I'm the chooser of what we're going to play. I wonder how it got to be that way. I guess it's just my personality. To me, it's like composing, and I really like composing and I don't get to do it when I'm on the road, so it's my little way of making little suites every night. I usually plan something out before we go on stage, and then we change it when we get on stage. It's very rare that we stick to the whole songlist. Or any of it, for that matter. But I choose it, partially by what we haven't played for a couple of nights before.

We consider the community aspect and the communication aspect of what we do to be the whole point of it, the whole fun of it. That why we like playing live so much better than making albums. Though I do like making albums a lot, I could see myself getting to a point in my career where, if we could get to a situation where we had a studio near our homes — which we’re working on, we’ve actually built the building, and we’ve started buying equipment — it won’t be long until we have a studio in Burlington. At that point, I could see going much more into the album end of things. But the communication thing is definitely where it’s at.

Our partners at GlowStickWars.com ("GSW") are sponsoring a special glowstick war to fire up the band at the moment the lights go down for the first set of the NYE run at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, 12/28.

Here's how it will work:

As soon as the house lights go down inside MSG, the GSW organizers are going to RAGE the first ever pre-show (that is, pre first note) glow stick war!

The idea is that lights go down, glow sticks go up, the band walks out to the most emphatic crowd response and proceeds to just murder the show with a ferocity we've all been waiting for. This energy will carry through the entire run.

GlowStickWars.com will donate $0.10 to The Mockingbird Foundation (www.mbird.org) for each of the first 3,000 confirmed attendees!

GlowStickWars.com will also be contributing five Show Sticks (soft, thin and super-bright glow bracelets) to this cause for each of the first 3,000 confirmed attendees! GSW plans to hand them out outside of MSG before the show on 12/28, with a little note detailing these shenanigans.

GSW has setup a couple of special discounts specially for this event:

5PHISHNY - Receive a 10% discount and FREE shipping on orders of 5+ tubes!

25PHISHNY - Receive a case of Show Sticks (25 tubes, aka 2,500 glowies) shipped to your door (or hotel) for $150!!

Order now at https://glowstickwars.com/store/products.html.

Further information at the GSW Facebook page here.

Read more...

...Aaaaaaaand we're back! Welcome to the 77th 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). The hint will come on Tuesday and the answer will be posted on Wednesday. Good luck...

Tuesday Hint: Two hints for the price of one -- It's not "Bowie" and it's not from '94. Oh, one more thing...WHERE'S RABELDY?!?!?

Wednesday Answer: It's Paaaaarrrrrrrrtttttttyyyyyy Time at Phish.net HQ!!! The Blog wins the Mystery Jam! The Blog wins the Mystery Jam! The Blog wins the Mystery Jam!!! The correct answer, n00bs, is the 10/15/98 "Reba." I should also point out that this particular MJ was hand selected by @Icculus to "punish the users and make them come to dread the MJ." Of course, this is not the first MJ he's suggested, so make of that what you will. Either way, we'll be back on Monday playing for two livephish.com downloads.

It’s kind of silly when [fans] are making pie graphs about set list openers. But then, I always liked a good graph.

If you're doing your holiday shopping online with Amazon, start with these links and as much as 15% of your net purchase will go to the Mockingbird Foundation, including Amazon's Cyber Monday Week and Toys' List (both good until Dec. 3rd) and their Holiday Toy List (good until Dec 24).

Even if you buy nothing from those lists, at least start there to support music education for kids, and your own Phish.net.

Read more...

The submissions have been tallied and we are pleased to announce the results of our Super Mystery Jam!

This was a very tall order using some obscure tracks so everyone who answered really had to put in some work. In all the entries were TWO people who got the Mystery Jam 100% correct...

Congratulations to @RabeldyNugs and @pauly7917 who identified all 5 songs and all 5 dates

1. Split Open and Melt - 1994/06/21
   
   
2. Tweezer - 1992/12/12
   
   
3. David Bowie - 1994/12/02
   
   
4. Antelope - 1994/05/16
   
   
5. Weekapaug - 1993/03/27

Amazing ears on these users. They have a special gift.

More information including the random draw winner after the jump

Read more...

For the last ten years, The Everyone Orchestra and its ever-rotating cast of characters has pushed the envelope of improvised music across the world. Musicians from many of the greatest bands of our time have entered Matt Butler's world of conducted improvisation and the results are always entertaining. Jon Fishman of Phish has been part of the EO experience many times, and was enlisted by Matt for the first-ever EO studio project, The Brooklyn Sessions.

Matt assembled a masterful collection of musicians in a Brooklyn recording studio in January 2011 for two days of conducted improvised jams. In addition to Fishman, the stellar group includes many players associated with Phish side-projects. Along with Matt as Conductor, the lineup is: Jon Fishman (Phish), Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band), Al Schnier (moe.), Reed Mathis (Tea Leaf Green) Steve Kimock, Marco Benevento, Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band), Jamie Masefield (Jazz Mandolin Project) and Jans Ingber (The Motet).

