Attendance Bias

Send us Fan MailHi everybody, and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. This week’s guest is the host of the Cinema Dave Media YouTube channel, Dave Burland. When Dave and I got in touch, two things stood out to me that made me want to speak with him about Phish: first, he is a huge fan of The Who, just like I am, so we have a lot of shared musical DNA. Second, he is a huge movie buff. And although I wouldn’t call myself a film buff, I will say that, after music, movies are my biggest passion. So this seemed like a perfect match.For today’s episode, Dave picked July 30, 2017, better known as the “Jimmies” night of the Baker’s Dozen. In an earlier episode with author Jason Gershuny, he and I went over Glazed Night, the final night of the run, but Jimmies Night just seemed to hit different. It was the same summer, but tonally, it was completely different and you’ll hear Dave and I spend a lot of time about the details, the appeal, and the tone of the Baker’s Dozen as a whole.So let’s join Dave to hear about the Criterion Collection, Phish’s version of Drowned, and Baker’s Dozen setlist predictions, as we discuss July 30, 2017.Support the show

Send us Fan MailHi everybody and welcome to today's episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Today, we wish Attendance Bias a HAPPY BIRTHDAY since it appeared on Apple Podcasts for the first time one year ago today, August 11, 2020. It's been a full year of episodes, and I'd like to thank you all SO MUCH for listening. In celebration, I thought it would be fun to have a guest host so I could take a break and be the guest for once. I was lucky enough to have previous Attendance Bias guest, Justin Bruce of Las Vegas, to be our guest host for today. Justin previously appeared on Attendance Bias to talk about 7/7/00 at Burgettstown.As a favor to the podcast, Justin was gracious enough to come on the show and interview me and give some background information about myself, who I am as a person, as a music fan, as a Phish fan, and as a podcaster.So today, you won't hear about one specific show or jam, but you'll hear tidbits about 7 or 8 different ones, as well as different bands, and get a look behind the curtain at what makes Attendance Bias happen.Support the show

Send us Fan MailHello everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. This week’s guest is Illinois native, Brett Kreiner. Brett messaged me on Phish.net, explaining that he was a fan of the podcast and that an earlier episode, where actor Luke LaGraff talked about the importance of the song “Lizards,” inspired him to reach out and tell his story about “Miss You.”At first, Brett said that he wanted to talk about the performance of “Miss You” from October 28, 2018 at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. But as Brett explained the importance of the song overall--not just from that performance--it became clear that “Miss You” means more to Brett and his family than one 7-minute performance in 2018.  But I’ll leave it to Brett to tell the details. So let’s join him to hear about 1980s WWF stars at Indio, the importance of Phish ballads, and making peace with your hometown venues as we talk about “Miss You.”Support the show

Send us Fan MailHi everyone, and welcome to today's episode of Attendance Bias. My guest today is Dave Waxman. Dave is a former employee of Phish Dry Goods, he worked at a bar with former Phish road manager Jason Colton, and he also recently created a merchandise website called Maybe So Maybe Lot.While I was promoting an earlier episode, Dave messaged me and asked that if I ever needed anyone to discuss the band's version of "Waste" from 8/9/98, that he was available. "Waste" is usually a disposable song, especially from that show in Virginia where the band busted out the famous "Terrapin Station" encore. Since he messaged me about "Waste" and not "Terrapin Station," I figured that there must be something great to talk about. After I listened to "Waste," it was obvious why Dave wanted to discuss it...and we'll get into that later. We also discussed that it would be silly of us, almost stubborn, to not talk about "Terrapin Station," even if it's not the focus of the episode.So let's join Dave Waxman to talk about both "Waste" and "Terrapin Station" from the Virginia Beach Amphitheater on August 9, 1998.Support the show

Send us Fan MailHi everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. This week’s guest is the Director of Marketing for AA minor-league baseball team, the Somerset Patriots, Hal Hansen. If you’ve ever played a trivia game between innings, watched a bunch of sausages race around the bases, or caught a t-shirt launched by an air cannon at a Somerset Patriots game, Hal is the guy to thank. We had a great time today talking about Phish and baseball.For today’s episode Hal chose a huge show from the summer 2000 tour: June 28, 2000 at the Garden State Arts Center. Although I know very little about this tour, Hal did a great job explaining some of the high points of the summer of 2000, and how this show represented not only a great time in his life, but a crossroads between college and his professional career...although there would be some crossoverSo let’s join Hal to hear about turbo Gin, the similarities between a no hitter and a set of Phish, and a leaked version of Backwards Down the Numberline for June 28, 2000 at Holmdel.Support the show

Send us Fan MailHello everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. This week’s guest is the host of The Bar Line Shift on HomeGrown radio, Amanda Cadran. As you’ll hear Amanda explain, HomeGrown Radio is an internet radio station with deep ties to the Railroad Earth family and Amanda’s show features a thematic playlist made up of everything from jam-centric music to obscure world music that you’ve probably never heard. I caught a few episodes of The Bar Line shift and immediately wanted to have Amanda on the show.For today’s episode Amanda chose a monster: Phish’s show on New Year’s Eve 1995 at Madison Square Garden. In addition to being an all-timer, it was Amanda’s first show. Imagine that! Long considered to be the holy grail of Phish shows, I was intimidated to tackle it, but once I spoke with Amanda ahead of time, I knew it would be easy and fun to just geek out about this fan favorite.You also may notice that I kind of went overboard with song clips in this episode but when you’ve got a show like this where virtually every track is a highlight...well...what are you gonna do?So let’s join Amanda to hear about spotting Bruce Springsteen at Toys R Us, chess games, and The Gamehendge Time Laboratory for December 31, 1995.Support the show

