost drive into the nightmare that would have been the Canadian Transit Authority without passports. That is Hitch #2. We turn around, having wasted two hours of our trek to nothing but technology and now we are looking at 8+ hours across the backroads of Vermont, NH, and New York, until the infamous I-90. A little shitty, but still amped for our prime time slots at moe.down!

READ ON for more of The Brew’s adventures at moe.down…