Rumor has it that Phish rented out the Loring Air Force base in Limestone for August 27-29, and is planning on holding an end-of-the-summer festival there. Some people say it's too late already to announce and plan a festival this close to the dates, making this bad information. Time will tell folks. It's fun to speculate either way.
Rumor also has it that KOTO.org, Telluride Community Radio, will broadcast the Phish show live this August. Stayed tuned for more details ...
Back to the current tour ... two nights ago in Massachusetts at the Great Woods Amphitheatre (now known as the Comcast Center), Phish laid down what arguably is the hottest show this summer. From the first notes of breakout cover Lit O Bit to the final G chord in Loving Cup, Phish, especially Trey, was on fire. Definitely, in my opinion, worth downloading an official soundboard copy from LivePhish.com
Hopefully, there will be a live stream of tonight's show over at HoodStream.com -- last year when Phish stopped in Camden the live stream failed, but with another year of experience under their belts, and better equipment, hopefully the i8 (the nickname given to the original eight founders of HoodStream.com) will find a way to push on through (the day).
PHISH AT SUSQUEHANNA BANK CENTER IN CAMDEN SET LIST
SET ONE
David Bowie, Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan, Water in the Sky, Ocelot, Uncle Pen, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Gumbo -> Timber Ho, *I Didn't Know, Birds of a Feather, Bouncing Around the Room, Reba, **The Rover
SET TWO
Down with Disease -> Cross-eyed and Painless -> Nothing -> Twenty Years Later -> Harry Hood, Fluffhead, Julius, You Enjoy Myself
ENCORE
Bug
SHOW NOTES
*Fishman playing a new vacuum since giving away the Electrolux during the 2009-2010 New Year's run in Miami; **Led Zeppelin cover, first time played.
Phish rolls into the Great Woods Amphitheatre, now called the Comcast Center, in Mansfield, Massachusetts tonight for one show before rolling down I-95 for two nights at Camden followed by two nights at the Merriweather Post Pavilion. All three venues have serious history with Phish laying down some heavy shows, so be on the lookout for a barn burner this week.
You can pick up the live stream of tonight's show by visiting HoodStream.com. Additionally, click here to read an interview exclusive to The Wagger with Joephus, one of the founders of HoodStream.com, who discusses how streaming Phish shows live with an iPhone came to be, and what it takes to make it happen night after night as Summer Tour 2010 progresses.
PHISH AT THE COMCAST CENTER (FORMERLY KNOWN AS GREAT WOODS) JUNE 22, 2010
SET ONE *Lit o Bit, Camel Walk, Possum, The Divided Sky, Dirt, Sample in a Jar, Kill Devil Falls, **Dr. Gabel, Run Like an Antelope
SET TWO
Mike's Song -> I am Hydrogen ->Weekapaug Groove, Sneakin' Salley Throu the Alley, Light-> 46 Days, Limb by Limb, Golgi Apparatus, Slave to the Traffic Light, Loving Cup
ENCORE
First Tube
SHOW NOTES *Cover song byRita Clarke and The Naturals, first time played; **New original, first time played
I wanted to see the Tweeprise thingy continue on and on and on and on ... all summer long. Instead, we got a killer show with Phish dipping into their bag of oldies to please the "hometown crowd," as SPAC is the closest the band comes to playing its hometown of Burlington, Vermont.
Of course, the live stream of tonight's show was available at HoodStream.com and they had killer sound quality tonight -- ta boot, ta boot.
Next up on June 22, the Great Woods Amphitheatre, now known as the "Comcast Center," in Mansfield, Massachusetts, located just about half way between Providence, Rhode Island and Boston, followed by two nights in Camden and two nights at the Merriweather Post Pavilion -- which, to me, is one of my top five favorite places to see a show ... as long as you get inside early enough to grab a spot on the lawn that allows you to see the stage directly.
PHISH AT SPAC NIGHT TWO SET LIST
SET ONE
*Brother, AC/DC Bag, Back on the Train, Undermind, Cities, **Gotta Jibboo, Roggae, Sleep Again, Lawn Boy, Run Like an Antelope
SET TWO Carini, The Mango Song, Wilson, Drowned -> Jam -> Swept Away -> ***Steep -> ****Makisupa Policeman -> *****Piper -> 2001, You Enjoy Myself
ENCORE Frankenstein
SHOW NOTES *with Jack Fishman, Ella Fishman, Rosie Fishman, Tessa Gordon, Bella Anastasio, Eliza Anastasio, Maxine McConnell, Delia McConnell, and Alexandra Kuroda in a bathtub at the front of the stage for Father's Day, similar to last year's Father's Day show; **with Tony Markellis (from the Trey Anastasio Band) on bass, and Mike and Trey on guitar. Trey introduced the song, saying Tony wrote it and this would be the first time it had been performed with two guitar players at the same time; ***With new ending; ****Trey improvised lyrics referencing to the well-publicized police crackdown on Phans in the parking lot; *****The Makisupa SPAC-specific lyrics continued on over the chords to Piper.
After two excellent shows in Hartford (including last night's Tweezer Reprise, Reprise), Phish travels to Saratoga Springs, where supposedly the police have an all-out sting operation in place, for the next two nights in the trees at SPAC.
