Latest Phish News, Articles and Interviews from Around the Web

PHISH TO PLAY FIRST FULL-LENGTH ACOUSTIC SET AT FESTIVAL 8
This is something I have wanted to see for years now. Phish announced they will play an entire set acoustically "At the Crack of Noon" at Festival 8 next month in Indio, California. Amazingly, this is the first time in history Phish will play a full-length acoustic set.

The one question I have is what will the stage set up look like for the acoustic set? Hopefully, they'll do something similar to the Grateful Dead's acoustic shows, where they gather around in a compact circle at the front and center of the stage, rather than remaining in their usual stage positions just playing acoustic instruments.

Click here to see the planned show times for all eight sets at Festival 8.

It would be killer if they broke out some of the acoustic numbers they used to do bluegrass-style back in 1995, with Page on standup bass, Mike on banjo, Trey on acoustic guitar and Fish on mandolin.

TREY INTERVIEWED ON DAVE-FM ATLANTA
Trey was interviewed by Mara Davis, radio host at Dave-FM in Atlanta, this past Wednesday where they discuss the upcoming musical costume at Festival 8, why Phish didn't play Atlanta on their 2009 Summer Tour, who is in charge of the stereo in his household, why Fishman singing "I Kissed a Girl" was so wrong, and they even delve into Trey's guilty pleasure of listening to Top 40 music -- he sings a couple of lines of the Britney Spears song Circus, which is hilarious. Listen to the entire interview by clicking here.

MIKE GORDON INTERVIEW ON JAMBANDS.COM
Dean Budnick over at Jambands.com (the first place I ever had a freelance article published back in 1999!!) has done it again. He landed an interview with Mike Gordon and managed to put together a piece that doesn't rehash what's already been said about Phish and the boys 1,000 times. Then again, what else would you expect from Budnick. He's one of the pioneers of Jamband journalism.

I was also surprised to see Jambands.com finally revamped their web site. This was long, long, long overdue, and it looks great. Kudos, guys!

Collecting Firewood with Mike Gordon (Jambands.com)

LIST OF MEMBERS OF PHISH SITTING IN WITH OTHER BANDS
Currently, there is a thread over at the PhantasyTour message boards listing links to downloads of performances by Mike, Trey, Page and Fish sitting in with other bands, like the Yonder Mountain String Band, Dave Matthews Band, Jazz Mandolin Project and the Benevento-Russo Duo. The list also includes some "hard-to-find" but outstanding Phish shows/sets, like 9/14/1999 in Boise, Idaho (if you have never heard the second set from this show you need to download it immediately by clicking here), the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan on 7/31/1999 and Cologne, Germany on 2/16/1997 -- the show that more or less kicked off the insane year of CowFunk. And there is other rare stuff dating back to 1982, before Trey and Fishman ever even played together in their dorm hall at the University of Vermont.

Check out the entire thread by clicking here.

FUGUES IN PHISH'S MUSIC
DogGoneBlog came up with another great post, this time delving into the role fugues play in Phish's music. Properly defined, a fugue is "a polyphonic composition based upon one, two, or more themes, which are enunciated by several voices or parts in turn, subjected to contrapuntal treatment, and gradually built up into a complex form having somewhat distinct divisions or stages of development and a marked climax at the end." Sound familiar?

Phish Fugues (DogGoneBlog)

RUMORED FALL TOUR DATES
Mr. Miner over at PhishThoughts.com posted rumored fall tour dates, which fall in line with exactly what I posted here about a month ago. Minor also mentions that Festival 8 ticket sales are not going as well as the band hoped, and his reasoning makes sense -- the shows are about as far away from the East Coast as you can get, and in an expensive resort town ta boot. I was surprised they picked Indio when I first read it, but what do I know ...

Fall Tour? (PhishThoughts.com)

HELP WATERWHEEL WIN $25,000
You can help the WaterWheel Foundation, Phish's charitable arm, win a $25,000 grant by nominating it as your favorite charity. The contest, sponsored by Christie Cookies, is simple: the organization receiving the most votes wins. We should be able to help WaterWheel win this by a landslide.

Click here to vote for the WaterWheel Foundation as your favorite charity.

DOWNLOAD MIKE GORDON BAND BROOKLYN SHOW
And just for kicks, here is a link to download Mike's show from Brooklyn, N.Y. back on Sept. 8. From what I've heard thus far, the Mike Gordon Band is putting out some stellar music. Be sure to check it out. Just about every show is available through the eTree Community Tracker.

Mike Gordon @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 9/8/2009 TLM170 flac16