By Martin Acaster (Doctor_Smarty)

Phish hit the stage on their second night at nTelos approximately 50 minutes after the sun’s direct light caressed the Tropic of Cancer, thereby ushering in the true northern hemisphere Summer of 2012 and triggering the final 6-month countdown to the conclusion of the 13th Baktun of the Mayan calendar. The summer solstice would therefore serve as the ampersand uniting the first and second nights of the Portsmouth run in a grand cosmic joke that paid presumably unintentionally homage to George Lucas. The “Tijuana Tuck & Roll” in the long run may prove to be a pair of shows that at first glance (on paper) look great but after continued sittings may be found to be stuffed with nothing more than hay and cow shit. Put another way, much like the protagonist in the ZZ Top song “Zipper Job,” you should not judge a tranny by its cover... unless you are into that kind of thing. Before you get irate... I assure you that I AM into transformation...of any kind. Phish, much like the rest of humanity, is trying to make the change. Although transformation allows growth, it is sometimes painful.

Read more...

Summer’s here and the time is right to skip the preliminaries and get right to the action. So let’s!

The band takes the stage at nTelos Wireless Pavilion just before 8pm and warms up with a perfunctory “Sample,” which gives way to the oblong Delta rhythms of “Party Time.” During the jam segment, Trey introduces Carl “Geerz” Gerhard of Giant Country Horns fame, informing the audience that Gerhard now leads music instruction for all of America’s armed forces(!). “Geerz” blows a big old solo that brings the crowd to life before taking a bow and exiting stage left to the first notes of a rare but mostly unremarkable first set “Simple.”

Read more...

Welcome to the Mystery Jam Monday Part the 103rd here at Phish.net. As usual, we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: Nice job by @andrewrose with his second win in a month with the 7/13/99 "Wolfman's Brother." The Blog will be back on Monday with another Mystery Jam...

Three songs into Kenny Rogers' set at Bonnaroo on Sunday, he expressed his gratitude to the organizers and the crowd for welcoming him to the festival. He made some quip about young fans remembering his music (blissfully unaware to the apparent hipster irony), closing with a proclamation of his intent to play every one of his hits. The tent erupted.

With Rogers, a greatest hits set is expected. He does not need to prove himself at Bonnaroo, as acts have done over the past eleven years. All attendees are expecting to hear are recognizable songs, as he has been performing for years in Branson. While Phish certainly no longer needs to prove themselves, their fans, by contrast, do expect more than a run through of the hits. Especially during a four-hour slot on what could arguably be the largest stage in live music. But other than one or two moments of surprise and adventure, Phish's show was filled with songs that simply muscled through the bigness of the event.

Read more...

For those attending the upcoming Burgettstown and and/or Cuyahoga Falls shows, the Pick-Up Sticks program is back on. Place an order with glowstickwars.com on or before June 21, 2012, with promo code BURGPUS or CUYAPUS, and not only will you get 25% off (thanks to the site's ongoing Back to Tour Sale), but you will receive an extra 25% discount on your order. Plus, 10% still goes to the phan-run Mockingbird Foundation.

Read more...

Welcome to the 102nd running of the Mystery Jam here at Phish.net. As usual, we will be playing for an MP3 download, courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. The rules haven't changed: you need to correctly identify the song and the date to win. Post your guess in the comments. One guess per person per day (with the second “day” starting after I post the hint). A hint will be posted on Tuesday (if necessary) and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Wednesday Answer: Congrats to Prof. Pauly9717, Emeritus for nailing the 12/4/96 "Mike's Song." Yes, with his 7th win, Pauly will be joining Rabeldy in the faculty lounge looking down on the rest of you for your extreme Phish noobtardery. Look for a Pauly-curated MJ in the coming weeks.

Words by Phillip Zerbo. Photos by Parker Harrington.

We’re back! Five months and change since they kicked off 2012 at Madison Square Garden, Phish returned to the stage in Worcester, home of so many classic Phish performances over the years. The MSG New Year’s run met mixed reaction among fans, though that seemed long forgotten when the lights went down on Thursday. Let’s recap...

A punchy “Buried Alive” opens, followed by “Runaway Jim” – their second performance of the song in Worcester since the all-time classic “Runaway Jam” of 11/29/97. The fifth-ever Phish performance of The Stones’ “Torn and Frayed” was next, one of the few Exile on Main St. songs to stick in the repertoire after their performance of the album in full on 10/31/09. Standard but enjoyable renditions of “Funky Bitch,” “Moma Dance” and “Rift” were next. The only mild surprise song selection of the night was the Anastasio/Marshall composition “Nothing;” this was the fifth Phish performance ever and the first since 6/24/10 in Camden (78 shows). A typically languid “Ocelot” brings the set back into a more predictable pattern, followed by Page’s “Beauty of a Broken Heart,” the obligatory “Possum,” and we are capped off by “Rocky Top.”

Read more...