You can most likely catch a clear stream of tonight's show at HoodStream.com
PHISH AT SPAC NIGHT ONE SET LIST
SET ONE
Tweezer Reprise, Chalk Dust Torture, Funky Bitch, Runaway Jim, Ya Mar, Sample in a Jar, Axilla, Fluffhead, Bathtub Gin, Suzy Greenberg
SET TWO
Rock and Roll -> Jam -> Free, Backwards Down the Number Line, *Halfway to the Moon, Prince Caspian -> Joy, David Bowie, Show of Life
ENCORE
The Squirming Coil, Character Zero, Tweezer Reprise
Last night's show, the opener of a four-night run that takes Phish from Hartford to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, affectionately known to Phish-heads and others as SPAC, was blistering. Blistering, but at the same time, a little choppy. What was perhaps the most interesting part of the show was that Phish pulled out a lot of Cow Funk throughout the night in places where you wouldn't so much expect to hear it, like the whole Mike's Groove segment (at least, that's the way I heard it).
And then there was the whole Sand -> The Horse portion of set two. People in the HoodStream.com chat rooms were complaining that it sounded awful, but what was missed on them was the fact the Phish has never, in the band's entire history, played Sand -> The Horse. Phish did, on 12/18/1999 in Hampton, break out a Horse -> Sand -> Silent in the Morning. I know I've heard that show but don't recall that segue at all. Sounds like I need to go back and listen again -- perhaps all of us do. Here is a link to download that show if you don't already have a copy.
Of course, you can listen to a live stream of tonight's Phish show (hopefully) from the Comcast Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut over at HoodStream.com
And speaking of HoodStream.com, if you have not read it already Joephus, one of the original eight founders and operators of HoodStream.com, sat down with TheWagger for an interview discussing how the idea of streaming shows live via an iPhone came about, and what it takes for everyone working together to stream each show, each night. It's not as easy as you might think. Click here to read the entire exclusive interview.
SET LIST FOR NIGHT TWO OF PHISH AT THE COMCAST THEATRE IN HARTFORD
SET ONE
Fee, Rift, Wolfman's Brother, *Summer of '89, Foam, Possum, Julius, Reba, Cavern
SET TWO
Halley's Comet -> Light -> Billy Breathes, Tweezer -> Theme From the Bottom -> Harry Hood -> Wading in the Velvet Sea, Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan
ENCORE
Sleeping Monkey -> Tweeprise, **Tweeprise
SHOW NOTES
I don't think anyone saw that Fee opener coming. *New song sung by Trey, with the refrain, "And we danced all night," first time played.**Played a second time for Hershey.
DOWNLOAD THE SHOW Click here to download an audience recording of tonight's show and hear what it sounded like to stand/dance inside Hartford's Comcast Theatre and hear Phish as the music sounded coming off of the stage, courtesy of Mr. Minor's PhishThoughts.com And if you're really into it, Mr. Minor posts each show without the setlist, so if you haven't seen it yet you can download the show and be surprised as each new song begins and develops.
Or, you can download the official soundboard recording from LivePhish.com for about $10. They've been great about posting the shows for download within about an hour or so of each one Phish show from the 2010 Summer Tour.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW FOR THE WAGGER: HOODSTREAM.COM: HOW STREAMING LIVE PHISH SHOWS CAME TO BE A FAVORITE SUMMER PAST-TIME
Last summer, the Phish community was a-buzz with a new use of technology – live, streaming web casts of each show. Some had video and the shows where a crisp, clean Internet signal was available, that night’s show was delivered via UStream.com to Phish-heads all across the world, although mostly in the U.S.
But the story of how the streams started and evolved into HoodStream.com has never been told. In an exclusive interview with TheWagger, Joephus, one of the original "Inside Eight” (also known as “i8”)– the people who made it possible for all of us, when we weren’t lucky enough to be there in person, to listen to each show from the comfort of our living room, live, as it went down – explains the evolution of HoodStream.com
The following is, word-for-word, a conversation I had with Joephus
WAGGER: So tell me how the idea formed for web casting Phish shows live as they happened.
JOEPHUS: Really, PhishTube started the streaming phenomenon. After the Fenway Park shows, Phish stopped in Jones Beach for three shows, the first which I missed due to a family function. But that first Jones Beach show I was listening to it being streamed live online. Then I found out about Wigman (the mysterious webcaster who wore a massive, black wig and provided post-show raps for everyone listening), but it was a problem trying to figure out where on the Internet you could find a live stream of that night’s show.
For Phish’s 2010 Summer Tour, the “Original Inside Eight” – (all HoodStream.com user names) Wigman, PhishSpac, CostaPete, DogLog, Joephus0311, The_Man_Mulcahy, honorary member BubbleMan (he lives overseas but helped with the formation of the group in more ways than one, Joephus said), and one other partner who wishes to remain anonymous – have worked out many of the bugs from last summer, and hope that this summer, every show will be broadcast live on the HoodStream.com web site with clean, crisp audio.
WAGGER: Yeah, Wigman became sort of an online legend, almost overnight, thanks to his hilarious webcasts from Jones Beach and the practical jokes he played on those of us trying to find where we could pick up the stream of the show.
