Phish Eyes Adding 2009 Late Summer Tour West Coast Show in Bend, Oregon

Apparently, Phish has been in contact with the promoter for the Les Schwab Amphitheater here in Bend, Oregon (my current hometown!!) -- a venue on the Deschutes River (here's a photo of the Deschutes River from inside the Bend city limits, just around the corner from the Les Schwab Amphitheater) that seats no more than 8,000 people. (Beck, Wilco and Stone Temple Pilots played here last year.)

Anyway, I have it from a very reliable source that Phish is looking to add a show between their run at The Gorge, August 7th and 8th, and their stop in Chicago at Toyota Park on August 11th. The promoter for the Les Schwab Amphitheater says he has contract in hand from Phish to perform here in Bend on August 9th.

The contract stipulates that the promoter has to be able to guarantee that $400,000 in ticket sales can be achieved. At $50 per ticket, with the Les Schwab Amphitheater holding 8,000 people, that brings them right at $400,000.

Whether or not this comes to pass remains to be seen. Truth be told, I find it highly unlikely that this will happen, but the truth is the promoter has Phish's contract in hand.

Stay tuned to The Wagger for more on Phish adding a Late Summer 2009 tour stop in Bend, Oregon. (Man, I would love to sleep in my own bed after a show. That's only happened to me three times since my first show on February 25, 1993 at the now-defunct Cameo Theater in Miami Beach, Florida. I saw Mimi Fishman play the vacuum that night to "If I Only Had a Brain!!!!!)

Along these lines, here is an article written in Boston Music Spotlight on March 23rd further speculating on the possibility of Phish adding that Fenway Park date to open Summer Tour 2009.

More Killer Hampton Videos

These were shot by none other than Brad Serling of Nugs.net fame. Nice job Brad! Possibly the highest quality video from Hampton available anywhere. They're all short, but super sweet! (Side note: If you read this Brad, I've been a big fan of Nugs.net since 1999!)

Grind
Tweeprise
Contact
2001
Frankenstein
A Day in the Life
Mike's Song
Lawnboy
It's Ice
Punch You in the Eye
Harry Hood
Possum
I Didn't Know
The Divided Sky
Bouncing Around the Room
Walking around the parking lot before opening night

Trey Anastasio to Release Time Turns Elastic

In other news, Trey Anastasio announced he will release a new solo album, "Time Turns Elastic," May 12th on Rubber Jungle Records. "Time Turns Elastic" is, of course, the symphony Trey wrote while he was on probation in upstate New York.

The East Coast premiere of Time Turns Elastic is at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 21, 2009 at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, Maryland (why Baltimore I have no idea). The first half of the program will feature classic Phish songs and solo Trey compositions, while the second half of the program will feature the East Coast premiere of "Time Turns Elastic."

Here is the entire press release as posted at Trey.com:

Time Turns Elastic, a ground-breaking work for vocals, guitar and orchestra composed by Trey Anastasio and Don Hart, will be released on May 12th by Rubber Jungle Records. The piece – orchestrated by Don and performed by Trey and The Northwest Sinfonia, conducted by David Sabee – blends the intrinsic elegance of classical music with searing blues-rock guitar, resulting in an exhilarating work that engages and challenges fans of both genres.

“Neither of us had ever heard anything that uses a guitar as a serious instrument intermingled with an orchestra in the same way one would write a concerto for a violin and orchestra,” says Trey, who first collaborated with Hart at the 2004 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival while staging a piece from one of his solo albums, Seis de Mayo. “I grew up loving Ravel and Eric Clapton equally,” he continues. “So I kept saying to Don, ‘why can’t we have a piece of music that’s half Ravel and half Cream’s Disraeli Gears?”

Both Trey, named one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by Rolling Stone and a founding member of the genre-melding rock band Phish, and Don, who’s worked with a diverse group of musicians that includes Martina McBride, Collective Soul and Randy Travis and is currently Composer-in-Residence for Orchestra Nashville, are musical chameleons whose tastes cross all boundaries. While the pair’s collaborations on Trey's Shine (2005) and Bar 17 (2006), may prefigure Time Turns Elastic, the composition actually began as a Phish song.

“I was living in upstate New York when I started writing this little tune that just kept growing,” recalls Anastasio. “I initially thought it would be a Phish song, but after I sent a demo of it to Don, it just grew organically into an orchestral piece.” The 13-minute acoustic guitar demo – which is included on the album – evolved into “Movement 2” and “Movement 3” and provided Hart with the inspiration for “Movement 1.”

Trey and Orchestra Nashville (conducted by Paul Gambill) gave Time Turns Elastic its debut performance at the Orchestra’s season opener at Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium in September 2008. “It was ambitious, strange and wholly entertaining,” said rollingstone.com. “There was no doubt that he had won over both his hardcore fan base and the Bach aficionados who were new to the party.”

Time Turns Elastic will receive its East Coast premiere on May 21st when Trey joins Music Director Marin Alsop (the first woman to head a major American orchestra) and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for a special evening that will also feature classic Phish songs and solo Trey compositions.