It’s not often that I get shocked by a Phish video surfacing on YouTube, but I experienced that emotion yesterday when I saw that Phish video guru tdunski had uploaded
HT faves Phish will set out on a 18-date tour starting with a three-night run at Bethel Woods in Bethel, NY over Memorial Day Weekend and concluding three weeks later at the nTelos Pavilion in Portsmouth, VA on June 19. This marks Phish’s first tour of 2011 after ending 2010 and starting 2011 at Madison Square Garden.
Phish Summer Tour 2011 takes the group back to a number of familiar venues from the past two summers including the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA; the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ; the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatres in Charlotte, NC and Alpharetta, GA as well as the Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion in Raleigh, NC.
A pre-order lottery for tickets to every show on the band’s docket has started via Music Today and you can put your entry in through March 4. Summer Tour 2011 marks the first time Phish has offered different prices for pavilion seats and for lawn seats at these summer sheds. While face for lawns is $45, pavilion seats will go for $60. The public onsales are set to take place on March 11 and 12.
Here’s a look at the full itinerary…
May 27 – 29 = Bethel Woods, Bethel NY
May 31 & June 1 = PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel NJ
June 3 = DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston MI
June 4 = Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls OH
June 5 = Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati OH
June 7 = Comcast Center, Mansfield MA
June 8 = Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Darien NY
June 10 = Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden NJ
June 11 and 12 = Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia MD
June 14 and 15 = Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Alpharetta GA
June 17 = Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte NC
June 18 = Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion, Raleigh NC
June 19 = nTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth VA
UPDATE: Phish’s Vimeo video page has been updated to read, “Additional summer announcements will be coming. Following the summer, the band has no touring plans for the remainder of the year.”
READ ON for a more in-depth look at each venue…
As we gear up for the annual day of gluttony otherwise known as Super Bowl Sunday, we couldn’t help but notice the uncanny similarities between a number of players on the rosters of the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers and those of the faces you’ll find at any number of summer music festivals. Sure plenty of players let their facial hair grow out, or let their manes go uncut for the playoffs, but a quick glance at the sidelines of both teams will find as many weird beards and long-haired players as you’d expect to see at a My Morning Jacket show.
So we here at Team HT decided to pick some of our favorite players that are letting their freak flag fly, and imagined where and to whom you might find these gridiron warriors rocking out to when their season is over…
Brett Keisel
Who Is Brett: Defensive End who has become a cult hero in Pittsburgh, inspiring the Fear The Beard movement and is quite possibly one step away from being found on Passed Out Wookies if the Steelers win the Super Bowl.
Where You Might Find Him: Ever since that transcendent night at Big Cypress, Keisel has become a full on grizzled tour vet, catching as many Phish shows as he can each year before training camp. When the Phab Phour rolls through the ‘burgh for a stop at the First Niagara Pavilion (which Keis will always call Star Lake), you’ll find his dirt-caked feet in patchwork overalls raging Page side with his Lushington sign, and post-show slinging some of the tastiest veggie burritos and headiest craft beers around.
READ ON for more of our picks…
Yesterday, BandsThatJam.com set the Phish blogosphere abuzz with an article that claimed Phish signed a contract to play eight sets over three days during the Fourth of July Weekend at Watkins Glen. The post went on to say tickets would cost $200 and that re-entry would be allowed to the site throughout the weekend before ending with “This has been confirmed and contract has been signed.” Today, Watkins Glen International president Michael Printup denied those reports to The Elmira Gazette…
“We don’t know who is putting that out. There are a bunch of erroneous sites out there,” he said. “We’ve been working with a concert promoter. But we don’t even have a contract. It’s all wishful thinking. We haven’t even signed a contract with a promoter. You do that first. Then it’s up to him to see what band he gets.”
Printup also mentioned “Watkins Glen International is looking at some kind of summer concert, but it’s too early to even start talking about bands.” We reached out to Bands That Jam yesterday for clarification on their report and the site’s editor Pete Stergion responded, “the WGI President has to deny the story. They can’t publicly confirm until all the loose ends have been tied up. Our source has given us credible, specific information. Our source is not a Phish fan so they wouldn’t even have the ability to make up the information which is very consistant with what Phish has done in the past.”
Stergion went on to say, “People need to realize that Watkins is a VERY small town. To organize something of this magnitude it requires co-ordination with a lot of different people and when you have a town this small it’s hard to keep secrets. We’re standing by our story & our source.” Whether Printup is offering some misdirection is up for debate, but we do know is that no permit has been issued for a mass gathering at the racetrack. As always, no Phish concert is confirmed until it is listed on Phish.com.
