By Elayne Best (@jugglerswithfire)

Seeing Phish at Walnut Creek Amphitheater has been like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Historically, shows have ranged from spectacular (7/22/97) to uninspired (6/25/00). So what would we get on 6/18/11? The night before was a standout in performance for this summer tour. How would they respond in a venue with as mixed quality of performances such as Walnut Creek?

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Phish kicked-off the final weekend of the first leg of their summer tour in Charlotte, a venue that has been host to notable past gigs, including the stellar 7/25/03 performance with an epic “Harry Hood,” and the “Fuck Your Face” mega-bustout last summer (7/2/10). Following a two-night run of shows in Georgia that included spectacular highs (6/14 “Bathtub Gin,” “Light Up and Leave Me Alone”) and a perplexing, flat performance in the face of a dramatic thunderstorm on 6/15 that provoked a deluge of commentary, how would the band respond? Roll tape!

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Tour packages including party bus shuttles, hotel, restaurant accomodations and even side tours to wineries and ballgames are available for Phish's California, Denver, and Nevada shows for the western leg of Phish's summer tour from a new operator, Greg Yance of Bobby D-Tour.

More information is available on their website. Greg describes his service as "a hybrid of [the recently blogged about "party"] charter bus services combined with [tour package operator] Consider it Dan."

Leaving the driving to Bobby D-Tour seems like a good alternative to rental cars and "do it yourself" accomodations for those flying to the west coast for the end of Phish summer tour.

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Samba in the Rain

Wednesday night in Georgia, Phish played like a nostalgia act—a band older than its years, still possessing sharp technical skills but almost utterly disinterested creatively. Like a great boxer who tours the country knocking out pretenders in exhibition bouts, or a veteran stage actor who spends 15 years playing the same part in a hit show, Phish this night seemed to be a band with great powers that was fully satisfied with pleasant mediocrity.

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Tonight's live stream from Alpharetta, GA has been postponed until 8:00 pm due to thunderstorms in the area.

Though last night's show didn't start until after 8:00pm, the stream went live at 7:00pm. Phish tweeted, "We will not be starting tonight's Phish stream until 8PM EST due to thunderstorms"

Presumably, this means the show will start later than last night's 8:15pm start time to allow for people to get the stream working properly after it goes live. EDIT: Live as of 8:10pm enjoy!

Reports from the area indicate a ferocious storm with heavy rain, high winds, and even some downed trees.

Read On for Pictures from venue.

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Another charter bus service, Rock & Bus, has begun to provide "party bus" service to summer tour Phish shows.

Owner Numann Akram tells us "We're offering buses from all the surrounding cities. Our model works on demand so we go where the fans are. Think you have enough fans in your town to get your own bus? Email us and we'll add your town to the list. These buses are luxury charter motorcoaches with all the amenities. We think this is a great way to extend your Phish experience to and from the show."

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An entire nation turned it's eyes on Phish last night as the band embarked on their second official stream. First, a couple notes on the stream itself....

Phish doesn't do anything poorly. Ever. They are meticulous in their planning and building their own streaming platform with nugs.net is an absolute win. People in the past have calmored for a partnership with iclips or spoken highly of the recent VEVO offerings, but Phish have maintained complete control and produced a great result. As far as the technical side of things goes, last night seemed to be even more rock solid than the shows over NYE. It's the internet, you're sure to encounter a few hiccups, but last night was well exectued and much appreciated. BTW, if you were one of the scumbags who was watching via a re-stream, seriously?

On to the music.

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Ready to have your couch tore to shreds by Phish with three shows from Colorado?

Check out the Coach Tour streaming FAQ's here: Phish.net Couch Tour FAQ!

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Sunday night, MPP1 is in the books, and you know the drill so let’s get right to the action.

Phish Destroys America. Phish Severely Bruises America. Tour of Signs. Phish, The All-Request Band, continued their march down the long-neglected east coast on Sunday by staying put at The Pav Known as Merriweather Post. Phish opened with more “sign language,” this time with a crisp and punchy “Buried Alive.” Dipping back into their 1998 musical costume, The Velvet Underground’s Loaded, Fish assumes one of several leads of the evening with “Lonesome Cowboy Bill,” the first in 141 shows (7/30/03 Camden).

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It's Monday, so it must be time for the Mystery Jam. As usual, we will be playing for an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. This is a fairly unusual one for reasons that will be obvious once you play it, but what the hell, let's have some fun this week. 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). The hint will come on Tuesday and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Tuesday Hint: No hint needed this week...

Wednesday Answer: 8/17/92 "Mike's Song." Congrats to djcampfirepants for getting there first. See you all on Monday!

MP3 Downloads Courtesy of LivePhish.com

On Saturday night Phish rolled in to Merriweather Post Pavilion for the first of two weekend gigs at one of the oldest sheds (circa 1967) still in operation – if you are in any doubt, visit the bathrooms, they are exactly the same as on opening night. Yet another venue where Phish has a proven track record of performing amazing shows (see especially 8/8/98 and 6/27/10), and following an uneven night in Camden with spectacular highs and baffling lows, anything was possible. Grab your popcorn!

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