It's Monday, and, as usual, the Blog has cooked up a Mystery Jam (all while taking in ten straight hours of NFL action; lesser men might have folded under the pressure, but I managed to pack it all in). 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: Alas, no hint needed this week...

Wednesday Answer: 8/12/98 "Ramble On." Congrats to ghostboogie on the win. See everyone on Monday...

MP3 Downloads Courtesy of LivePhish.com.

You just read their recap of buying tickets, now Dusty and Brando from CashOrTrade.org are announcing a ticket giveaway for Wednesday's show in Vermont! Thanks to these guys for such an amazing offer!!

From CashOrTrade.org:

In an effort to continue helping by doing our part, CashorTrade.org is GIVING AWAY 2 TICKETS for Wednesday to 2 lucky fans who help support and build the face value ticket fair trade community.
Go to http://cashortrade.org/vtbenefit.php for details.

Read on for more info about CashOrTrade

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Brando and Dusty Rich from CashOrTrade.org are good friends of the site, so we reached out to them for a first-hand account of Friday and Saturday’s ticket buying experience in Burlington. With a monstrous line, ignoring the band’s request to spend the night at home and only a single point to purchase tickets, some were justifiably concerned that this could spiral into an organization nightmare. When it was all said and done though, none of those concerns even remotely surfaced thanks to a great group of fans and the amazing staff on hand in Burlington.

Read on to hear Brando and Dusty’s account of the whole experience.

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Welcome to the Very Special^TM Labor Day Mystery Jam. What's so special about it? Listen and find out. 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: There's nothing special about this Mystery Jam.

Wednesday Answer: Ok, I lied. The 12/5/95 "Gin" is pretty special by just about any measure. Congrats to zasdertultun for being the first to guess it. The Blog will be back on Monday with a Very Special^TM 67th Mystery Jam. Aren't they all special, though? Except maybe that "Star Spangled Banner" one. That one kinda sucked.

MP3 Downloads Courtesy of LivePhish.com

After two excellent performances at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on Friday and Saturday, Phish played long and hard at Dick's last night for the third, and final, show of their first -- and now legendary -- Labor Day Weekend run. Before Friday, who would have thought that Phish would take Dick's for strong, playing song after song, show after show, largely with passionate precision, bringing multiple jams (regardless of length) to often spine-tingling climaxes? Masters on their instruments, and accompanied by a genius light designer in Chris Kuroda and a top-notch crew, Phish rarely cease to amaze their fans. And amaze, for the most part, they did.

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Phish took the stage last night at Dick's in Commerce City, CO, on the middle night of this tour-closing run at the same time as the previous night, 8:20pm, even though Friday's late start was presumably weather-induced. On a stage that seemingly continues to get narrower and taller, Phish came out with ferocious, staight forward, Saturday-night-blazing guns. While it was quickly obvious there would be no repeat in stitching together a theme-based set like the previous night, it was also quickly obvious that Phish was intent on not letting the majesty of the surroundings overpower their sound. There was absolute shredding throughout the first set, beginninng with the stalwart "Possum".

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The Dick(‘s Sporting Goods Park). The Phish. Labor Day Weekend. End of tour. Echoing the Alpharetta2 (6/15/11) webcast: StormTeam17 reports heavy winds, lightning and sandstorms pre-gig. Think “S”!

Lights @ 8:17 MDT, a stock “Sample” opener, briskly into a “Sparkle,” “The Sloth” combo that keeps the energy high and allows band and crowd alike to settle in before the first catch-your-breath moment. “Sweet Virgina” provides the first deviation from script, their fourth ever performance (the first in 84 shows, 12-5-09 Charlottesville) and third since the Halloween ‘09 cover of Exile on Main St. in its entirety. Then the second-only Phish performance of “Suskind Hotel” kicks the tempo up in a welcome nod to those that have been clamoring for more Mike songs in the repertoire. “Suskind Hotel” was awesome, with strong hints of “Birds of a Feather” in the jam and a “CYHMK” in the ending. A strong presence on the 2006 GRAB tour (as well as the Mike Gordon solo repetroire), this one is a keeper!

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Phish.net folks Brian Feller and Charlie Dirksen are guests tonight on the Type II Cast podcast - available for streaming during or after the broadcast and for subscription via iTunes - discussing the Tahoe and Outside Lands shows. "Songs were played, and then the next songs were played," Brian Feller.

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According to the New York Times article yesterday, President Obama's choice for a key economics adviser, Alan B. Krueger, a Princeton University professor, knows a lot about labor markets and unemployment, having written a key study on the minimum wage and effects on jobs. But Krueger also has a wide ranging set of interests in economic subjects, including a 2004 paper he co-authored on the concert industry entitled "Rockonomics: The Economics of Popular Music", online here.

The summary abstract of the paper states that it:

"... considers economic issues and trends in the rock and roll industry, broadly defined. The analysis focuses on concert revenues, the main source of performers’ income. Issues considered include: price measurement; concert price acceleration in the 1990s; the increased concentration of revenue among performers; reasons for the secondary ticket market; methods for ranking performers; copyright protection; and technological change.

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Welcome to the 65th installment of the Mystery Jam. 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: No hint needed this week.

Wednesday Answer: Congrats to dclose for going against the "Piper" group-think and correctly ID'ing the 4/16/04 "Twist," easily the best thing to come out of the infamous Vegas '04 run. The Blog will return on Monday with a Very Special^TM Labor Day Edition of the Mystery Jam.

MP3 Downloads Courtesy of LivePhish.com

The thing about clichés is that they are mostly true.

It’s obvious after watching the Waxbanks-Wolfson-Gans cage match here on Phish.net and on Facebook over the past week that a lot of you feel very passionately about the Grateful Dead and Phish. More than a few of you feel very passionately about both and, like Waxbanks, I number myself among you. And more than a few of you favor one over the other with a generous measure of – let’s say – passion. It seems bafflingly necessary for some to litigate the merits or superiority of one over the other.

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Welcome to the 64th installment of the Mystery Jam. 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: No hint needed this week.

Wednesday Answer: It is the 7/2/98 "Ghost." Congrats to Fluffyfluffyhead on the win. See everyone on Monday...

MP3 Downloads Courtesy of LivePhish.com