Thanks to Hidden Track for the heads up about this great article in the New York Times about Phish and their return. Some really positive stuff in there from a fan perspective. Two things in particular really stood out to me. One, they are talking about how to make this a “a format to keep playing for a long time” according to Trey. That’s great, as I think everyone will agree that the big tours of the past may not be feasible, but there is no reason Phish can’t keep things going for years and years to come.
Another point that I really liked was how they have been practicing, and not just the simple songs. According to the article, Split Open & Melt and Foam were being practiced. Foam! When’s the last time they played that? It sounds like they are dedicated to really being on top of their game with this go round, which is really exciting. Part of the joy of Phish in ‘94 was knowing they’d hit 99% of the notes perfectly!
Lastly, there is a mention of a structured setlist for the weekend shows, and I think this is great. Just yesterday I was listening to a bunch of Fall 2000 shows, and thinking how great and varied the setlists were. Apparently at the time Trey didn’t like it though, as he vowed that tour would be the last where they used setlists. And while there is a cool creative element to the open slate of just playing whatever, I think with a planned setlist, you get better variety, at least from a fan perspective. And it’s not like they can’t deviate if they are feeling it too.
Definitely check the article out, it was a fantastic way to start the morning!
Just when I thought I couldn’t get any more excited about this weekend’s shows, Phish.com just announced they will be offering free MP3 downloads of the entire weekend! From the official site:
“Each show will be professionally multitracked and mixed onsite and within 24 hours, 256kbps MP3s will be made available for free for a limited time at LivePhish.com. Fans who wish to download higher quality versions may purchase FLAC downloads. The shows will also be available on CD. Both are available for pre-order now. You can register at LivePhish.com to receive an email when the free MP3s are available for download.”
Everyone had been wondering why there was no preorder on LivePhish yet, and I guess now we know why! So psyched I don’t think I am gonna be able to sleep the rest of the week!
While I was reading Phish Thoughts the other day, I came across a post about the Victor Disk, a collection of recordings from 2002 before the band played their first reunion shows after the hiatus. After having listened to it several times now, I have to say, this is just great. This is why I love Phish. If all they did was stuff like this from now on, I’d be a happy camper. They are so good at just settling in and jamming it out with eachother, who needs things like structure and lyrics. Just give me endless Phishy improv and it’s all good.
Ok, I remember the first time Phish came back. It was hard to get tickets to MSG and Hampton, but the rest of the tour wasn’t a big deal from what I remember. There certainly wasn’t all this despair about not getting tickets and scalpers and such. I mean there are always scalpers, but I just don’t remember it being like this last time. So what’s changed?
Well, for one, last time we knew it was just a hiatus. They were expected to come back at some point, it was only a matter of when. This time, we thought they were done, finished, end of the road. Of course we all hoped and prayed, but really it was always a distant hope.
Back then we only had to wait a little over two years. This time it’s been over four years, so everybody is really jonesing for the Phish! I was honestly shocked at how quickly the summer tour sold out, especially the larger venues. I figured Alpine would stick around for awhile, but no such luck.
So what does it all mean? Is this how it’s gonna be for Phish 3.0? I sure hope not. The second time around, it was nice knowing you could slack on tickets and still see the shows you wanted to go to. I’m hoping once the first year of their return has passed, things will settle and we’ll get back to normal. Whenever the West Coast run is announced we’ll probably have to deal with the same crap, but we’ll see. Whenever you have limited supply and great demand, you get high prices. Damn economic theory is screwing us on this one!
I had resigned myself to not going to Hampton, and I was ok with it. Tickets sold out super fast, I did all I could, and I certainly wasn’t going to pay some scalping bastard. Yep, I had resigned myself to sitting this one out, but a chance conversation with a good friend rekindled the hope, and low and behold, we scored tickets for the Sunday night show.
We even found incredibly cheap plane tickets, which could have been a dealbreaker. So we’re going to the show, and we couldn’t be more excited. Each day brings the reality closer, and the energy levels continue to rise in anticipation of what we thought we’d never see again.
Not much going on these days. The new Phish Live at The Roxy album is coming soon, but other than that we are in that in between time, waiting for the next tour. As things get closer we’ll be ramping up here, but for now we’re on cruise control.
A big thanks to Mr Miner for providing such excellent tour coverage over the last two weeks. His positive, upbeat attitude makes each post enjoyable to read and gets the stoke up for what’s to come from our favorite heroes.
Speaking of which, he has a good post on which current Trey songs (old and new) might make it into the rotation when Phish comes back to the stage. I agree pretty much with all his assesments, and it’ll be fun to see what actually does get picked up by Phish.
You’ll also find a bunch of links to downloads for the recent shows on the same post, have at!
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You will have another chance to purchase tickets on the public on-sale date for each show. For specific on-sale information please see below or refer to the tour dates section at www.Phish.com/tourdates
Tickets will be available Saturday, October 18 at 10:00AM Eastern here: http://www.ticketmaster.com/Phish-tickets/artist/748766
3.06.09 Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA 3.07.09 Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA 3.08.09 Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA
Guess I know what I am doing on Saturday morning…
Last night I had an incredible dream about being at the first reunion show. The energy was high, folks were estatic. And then the lights went down. The place goes nuts, and they open with Peaches En Regalia. Followed by Fluffhead. It felt so vivid and real, I woke up with a smile on my face.
So you heard it here first folks. I saw it in a dream, and that’s my prediction for the opening songs. Oh, and one more thing. They nailed the composed section of the Fluff. Way to go fellas!
Now that I’ve had some time to let the shock and awe set in, I can see things a little more clearly. And I think this is exactly what the country needs right now. Just when you thought the world truly was going to shit with all the greed and corruption in the news every day, Phish reunites to bring some much need fun back onto the scene. Forget about corrupt politicians, forget about a pointless war, let’s just go rock out with four of the best musicians who have ever lived and thousands of like minded folks. The inspiration is sure to flow and then maybe we can figure out how to pick up the pieces and get things back on track again.