2011

Tour Dates: Getting Jicky With It

We keep our eyes peeled for new tour dates announcements each week and compile them on Tuesdays for this handy column… Reunion-mania seemed to finally peak in 2010, when after

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Phish Raleigh: Setlist and The Skinny

Phish’s swing through North Carolina brings them to the venue formerly known as Walnut Creek in Raleigh this evening. The group’s penultimate performance of Summer Tour 2011 – Leg One is their eighth at the Research Triangle area shed with a particularly memorable July 22, 1997 show getting the DVD release treatment as Phish – Walnut Creek.

[Photo via HelloMetro]


READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…

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Phish Charlotte: Setlist and The Skinny

Phish @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre – Charlotte

We’ve reached the final weekend of the first leg of Phish Summer Tour 2011 as the band moved from one Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (Alpharetta) to another (Charlotte) for their fourth-ever show at the venue. Phish has previously played the North Carolina shed on July 7, 1999; July 25, 2003 and July 2, 2010.

[via @Mike_Gordon]


For the previous two shows in Alpharetta, Phish tended to play it safe and offered fans high-energy versions of some of their most popular and most played songs. This evening’s performance went a different route as the band reached into their “bag of tricks” and came out with the first exploratory jams in quite a few shows, some bust outs and even our first Henrietta song of the nearly-completed tour.

Tonight Mike’s Groove kicked off a show for the first time since Phish’s “final show” at Coventry in 2004. Mike’s was played in response to a fan who brought a “Mike’s House” sign to the show. How about we stick to signs for songs that haven’t been played in a while folks? Later in the set, NICU gave fans a chance to visit “Leo’s House” while Colonel’s Forbin’s Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird reared its head for only the third time since the quartet went on hiatus in October of 2000. Just like each of the other post-hiatus versions, there was not much of a narration with tonight’s YEMblog guest tweeter Scott Marks telling us that guitarist Trey Anastasio referenced the t-shirt he and bassist Mike Gordon were wearing thusly – “look, I’m not going to give this away (points at his short-sleeve t-shirt) but you all know who this is…it’s the Famous Mockingbird!”

READ ON for the setlist and The Skinny…

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Tour Dates: Mac At Bat

We keep our eyes peeled for new tour dates announcements each week and compile them on Tuesdays for this handy column… While Paul McCartney may not be able to hit

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Phish Darien Setlist and The Skinny

You knew the night where Phish dug deep into their songbook was coming and that night was tonight. Phish returned to Darien Lake Performing Arts Center in Darien, NY for their fifth performance at the venue, which sits adjacent to an amusement park, and delivered many tour debuts.

[Photo via Kristy Freeman]


Friend of HT Kristy Freeman has always been a huge fan of Phish’s version of Nellie Kane by Hot Rize and she took matters into her own hands to get the band to play the song. She enlisted the help of about a dozen friends who all held creatively decorated signs with Nellie Kane on them. Kristy’s plan worked as Phish opened with Nellie Kane to her delight. Nellie Kane wasn’t the only relatively rare song on tap for Darien’s first set. Mellow Mood, Buffalo Bill, Undermind, Ride Captain Ride, It’s Ice, Dog Faced Boy and Brian and Robert all saw their first action of 2011 in the 14-song marathon opening stanza.

Since debuting their cover of TV on the Radio’s Golden Age in Albany back in 2009, the song has become a fan-favorite and a highly requested cover in the band’s arsenal. Golden Age returned to a Phish stage last October and once again tonight as the second set opener. Online Phish Tour’s Guy Forget noted Trey Anastasio’s “huge soaring guitar lines” that led into an “oozing gooey funk jam.” However, the Golden Age jam was short lived and went into a Mike’s Groove that contained Fast Enough For You in the middle of Mike’s and Weekpaug for the first time. What’s The Use? marked the 11th and final 2011 debut of the night and was teased later in 2001. Good Times, Bad Times was the encore once again following a closing sequence of Theme From The Bottom, Backwards Down The Number Line, 2001 and Harry Hood.

READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…

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Preview: Free Summer Concerts In NYC

The summer concert season is upon us and the Hidden Track staff knows that it’s virtually impossible for us to afford every show we want to hit, and still be able to pay our insanely expensive New York City rents. Luckily for us, there are a plethora of fantastic free concerts throughout the summer that don’t cost a dime. We decided to weed through all the listings and present to you our 4th Annual NYC Free Summer Concert Picks. Let’s take a look…

HT Recommends: Medeski, Martin & Wood / Josh Roseman & The King Froopy All Stars / Jim Black’s AlasNoAxis


Where: Central Park Summerstage

When: Saturday, June 11, 7:00PM

Official Info: The trio’s combination of jazz, funk, “avant-noise” and a million other musical impulses is nearly impossible to classify. Wide open: That’s the phrase that describes Medeski Martin & Wood’s musical sensibilities, attitude, and the spirit of adventure that the band has pursued for over two decades. The trio’s combination of jazz, funk, “avant-noise” and a million other musical impulses is nearly impossible to classify. Although the “jazz spirit” has been ever-present in their songs, the group has won over a substantial audience that is packed with alternative-rock lovers, jam-band aficionados and jazz heads.

The King Froopy All-Stars is an electric 12-piece project from celebrated trombonist and composer Josh Roseman. Featuring some of the edgiest voices harvested from Brooklyn’s new jazz scene, this electro-acoustic supergroup focuses world beat, spontaneous improvisation, dub, satire and psychedelia through Roseman’s unconventional lens. Able to simultaneously compel both your feet and the neocortex, this is what AAJ has called, “jazz-tinged party music with a master’s degree.”

AlasNoAxis is the culmination of famed jazz drummer, Jim Black’s years of experience on stage and in the studio with some of the world’s greatest composers and improvisors. The band’s 2000 self-titled debut, established a new standard for the cross-fertilization of rock, electro-acoustic and jazz, becoming the standard-bearer of “future jazz” and thrilling listeners with its powerhouse combination of virtuosity, rock emotion and noisy catharsis.

Other Free Shows At Central Park Summerstage: 6/22 – Reggie Watts / Natasha Leggero, 6/25 – Lee Fields & The Expressions / Fitz & The Tantrums / Andreya Triana / Rich Medina, 6/26 – Hugh Maskela / Freshly Ground / Somi, 6/29 – Comedy Central Park w. Jim Gaffigan & John Pinette, 7/2 – Everybody Love The Sunshine – Roy Ayers & The Jazz Mafia Symphony, 7/27 – Wanda Jackson / Imelda May, 8/6 – Shelebration! A Tribute To The Words Of Shel Silverstein, 8/7 – Friendly Fires / The Naked & Famous / Cults, 8/20 – Tiken Jah Fakoly / Meta & The Cornerstones / Los Rakas, 8/21 – Rakim / EPMD / Funkmaster Flex

READ ON for the rest of our list of free summer concerts in NYC…

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Phish Mansfield: Great Woods Setlist & Skinny

Phish @ Great Woods (Comcast Center), June 7

Phish returned to the venue formerly known as Great Woods – now the Comcast Center – for the 15th time this evening as the quartet’s summer tour continued in Mansfield, MA. Starting on July 21, 1992, a show where Phish opened for Santana, the venue has been a regular stop for the band outside of 1996 – 1998 and 2003.


The band opened up this evening’s show with only the fifth Llama since they reunited in Hampton. Possum reared its head for the fourth time in the tour’s nine performances thus far and didn’t reach the heights of the much buzzed about Blossom version according to Phish.net’s Scott Marks. Later in the set, Instant Karma! saw its first action since the quartet debuted the John Lennon cover on June 12, 2010 in Cuyahoga Falls, OH.

Great Woods shows are known for their one-timer covers such as Rita Clarke’s Lit O Bit in 2010, Tuesday’s Gone by Lynyrd Skynyrd and the only electric take on Boston’s Foreplay/Long Time in 1999 as well as a fun take on The Modern Lovers’ Roadrunner in 2000. This time around Al Green’s Rhymes, a song the Mike Gordon Band has performed 15 times between 2008 and 2011, got the call with Gordon handling vocals. Phish closed out the opening stanza with Divided Sky and the Joy staple Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan.

