Dates Have Dropped
Summer 2012
The wait is over. Yesterday at noon eastern, Phish dropped the dates for the first leg of Summer Tour 2012—and it looks awesome. The announcement video, featuring Fishman in a comical, Rocky-esque training montage, confirmed—one by one—each of the dates that had been “hacked” from the band’s website on Tuesday and circulated around the web. So while these dates weren’t a total surprise, it always feels nice to get things official. And with the ticket request window now open through March 12th, things are as official as they come. Satiating many a whiny fan who had to wait a whopping two months after New Year’s for the band to confirm their summer plans, this set of dates looks like a path paved in gold.
Phish will kick off 2012 in indoor fashion in at The Centrum (or DCU Center) in Worcester, Massachusetts, a welcome departure from the parking lot maze and cookie cutter shed of Great Woods. We have come to learn in this era, that the band, fresh off practice sessions, opens tours with some of their strongest shows of the entire run. Going back two years, this trend is illustrated through Toyota Park’s 2010 opener in Chicago, The Greek Theatre run in Berkeley on leg two; Bethel Woods to open 2011 and The Gorge on leg two. What does this mean? Get your ass to Worcester! On the heels of a lackluster New Year’s Run, I wouldn’t be surprised to see these indoor shows absolutely blow up.
DCU Center—Worcester, MA
The two nights at Worcester will also serve as a warm up for the band’s headlining slot at Bonnaroo. Phish will close the festival as the final headliner on Sunday night before taking an uncharacteristic four day break before continuing tour the following weekend in Atlantic City. Expect this AC three-pack to be destination shows for fans across the country, as the massive GA Bader Field setup with loosely resemble the feeling of a festival. Throw in the casinos and the beach and you’ve a got a recipe for a fun-filled weekend down the shore.
Immediately following Phish’s second Atlantic City extravaganza in three years, the band will hop down to one of their newest southeastern haunts, nTelos Pavilion. This go-round, the intimate GA amphithatre will host a two-night, midweek stand that will be the only shows in the usually saturated Southeast. No Charlotte, no Raleigh, no Alpharetta. It looks like southern fans will have to flirt with the Mason-Dixon line this summer to get their fill of Phish.
Bader Field—Atlantic City, NJ
From the shores of Virginia, the band will head to the Midwest for a significant chunk of tour. Return visits to Riverbend in Cincy, Star Lake (or First Niagara Pavilion) outside of Pittsburgh, and Blossom outside of Cleveland, provide us with this year’s staple segment of bizarre routing. The band will travel to Ohio, back to Pennsylvania, and then back to Ohio, but regardless of this criss-cross driving, these are three sheds that hold all sorts of lore, and I foresee one or two of those nights turning into tour highlights.
Following another bizarre four day break, Phish will return to their Midwestern Meccas of Deer Creek (or Klipsch Music Center) and Alpine Valley for two shows at each locale. Immediately circled on everyone’s calendar as the other can’t miss weekend of Leg One, fans welcome a return to these classic amphitheatres after they were skipped over in 2011. Not much more to say about this summer tour “rite of passage” but be there!
In a move that mimics the tail end of Summer 2010, Phish will hop a plane from Milwaukee to New York, in somewhat of a surprise move, to celebrate July 4th with two nights at Jones Beach. Though the fireworks over the water will look nice at the end of the show, we will have to endure the virtual straight jackets applied by the over zealous security staff to make it through the shows. A venue with less dance space than a Japanese subway train, these shows, while I am sure will be great musically, don’t excite me experientially at all. If I’m missing out on some secret space in the venue, please email me personally. (Just kidding. Kind of.) And to close the opening leg of summer exactly one month after its beginning, Phish will head up to SPAC for a three-show finale in Saratoga Spa State Park. Returning to the venue in 2004 after a nine-year absence, this era will see Phish visit the redone upstate New York shed three times in the first four years, and this year the ante will be raised as SPAC hosts its first-ever three night stand.
All in all, the venues of summer’s first leg provide a trip down memory lane, as each stop holds more than a bit of Phish history. And with the release of Leg Two dates coming “later this spring,” Summer 2012 is shaping up to be an unexpectedly beefy season of shows. Good luck with the ticket lottery, and I’ll see you out there on the road!