I asked Matt how the studio experience differed from being in front of a live audience. "While we didn't have the audience energy to feed off of, the environment was relaxed and intimate which brought out really interesting performances from all the players. I let solos run even longer than usual and let jams go on a little longer too. I focused on letting these master musicians interact and have a really fun time while we created the music. I also pushed the envelope musically and we tried pulling off some really difficult concepts. Some worked better than others, but as a group process, since we weren't 'performing' it was all valid efforts in our time in the 'creative sandbox'."

The completely self-funded project is near completion, but needs additional financial support to reach the finished product. Here is Matt's introductory video for the Kickstarter project, which includes some nice jam segments:

If you donate to the project, you get at minimum a free digital download of the CD when it is released. Higher donation amounts come with even more goodies. For more information, additional behind-the-scenes video and to donate to the project, click here.

Read more...

As the Five-part Mystery Jam contest remains open until Thursday December 1st, your regularly scheduled mystery jam will be taking another breather this week. We'll be back on Monday December 5th.

Read more...

[We've been reviewing the shows included in the new Hampton/Winston-Salem ‘97 box set on their respective 14th anniversaries. The final installment: Sunday, November 23, 1997, Winston-Salem, NC.]

Sunday, November 23, 1997

After the truly amazing show in Hampton on the 22nd, my friends and I spent the night on Coliseum Drive and then did what it seems like most people I encounter did: we drove home. In my case, it was north back to UConn. The correct move was to drive south. Throw caution to the wind, turn a short pre-thanksgiving week at school into an extended vacation. We fucked up. Seriously, screw you conscience. We missed a great show, the three or four times we stopped for Waffle House and Denny’s is hardly a consolation now.

Read more...

[Over the next three days we’ll look back on each of the shows included in the new Hampton/Winston-Salem ‘97 box set on the respective 14th anniversaries. Next up: Saturday, November 22, 1997, Hampton Coliseum.]

Saturday, November 22, 1997

Following Friday’s show, we had an interesting evening at the Days Inn. Our string of rooms were on the ground floor and opened to the parking lot. We settled into our spaces, enjoying a few late night beers and having a bit of fun. I remember it was when I found a spot to rest my head that some sketchy tour kid approached Tim who was hanging outside the door. The kid spied a cooler of our beer and was very interested in acquiring one. One in particular, the much sought after “Dank Sammy Smith.” Now remember we have a keg of Long Trail in our trunk, beer supply was not an issue, but Tim was dead set against this kid getting what he wanted. When met with resistance the kid resorted to a little trade proposal in the form of microdots. Now, I’m pretty sure he had a roll of those sugar dot candies because there was no amount he was unwilling to part with. The beer, however, was not for trade. We all began to stir from our rooms just to see what these things were or were not worth. Needless to say no transaction was completed, but at one point I think we could have procured an actual automobile with what he seemed to be offering. To this day, we laugh about The Microdot Exchange on Coliseum Drive.

We spent our day relaxing, definitely with a trip to Waffle House. Those poor waitresses, they definitely weren’t prepared for that morning. The Waffle House was more Halfway House than anything else. But there’s just something so endearing about hearing exasperation in a southern accent. We made our way back to the lot and prepared for showtime.

Read more...

[Over the next three days we’ll look back on each of the shows included in the new Hampton/Winston-Salem ‘97 box set on the respective 14th anniversaries. First up: Friday, November 21, 1997, Hampton Coliseum.]

Friday, November 21, 1997

The Phish shows in Hampton, VA the weekend before Thanksgiving 1997 are ones of legend. They’re probably the most complete show experiences I’ve ever had and they probably will never be topped. I was a student at the University of Connecticut, but with one of my best friends at school in Virginia there was no way I was missing it. My friend Tim and I had made the trip a year previous (10/25/96) and the weekend was a blast. Now we had two shows, even better. We loaded up his Chevy Blazer with a bunch of tapes and a pony keg of Long Trail IPA, there wasn’t a need for much else. When we rolled into Fredericksburg late Thursday night we were greeted by plentiful smiles as the Vermont beer was nectar from the north. We spent the night and made the trek to Hampton the following morning.

Hampton was a scene, but nothing like what it became in later years. People everywhere, but it wasn’t chaotic. We stayed at the Days Inn on Coliseum Drive, but I remember a low key afternoon that made its way into the parking lots to wait for the show. When it finally came time for the show, we entered the venue early, scouting out our area on the rail of Section D. Every show I’ve seen at Hampton has been from this spot. It just feels like home.

Read more...