photos by Ryan Barkan

"i just want to say that i think glorified displays of people wasted out of their minds and passed out are really upsetting to me." - JD Samson

"Nothing turns me conservative faster than being on a train with a bunch of stoned Phish fans that just got out of Madison Square Garden." - Frank Hejl

"So many Phish fans looking for a miracle outside Penn Station." - Maura Johnston

"Now hundred of "fans" all over the arena hovering 50 feet above the crowd dancing." - Colonel Forbin

"The floating fans above the crowd would've had me freaking at Phish MSG. I mean, Jesus. What if one hurled?" - Ravenval

"It's not the ball drop, but for tens of thousands of people, Phish's annual run of shows at Madison Square Garden, which winds up on New Year's Eve, is the more significant year-end event in Manhattan. Always an immediate sellout, the concerts are both a tradition and a challenge. Phish has to provide its familiar joys but vary them enough to surprise fans who are obsessively meticulous tabulators.

Thursday night's concert was Phish in crowd-pleasing mode: uptempo, playing familiar songs and ready to keep fans dancing -- never getting too abstract or experimental. Its two sets were both CD-length, just under 80 minutes each, with the Rolling Stones' "Loving Cup" as a splashy, gospelly encore....This was just a big, happy Phish party. The musicians' fingers flew; lights splayed above the stage; glowsticks were tossed, in mass bursts, at big transitions; balloons bounced around; the year-end ritual was intact. Thursday's concert was a high-level holding action; the next one, as always, might be something else entirely." [NY Times]

Phish took over Madison Square Garden during New Year's Eve week once again. The Vermont jam band hit the venue four nights in a row up to and including New Year's Eve (12/28 - 12/31). Pictures from the second show, the same night the NY Times reviewed, are in this post. If you weren't there, maybe you paid to watch one of the shows streaming live in HD via the band's website (it was $55 to stream all four and it came with access to watch it again).

Were you there? Apparently JD Samson was. Did anyone see any of Trey's friends from the National in the crowd (or over the crowd)?

More pictures from night two (12/29), video of the hanging people getting put up into the air on New Year's Eve, and all four setlists (they covered TV on the Radio's "Golden Age" on New Year's Eve), below..

Continue reading "Phish played 4 New Year's Eve Week shows @ MSG, hung people from the ceiling (pics, video, setlist)"

photos by David Andrako

National week at Beacon Theater continued on Friday night, 12/16, for the fifth night in a row. Shara Worden's project My Brightest Diamond opened the show and she later joined The National on stage as did Thomas Bartlett aka Doveman, Richard Reed Parry of the Arcade Fire, Conrad Doucette, Rob Moose, Nadia Sirota and string quartet yMusic... and Phish's Trey Anastasio who members of the National are working with right now. As Jambands.com points out:

"The Phish guitarist emerged partway through the group's set for "Blood Buzz Ohio," "Squalor Victoria" and "Murder Me Rachel." While onstage, the members of The National described the guitarist as "a hero of ours." Anastasio reemerged alongside Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry the evening's opening act My Brightest Diamond to play guitar on "Terrible Love." All of the night's guests then joined the members of The National for an acoustic sing-along based around "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks." National frontman Matt Berninger was particularly chatty throughout the show, jokingly describing Parry as a member of Kings of Leon and declaring "that's the sound of faces melting" after Anastasio's performance."

You can watch a video with Trey in it below.

More about Night One HERE. Night Two HERE. Night Three HERE. Night Four HERE. More pictures and the setlist from Night Five (though none of the opening set unfortunately) below....

Continue reading "Trey Anastasio & others joined The National on Night 5 @ Beacon Theater (pics & setlist)"

SPIN says:

Trey Anastasio is quietly working on a new solo album with help from a formidable cast of indie rockers, SPIN has learned.

Since winding up his fall tour, the Phish guitarist has been making a daily commute from his New York City home to Bridgeport, Connecticut's Tarquin Studios, recording with his band and members of the National and Mates of State for the last month. Peter Katis, who owns the suburban studio and has produced a string of indie rock albums there (Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights and Antics, The National's Boxer, Mates of State's Rearrange Us), is co-producing the album with Anastasio.

A rep for Anastasio didn't return a request for comment, but early reports out of the studio say the sound is a mix between Anastasio's eclectic, Afro-tinged rock and the kind of experimental indie pop produced by the Philistines Jr., Katis' own recently reformed band. Before entering the studio, Katis told Sonic Scoop that Anastasio "wants to do something totally out of left-field."

Anastasio and Co. are working on about 15 new songs, with recording expected to wrap up in January. They'll take a weeklong break later this month, when Phish hold court for four sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden, including their traditional three-set performance on New Year's Eve.