[Hat Tip – @TylerCurtis]
UPDATE: This story was updated at 10:52PM with Bands That Jam’s response to The Elmira Gazette. READ ON for more from Stergion…
The summer festival field may become even more crowded this June with a proposed three-day event at Bader Field in Atlantic City. AC mayor Lorenzo Langford spoke about the festival
Trey Anastasio announced today a two-week tour opening Friday, February 18th at the newly re-opened State Theater in Portland, ME and closing 15 days later on Saturday, March 5th at
Seems like this time of year everyone is making a list of some sort. Worst this and best that. We wanted in on that action. You’ve been waiting, longing even, to hear our opinions, we know, it’s ok. To keep it short: 2010 didn’t suck. Here are Three Grown Men’s favorite moments of 2010:
Jonathan Kosakow’s top musical moments of 2010
3. Joe Purdy – “4th of July”
I stumbled upon Joe Purdy by way of coincidence, luck and lack of other choices. The right place at the right time, he was playing his guitar alone on stage in one of the larger tents at the Mile High Music Festival this past August in front of a large crowd. Nobody else happened to be performing at that moment.
His beard struck me first, long and unkempt, hiding his face just like his dark sunglasses. His talent struck me next: a solemn and reminiscent voice, both lyrically and vocally, I thought of Ryan Adams and Ray LaMontagne; and a simple but catchy way of playing the acoustic guitar with single notes and melodies mixed into chord strums, I thought of Neil Young, among others. I was able to learn through his onstage mumblings that he is somewhat of a loner, and recorded his latest album alone in a shack in Arkansas. I went home tired and dirty later that night and found the album streaming online. 4th of July is simple: a lot of good songs.
2. Keith Richards – Life
For all the years he’s been in the spotlight, Keith Richards has somehow managed to stay somewhat of a mystery to the public. There are hundreds of stories floating around about him and his time on the road, but he has rarely, if ever, confirmed or denied them. Life is exactly that: a confirmation and a denial. Keef tells you everything, from the street he grew up on as a child to whether or not he had a voluntary blood transfusion to rid his cells of heroin. His memories of the Stones’ first gigs and their many recording sessions, his obsessive and detailed knowledge of the music that inspired them, and his reasoning for playing a 5-string guitar. It’s all in there: the music and the life.
READ ON for more of 3GM’s Top Musical Moments of ’10…
December 31st is the biggest night for live music of the year. An argument might be made for Halloween, but I’m not buying it. Your non-live-music-loving-friends don’t say things like, “Halloween is the most anti-climactic day of the year” while you sit there and just snicker. We’ve been a little Phish heavy this week so let’s take a look at how 24 other bands rang in 2011.
Side Note: This was my first time using embedded images from setlist.fm and I must say it looks super slick. That site has really got it going on, I hope the quality of data improves as more people use it, because with better information – statistics like “What songs did LCD Soundsystem play in 2010” will be really useful to have for a wide variety of bands.
READ ON for lots more New Year’s Eve Setlists
While ScottyB is soaking in the rays and the tunes on the high seas, we are going to take a final look back at Phish’s monumental three-night run at Madison Square Garden.
1. The Band Still Has “It”
Some fans have felt this way for a while now. Some fans felt the band never recovered from their first hiatus. My feeling, and most fans probably felt this way, is that there have certainly been moments. And shows. And from time to time back-to-back shows. But there has not been a three-night run of this caliber (both song selection and playing) in a long long time. Like maybe Phish 1.0 long. The band confidently tore through 71 songs over the course of the stand and delivered, in my opinion, their three best start-to-finish shows of the year. If you aren’t impressed with what the band brought at MSG then you should just stop going to shows.
2. New Year’s Run Should be at MSG Every Year
I don’t give a fuck how nice the weather is in Miami. This band belongs at Madison Square Garden every year for New Year’s Eve. Something about the mix of that building, that band and New York City makes for magic. And next year the band should clean up and jam out Round Room as a proper nod. This year’s version, while very much appreciated, was one of the few tunes that showed its rust.
READ ON for eight more things Luke Learned from the run.
Today we continue a tradition started last summer, where we examine a Phish run from A to Z. This time around the shows in question took place at Madison Square Garden last Thursday, Friday and Saturday as part of the band’s New Year’s celebration.
[Photo by Adam Kaufman]
A is for Arena Rock – Phish harnessed the energy of the “World’s Greatest Arena” throughout all seven sets at MSG by focusing on the arena rock originals and covers in their repertoire. There were few ballads and lots of high impact moments from the Cities opener on the 30th through the Frankenstein encore on the 1st.
B is for Bust Outs – Dusting off gems from the Phish catalog which haven’t been performed in a while is a New Year’s Run tradition and this year’s run was no exception. Mike Gordon’s Round Room returned for the first time in 140 shows, the quartet’s cover of Beauty of My Dreams came back after 133 shows, and Manteca re-entered the fold after a 301 show hiatus.
C is for Caps – If you weren’t familiar with the ridiculous MSG policy of venue staff keeping the caps from water bottles before the run, you probably found out the hard way. A rock show isn’t exactly the best environment for a cap-less water bottle and many fans spilled plenty of water over the course of the three-day run, though most were wise enough to bring their own Dasani caps by Night Two.
READ ON for the rest of the Phish MSG 2010 Alphabet.
