Attendance Bias

Send a textHi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Today’s guest, Matt Hoffman, takes us back to an instant classic: December 2, 1997 at The Philadelphia Spectrum, the first night of a 2-night run that has since been released officially by Live Phish. The fall 1997 tour has been reviewed on this show before on Attendance Bias…and basically any other conversation about Phish, but today’s discussion focuses more on the micro–this specific show, and Matt’s experience seeing the band for the first time at a career peak. By this point of the tour, Phish was a well-oiled machine, and Philadelphia was as close to a hometown stop for Trey as the band would get at the time. Donning a Flyers jersey for the show, Trey and the band would offer up a setlist full of fan favorites, including a 7-song 2nd set, 5 of which appear on the Phish.net jamcharts.Meanwhile, there is a particular Philadelphia flavor to this conversation, as Matt grew up and still lives in the Philly area, so keep listening as we join Matt to talk about the Mann Music Center, cover bands, taking naps, and more as we discuss Phish’s show from December 2, 1997 at The Spectrum.Support the show

Send a textHi everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Today’s episode is about a Phish show, to be sure, but in the larger picture, it’s about an entire tour. Today’s guest, Jordan Kahn, chose to tell his story from June sixteenth, 2000, when Phish played Zepp Suminoe-ku, in Osaka, Japan. Four years into this podcast, it’s not often that a guest chooses a show from a tour that has not yet been covered, but Jordan saw nearly every show from the Japan, 2000 tour and man, I was excited to hear all about it.In retrospect, we all know that, just a few months after Phish played Japan in 2000, they would go on a year-and-a-half long hiatus. When listening to this show, and others from the tour, they don’t sound tired, or as if they need to stop the Phish touring machine. Maybe it was being in small clubs with quiet, respectful audiences that provided the band with the relaxing feel to experiment toward the beatless, futuristic, ambient sound that would dominate 2000. But that’s all speculation. Let’s stick to what we know. Jordan provides us with a personal, yet universal, experience of what it was like to travel from the United States to the Land of the Rising Sun, and parts of this conversation veers away from the Phish experience and becomes something of a travelogue with a jamband flavor.So let’s join Jordan to talk about bullet trains, superior sushi, and why a day off during a tour is okay as we discuss June 16, 2000 from at Zepp, Osaka.Support the show

Send a textHi everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Today’s guest is Steven Gripp, the creator of the Phish Mapping Project. Steven is here today to tell about one of his favorite segments of Live Phish he’s ever witnessed: “46 Days>The Dogs>46 Days” from the Austin 360 Amphitheater on July 28, 2015, in Austin Texas.Steven and I also talk quite a bit about his project: If you’re a nerdy fan like me who could spend hours down a wormhole on Phish.net or used to read and re-read the Pharmer’s Almanac, the Phish Mapping Project is right up your alley. Basically, Steven took years of research and meticulous mapping of every Phish show on record and created an interactive worldwide digital map of their history, using Google Tours and Google Maps. If you have a favorite show but always wanted to know what the venue looked like, or where it actually is, the Phish Mapping Project has you covered. There are more dimensions to it than I could explain here, but that’s why we have Steven here to tell us about all the angles of this magnificent contribution to the Phish fan experience. In addition, we cannot forget the 46 Days/The Dogs musical sandwich that Steven brought to the episode. The summer 2015 tour peak Phish, and even an “average great” show would have highlights that would stand out when all was said and done. This power rock combination certainly meets that criteria and after all, who doesn’t love a flawless segue?So let’s join Steven to talk about 1993 Phish, the best versions of Crosseyed and Painless, and Phish in the Lone Star State as we discuss “46 Days>The Dogs>46 Days” from July 28, 2015 at the Austin 360 Amphitheater. Phish Mapping ProjectSupport the show