Send us Fan MailHello everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. This week’s guest is trumpet for DC-based bands, Skyscrapers and the Monumental Brass Quintet, Mike Lowe. As Mike’s band played their first gigs and figured out their sound as indie jam rock, COVID hit and the band had to take a forced hiatus from the stage. But as you’ll hear him say in today’s episode, they’re getting ready to return to the U Street bars in Washington.For today’s episode, Mike picked a monster jam; “Fluffhead” from July 24, 1999 at Alpine Valley. Indeed, this version of Fluffhead is unlike any other that the band has played. Stretching for over 32 minutes, with a type 2 jam that is almost entirely led by Mike’s melodic bass playing, the band has yet to play a version that displays an equal amount of musical creativity. Mike describes how fans had their jaws drop to the floor after it was played, unexpectedly as the second song of the show. So let’s join Mike to talk about his band Skyscrapers, Phish’s sound in 1998, and "Fluffhead" from July 24, 1999 at Alpine Valley.Support the show

Send us Fan MailHi everybody, and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. My guest today on Attendance Bias is sound engineer, Phish.net contributor, and the man responsible for the recent remastering of previously unreleased Phish recordings, Jeff Goldberg. Jeff chose to discuss the legendary Phish show from July 8, 1994 at Great Woods in Mansfield, Massachusetts. If you’ve been paying attention to Phish.net or the Phish.net blog over the past few years, you may have noticed that, every once in a while, the site announces the release of an archival show that was previously uncirculated. To be clear, these are separate from the band’s official releases. For example, the most recent release at the time of this recording is the show from April 9, 1990 at the Fly Me to the Moon Saloon in Telluride, Colorado. If you’ve listened to that show, a link to which is posted in the show notes, you’ve heard Jeff’s audio expertise.I’ve known Jeff for a while through an online Phish message board, and have always been impressed with his expansive knowledge of Phish, and his ability to act as an audio archeologist; to find an artifact, clean it up, and present it to the public. I was so curious about the nuts and bolts of remastering poor quality tapes, about being one of just a few to hear a show that is mostly unknown to the public at large, and his background as a Phish fan.More than that, I was thrilled that Jeff picked the show from Great Woods. Although it’s a high-profile show, very few guests on Attendance Bias have brought up anything related to Gamehendge, so Jeff and I relished the opportunity to talk about the band’s formative rock opera. So let’s join Jeff Goldberg to hear about on July 8, 1994 at Great Woods.Support the show

Send us Fan MailHi everybody, and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. My guest today on Attendance Bias is Nate Tobey of Northern California. Nate chose to discuss August 2, 2003 at the Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine. If this date sounds familiar to you, it is because it is the first day of the IT festival.IT was my first overnight festival experience and we both had a lot of say about not just the music, but the entire experience. For decades since the festival, I just took for granted that night two was the better night. Set two of the second night was everything I wanted in 2003. But listening back to night one in preparation of this podcast, it dawned on me just how great it is.This podcast has helped me place late 1.0 in context, and go deeper in understanding the rhythm and flow of 2.0. During today’s conversation, Nate calls the IT festival the “demarcation” of 2.0’s signature sound. I couldn’t agree with him more and appreciate the preparation he put into this episode.So get your best camping gear, stay up late for the soundcheck and the tower set, and take care of your shoes in that mud as we join Nate Tobey to talk about August 2, 2003, day 1 of the IT festival.Support the show

Send us Fan MailHi everybody, and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. My guest today on Attendance Bias is the creator of the Phish Stats website and the author of “This Has All Been Wonderful: A Travel Monologue from Summer 1994, the Year Phish Became Phish,” David “Zzyzx” Steinberg. Jeff chose to discuss the Phish show from September 22, 1990 at the Student Union Ballroom at UMass Amherst in Amherst Massachusetts.When I first discovered Phish’s internet presence, Dave’s statistics website was one of my first stops. As you’ll hear me say early in our conversation, I would become obsessed with checking my stats after every show. I needed to know how in many states or time zones I’d seen the band, how many time zones, what the probability was that I would see “Glide,” my most seen first set openers, my most seen second set openers, and so on. As you can tell by my fact checks at the end of each podcast episode, all of my Phish opinions have to be qualified with some sort of objectivity. Dave’s stats page provided an ever-evolving form of that. When Dave told me that he wanted to discuss a show from the fall of 1990, I was immediately interested. Of course there’s nothing wrong with more recent shows on Attendance Bias, but it’s important for everyone to revisit the band’s roots, and I never before had the opportunity to sit down for a long conversation with a person who was in the band’s orbit so early on. So get your hand stamped, say hi to Page at the pool table, and perk up those ears for the secret language as we join Dave Steinberg on September 22, 1990 at the Student Ballroom at UMass Amherst.Support the show