After exactly one month off, Phish will return for their late-summer run at the improbable Berkeley, California locale, The Greek Theatre. One of the most beautifully set amphitheatres in the land will host Phish for a three-night party on August 5-7, kicking off the most anticipated week of the Summer 2010. On a hilltop at the University of California, the famous Bay Area icon holds only 8,500 people per night, making it the first truly tough ticket of the summer. With only these three shows on the west coast until the fall, fans will be coming from far and wide to see Phish’s return to The Greek. With a GA policy and limited floor space, you can bet on a Red-Rocks-esque scene of early arrivals rolling out tarps and staking claim on their crew’s space for the night.If two things are for sure, Berkeley will be a scene, and these shows will be something special.

After only one day off, Phish will fulfill the rumor of the winter by playing Town Park in Telluride, CO. On August 9 and 10, the Phish community will descend upon this mountain hamlet for the most anticipated shows of the summer. Returning to Telluride for the first time since 1991, these two days will have a throwback vibe, as the band plays at the base of the Rockies. Expect a festive atmosphere in town all weekend, as Phish unveils their mountain music inspired by the gorgeous environs. With tickets exclusively sold in two-day passes, only 9,000 people, total, will get in to what looks to be the most enchanted Phish experience of the summer. In the span of six days, Phish will play five shows of under 10,000 people, something that hasn’t happened since Japan 2000. Pretty…pretty…pretty…pretty cool.

Following the opening week of August, the scene will shift to the Midwest for one of the most classic combos of summer venues, Deer Creek and Alpine Valley. 2010 will make it nine consecutive summer tours, dating back to 1996, that the band will combine these two Midwestern jewels. With shows that, historically, almost never disappoint, this run is a no-brainer for standout Phish. With two shows in the cornfields and two in cheese country, the overnight route between the two venues is perhaps the most classic summer Phish drive that exists in the land. Maybe this year someone can figure out why the highways in Wisconsin are named with letters instead of numbers.

And to close the tour – for now – the band will return to the east coast for two shows at Jones Beach in Wantagh, New York. This summer, Long Island will host the end of tour as opposed to 2009′s three-night stand at the onset of June.  On the original set of dates that circulated before the announcement, everything matched up exactly, but there were also two Radio City shows tacked onto the end. The absence of these dates on the official announcement either means that they fell through at the last minute, or they are still hammering out the details. I wouldn’t be surprised to see something else added the end of tour, as bringing the circus to the east coast for only two shows seems a bit odd. Time will tell.

Looking over the entirety of Phish’s 29-show summer, the clear concentration of shows lies in the northeastern corridor, garnering grumblings from the peanut gallery out west. Lest we forget, Phish, at their roots, is an east coast band, and after a five-year break, that is more true than ever. With their fans, friends, and families concentrated in the east, and a diminished desire to grow their fanbase nationally, Phish has no true incentive to come out west except to visit sublime venues. And that is exactly what they have been doing. Between Red Rocks, The Gorge, Indio, The Greek Theatre, and Telluride, you have the five most engaging runs of Phish 3.0, all, by modern standards, “out west.” Maybe we’ll see a west coast swing come fall, but somehow I wonder.

Regardless, Phish is locked and loaded for what hopes to be a ground-breaking summer. In all likelihood, the band will begin to carve a new direction for their music, and within these venues of August, the cream of the crop will rise to the top, as the Phish’s playing traditionally peaks on the back half of tours. With everything back in place, this will be the first tour we can truly take at face value, as an indication of what is to come. With the building blocks of 2009 out of the way, things couldn’t be more exciting.

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Jam of the Day:

“Bathtub Gin” 7.21.97 I

A standout piece of Summer ’97′s US opener.

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DOWNLOAD OF THE DAY:

6.29.94 Walnut Creek Amp, Raleigh, NC < Torrent

6.29.94 Walnut Creek Amp, Raleigh, NC < Megaupload

Phish’s first of many visits to this Raleigh tour stop came amidst a smoking run of June ’94.

I: The Curtain, Sample in a Jar, Reba, Mound, Julius, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Catapult > David Bowie, I Didn’t Know, Golgi Apparatus

II:  The Landlady, Poor Heart, Tweezer, It’s Ice, Lifeboy, The Divided Sky, Suzy Greenberg, Cavern

E: Ya Mar, Tweezer Reprise

Source: Unknown

Yesterday, Phish dodged the anticipatory workday crowd, dropping their 2010 summer tour dates around 8 pm eastern with a flash video of synchronized swimmers doing a routine to “Taste.” Before long, Fishman launches a cannonball into the middle of their formation, alluding to the band’s New Year’s Eve prank, and comically posing with the swimmers at the video’s end. Confirming a set of dates that leaked a day earlier, Summer 2010 will follow a pattern set by last year’s tour, featuring a more extensive leg in June, and a shorter leg in August, containing the more unique shows of summer. For today, let’s take a preview of June’s run, saving August for tomorrow.

*****

On June 11, Phish will inexplicably kick off their summer in the distinctly non-intimate confines of Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois. An enticing summer will begin in a venue that stuck out like a sore thumb in 2009. With a stage that is both high and distant from the crowd, this Chicago venue provided the most impersonal experience last summer, resulting in almost zero band-audience connection and one of the weaker shows of tour. Hopefully, Phish is cashing in big time on this gig, because other wise it makes no sense.

