Phish 2009 Fall Tour Dates, Tickets and Other News

Phish posted a wild-ass video message on their website (is there some sort of hint about the Halloween album in there? Trees = Joshua Tree? Read below for more on this ...), finally announcing the 2009 Fall Tour dates, which pretty much coincide with the dates published here at The Wagger, and other blogs, several weeks ago. Still no word on a New Years Run, but rumor still has it the boys are playing Miami's American Airlines Arena, site of the 2003 New Year's Run, Dec. 28-31. Stay tuned ...

Here are the official 2009 Fall Tour dates (excluding Festival 8):

11/18 - Detroit, MI Cobo Arena
11/20 - Cincinnati, OH U.S. Bank Arena
11/21 - Cincinnati, OH U.S. Bank Arena
11/22 - Syracuse, NY War Memorial at Oncenter
11/24 - Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center
11/25 - Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center
11/27 - Albany, NY Times Union Center
11/28 - Albany, NY Times Union Center
11/29 - Portland, ME Cumberland County Civic Center
12/2 - New York, NY Madison Square Garden
12/3 - New York, NY Madison Square Garden
12/4 - New York, NY Madison Square Garden
12/5 - Charlottesville, VA John Paul Jones Arena (expect Dave Matthews to sit in for this one)

Public on sale dates for Phish's three-night Madison Square Garden run, and two-night Cincinnati run, have changed. Tickets for all three MSG shows will now go on sale Friday, October 23rd at 11am EST, and both Cincinnati shows will go on sale Saturday, October 24th at 11am EST.

Of course, a limited number of tickets for all 2009 Fall Tour dates are available directly through Phish's online ticketing system at http://phish.portals.musictoday.com. The ticket request period is currently underway and will end tomorrow, Friday, October 16th at 5:00pm EST.

Tickets finally cracked the $50 mark. Geez. I remember my first show was like $8 or something back in 1993.

The three nights at Madison Square Garden mark the longest run the band ever has played at the storied venue, believe it or not.

Also, on a side note, I've been thinking about Festival 8, the Musical Costume and the acoustic set. Does anyone else think that the acoustic set may be the Musical Costume set? Then again, tickets for Festival 8 have a joshua tree printed on them, leading to speculation that the U2 album of the same name, which appears on the list of possible albums at Phish.com, will be the Musical Costume that night ... And I guess there are no acoustic albums appearing on the list, but you never know what these guys will do. It would be hilarious to see Phish do something like come out and perform Metallica's Master of Puppets acoustically. Stay tuned ...

In other news, Trey has been appearing on satellite radio's Jam On channel promoting Festival 8 by playing clips from prior Phish festivals. Honestly, I can't believe they actually feel like they have to put effort into promoting the shows. That is a first, for sure, but with the economy and the fact that they selected a venue about as far away from the region where most of their fan base resides (the East Coast and particularly the Northeast) I guess it was inevitable. From what I am hearing ticket sales are nowhere near what they expected, and wanted, so it will be interesting to see what the turnout is like later this month.

Just the fact that there are still tickets on sale is a first for the band -- at least, I'm pretty sure all previous festivals sold out, with the possible exception of The Clifford Ball. Anyone know if this is correct or not?