JOEPHUS: The second night of Jones Beach was my first attempt at a stream. It topped out at somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 viewers – on my first stream! I was pretty amazed, to say the least, that so many people were logged on. I couldn’t believe so many Phish-heads were watching an iPhone stream with such poor quality, just at the chance of being able to hear that night’s show. It was exciting, to say the least.
I remember my two friends I went to the shows with were also amazed – they couldn’t believe it. So, that night I went home, I passed out immediately from exhaustion. When I woke the next morning I had a multitude of emails from people thanking for me for the stream, and others begging me to buy extra battery packs, because that first stream barely lasted through the first set.
So, the first thing I did after reading those emails was to get a friend to drive me to the Apple store somewhere on Long Island to purchase battery packs. I actually called the Apple store before hand, inquired about the battery backs, and begged the lady working there to open the packs and fully charge them because I was already on the way to the show and would have no time to fully charge one battery pack, let alone both of them, beforehand. Even though it’s against Apple store policy to pre-open packages, I basically begged this lady, and eventually she agreed to open one and charge it to make sure I had one fully-charged battery pack for the show that night. We drove from Brooklyn to the Apple Store somewhere on the east end of Long Island, picked up battery packs, thanked her a million times for fully-charging the one, and took them to the show.
WAGGER: So, what did you learn from your initial experience of trying to stream a show live through an iPhone?
JOEPHUS: From my first experience streaming at the second night of Jones Beach, when my phone died in a little more than one hour, I learned that streaming eats up an enormous amount of battery power. Just the fact that it’s not only capturing video, it’s transferring it over a 3G (network), and the phone is on and running the entire time. All three of these issues combined added up to a depletion of (battery) resources.
The second show I streamed, I remember sitting in my friend’s car, duct-taping a GorillaPod to the battery pack. I was barely able to use it that night because I was constantly being hassled by security; I actually had to run once when they saw I was doing, uh, something out of the ordinary. The tri-pod, or GorillaPod, works fine but unfortunately I had to hold it half the time.
I was able to stream the final night of Jones Beach, and I had close to the same amount of viewers – 6,000 to 7,000. Still, using one extra battery pack was not getting the job done; I was only able to stream that show until just before the end of the second set. That’s when my battery pack went dead.
WAGGER: I remember very clearly watching those Jones Beach shows and thinking to myself, “Only Phish-heads could even conceive of a way to stream each show live, as it happens.”
JOEPHUS: Well, from there we went to Great Woods the next night. We tried streaming that show but we were unsuccessful due to difficulties with the local network. I was able to connect to the Internet a little, but for most of the show I could not stream.
When I got to Great Woods, I got inside the venue a couple of songs late, and I tried streaming the first set, but my connection kept booting me offline, and it happened several times during first set. I kept looking for a spot with better reception and sound, and then disaster struck.
Close to the end of the first set, my iPhone fell out of my pocket and I lost it – GorillaPod attached to it and all. I completely freaked out, as you can imagine, and I frantically called my phone non-stop during the set break to see if anyone would answer it. As I was calling my phone, I was simultaneously searching the crowd, trying to see if I could see someone looking at this giant contraption of an iPhone. After I had a neurotic, frantic, nervous, upset set break – any adjective you can think of that describes stress – the lights went down for the second set, and Phish started to play. At this point I told myself ‘I’ll deal with my phone at the end of the set. Let me at least enjoy this set, because I couldn’t enjoy the first set at all, running around frantically like I was.
Anyway, at the end of the second set I had completely forgotten that I lost my phone, probably because the set was so good. So, I decided to give it one more try and called my phone one more time, and some guy answered. The guy said, “I have your phone, if that’s what it is.” The guy said he was in section so-and-so, which just happened to be right behind me. So, I looked up and the guy was 10 feet away from me holding up my phone. I gave the guy a huge hug and thanked him a million times. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the guy’s name anymore, but if you’re reading this, again, thanks soooooo much! I guess you could say it was meant to be. Still, that second set was one of the most enjoyable sets I’ve ever seen in 60-plus shows.
WAGGER: Other than seeing Wigman’s stream, what was the impetus behind starting HoodStream.com? The reason I ask is because it’s not a for-profit enterprise; it’s basically a hobby for the "i8"and it takes up a lot of time.
JOEPHUS: Now that I think about it, going back to the beginning, one of the main reasons I started to stream was because one of my best, oldest friends, Arnaud Azoulay (an artist whose work can be seen at YouEnjoyMyArt.com). He caught his first show at Ventura 1994, and his second show was Chula Vista in 1999; that’s how I got into Phish, the tape of the Chula Vista show from 1999, and listening to Picture of Nectar, believe it or not. I saw almost every show with Arnaud when we were younger, but he got married, he and his wife had a baby and they moved to Paris, France. Since the technology was available, I really wanted to bring the streams to him. So, he was the real reason why I got into streaming. He introduced me to Phish in college. He had seen one or two shows before then and said, “Dude, you have got to check this band out.” Me and a couple of other friends went with him to the next show in Chula Vista 2000 and we were immediately hooked.
WAGGER: So, back to your original streams during Phish’s 2009 Summer Tour …
JOEPHUS: The next show of the tour was Camden – the one where they broke out that Fee. I brought a friend of mine to the show with me to Camden. At the time, I was convinced that the (Phish) organization was jamming our signal, especially that night because when I went walked to the courtyard in Camden I could connect, but as soon as I walked half way up the stairs I lost my connection. I didn’t think it was worth it to spend them show streaming it from the bottom of the stairs near the merchandise booth, especially because listeners wouldn’t be able hear that much and not very clearly. iPhone makes stealthy microphones, which we need, but they still are not that great as far as sound quality.
