I am not sure when it was that I first met Marley but it had to be somewhere around late 1992 or early 1993. Once Phish upgraded their touring gear to include a full size tour bus in 1992 it enabled Trey to bring Marley along more often. After that point and for the next few years she was a regular part of the backstage scene. For as much noise and strange people that were always around, she was a calm and friendly dog, very much at home on the road with the band. She mostly kept to the hidden areas of backstage but you would sometimes see her darting around or even playing if there was enough space. In the time before Trey had children it seemed like it gave him a feeling of having some of home with him on tour. I know he loved that dog with all his heart, and I was indeed sad when I realized she was missing from backstage and would not be returning. She will forever remain as one of my fond memories of the earlier days of Phish.

1. Our website is almost entirely written in cutting-edge HTML5.  When using it in Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, you'll get the most complete visual experience. 
2. current.phish.net always displays the most current setlist, regardless of date or time, even while a show is in progress, in the simplest, fastest interface possible.
3. We are always adding fun activities on our Just for Fun page. Have you tried our random setlist generator? Have you solved the "101 Phish Songs" poster? Have you created your own dream setlist? 
4. We have a powerful API that allows you to embed Phish.net data into your website.  Check out our setlists demo, our forum demo, and our other other demos if you get a chance.  We'll be releasing a new, improved API in the next few days. 
5. The domain phi.sh, our Twitter-friendly URL shortner, is a great short-cut for setlists.  By typing phi.sh/YYMMDD, you can jump to any setlist. 
6. You can exchange private messages with other users of Phish.net.
7. At the bottom of many pages through the site, you can run stats, most of which feature integration with ZZYZX's Phish Stats.  You can view stats by song, by tour, by venue, by day of the month, by month, or even shows that feature a debut. 
8. You can embed all sorts of data - including live setlists - into comments throughout the site.
9. We have RSS throughout the site: our news feed, our blog, our setlists, and even each thread has its own feed!
10. You can import your seedfile from any website, or directly from PhantasyTour, to track your shows on phish.net, which can be accessed via our API for use in Phish-related applications.
11. forum.phish.net, our discussion board, is always active, has a slew of regulars who keep the place interesting.
12. You can still subscribe to our decades-old Phish-News mailing list to be kept in the loop via email.
13. We have a "chat room" style discussion board, for mid-show chit-chat. 
14. Phish.net is an all-volunteer project of The Mockingbird Foundation, and it takes a team of people to manage.  We are constantly updating setlists, FAQ items, and song histories.  The Phish.net team is made up of a site team, a setlist team, and an advisory working group. 

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1. Our website is almost entirely written in cutting-edge HTML5. When using it in Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, you’ll get the most complete visual experience.
2. current.phish.net always displays the most current setlist, regardless of date or time, even while a show is in progress, in the simplest, fastest interface possible.
3. We are always adding fun activities on our Just for Fun page. Have you tried our random setlist generator? Have you solved the “101 Phish Songs” poster? Have you created your own dream setlist?
4. We have a powerful API that allows you to embed Phish.net data into your website. Check out our setlists demo, our forum demo, and our other other demos if you get a chance. We’ll be releasing a new, improved API in the next few days.
5. The domain phi.sh, our Twitter-friendly URL shortner, is a great short-cut for setlists. By typing phi.sh/YYMMDD, you can jump to any setlist.
6. You can exchange private messages with other users of Phish.net.
7. At the bottom of many pages through the site, you can run stats, most of which feature integration with ZZYZX’s Phish Stats. You can view statsby song, by tour, by venue, by day of the month, by month, or even shows that feature a debut.
8. You can embed all sorts of data - including live setlists - into comments throughout the site.
9. We have RSS throughout the site: our news feed, our blog, our setlists, and even each thread has its own feed!
10. You can import your seedfile from any website, or directly fromPhantasyTour, to track your shows on phish.net, which can be accessed via our API for use in Phish-related applications.
11. forum.phish.net, our discussion board, is always active, has a slew of regulars who keep the place interesting.
12. You can still subscribe to our decades-old Phish-News mailing list to be kept in the loop via email.
13. We have a “chat room” style discussion board, for mid-show chit-chat.
14. Phish.net is an all-volunteer project of The Mockingbird Foundation, and it takes a team of people to manage. We are constantly updating setlists, FAQ items, and song histories. The Phish.net team is made up of a site team, a setlist team, and an advisory working group.

Read more...

My wife Jennifer, who, by comparison, is not a very big Phish fan, gave me the green light to go to Atlantic City for Halloween this year. She asked me recently, "What do you want to hear them play?" Now, I've been chasing Camel Walk for some time, but before I even could process it, I reflexively responded "I could really go for a nice, meaty Split Open and Melt." What?! Split Open and Melt!? Where did that come from?

