Summer Musings
Summer Tour 2013
There’s nothing like a fresh set of dates. Despite the accuracy of the rumors you had the previous week, once he band posts their schedule, the time between now and then is posted on a virtual countdown timer that we all carry with us to some degree. Whether you are planning on hitting every show or just a few, downloading every show or hearing them when you do, the infusion of new Phish music douses our collective consciousness with vitality and life force. When dates drop, all of this gets brought to the surface again and everything gets jacked up for a few minutes or a few hours, depending who we are, in anticipation of what is to come. And this year the band has changed it up.
Instead of splitting up their summer into a two-pronged attack, Phish’s first tour of their 30th year is a month-long stretch spanning both coasts and evoking the feel of a late ‘90s summer circuit. Starting in Maine and finishing in Los Angeles, the band will play 22 shows with a 3-day encore in Colorado over Labor Day Weekend. I’d go over all the venues one by one, but Hidden Track has got that covered. What immediately stands out to me upon looking at the docket is the plentitude of multi-night runs and the long-overdue, west coast love. Making things easy for travelers, all but five shows are in the context of multi-night runs. And with all due respect to the east coast, 3.0 mainstays such as Jones Beach, Merriweather and Alpharetta, the golden stretch of this summer runs down the left coast for a change.
The Gorge ’09 (Wendy Rogell)
To cap their month of touring, Phish will fly from Chicago to Washington State for 13th and 14th shows at The Gorge, and their the fifth and sixth of the modern era. Since 1997, every time the band has ventured into the Columbia River Gorge they have reaped some of their most creative exploits of their respective tours. There’s nothing quite like seeing Phish at The Gorge, and who knows how many more times they will go back? Taking two days off the band will hit up Lake Tahoe for a mid-week twin bill. Although the venue at Harvey’s amounts to a parking lot, being in the mountains for the other 20 hours of the day will provide quite the worthy tour stop. The band’s 8/9/11 show at Harvey’s remains one of the universally underrated shows of this era. The band will head back to the Bay and back to Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for a late summer three-pack that looks to be quite the end-of-tour blowout. With a standout show under their belt in the building, the band returns almost a year to 8/19/12 for three more shows that are in prime position. Instead of playing the intimate arena at the beginning of a tour, the band should come in a well-oiled machine—see Dick’s last year. Phish will hop down to LA and close their tour with one show at Hollywood Bowl. Marking their second show under the visually electric shell, the band will play a one-off show in the glitzy surroundings of the music industry’s epicenter.
As an encore to the tour, the band will play their annual, end-of-summer date at everyone’s favorite soccer stadium in Commerce City, Colorado—a stand-alone, three-night run at Dick’s over Labor Day Weekend. The band’s first two stands at Dick’s have provided some of the strongest music of their respective summers, and I see no reason why that trend would stop now. With a month to go deep, the band will showcase what they found over the course of the season in the Rockies of Denver. The thinner summer schedule suggests the fall tour that everybody assumes is right around the corner, but one thing at a time here.
8.19.2012 – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium (Ken Scelfo)
Two other runs that jump out at me are the opening weekend and Chicago. The the obscure tour-opener on July 3 in Bangor, Maine is a no-brainer must-see show. Nothing else needs to be said about that. With one day off, the band will back that up with a three pack at SPAC over the holiday weekend. This run has throwback written all over it, and Bangor’s date is reminiscent of The Ballpark in Old Orchard Beach, ME on July 3, 1994. The second attention-grabbing destination shows are in Chicago over the second weekend of July. Taking place at Charter One Pavilion on Northerly Island looking back at the city, this venue will be a first for Phish, but I’ve only heard great things.
Additionally, Phish will dip into Canada right after SPAC to good ‘ol Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto, the site of two shows in ’99 and ’00, for the first time since 2000. It is good to see them return to the over-sized GA floor at Alpharetta and leave Lakewood a fixture of the ‘90s. This month-long jaunt is rounded out with routine tour stops at PNC, Jones Beach and two nights at Merriweather.
Tickets requests are available now for just under two weeks. More on the tour as things get closer. Good luck in the lottery and take the brief Summer Tour Poll below.
7/3 Bangor Waterfront Pavilion – Bangor, Maine
7/5-7/7 Saratoga Performing Arts Center – Saratoga Springs, New York
7/9 Molson Amphitheatre – Toronto, Ontario
7/10 PNC Bank Arts Center – Holmdel, New Jersey
7/12 Nikon at Jones Beach Theater – Wantagh, New York
7/13-14 Merriweather Post Pavilion – Columbia, Maryland
7/16-17 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre – Alpharetta, Georgia
7/19-21 Northerly Island – Chicago, Illinois
7/26-27 Gorge Amphitheatre – George, Washington
7/30-31 Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena at Harveys – Stateline, Nevada
8/2-4 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium – San Francisco, California
8/5 Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles, California
8/30-9/1 Dick’s Sporting Goods Park – Commerce City, Colorado
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Tags: 2013, Summer 2013
Thanks, Gdad. Lining up this west coast run is a pleasure. It all works so well. 2 days betweem Gorge & Tahoe and one day between Tahoe & SF. Couldn’t work any better for the way I like to travel at this point. Can’t do those drives any more. Did the Gorge drive back in ’09 and promised myself ‘next time, I’m on a plane.’