Send a textHi everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Today’s guest is Anton Milioti, bass player from the acoustic-ish Grateful Dead cover band, Crickets and Cicadas. Today, Anton and I spend a good deal of time talking about the Grateful Dead and live performance, but the majority of our conversation centers around a show that was Anton’s first, and still holds up in Phish history–December 30, 2013 at Madison Square Garden.  When a guest chooses a show to discuss, I tend to get excited over shows from the mid-1.0 era; 1992, 1995, 1998...but over the course of today’s conversation, Anton mentioned a few times that it’s been 10 years since the 2013 NYE run. And when we break down some of the jams and remember the Phish zeitgeist around the end of 2013, an argument can be made that they were as different 10 years ago as they were 10 years before that! On top of that, there is the recurring theme of the band celebrating its 30 year anniversary in 2013, which takes on extra resonance now, considering that we recently had the privilege of celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary! When taken in that context, this show takes on an entire different dimension.So let’s join Anton to talk about Phil Lesh, A Live One, and dream setlists as we discuss Phish’s show from December 30, 2013 at Madison Square Garden.Support the show

Send a textHi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. When I first began collecting tapes, I would always keep my eyes out for Phish shows at Jones Beach. Having grown up on Long Island, going to concerts at Jones Beach was a summer tradition. It didn’t even matter who was playing–the venue was a 10 minute drive for me, and on a nice night, it’s one of the best outdoor venues in New York. So you can imagine my reaction when I found out that my new favorite band had played there a number of times. It’s with that genuine delight and natural curiosity that I approached today’s guest, Jonathan Frederic, about his chosen show: July 23, 1993, Phish’s first time headlining their own show at Jones Beach. 1993 was an amazing time to learn about Phish, as they were just dipping their toes in the water to jump from small theaters to larger amphitheaters, a transition that would continue for approximately the next two years. During that time, the band was introducing new music from Rift, beginning their craziest musical exploration and experimentation, and creating new ways to connect to the audience, as they couldn’t maintain un-mic’d a capella performances and the Big Ball Jam in these sprawling arenas and amphitheaters.It was a pleasure to hear a first-person experience from someone who experienced all of these changes in ONE SHOW, especially at my one-time hometown venue. So let’s join Jonathan to talk about when to eat carbohydrates, ending up front-row center at the venue, and The Pixies as we go over July 23, 1993 at the Jones Beach Amphitheater.Support the show

Send a textHi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. I am ecstatic to introduce today’s episode, as it features both a knowledgeable guest who is well known within certain circles of the Phish community, and a thorough, wide-ranging discussion about three of the greatest improvisational rock concerts ever played: Phil and Friends at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco on April 15, 16, and 17, 1999.While not a Phish show, or even a Grateful Dead show, this run of concerts was a milestone for both bands. Not only was it the first time that members of the two major jambands shared a stage, it’s notable that songs from both Phish and the Grateful Dead were played over the three nights. I’ve been listening to these shows since soon after they were played and they haven’t aged a day. When Charlie Dirksen of Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation volunteered to discuss them and tell about what it was like to actually be there, I couldn’t wait to hear about it. These shows have lived in my head for over 20 years, so to hear a first-person account of what they were like made for one of my favorite conversations I’ve ever had for this podcast.This episode easily could have been three hours long–every time a song was mentioned, it took a lot of willpower on my end not to insert yet another music clip. But there was so much to discuss before we even get to the music. Let’s join Charlie to chat about his responsibilities at Phish.net, Steve Kimock’s guitar wizardy, and where John Molo fits into everything, as we break down Phil and Friends from April 15, 16, and 17 at the Warfield Theater, in San Francisco, CA.Support the show

Send a textHi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Today, we’re taking on one of the big ones: one of the most pivotal shows in the band’s 40 year career. Guest Jeff Paradise was at the first modern Phish Halloween show, October 31, 1994 at the Glens Falls Civic Center, where the band played a 3-set show that included the band’s first musical costume; a full cover of The Beatles’ White Album in the second set. The full show lasted about 5 hours, concluding at around 3:30am in a remote upstate New York minor league hockey arena.Jeff was in college in Ithaca, NY at the time, bouncing around college towns to see Phish, frequently at the behest of his friends, since Jeff was the guy with the car. At this point of the band’s career, being a college student in upstate NY or New England was a golden age of being a Phish fan. Chances are that, if they weren’t playing withing a few hours drive this week, they would be next week. It’s easy to look back now and see how monumental this show was–a band covering a double album of the most famous band in rock and rock history, and Jeff points out that, even compared to other big Phish shows of the era, the historicity of the show was apparent even in real time. Anyone in the audience in Glens Falls that night knew that they were witnessing history.   Even with that, we have a lot more to cover about this five-hour, three-set show. So join Jeff and I as we discuss Dark Side of the Moon fakeouts, mailing in postcards, and making it back in time for class with October 31, 1994 at the Glens Falls Civic Center.Support the show

