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.
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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
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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