Following up the bizarre opener, the band will travel to the unique Blossom Amphitheatre outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Having hosted Phish for a standout show in 1995 and less so in 2000, this is one venue fans hoped they’d see on the docket again. Following Blossom, the band will travel to Chocolate Town, USA and visit their old stomping grounds of Hershey Park. The Stadium at Hershey hosted Phish for a very underrated effort right before The Clifford Ball in 1996, and, like Blossom, also hosted a less-than-impressive effort in the Fall of 2000. The last show of an odd tour-opening four-pack will take the circus to the 6,500 person nTelos Wireless Pavilion on the water in Portsmouth, Virginia. This will be the first small venue of tour, and will come as welcome respite from the 20-30,000 person sheds Phish will play throughout June and July. Undercutting The Greek Theatre by 2,000, and Telluride by 2,500, Portsmouth now has the official title of “Smallest Show of Summer 2010.”

After a disorienting opening quartet, the band will hit up the well-known east coast amphitheatres of lore, beginning with The Meadows in Hartford, Connecticut – now called Comcast Theatre – for a two-night stand on June 17 and 18. Then Phish will heading up to SPAC for the 6-year anniversary of their spectacular 2004 return to the wooded venue on June 19 and 20. One of the universally loved northeastern sheds, SPAC had been gutted and redone during Phish’s five year absence when we got their for the summer finale last year. And after the biblical deluge that hit just before showtime last August, here’s to a drier SPAC 2010.

Phish will play a standalone show at Great Woods on Tuesday, June 22, before heading south for a Mid-Atlantic four-night run featuring twin bills at Camden and Merriweather. This run through a series of classic venues oozes band history from every corner. It’s a shame they didn’t book two at Great Woods and one in Merriweather, as the latter venue’s harsh “customer service” is little fun for anyone, especially those exiled to the lawn a few counties away. In a classic case of bizarre Phish routing, the band will travel north to central New York’s Finger Lake region, visiting Canandaigua for the first time since Summer ’95′s classic second set, “Theme > Tweezer > Reprise,” simply known as “The Fleezer” (Finger Lakes PAC “Tweezer”).

There’s nothing like going north before heading south, and after Canandaigua, that is what Phish will do for their final four-night set of Leg I on the irst four nights of July. On the 1st, Phish will return to their hallowed haunt of Walnut Creek Amphitheatre in Raleigh, North Carolina. The site of so many amazing Phish moments dating back to Summer ’94, this show will be a homecoming for the first time since ’03. And following Raleigh comes another amphitheatre the band hasn’t visited since 2003, Charlotte’s Verizon Wireless. Having hosted a standout 1999 show and some of summer ’03′s most indelible jams, Charlotte will provide a Phishy stop along Tobacco Road on the band’s way to Atlanta. Finalizing their 18-show run with a holiday celebration, Phish will play two shows on July 3rd and 4th to celebrate America, and the end of their tour. Instead of hitting up their classic spot at Lakewood, Phish will make their first visit to, yet, another Verizon Wireless Center, this one at Encore Park in Alpharetta, GA. Returning to Hotlanta for their second July 4th celebration and their first in 11 years, the band’s southern homecoming to The Big Peach comes rife wi anticipation, combining the tour closer with America’s birthday.

And that’s only Leg One! Stay tuned tomorrow when we’ll cruise through what Phish has in store during their special late-summer tour in August.

SUMMER 2010

6/11 – Toyota Park, Bridgeview, IL
6/12 – Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
6/13 – Hersheypark Stadium, Hershey, PA
6/15 – nTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA
6/17 &18 – Comcast Theatre, Hartford, CT
6/19 & 20 – SPAC, Saratoga Springs, NY
6/22 – Great Woods, Mansfield, MA
6/24 & 25 – Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
6/26 & 27 – Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
6/29 – CMAC Perfoming Arts Center, Canandaigua, NY
7/1 – Walnut Creek Amphithatre, Raleigh, NC
7/2 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte, NC
7/3 & 4 – Encore Park, Alpharetta, GA
————
8/5 – 7 – Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA
8/9 & 10 – Town Park, Telluride, CO
8/12 & 13 – Deer Creek, Noblesville, IN
8/14 & 15 – Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI
8/17 & 18 – Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY

Tickets are available now through Friday, March 26th at 11:59pm EDT. There is a four ticket limit per show, except for The Greek Theatre and Telluride which have a two ticket limit per request. Telluride tickets will only be sold in two-day passes.

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Jam of the Day:

“Reba” 8.17.96 I

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DOWNLOAD OF THE DAY:

11.9.1996 The Palace, Auburn Hills, MI < Torrent

11.9.1996 The Palace, Auburn Hills, MI < Megaupload

I had this one prepped before the tour dropped, or I would have picked something more seasonably appropriate. Nonetheless, significant versions of “Bowie” and “YEM” sparkle in this second set outside Detroit.

I: Buried Alive, Poor Heart, The Sloth, The Divided Sky, Horn, Tube, Talk, Split Open and Melt, The Lizards, Character Zero

II: David Bowie, A Day in the Life, You Enjoy Myself, Taste, Swept Away > Steep > Harry Hood

E: Julius

Source:  (FOB) Schoeps CMC64 > Sonosax > SV-255