WAGGER: I remember people were upset at this point that every show was not being streamed, even though the entire concept was only birthed about one week earlier. People were really pissed that nothing came out of Camden because those shows were pretty good.
JOEPHUS: We were trying our asses off, but this was all new and most of it was being done on the fly, learning as we went along. I missed the next show in Asheville, but Wigman streamed Asheville. The next show was Knoxville, which was funny because I was also frantically looking for a signal inside the arena. I got all the way to the back of the venue, almost near the concession stands, and finally got a clear signal and was streaming. But as I was streaming the show, I was leery, looking over my shoulder making sure no one was coming after me. I saw Wigman cruising around with his posse, but not streaming the show. Wigman later told me it wasn’t him – he was never there, meaning there was a Wigman imposter floating around Phish’s 2009 Summer Tour!
After Knoxville I drove to Bonnaroo. The first night of Bonnaroo I was able to stream from the VIP stands on the side of stage; the sound was killer, to say the least. The second night I streamed the show from (near) the soundboard. It was unbelievable how clear the audio was from my iPhone, but I just happened to be standing in the right location. I remember I had a few guys glancing over at me from time to time, but I really had no problems at all, all night long.
WAGGER: After Bonnaroo, the Phish tour moved on to St. Louis, which many people were calling is the show to see that tour because it was out of the way and in a small venue.
JOEPHUS: Unfortunately, I did not attend the Fox Theatre show because I couldn’t get tickets. However, St. Louis was the first show where, in the chat room, the “i8” decided to join forces and have one place where all of the streams could come together in one location so that people wouldn’t have to frantically search the Internet for the streams. That’s why HoodStream.com was created – so that there would be one, central location everyone could meet, join the chat room, talk to other Phish-heads, and know that every night the Phish show will be streamed.
Once HoodStream.com was created by the Original “i8” it became all about sharing equipment with each other to figure out what worked best. We would FedEx battery packs to each other and microphones we were testing. Each one of us lives anywhere from Cali to Chicago to Vermont, so we have most of the country covered between the eight of us. We just kept shipping equipment and batteries to each other from one show to next hoping for a decent stream.
WAGGER: We should mention here that HoodStream.com is all volunteers, and that anyone who wants to get involved, pretty much, can.
JOEPHUS: We never do anything for profit. We’re all, unpaid volunteers – we pay our own way to get to shows, for tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars – we do this purely out of the love we have for Phish I our hearts. But once we created HoodStream.com, due to demand and requests from visitors to the site, we decided we needed to stream something that would entertain people between Phish tours. So, we decided we were going to start streaming shows 365 per year – old shows, new shows, and everything in between, 24 hours per day. We have more than 24 volunteers who help us keep the site up and running all day, every day. HoodStream.com is not an automated station; it’s people who take the time out of their day to change the shows in the queue each day. I really want people to know that we’re not just open when Phish is playing a live show; we’re here all year long. So, come visit us, enjoy some good tunes, chat with other Phans, and have a blast.
In fact, right now we are on a recruitment mission, asking anyone with an iPhone, Blackberry, Droid or any kind of smart-phone, to help us stream the shows. We’ve set up a HoodStream.com calendar online that lists all of the streamers for a given the show, and we also list people who say they will be streaming that night. That way, people will know whether or not that night’s show will be web cast live or not.
WAGGER: So, how are things shaping up for HoodStream.com coverage for Phish’s 2010 Summer Tour?
JOEPHUS: Right now, we have about half of the shows covered Phish 2010 Summer Tour, but we’re always lookingxz for more volunteers, and we’re always willing to help out with tips and advice to get people started streaming the shows.
NOTE FROM THEWAGGER: If anyone would like to help out they can contact the “i8” at Hoodstream@gmail.com; we are more than willing to help out with tips and advice on obtaining a good stream.
Tonight is the first night of the four-night, northeastern run on Phish's 2010 Summer Tour that encompasses Hartford and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, known affectionately by Phish-heads as SPAC. This has the chance to be the run of the first leg of Phish's 2010 Summer Tour.
There are two good streams tonight. Click here for YouEnjoyMyStream, which has a very clear stream of tonight's show, although the reception has cut in and out more often than PhishChic and I would like. ANd of of course you can always listen to tonight's Phish show, streamed from Hartford via old-faithful ... HoodStream.com on the Salizar channel.
PHISH LIVE FROM THE COMCAST THEATRE IN HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT SET LIST
SET ONE
Punch You in the Eye, Ocelot, Dinner and a Movie, Stash, Esther, Walk Away, The Divided Sky, When the Circus Comes, Sugar Shack, Alaska, *Golgi Apparatus
SET TWO
Party Time, Down with Disease-> Jam-> Sand -> **The Horse -> Silent in the Morning, Guyute, Farmhouse -> Mike's Song -> I am Hydrogen -> Weekapaug Groove ENCORE
Shine a Light
SHOW NOTES
*Trey said, "We started late. We'll be right back." Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it. I hope he's right and I'm wrong... folks, he was wrong; **This is the first time in history Phish ever played The Horse coming out of Sand, but interestingly enough, on 12/18/1999 at Hampton they played The Horse-> Sand -> Silent in the Morning.***As Kari108 said in the HoodStream.com chat room tonight, "True Karma."
