After months of speculation and rumors, Phish announced their summer tour on February 29.Many rumors had swelled around the possibility of a festival in Atlantic City at Bader Field, a decommissioned airport where the Dave Matthews Band held a fest last year and Metallica is scheduled to host one this year. It seemed like a done deal from the various sources swirling around cyberspace.
Confirmed for June 15-17, it will not be a festival in the tradition of the nine campout extravaganzas from the Clifford Ball in 1996 to Super Ball IX last year. Instead, it will be more like a three-night stand in one big spot. It's not like there aren't plenty of places to stay in and around Atlantic City.
Still, I might have preferred the big camping weekend. There is a certain vibe that is very much singular to those festivals. With no curfews, Phish tends to play looser and longer, digging up obscurities and cementing newer songs' place in their catalog.
The way I see it, as an event, this Bader Field series will be somewhere in between Super Ball IX and last year's three-night stand at Bethel Woods. More Lollapalooza than Bonnaroo.
As for the rest of the tour, I had considered returning to the DCU Center in Worcester, where I saw the excellent New Year's Run shows in 2010, but could not fit it into my vacation schedule or budget. Besides why the hell are they doing indoor arena shows in June?
Bonnaroo? Been there, done it, loved it in 2005, but again, way too expensive and far away for a 2012 budget that includes two marathons.
The thought crossed my mind to check out the Virginia and Ohio shows, simply because I have never seen Phish in those states but, really, when stats become the reason to go to shows, you have to wonder if you have gone off the deep end after 19 years of phandom.
That brings us to the legendary Midwest venues in Noblesville, Ind. (the former Deer Creek), and East Troy, Wis.,(the still-thankfully-non-corporate-named Alpine Valley). I am thrilled and proud to have seen Phish at both of those venues when I did almost the entire summer tour in 2004, thinking it was my last chance ever to see them. But that was before I started running, so I had nothing else with which to split my vacation time and money. Sadly, I do not make much more money, and have only one more week of paid vacation time, than I did eight years ago, so I can not add it to my budget.
Besides, why travel when this leg of the tour ends up back in New York for two shows at Jones Beach (where I saw my first two Phish shows in 1993 and 1994) and three shows at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center? Those were not to be missed and relatively close to home, so I submitted my request for both Jones shows and two SPAC shows.
Seven requests in all, potentially $400 in tickets. Not to mention hotels in A.C. and Saratoga (thankfully my parents live on Long Island, so I can stay with them between the Jones shows). Would lady luck smile upon me and grant me the tickets I requested?
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