Phish celebrated Father’s Day this evening with their followers at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, AKA SPAC, in Saratoga Springs, NY. The show opened with Brother and during the middle
Last Sunday night in Hershey, Phish ran into curfew issues before they were able to cap the night with Tweezer Reprise so when the band finally did play Tweezer again,
The circus came to Hartford this evening as Phish Summer Tour reached the Northeast for the first of two shows at The Comcast Theatre in Connecticut. Tonight’s marathon show focused,
HT faves RANA played a rare gig last night on the Half Moon for a very special Rocks Off concert cruise. The band marked the eighth anniversary of the release
Since returning at Hampton in March of ’09, the members of Phish haven’t been much for giving interviews. The most recent Trey interview ran as part of a blurb in
After a strong opening night in Chicago, Phish came out of the gates with purpose this evening for show number two at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, OH debuting
More than five months after ending 2009 on a high note in Miami, Phish returned to the stage tonight at Toyota Park in Chicago and seemed to pick up where
Our pal The Joker from the Coventry Music blog has made his way to Arkansas to cover this weekend’s Wakarusa for HT. He’ll be sending reports each day on both the scene and the music. Here’s The Joker’s report on the second day of the festival…
Friday at Wakarusa was another amazing night of music. During the day it was – I’m using the technical term here – hot as balls. Because of the heat the main goal during the day for the majority of festivalgoers was staying in the shade and trying to get some sleep. I would say that 40% of the festival goers didn’t even come out to play until the sun was going down.
Staying in the shade and out of the sun was also my priority. The schedules at night are stacked full, and I knew that if I wanted to make it out all night I needed to save my strength.
- Joker’s Wakarusa Recap: Day One
The first music I saw came at 6:30pm when ALO played in the Revival Tent. ALO always impresses me with their positive, melodic songs and funky jams. At the start of the ALO set the Revival Tent 3/4 was full with festivalgoers laying down in the shade, choosing a cool place to rest rather than intentionally seeing ALO. That changed for most about halfway through the set as ALO had the tent standing up and at minimum bobbing heads to the funky groove of Possibly Drown. By the end of the set the tent was at capacity with everyone dancing to the infectious grooves.
READ ON for more from The Joker on Wakarusa Day Two…
Our pal The Joker from the Coventry Music blog has made his way to Arkansas to cover this weekend’s Wakarusa for HT. He’ll be sending reports each day – on both the scene and the music – and hopefully we’ll get some photos from longtime HT contributor John Schulze who is also on the scene. Here’s The Joker’s report on the first day of the festival…
To start this trip a few friends and I flew from Denver to Tulsa and rented a car to make the trip from Tulsa to Mulberry Mountain for Wakarusa. As we were waiting to board our planes I got a couple of stories from friends who had run into some bad luck on the way there – the Basics Fund Bus got pulled over in Hayes, KS after a State Trooper stopped to question the driver and noticed a stray nugget at his feet. Oops. They were “detained” for several hours while the Troopers ripped apart the bus, but they were eventually allowed to continue on to Wakarusa.
My group got to the festival grounds and finished setting up camp about 8pm. We started a little late in the evening as compared to most of the festivalgoers. The first taste of music I caught was after sundown – Robert Randolph. Robert Randolph always puts on a danceable show, but his setlists lack variety. Randolph brought up Ivan Neville for a strong version of Papa Was A Rolling Stone, but other than that it was a high energy yet standard show.
Next up was Railroad Earth in the Revival Tent. Railroad started off by ripping through jammy, psychedelic versions of Cold Water and Birds of America. The crowd in the tent was so into it and Tim Carbone’s fiddle seemed to breathe new life into an audience who was happy the sun had gone away and could dance under the lights. I was into Railroad Earth’s set and wish I could seen all of it. Since they play again today, and I had a Disco Ball on my head once again, I left early to head to see what madness Bisco would bring.
READ ON for more about Neil’s experience on Day 1 of Wakarusa…
When Conan O’Brien announced his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour most of us news-gathering types circled the two shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York City as the potential stand-outs.
Vampire Weekend w/ Conan – Walcott
Not only did the gawky, red-haired comedian call the Big Apple home for 15 years but O’Brien would be performing in the same group of buildings where his former NBC bosses work. The first of two shows at Radio City lived up to the hype as Conan tailored the set for the NYC audience and welcomed more than a few of his famous friends.
Musician/comedian/whack-job Reggie Watts kept the audience guessing throughout his 30-minute opening set by mixing straight jokes with physical comedy and hilarious musical interludes. Watts’ experimental act – which features a large dose of beat-boxing and looping skills that would make Keller Williams proud – went over extremely well and made most appreciate getting into the legendary venue on time. Shortly after 9PM, the Legally Prohibited From Being Funny of Television Tour Band took the stage and immediately brought the energy up by dropping into a killer version of Curtis Mayfield’s Move On Up that featured Richie “La Bamba” Rosenberg on surprisingly good vocals.
After his band got the crowd all hot and bothered, Conan strolled out to a hero’s welcome. O’Brien’s monologue started with a joke about Phish as he referenced all the glowsticks in the room – cocktails at Radio City come with a glowstick – by saying “this is not a Phish concert.” Nearly 20 minutes long, Conan’s opening killed and included tons of jokes about the chain of events that led the late night tv host to his first tour. Coco strapped on the guitar at various points throughout the evening and after a few songs with the Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Band he invited Vampire Weekend out for the first surprise of the evening.
READ ON for more on Conan’s first show at Radio City…