Or download an official soundboard copy from LivePhish.com once it's available. They've been on it lately -- the shows have been posted within an hour, it seems, each night.
Get some rest, folks. The next four days are going to be the schnizzle, as far as Phish shows go. Keep your eyes and ears open for those SPAC shows (as close as they come to Burlington, VT these days), especially if you're sitting inside on the upper level. Phish will get you there every time in those seats. Look for yourself.
Following on the heels of anoter ripiing Phish showmfro Hersyepark, Pennsylvaia, the boys rolled ito Portsmoth, Virginia, one of the tiniest outdoor venues on the East Coast -- complete with views of the Navy boatbuldig shipping yards from behin the stage. And in a rarity, Phish sandwiched together tonight shtu with a Tube opener anencore of Heavy Things anbd First Tube to close the show. Notthing like a Phish Sandwich to send you out to the parking lot with a full-belly full of Tube's.
PHISH SUMMER TOUR 2010 SHOW AT The nTELOS PAVILION PORTSMITH, VIRGINIA SET LIST
SET ONE
Tube, KIll Devil Falls, Slave tothe Traffic Light, Light, Lawn Boy, Poor Heart, AC/DC Bag, The Moma Dance -> My Friend, My Friend, *Cold Water, Bathtub Gin, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan
SET TWO
Wilson -> Seven Below -> 46 Days -> **Ideal, 2001 -> Simple -> Joy, Taste, Theme From the Bottom, A Day in the Life
ENCORE
Heavy Things, First Tube
SHOW NOTES
*Tom Waits cover, first time played; **Ideal, debut of a new original
PhishChic and I were just sitting here watching the TV show Deadliest Catch and felt an earthquake, which according to the Los Angeles Times reached a magnitude of 5.9. In reality, though, I think it was an aftershock, created by last night's Phish show in Hersheypark Stadium -- which smoked from Jibboo on -- that rolled across the country and just now hit Southern California.
It's possible Phish created that much energy. Check it out yourself. Download a crispy audience recording of exactly what Phish sounded like at Hersheypark -- audience, shifting sound and all -- by clicking here, courtesy of Mr. Minor's PhishThoughts.com.
Interesting, the San Diego Union Tribune web site was flooded with people, most likely, arguably, looking for information about why their Halogen lamps and hanging plants and crudely put-together DVD/CD holders just shook violently enough to scare the cat.
The Union Tribune, as of this post, has nothing on its web site's home page about the 5.9 earthquake that just sputtered through Southern California.
The San Diego News Network, an upstart, scrappy-little Internet-only news site, says the earthquake felt here reached 5.7 magnitude. Even they beat out the San Diego Union Tribune.
The Los Angeles Times, in fact, has a big, bold, beligerent, blaring red button on the top of its page that says, "BREAKING NEWS." And then, since nothing's posted with the link (as of this post), there is another link inviting you to sign up for updates. Brilliant newspaper marketing by the LA Times. (Although, since this was posted originally, the LA Times has taken the bold, red breaking news button off the top and buried the story three links down on the right side of it's featured piece.
The San Diego Union Tribune looks like a kid kicking a can in an alleyway, completely oblivious people are looking to them for information about what just happened in their San Diego, California homes.
After two nights of some good music from the boys, and a couple of breakouts so far, tonight's show at Hersheypark, site of some serious music history from Phish's past, should be a real melter (get it?) Showtime tonight is scheduled form 7 p.m. EST, which means 4 p.m. for all of us West Coasters. See you at HoodStream.com to listen to the stream of the show. They'll be good and warmed up going into tonight ...
PHISH AT HERSHEYPARK STADIUM, HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA SET LIST
SET ONE
Gotta Jibboo, Chalk Dust Torture, Fluffhead, Funky Bitch, Runaway Jim, NICU, Horn, It's Ice, Bouncing Around the Room, Sparkle, Split Open and Melt
SET TWO
Drowned -> Tweezer -> Twist, Piper - > Free, Wading in the Velvet Sea, You Enjoy Myself
Night two of Phish's 2010 Summer Tour stops in Cuyahoga Falls. I've always wanted to see a show at that intimate, little venue. It's like the little venue that could. Sort of like Phish was the little band that could.
I'll have links for downloading tonight's show later. In the meantime, head over to HoodStream.com to see if they are web casting tonight's show, and listen to past Phish greatness while you wait for tonight's show to start.
PHISH AT BLOSSOM MUSIC CENTER, CUYAHOGA FALLS, OHIO SET LIST
SET ONE*Look Out Cleveland, Ocelot, Water in the Sky, Stash, The Ballad of Curtis Loew, Sample in a Jar, Time Turns Elastic, Mike Song -> I am Hydrogen -> Weekapaug Groove
SET TWO
Rock and Roll, Harry Hood, Backwards Down the Number Line, 20 Years Later, Instant Karma, The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony -> Suzy Greenberg, Waste, Character Zero
ENCORE
The Squirming Coil
SHOW NOTES
*Song by The Band that appears on "The Band," more popularly known as "The Brown Album." This is the first time Phish has covered this song, according to Zzyzx's Phish Stats.