For the second set, Phish came out with Back On The Train and once again used the second slot for a song that provides an improvisational springboard with Rock and Roll filling the role this time around. Wyman noticed “distinct segmentation like [the Down With Disease] from Friday” while adding “[I] can’t compare, but very impressed.” The first Mango Song of the year followed and started a string of three 2011 debuts that also included Bug and Pebbles and Marbles. Fans hoping for another extended Halley’s Comet were disappointed as Phish quickly transitioned into Meatstick. The Run Like An Antelope closer featured Meatstick, Bug and Divided Sky teases before the group encored with a curfew-busting Suzy Greenberg.

HT’s Eric Wyman will provide a full review tomorrow, but in the meantime, READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…

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Paul Simon Welcomes David Byrne to Stage @ Joyous Webster Hall Performance

Paul Simon @ Webster Hall, June 6

Queens native Paul Simon played his first hometown “club gig” in quite some time last night at Manhattan’s Webster Hall and by the time his two hour-plus set was through, he had given the intimate crowd a taste of each period of his illustrious career as well as a guest spot from David Byrne that will be remembered as a highlight of 2011 for many in attendance.


Simon has never been one to just play the hits, but the soon-to-be 70-year-old performer also knows his crowd and doesn’t shy away from mixing in plenty of material from Graceland, his debut album and a few choice Simon & Garfunkel nuggets. Paul’s eight-piece band showed off their talent from the get go with an energetic take on Boy In The Bubble that would’ve got the crowd on the jammed-packed floor moving if it wasn’t “butts to nuts” down there. Webster Hall was packed to the gills for this Brooklyn Vegan-sponsored show.

Last month Simon released So Beautiful or So What, his first studio album since 2006 and in my mind his best effort since 1990’s Rhythm of the Saints. Paul offered just a handful of tunes from So Beautiful or So What scattered amongst the rest of the set in a way that never allowed a lull to develop. The playful Rewrite allowed Simon’s band of utility players to work their multi-instrumentalist magic on the many details found within the song. Nearly every member of the group filled multiple roles giving Simon so much flexibility in his live arrangements.

READ ON for more from last night’s Paul Simon show…

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Phish Blossom Cuyahoga Falls: Setlist

Phish @ Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls OH

Phish returned to Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, OH this evening for their fifth-ever performance at the Cleveland-area shed. The band continued on the improv-heavy path they went down last night once again tonight, especially during the second set.

[Photo by Joe Ringus]


The first set saw the band dust off their cover of Little Feat’s Rocket In My Pocket from Waiting for Columbus for its initial post-Halloween performance. Mike Gordon sang that one as well as Fuck Your Face, which popped up for the first time since Augusta. Foam, Guelah Papyrus and Guyute also made their 2011 debuts during an opening stanza that ended with a Run Like An Antelope which Justin Wendt of Oh Kee Pah Blog feels was “slaughtered.” The Antelope closer featured a Streets of Cairo tease and featured Trey making shout outs to his band mates and LD Chris “Toph” Kuroda.

Birds of a Feather opened the second set and was followed by Possum – the song Phish has played most since Hampton. Yet, this wasn’t a typical Possum as the group screwed around with the tempo towards the end leading towards a “meltdown” similar to the version of Boogie On from Bethel. Out of what Wendt described as “dark ambience” came the first original debut of 2011 entitled Steam. The Anastasio/Tom Marshall-penned tune had, “some elements of 46 days to it but played much slower and [more] deliberately” according to YEMblogger Josh Korin. Unlike the terribly short six-minute Piper from three nights earlier in Holmdel, the version that emerged out of sound effects used for Steam was extended nicely with improv HT’s Wade Wilby described as a “really pretty ambient jam.” Piper transitioned into Lizards before the quartet laid into a take on Allen Toussaint’s Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley that had “heavy psychedelic overtones” according to Wilby and was “the business” in Wendt’s mind.

Out of Sally came Harry Hood and smack dab in the middle of the usual Hood jam, Phish switched up the tempo and had keyboardist Page McConnell lead them into the rare Have Mercy before finishing the Harry Hood sandwich. Character Zero, another staple of the rotation that doesn’t vary very much from version to version, wasn’t a standard take as guitarist Trey Anastasio worked in numerous Smoke On The Water teases in both his solo and the ending. Not content to end the evening with a throwaway encore, Phish delivered Slave to the Traffic Light in the bonus frame.

READ ON for tonight’s setlist and The Skinny…

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