In related news, FURTHUR (featuring Phil Lesh & Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead) have started to announce a spring tour that includes EIGHT shows at Beacon Theater where The National play their first of six tonight (12/12). Tickets go on Internet Presale today at noon. Public Ticketmaster sale begins Friday. All Furthur tour dates and the poster, below...

Continue reading "Furthur playing 8 Beacon Theater shows on Spring Tour -- more than The National who are working with Trey"

Trey Anastasio played a 2-set + 1 encore show at Terminal 5 in NYC last night (2/22). Video of his second-set closing cover of "Empire State of Mind" and the full setlist is below with a new set of Phish dates that were announced today....

Continue reading "Trey Anastasio covered 'Empire State of Mind' & other songs @ Terminal 5 (video, full setlist), Phish announced a tour (dates)"

Ekorre/Squirrel (by Lars Andersson)

Tickets are on sale NOW for the Peter Bjorn and John show at Santos (note that it is in the smaller room downstairs, or the "South Pole" as they call it on Ticketweb).

Tickets go on sale at noon for the Smith Westerns show at Mercury Lounge.

Tickets go on sale at noon for both Mountain Goats shows at Bowery Ballroom.

Tickets go on sale at noon for the two NYC J Mascis/Kurt Vile shows including the small one at Mercury Lounge.

Tickets also go on sale at noon for both Sebadoh shows happening at Bowery Ballroom.

Moving from Dinosaur Jr. to um, Phish... tickets go on sale on Saturday for a Trey Anastasio show at Terminal 5. Tickets (3/22 and 3/23) go on sale at noon for two Mike Gordon shows at Brooklyn Bowl.

Jay Reatard leaving the Wired Store seconds after playing (more by Tim Griffin)

Tickets are still on AmEx presale and "Internet Presale" (password = HESPOON) for the Spoon/Deerhunter show at Radio City Music Hall. They go on general sale Saturday at 10am.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the Rodrigo y Gabriela show at Radio City Music Hall.

Shearwater & Wye Oak are playing Bowery Ballroom on March 27th. Tickets are on sale (@ noon)

Trey Anastasio & Classic Tab are playing Terminal 5 on February 16th. Tickets are on sale (@ noon).

Tickets are on sale for all zillion Allman Brothers shows at United Palace.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the Thermals show at Brooklyn Bowl (and they're on sale for the Philly show at First Unitarian Church).

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the new Hot Chip/Gang Gang Dance show at Terminal 5.

Tickets are on sale for the Midlake shows at Bowery Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the new Miike Snow show at Bowery Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the Quasi show at Bowery Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the Kaki King shows at Bowery Ballroom & Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Kings of Convenience are playing 2 NYC shows - both on sale.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the Black Lips/Box Elders show at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are also on sale for the gig at Maxwell's.

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the Pierced Arrows/Lullaby Arkestra show at Mercury Lounge.

Tickets are on sale for Narrows at Cake Shop.

Tonight/Friday's Yummy Fur show doesn't have advanced tickets and it's been moved to Market Hotel.

photos by Fresh Bread

"Although there is hardly a shortage of jam bands, Phish had no full-fledged successor on the arena circuit during its absence. Its audience, and apparently the band itself, both realized something was missing in a Phish-less world: the band's particular assortment of head-bobbing, good-timey roots-rock and complex compositions full of shifty meters, key changes and other musicianly twists and turns." [NY Times]

What surprised me most about the three Phish concerts at Jones Beach this week (the third one is tonight, Friday, June 5th), is how many friends and friends of friends I know that went, or are going, to one of the shows. They are everywhere (PHresh Bread included). And this is the part where I try to insert a hippy joke, but instead, here's another review...

"I was expecting a dirtier, sketchier crowd, but besides for the proliferation of whippets dealers in the parking lot after the show, the fact I had to walk through a flood in the men's room to pee and the complete lack of women, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between this show and a Third Eye Blind concert, the hippies were non existent and although some folks were swaying hippie style - the bulk of the audience seemed like accountants who went to good private colleges and liked to wear over priced sandals and Patagonia shells. Although the music itself was amazing the people were kind of boring, but based on the overwhelming amount of people driving with their windows closed before and after the show I could tell the crowd was going to be like their driving habits, climate controlled. I have this theory that people who drive with their windows open are just more friendly and interesting, less stand offish." [Frum Satire]

It is of course possible some of those people were just trying to keep the smoke in, or in the case of tonight (and last night?), the rain out. Pics from night one continued below....

Continue reading "Phish played Jones Beach (night 1 pics) - do so again tonight "