PHISH SUMMER TOUR 2010 KICKS OFF TONIGHT IN CHICAGO, SHOW SETLIST AND THE STORY OF HOODSTREAM.COM
Coming to you live tonight from Toyota Park in Chicago, the soccer field that's home to the Chicago Fire soccer club, part of the fledgling U.S. Major League Soccer. Check back often tonight as I will be posting set lists live from Phish's show at Toyota Park tonight in Chicago.
Additionally, I completed an interview with Joephus, one of the original eight (and arguably, the most visible and well-known) creators of the HoodStream.com web site. If you scroll below tonight's set list, and the section with the latest news about Phish from around the web, you will see the interview at the bottom of the page. Please provide comments/complaints/praises/questions about the interview at the bottom of the article.
By the way, in case you forgot about HoodStream.com they are streaming tonight's Phish show live from Toyota Park in Chicago. Click here for the live stream.
And here's to everyone getting to see every show that want to see, and hearing every song they want to hear this summer!
PHISH AT TOYOTA PARK IN CHICAGO SET LIST, JUNE 11, 2010 SET ONE
Down with Disease, Wolfman's Brother, Possum*, Boogie on Reggae Woman, Reba, Jesus Just Left Chicago, The Divided Sky, Golgi Apparatus, David Bowie**
SET TWO
Ligh, Maze, Ghost -> Limb by Limb***, Prince Caspian, The Horse ->Silent in then Morning, Run Like an Antelope, Show of Life
ENCORE
Cavern, Julius
SHOW NOTES * Trey congratulates Chicago on their Stanley Cup victory after Possum.
** We'll be back in 15 Minutes ... whatever Trey
***Vocal jam at the end
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW FOR THE WAGGER: HOODSTREAM.COM: HOW STREAMING LIVE PHISH SHOWS CAME TO BE A FAVORITE SUMMER PAST-TIME
Last summer, the Phish community was a-buzz with a new use of technology – live, streaming web casts of each show. Some had video and the shows where a crisp, clean Internet signal was available, that night’s show was delivered via UStream.com to Phish-heads all across the world, although mostly in the U.S.
But the story of how the streams started and evolved into HoodStream.com has never been told. In an exclusive interview with TheWagger, Joephus, one of the original "Inside Eight” (also known as “i8”)– the people who made it possible for all of us, when we weren’t lucky enough to be there in person, to listen to each show from the comfort of our living room, live, as it went down – explains the evolution of HoodStream.com
The following is, word-for-word, a conversation I had with Joephus
WAGGER: So tell me how the idea formed for web casting Phish shows live as they happened.
JOEPHUS: Really, PhishTube started the streaming phenomenon. After the Fenway Park shows, Phish stopped in Jones Beach for three shows, the first which I missed due to a family function. But that first Jones Beach show I was listening to it being streamed live online. Then I found out about Wigman (the mysterious webcaster who wore a massive, black wig and provided post-show raps for everyone listening), but it was a problem trying to figure out where on the Internet you could find a live stream of that night’s show.
For Phish’s 2010 Summer Tour, the “Original Inside Eight” – (all HoodStream.com user names) Wigman, PhishSpac, CostaPete, DogLog, Joephus0311, The_Man_Mulcahy, honorary member BubbleMan (he lives overseas but helped with the formation of the group in more ways than one, Joephus said), and one other partner who wishes to remain anonymous – have worked out many of the bugs from last summer, and hope that this summer, every show will be broadcast live on the HoodStream.com web site with clean, crisp audio.
WAGGER: Yeah, Wigman became sort of an online legend, almost overnight, thanks to his hilarious webcasts from Jones Beach and the practical jokes he played on those of us trying to find where we could pick up the stream of the show.
JOEPHUS: The second night of Jones Beach was my first attempt at a stream. It topped out at somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 viewers – on my first stream! I was pretty amazed, to say the least, that so many people were logged on. I couldn’t believe so many Phish-heads were watching an iPhone stream with such poor quality, just at the chance of being able to hear that night’s show. It was exciting, to say the least.
I remember my two friends I went to the shows with were also amazed – they couldn’t believe it. So, that night I went home, I passed out immediately from exhaustion. When I woke the next morning I had a multitude of emails from people thanking for me for the stream, and others begging me to buy extra battery packs, because that first stream barely lasted through the first set.
So, the first thing I did after reading those emails was to get a friend to drive me to the Apple store somewhere on Long Island to purchase battery packs. I actually called the Apple store before hand, inquired about the battery backs, and begged the lady working there to open the packs and fully charge them because I was already on the way to the show and would have no time to fully charge one battery pack, let alone both of them, beforehand. Even though it’s against Apple store policy to pre-open packages, I basically begged this lady, and eventually she agreed to open one and charge it to make sure I had one fully-charged battery pack for the show that night. We drove from Brooklyn to the Apple Store somewhere on the east end of Long Island, picked up battery packs, thanked her a million times for fully-charging the one, and took them to the show.
WAGGER: So, what did you learn from your initial experience of trying to stream a show live through an iPhone?