Sidebar: I'm an admitted setlist snob. I pay special attention to song selection, because I always find the psychology behind it to be fascinating. I love to imagine how the band arrived at a given setlist. I often picture Mike bringing some oddball song to the band who plays it spur-of-the-moment, or Trey just launching into a song on stage because the segue was leading there unrehearsed (e.g. DwD -> Sand from Hartford 2010, which was clearly organic). I wonder if Fishman requested the recent Lengthwise performance, or whether Trey prompted him to do it. Does Page speak up and insist on doing Drowned and Loving Cup so often? Yes, it's true, the setlist can make a show interesting!, but something happened recently, and I realized that interesting like that isn't always what I'm craving.

I started thinking that if I could pick the songs I most enjoy from my collection, they should be the songs I'd most want to hear in concert, logically. So I ran down the songs I like most: Ghost from Copenhagen, 7/2/98. Reba from 5/16/95. Birds of a Feather, 7/8/99. Llama 11/19/92, with Gordon Stone. Halley's Comet, Tweezer -> Black Eyed Katy, Piper from 11/22/97. Split Open and Melt->Catapult, 12/31/99. Down with Disease > Dog Faced Boy > Piper, 7/1/98. Tweezer, 6/30/2000. Mike's Song and Drowned from 12/31/95. Ghost -> AC/DC Bag, Slave to the Traffic Light, Loving Cup from 11/21/97. More recently, Tweezer -> Slave from 7/3/10.

Notice anything? No real rarities, just jams.

So despite all my carrying on about rarities, bustouts, and crazy setlist choices, the most enjoyable music - for me, at least - typically comes from standards. That leads me to assume that the stage is best set for great jams when the band is less concerned with the song choice and more connected with the song musically, perhaps just from familiarity. There's little doubt that Fuck Your Face was a wild spectacle witnessed live, but I didn't hear anyone suggesting it was legendary musicianship. Conversely, some versions of Slave to the Traffic Light and Harry Hood have brought me close to tears of joy. I'm chasing bustouts, but it's not really bustouts that make a show great.

I'm coming to realize that bustouts are the nitrous oxide of Phish show, they're a cheap and easy high. In the absence of great jamming, bustouts can make a show enjoyable. And since truly legendary jams are exceedingly rare, bustouts can make something special when the improv is, dare I say, "average-great." Most people won't agree that my above list of my favorite jams are the "best" jams, but certainly, no one will argue that a bustout is a bustout when a song returns from dormancy. So it's a common ground, easy for fans and the band to agree makes an event unique and therefore, special. Harpua will always be the sign of a show we'll remember, but that doesn't mean we'll all be listening to it on repeat.

The best spot is probably somewhere in the middle: a continually evolving setlist keeps variety and freshness to an instant-gratification kind of world, keeps the nights interesting and from blending into one another, and keeps the mystery and fun of that "what will they play next?" moment. But attempts at quality jams - not just lengthy ones, but quality ones - are what keep many of us coming back for more.

Oh, I'm still chasing Camel Walk, you can count on that. And when Lushington shows up again, one day, I know I'll still go bananas and run - not walk - to LivePhish for the recording. But I guess, on any given day, what would really make me happy is a big, fat, juicy, Split Open and Melt.

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ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE KINGDOM OF CASPIAN

To: The Mockingbird Foundation
Attn: Charles A. Dirksen

Dear Mr Dirksen et al:

We don’t know one another, however, it has come to my attention that you have bestowed upon me an unfortunate nickname. I’m not entirely certain what’s been done to incite such anger, however, if you’ll allow me to pontificate for a moment, I think you’ll find it most unjustified.

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The Stones went from being a band I really liked and admired to being my heroes in some ways now that they weren’t before. And not just because they made that album. Though the full thing, from cover to cover, is the most soulful, least mental album, and it sounds like the sound of fun. But as I’m getting older and I’ve been in a band now for twenty-five years, I look at the Stones with nothing but reverence. You understand why U2 is an opening band for the Stones.

To be in my situation, in a band that’s been together only twenty-five years, and to look at them, you go, “Wow!” They’re playing really well, and their values are in the right place. I feel like I can look to the Stones now as an example of almost everything to do right. There are so many examples of what not to do, and they’re all part of the boneyard. So, by deduction, it’s: I’m not gonna do what Hendrix did, and I’m not gonna do what the Grateful Dead did, and I’m not gonna do what the Beatles did…. I don’t want to fight about money, and I don’t want to sleep with anyone’s wife like Fleetwood Mac did, and I certainly don’t want to be the Eagles…. [laughs] Here are the pitfalls to avoid, but where’s an example of how to do it right? The Stones!