Phish Summer Tour 2009 Tickets

Well, the days to purchase tickets have come and gone. Unfortunately for me, my most recent paycheck did not clear the bank in time for me to even attempt to score tickets for any of the shows.

I'm hoping the Bonnaroo rumors turn out to be true, because that's going to be my last chance, and actually makes the most sense for me to go to that show since I'll have to travel back east from Bend, Ore. and I can at least catch a few other bands at the same time.

According to the 'Roo's website they are going to announce the initial lineup this Tuesday, February 3. There is even a note there that says, "It's the moment you've all been waiting for. The time when you finally see if the rumors are true or if we have some tricks up our sleeve..."

Gee, I wonder whom they are referring to?

Here's a story from the Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper that says tickets for the show at the Asheville Civic Center, site of the annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam, sold out in six minutes. (I'll bet you Warren will sit in and play Funky Bitch the night of the Phish show.) I'm not surprised, considering how small the venue is (7,200 seats), but still ... I'm yearning for the days (early 1990s) when you could walk up to the box office an hour before show time, buy a ticket, walk in and go straight down to the front of the stage. It looks like those days are long gone!

Come to think of it, I put in for mail order tickets to Asheville but never even received an e-mail back saying my request was denied. What's up wid dat?

And here is another story in the New York Daily News about the ticket-request storm this weekend.

For fun, here's a story that appeared in the Dallas-Fort Worth News examining all of Phish's studio albums. Which brings up another question: How many new songs do you think the boys will debut this summer? I'm guessing close to an album's worth, and that we might even get a new studio album, recorded in the same, first-take, grungy manner as Round Room, which has become my favorite studio effort from Phish.

Apparently, LiveNation's online ticketing system crashed under the weight of all the Phish-heads logging in to score tickets. Here is a post describing some people's experience with LiveNation this weekend. You at least have to give Phish credit for trying to let us all buy tickets without having to deal with Ticketbastard, but in the long run it seems like the ticket-sales monopoly would have been the best choice after all -- at least they know what to expect when a hot ticket goes up for sale.

It also appears that, even with the petition that floated around the Internet during the holidays trying to get Phish to put the Hampton shows live online, it's not going to happen. Totally sucks, don't you agree? I would be happy with one camera rolling from the soundboard back by the tapers section -- just point the thing at the stage and let her rip! Who cares about slick production and professional filming. Put a VCR camera up and let us all share in the groove!

And in case you're wondering, there are, of course, tickets available on eBay and other ticket-resale (scalper) sites. As of this post there are two tickets to Alpine Valley on eBay priced at face value. I wonder how long that'll last?

Anyone have any extras to help out The Wagger? I would simply fly in for the show of my choice, but I'm sure there will be competition to find tickets in the parking lot from thousands of other Phamily members, and I don't want to add to the ticketless hordes.

Did you score tickets? If so, write a note here in the comments section and share your experience.