Friday 01/30/2015 by Lemuria

MONDAYS ARE UNUSUAL... AGAIN

As far as we know, Phish didn't play any Monday shows their first two years. And except for some regular gigs in 1988, Monday (and the first half of the week) remained less likely to have a show for most of their history. I know, you're not surprised... But there are two interesting twists in the pattern.

Weekly bubble matrix
Weekly bubble matrix
First, the distribution of shows across the week became more even throughout the 90s. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were played 2-3 times as often from '89 to '94. But by '97, Wednesday was just as common as Saturday; and by 2000, even Monday tied with Saturday! Gone were the days of booking weekend gigs at clubs in college towns; Phish could play anywhere, any night of the week.

But since the breakup, weekend shows are, once again, twice as likely as Monday. And now, even Thursdays are slipping away. The aggregate pattern now is fewer weeks, and 5 shows in each of them: Tues/Wed and Fri/Sat/Sun. (Two coming graphs will delve more into the related shift towards multiple-night runs in each venue.)

Methods Note:

Red dots indicate 5 or fewer shows; green are 20 or more.

Note that while previous infographics (1, 2, 3) had been posted on Saturdays, we've shifted... to Fridata.

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Comments

, comment by toddwcorey
toddwcorey "The aggregate pattern now is fewer weeks, and 5 shows in each of them: Tues/Wed and Thurs/Fri/Sat."

I think you meant Tues/Wed and Fri/Sat/Sun.
, comment by Lemuria
Lemuria @toddwcorey - fixed, thanks!!
, comment by Thisrozeisntfree
Thisrozeisntfree It's cuz mike wants to know why it's not Friday
, comment by HeyCrutch
HeyCrutch The pattern is clear. Either 2 summer legs and no fall tour, or 1 summer leg and a short fall tour. No more than 5 shows per week.

Sucks but that's all we are gonna get from now on, if we are lucky.
, comment by Lemuria
Lemuria @HeyCrutch said:
The pattern is clear. Either 2 summer legs and no fall tour, or 1 summer leg and a short fall tour.
Yeah, but that's last week's chart.
, comment by fluff_hen
fluff_hen Never skip a Monday show!
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