6/7 DCU Center, Worcester, MA
6/8 DCU Center, Worcester, MA
6/10 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Manchester, TN
6/15 Bader Field, Atlantic City, NJ
6/16 Bader Field, Atlantic City, NJ
6/17 Bader Field, Atlantic City, NJ
6/19 nTelos Wireless Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA
6/20 nTelos Wireless Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA
6/22 Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH
6/23 First Niagara Pavilion, Burgettstown, PA
6/24 Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
6/28 Klipsch Music Center, Noblesville, IN
6/29 Klipsch Music Center, Noblesville, IN
6/30 Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI
7/1 Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI
7/3 Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY
7/4 Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, NY
7/6 Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
7/7 Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
7/8 Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
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PhanArt Reviews Phish Thoughts—The Book
Cover (Masthay)
Check out the latest review of Mr. Miner’s Phish Thoughts—An Anthology By a Fan For the Fans on PhanArt.com. Now is a perfect time to buy your copy and feed that yearning for Summer Tour that won’t be quenched for over three months. Enjoy essays about summer tours past, legendary shows and jams that took place at the very sheds we’ll be visting this summer, venue histories of multiple 2012 tour stops, and a whole lot more! Head on over to the book site and check it out!
shabazz palaces rules.
Hey guys, anyone know the music in this GE commercial? It’s familiar, but I can’t place it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjj__UJLKJc
I keep posting and running, but, dates eh?
Creek>Valley run is probably in order. That and every single West Coast date when it’s announced.
@voopa Don’t know either. Sounds familiar, though.
The guitar at the end seems to quote the horns from Otis & Carla’s ‘The Tramp.” Maybe it’s a cover of it?
(Or maybe I’m crazy.)
Mr miner, you are most Definatly going to delete this message from your board, before anyone sees it, because you are a coward….
So here are some things you should read…………..:……… I could care less if anyone sees this but your sorry self….
I think its cool u like phish sometimes….
I however, always enjoy their offerings, for if it were’nt for their joy… Mine would be of lesser value…. Every single show phish performs is beneficial towards the greater good of this whole thing we call life….
I most admire your Sparse admiration, as much as I dislike your drug induced false identification of the group and their performances…
You have unreasonable, unfathomable expectations, that only lead me to conclude, you wish you were at way more shows than you actually saw….
I think it is humorous that after a true review of your “clouded” Nye show review, you blocked me from your site…. This only proves you are a sad pretentious blogger, who thinks his opinions matter … And who think he is of the same stature as phish….. Well Mr minor…. You are nothing but a press journalist who isn’t strong enough to write a review that isn’t clouded by your over abuse of drugs…..:……..
Long live phish and all they o ffer us….
You will regret your ill reviews sometime in life….
phreedumb: lay of the angel dust, brah.
It’s not the band’s fault u do too many drugs and expect a 30+ minute tweezer, mikes or Gamehendge for every show u make it too…
U need a delorian that goes 88 miles per hour, or u need to chill the fuk out and read the Fukin book
I keep trying to put down the H/WS box set, but it keeps calling me back- especially 11/21. I’d spun 11/22 and 11/23 into the ground in the XLII days and love the upgrades there, but think 11/21 II may benefit the most from the Kevorkian treatment. What a set. Best bag ever? At least in the conversation with 12/30/97, UIC ’98, Boise, and Coventry. That Slave too. Between that beast, Cleveland, and Dayton, Fall ’97 may contain my three favorites ever. I can’t wait to hit some fuckin’ shows.
#phishusuallywins
I often wish I had a Delorian- mostly for the gull-wing doors. Time travel would be cool too.
Why so angry, phree? Miner just calls it how he sees it. One man’s opinion.
PhreeDUMB
Don’t worry brah. Even if Miner does delete yer post I’ve copied it and saved it for prosperity. That shits gold kid. We love this sort of shit. Very quoatable.
that’s the funniest post I’ve seen in years. Gold, jerry, pure gold!
I admire phreedums sparse admiration. a lot.
Burgettstown will be sleeper show of the tour. Book it!
as for GAP one – heard that Raleigh/Charlotte for that Tues/Wed fell through? anyone know what happened there?
Remember this – Bill Graham Civic Center in San Fran…. Taking the UIC indoor leg two experience to another level…..
Lots of talk about SPAC balcony has me intrigued. I rememeber my first dead show-SPAC 85′-, and Phil Lesh going-don’t hang off the balcony, there are 40 thousand people waiting for you man don’t hang off the balcony-to some naked freak. Hells angels everywhere. To think Woodstock had been but 15 years before blows my mind as at the time it seemed like all the time in the world. But 15 years ago-take a few months or so- present day, Phish was playing the Gorge for the first time, and it seems like yesterday. Time is weird, but as you grow older it turns from an ally to an enemy. But back to SPAC balcony, how close is it again? I recall it being kinda far, definitely not as close as an indoor theater balcony, but most importantly is the sound clear and loud?
You are nothing but a press journalist
What irony, as I’m sure Miner takes that as a compliment …