JOEPHUS: From my first experience streaming at the second night of Jones Beach, when my phone died in a little more than one hour, I learned that streaming eats up an enormous amount of battery power. Just the fact that it’s not only capturing video, it’s transferring it over a 3G (network), and the phone is on and running the entire time. All three of these issues combined added up to a depletion of (battery) resources.
The second show I streamed, I remember sitting in my friend’s car, duct-taping a GorillaPod to the battery pack. I was barely able to use it that night because I was constantly being hassled by security; I actually had to run once when they saw I was doing, uh, something out of the ordinary. The tri-pod, or GorillaPod, works fine but unfortunately I had to hold it half the time.
I was able to stream the final night of Jones Beach, and I had close to the same amount of viewers – 6,000 to 7,000. Still, using one extra battery pack was not getting the job done; I was only able to stream that show until just before the end of the second set. That’s when my battery pack went dead.
WAGGER: I remember very clearly watching those Jones Beach shows and thinking to myself, “Only Phish-heads could even conceive of a way to stream each show live, as it happens.”
JOEPHUS: Well, from there we went to Great Woods the next night. We tried streaming that show but we were unsuccessful due to difficulties with the local network. I was able to connect to the Internet a little, but for most of the show I could not stream.
When I got to Great Woods, I got inside the venue a couple of songs late, and I tried streaming the first set, but my connection kept booting me offline, and it happened several times during first set. I kept looking for a spot with better reception and sound, and then disaster struck.
Close to the end of the first set, my iPhone fell out of my pocket and I lost it – GorillaPod attached to it and all. I completely freaked out, as you can imagine, and I frantically called my phone non-stop during the set break to see if anyone would answer it. As I was calling my phone, I was simultaneously searching the crowd, trying to see if I could see someone looking at this giant contraption of an iPhone. After I had a neurotic, frantic, nervous, upset set break – any adjective you can think of that describes stress – the lights went down for the second set, and Phish started to play. At this point I told myself ‘I’ll deal with my phone at the end of the set. Let me at least enjoy this set, because I couldn’t enjoy the first set at all, running around frantically like I was.
Anyway, at the end of the second set I had completely forgotten that I lost my phone, probably because the set was so good. So, I decided to give it one more try and called my phone one more time, and some guy answered. The guy said, “I have your phone, if that’s what it is.” The guy said he was in section so-and-so, which just happened to be right behind me. So, I looked up and the guy was 10 feet away from me holding up my phone. I gave the guy a huge hug and thanked him a million times. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the guy’s name anymore, but if you’re reading this, again, thanks soooooo much! I guess you could say it was meant to be. Still, that second set was one of the most enjoyable sets I’ve ever seen in 60-plus shows.
WAGGER: Other than seeing Wigman’s stream, what was the impetus behind starting HoodStream.com? The reason I ask is because it’s not a for-profit enterprise; it’s basically a hobby for the "i8"and it takes up a lot of time.
JOEPHUS: Now that I think about it, going back to the beginning, one of the main reasons I started to stream was because one of my best, oldest friends, Arnaud Azoulay (an artist whose work can be seen at YouEnjoyMyArt.com). He caught his first show at Ventura 1994, and his second show was Chula Vista in 1999; that’s how I got into Phish, the tape of the Chula Vista show from 1999, and listening to Picture of Nectar, believe it or not. I saw almost every show with Arnaud when we were younger, but he got married, he and his wife had a baby and they moved to Paris, France. Since the technology was available, I really wanted to bring the streams to him. So, he was the real reason why I got into streaming. He introduced me to Phish in college. He had seen one or two shows before then and said, “Dude, you have got to check this band out.” Me and a couple of other friends went with him to the next show in Chula Vista 2000 and we were immediately hooked.
WAGGER: So, back to your original streams during Phish’s 2009 Summer Tour …
JOEPHUS: The next show of the tour was Camden – the one where they broke out that Fee. I brought a friend of mine to the show with me to Camden. At the time, I was convinced that the (Phish) organization was jamming our signal, especially that night because when I went walked to the courtyard in Camden I could connect, but as soon as I walked half way up the stairs I lost my connection. I didn’t think it was worth it to spend them show streaming it from the bottom of the stairs near the merchandise booth, especially because listeners wouldn’t be able hear that much and not very clearly. iPhone makes stealthy microphones, which we need, but they still are not that great as far as sound quality.
WAGGER: I remember people were upset at this point that every show was not being streamed, even though the entire concept was only birthed about one week earlier. People were really pissed that nothing came out of Camden because those shows were pretty good.
JOEPHUS: We were trying our asses off, but this was all new and most of it was being done on the fly, learning as we went along. I missed the next show in Asheville, but Wigman streamed Asheville. The next show was Knoxville, which was funny because I was also frantically looking for a signal inside the arena. I got all the way to the back of the venue, almost near the concession stands, and finally got a clear signal and was streaming. But as I was streaming the show, I was leery, looking over my shoulder making sure no one was coming after me. I saw Wigman cruising around with his posse, but not streaming the show. Wigman later told me it wasn’t him – he was never there, meaning there was a Wigman imposter floating around Phish’s 2009 Summer Tour!
