2008

We tried to warn you, so hopefully you’ve book your hotel rooms and malnourished your dog. It’s official as of 3:20AM EDT, Phish will play it’s first public show in 4 years, 6 months, 19 days on March 6 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia as part of a three night stand at the magical venue. Now comes the hard part: securing tickets to be one of the 13,800 standing inside when they hit the stage to kickoff the post-Breakup era.

PHISH HAMPTON 2009 from Phish on Vimeo.

Trey, Mike, Page and Fish are sensitive to the fragile state of the economy and have priced tickets at an incredibly reasonable $49.50 each. Tickets go onsale on October 18 at 10AM via Ticketmaster and “ticket requets” are currently available at this site. The band plans to announce additional touring in 2009 early next year.

So we’ve got roughly 22 weeks. Or 5 Months & 6 Days. 157 days etc. before Phish will play shows 13, 14 and 15 at the Hampton Coliseum.

Most played song at Hampton? Mike’s Song, Harry Hood & Weekapaug Groove share that honor with 5.

Most common songs not yet played at Hampton? Golgi Apparatus, Suzy Greenberg, Reba, The Lizards, Fee, Sample in a Jar, My Sweet One, Uncle Pen and Fluffhead.

READ ON for the setlists and some video footage from every Phish show played at Hampton…

Fasten your seatbelts, kiddies… How will this all go down? We’ll FINALLY find out shortly…

Is the Mothership preparing to host the most important gigs in the 25-year history of Phish? According to the Merry Swankster, the quartet is on the verge of announcing a

I’m going to go ahead and declare a tie from our edition two weeks ago with The Bridge and Mr. Blotto refusing to quit as the votes go higher and higher – so we’ll call them both winners from when we looked at covers of Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys. Last week’s however has a clear winner, no big surprise here as Jerry Garcia & David Grisman received the majority of votes when we examined covers of Sitting In Limbo.

This week, we look at the title track off of a Buddy Miles album from 1970: Them Changes. While not as well known as the version on Band Of Gypsies, the studio cut features a funky groove with a horn section whereas the live Hendrix cut is more of your straight power-trio rocker. What’s great about this week’s Cover Wars is that we’ve got some bands with horns that play the lines from the studio recording and some guitar bands that are a little closer to the version most people know. Lots of good guitar work this week.

As always, please register/login to IMEEM to listen to full-length clips in the playlist below.

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READ ON to cast a vote for your favorite Them Changes cover…

I was all set for a great night of music on Wednesday. Three bands that I have never heard of or seen. Well, not true, really. I had heard of Liam Finn, but never experienced his music. I had done quick Myspace and YouTube searches and came up with a thumbnail synopsis of how he does what he does. With his use of loops and drums and guitar, all in all a pretty unique sound. It made me look forward to his portion of the show.

But first, there were two other bands to open the festivities. I purposely didn’t check either of them out ahead of time. Surprise me, I thought. Give me your best shot, let’s see how you rock and roll.

The venue for tonight was the Doug Fir Lounge. Originally a diner attached to a motel, the Doug Fir underwent a major overhaul a few years ago and became one of the premier smaller halls in Portland. The diner still functions as it was originally designed, and the motel still rents rooms with a unique catch. Obviously knowing their clientèle, the managers turned Room 117 into a retail establishment where guests may purchase any of a myriad of sex toys, videos and the like.

Below the parking lot, on the street level is a tattoo parlor. Upstairs, next to the diner is the cocktail lounge and below that, the concert hall Looking like the inside of a log cabin (Made from, of all things, Douglas fir) the room has a nice feel and great acoustics. The best seats in the house are on the steps, just below the sound booth. Perfect sound and view above the bouncing heads on the floor, plus an easy shot around the corner back to the bar. Nice digs all around and SO Portland.

READ ON for A.J.’s thoughts on the three acts in question…

This past Sunday night in Montreal, Vermont’s Grace Potter treated the stunned crowd at Petit Campus to a first-time played cover of My Morning Jacket’s Golden. While her band, The