Send a textHi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein.We’ve covered plenty of shows from the summer of 1999 on Attendance Bias but, lest we forget, there was a lot more to that year than a raucous summer tour. There was also a fall tour and a lesser-explored December tour, which took place entirely within the last month of the millennium. Today’s guest, Brent Summerville, chose one of the last Phish shows of 1999–December 16 at the Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, NC–to review today. Although portions of the show are available on YouTube, there are certain nuances that we can only hear from someone who was in attendance. Luckily, we have Brent here to tell us all about it.At the time, Brent was moving back to North Carolina from Michigan, and had been seeing Phish for five years. He brought a friend to this show, which he rarely did at the time, and was on his old college campus where he had lots of ties to this small basketball court-turned-concert venue.   Phish broke out a monster second set for this show, and it joined the fabled 5-song second set club, with a version of Sand full of soundscapes, as well as a soul-cleansing Tweezer. But there’s more to it than that. Let’s join Brent to chat about college basketball, Trey’s keyboard setup, and cold Michigan winters as we revisit December 16, 1999 at the Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, NC.Support the show

Send a textHi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias, or more really, the third and final episode of “This Time Will be Different: 15 Years Since Hampton.” I am your host, Brian Weinstein.Today’s episode ends our look back at what led to Phish’s comeback at Hampton, 15 years ago on March 6, 2009. If you haven’t listened yet, previous episodes have covered The pressures that led to the hiatus in 2000, the multi-faceted hot mess that was 2004, and the rebirth of the Phish experience in the early spring of 2009.When I first had the idea for this miniseries, I figured that today’s episode, the one about Hampton 2009, would be an enormous undertaking. A full weekend of shows, easily making up the most important run of the band’s career, marking the turning point from the past to the present that would introduce the 3.0 era. Yet, as my co-hosts and I were speaking–Charlie Dirksen and Scott Marks from Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation–it became more about our experiences and our personal feelings during that all-important March weekend.  In the end, that’s what Attendance Bias is about–each guest’s own experience at any given show. There is a lot more of this story to be told but, for now, this love-fest about Phish coming back to life  will settle things for now.To wrap things up, please welcome Scott Marks and Charlie Dirsken of Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation as we continue This Time Will be Different, Episode 3.Support the show

Send a textHi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias, or more accurately, episode two of “This Time Will be Different: 15 Years Since Hampton.” I am your host, Brian Weinstein.Today, I join my two co-hosts: Scott Marks and Charlie Dirksen of Phish.net and the Mockingbird Foundation, to take a look at the 2.0 era, as well as Phish’s breakup in 2004. For those of you who listened to episode 1, it was clear but not obvious, that Phish needed a break after Big Cypress, and it was never really in doubt that they would get back together. But in the second half of 2.0, mostly in the 2004 calendar year, it was glaringly obvious that Trey’s physical health was in jeopardy, and the scene as a whole was rotting from the inside. In a little while, you’ll hear Scott compare these three episodes to the original Star Wars trilogy–today’s episode is The Empire Strikes Back. Our heroes are at their lowest point, and you have to be knocked down before you can rise up and win the day. It’s telling that on Attendance Bias, 2.0 has, by far, the least number of shows represented by guests. It was, and continues to be, a divisive time in the band’s history. I originally planned this episode to be about the time of Phish’s breakup-2004 to 2008, and what the scene was like without the biggest band on tour. However, this conversation took a different route and we just went with it. It wasn’t always a pretty ride, but it has heart and makes the comeback in the next episode all the more meaningful.But we have to have the darkness before the dawn. Today, please welcome Scott Marks and Charlie Dirsken of Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation as we continue This Time Will be Different, Episode 2.Support the show