After Knoxville I drove to Bonnaroo. The first night of Bonnaroo I was able to stream from the VIP stands on the side of stage; the sound was killer, to say the least. The second night I streamed the show from (near) the soundboard. It was unbelievable how clear the audio was from my iPhone, but I just happened to be standing in the right location. I remember I had a few guys glancing over at me from time to time, but I really had no problems at all, all night long.
WAGGER: After Bonnaroo, the Phish tour moved on to St. Louis, which many people were calling is the show to see that tour because it was out of the way and in a small venue.
JOEPHUS: Unfortunately, I did not attend the Fox Theatre show because I couldn’t get tickets. However, St. Louis was the first show where, in the chat room, the “i8” decided to join forces and have one place where all of the streams could come together in one location so that people wouldn’t have to frantically search the Internet for the streams. That’s why HoodStream.com was created – so that there would be one, central location everyone could meet, join the chat room, talk to other Phish-heads, and know that every night the Phish show will be streamed.
Once HoodStream.com was created by the Original “i8” it became all about sharing equipment with each other to figure out what worked best. We would FedEx battery packs to each other and microphones we were testing. Each one of us lives anywhere from Cali to Chicago to Vermont, so we have most of the country covered between the eight of us. We just kept shipping equipment and batteries to each other from one show to next hoping for a decent stream.
WAGGER: We should mention here that HoodStream.com is all volunteers, and that anyone who wants to get involved, pretty much, can.
JOEPHUS: We never do anything for profit. We’re all, unpaid volunteers – we pay our own way to get to shows, for tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars – we do this purely out of the love we have for Phish I our hearts. But once we created HoodStream.com, due to demand and requests from visitors to the site, we decided we needed to stream something that would entertain people between Phish tours. So, we decided we were going to start streaming shows 365 per year – old shows, new shows, and everything in between, 24 hours per day. We have more than 24 volunteers who help us keep the site up and running all day, every day. HoodStream.com is not an automated station; it’s people who take the time out of their day to change the shows in the queue each day. I really want people to know that we’re not just open when Phish is playing a live show; we’re here all year long. So, come visit us, enjoy some good tunes, chat with other Phans, and have a blast.
In fact, right now we are on a recruitment mission, asking anyone with an iPhone, Blackberry, Droid or any kind of smart-phone, to help us stream the shows. We’ve set up a HoodStream.com calendar online that lists all of the streamers for a given the show, and we also list people who say they will be streaming that night. That way, people will know whether or not that night’s show will be web cast live or not.
WAGGER: So, how are things shaping up for HoodStream.com coverage for Phish’s 2010 Summer Tour?
JOEPHUS: Right now, we have about half of the shows covered Phish 2010 Summer Tour, but we’re always lookingxz for more volunteers, and we’re always willing to help out with tips and advice to get people started streaming the shows.
NOTE FROM THEWAGGER: If anyone would like to help out they can contact the “i8” at Hoodstream@gmail.com; we are more than willing to help out with tips and advice on obtaining a good stream.
PHISH ON LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON, AGAIN
In case you missed it, here is the clip of Phish performing Kill Devil Falls on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night. Obviously, this performance was recorded when Phish playedd Loving Cup during Exile On Main Street week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon a couple of weeks ago. You can tell it's the same performance because everyone is wearing the exact clothes they had on the night they performed Loving Cup.
In any case, it's a good television performance -- you know how Phish has a history of blowing it for large, national audiences.
PHISH 2010 SUMMER TOUR KICKS OFF TOMORROW (JUNE 11) IN CHICAGO
Here we go again. Let the tour caravans roll.
After an explosive 2009, the band's first year back on the road since 2004, brought performances and new approaches to improvisation that no one really saw coming (although everyone kept their fingers crossed for some new, mind-blowing, improvised passages, like the first set jam that came out of Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley during the first set if night one at The Gorge, or the sweet passage in Harry Hood at Jones Beach from early on in Summer Tour 2009.
PHISH 2010 SUMMER TOUR DATES (Here's the link to the map of tour dates via the revamped Phish.com 4.0 -- just in time for Phish's 2010 Summer Tour -- showing where Phish is performing.)
06/11 – Toyota Park, Chicago, IL
06/12 – Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
06/13 – Hersheypark Stadium, Hershey, PA
06/15 – nTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth, VA (SOLD OUT)
06/17 – Comcast Theatre, Hartford, CT
06/18 – Comcast Theatre, Hartford, CT
06/19 – Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY (SOLD OUT)
06/20 – Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
06/22 – Comcast Center, Mansfield, MA (SOLD OUT)
06/24 – Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
06/25 – Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
06/26 – Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
06/27 – Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
06/29 – CMAC Performing Arts Center, Canandaigua, NY
07/01 – Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek, Raleigh, NC
07/02 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
07/03 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, Alpharetta, GA (SOLD OUT)
07/04 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, Alpharetta, GA (SOLD OUT)
08/05 – The Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA (SOLD OUT)
08/06 – The Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA (SOLD OUT)
08/07 – The Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA (SOLD OUT)
08/09 – Telluride Town Park, Telluride, CO (SOLD OUT)
08/10 – Telluride Town Park, Telluride, CO (SOLD OUT)
08/12 – Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN
08/13 – Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN
08/14 – Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI
08/15 – Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI
08/17 – Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre, Wantagh, NY (SOLD OUT)
08/18 – Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre, Wantagh, NY (SOLD OUT)
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