Hope to finally cross paths with some of you folks. Really should have done that in the midwest last year, cause i was all by my lonesome – which i do enjoy. Probably be with a crew for Gorge & SF, but looks like i’ll be solo(ish) for Tahoe.
These vids are way more informative.
http://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/video-trey-anastasio-talks-phish-and-phish-fans/
yeah. seems to me those two clips should make most people feel pretty good about the state of phish, and chuckle at the silly rumors of a looming breakup.
Also – remember our discussiona few days back about Trey “playing it safe” and not taking risks? well, there ya go. He knows what we want.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/theater/trey-anastasio-and-the-musical-hands-on-a-hardbody.xml
Trey on Broadway interview
T3, same link as yours, not a Hardbody review. Those drop next week, official opening 3/21
yeah, I realized that after I got through the whole thing, sumo. more about trey and song writing than the show itself. good piece either way!
Never-a-boy-scout Sumoscout reports that onsite Dick’s camping was awesome in 2011
Didnt last year as my Eagle Scout partner never earned his Wook Badge, stayed at Westminster Westin with Prez Obama instead ( Westin is on to us as prices no longer rock bottom this year, fok)
(yeah, G was an eagle scout, and he hated the boy scouts, lol. Parents…)
Any of you fools making the drive from Gorge to Tahoe should plan to spend the night in Bend, OR, and enjoy a brewery crawl. It’s a nice midway point with lots to do and see…and drink. Me, telas, and alf did it in ’11 and had a blast.
Boise Bag definitely a deserted island track for me. Really digging this AlphaUberDroid @t3…thanks for the work.
Thinking of flying into denver on 8/28 & driving straight to Estes Park/ Rocky Mtn Ntl Pk for 2 nites. Then staying somewheres b/t Denver & Boulder ala Westin for 3 nites of trippy dick
I know I’ve posted this several times, but we really need to have a few more teams on the phantasy baseball league. It’s FREE! That’s right, we are playing strictly for pride, bragging rights, etc. Come join the fun! Did I mention it’s FREE! You know you want to….tell your friends! It’s what all of the cool kids are doing (except for you, which is why you need to sign up now!). Email guitarpicker420 at Y@hoo dot com to get the official invite!
My Early List for Songs I’m Hoping Return This Tour
Spock’s Brain
All Things Reconsidered
CDT Reprise
Izabella
Caravan
Spread It Round (back off, hater!)
Thunderhead
Ain’t Love Funny
Foreplay/Long Time
Whipping Post
I’m Blue, I’m Lonesome
Inlaw Josie Wales
Magilla
Yerushalayim Shel Zahav
Dave’s Energy Guide (a real one)
Big Ball Jam (c’mon, it’d be fun to see it happen again… just once)
Fixin’ to Die
Sea and Sand
A Train
Eliza
there’s others, but that’s a top of the head list of ones we haven’t heard in 3.0
According to that nytimes article, one can infer that Trey has remained busy with Hardbody thru this winter, as they just inserted a new song into the show during the preview run
Ergo no new phish material (or so I assume)
Maybe I should skip Follakzoid/Holydrug Couple and catch Hardbody’s opening (same night!).
sumo, I think if you did that you’d get shunned by everyone here but me
Fixin’ to die has been at the top of my wish list since I dusted off that ’94 Evergreen, WA release last year. So freakin’ sweet, sing it to myself often.
@T3….I think Spocks and Thunderhead are possible. The band HAS to know that kids are dying for an Izabella esp after the Auburn Hills release…also, what coveted Phish-penned songs in the cannon (would-be bustouts) are left? Spocks is definitely one. MLT is another. Prep School Hippie won’t be coming back.
18 min mark of penn state simple = welcome (and thank you again, GC)
Sumo, so Dicks camping is pretty legit? How were facilities? For those commuting, is the day-parking situation easy?
Gotta second Leo’s rec of stopping in Bend.
It’s a beautiful desert town in c. oregon. Most folks think of Oregon as the land of tall trees and are blown away by the eastern half of the state that is desert.
Also, Leo is right that Bend is home to some of the best breweries in the whole state. But my top three breweries in Bend are (in order): Deschutes; Boneyard; 10 Barrel.
I can’t wait to see Hands on a Hardbody
been waiting my whole life for a musical filled with bad pop songs revolving around hillbillies with their hands on a pick up truck
dream show right there
Love to see Highway to Hell back in rotation (as a cover) and I do love Magilla. I think Glide is a great song. Sad to see it out of rotation also.
night comrades
broadway troy FTW
Can’t imagine it as a musical. But I can’t really imagine anything as a musical. Except Springtime for Hitler.
But HOAHB as a movie is great. Must see. Like American Movie.
For those who trek into Bend, don’t miss Silver Moon Brewery…they had an incredible IPA when we stopped in.
I love HtH. Good call, MiA.
Keep Torn & Frayed in rotation, Trey, or the cute Broadway chick gets it.
@sumo – if you head out early give me a shout. Could recommend some stuff in that area…..