Phish announces summer concerts
Toolbox
By STEPHANIE M. PETERS Herald Staff - Published: January 9, 2009
There's good news for Phish fans who missed out during the mad clamor for tickets to a trio of March reunion concerts announced last fall.
The Vermont band announced Thursday that it will stretch its comeback to include a 10-date summer tour, which will kick off June 4 with a two-night stand at Nikon Theater at Jones Beach on Long Island.
From there the band will perform a show at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Mass., which is the closest the Vermont natives will come to their home state. Left off the list of venues was the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the closest summer amphitheater to Vermont and once a popular tour destination for the group.
Other stops the band will make include Camden, N.J., Asheville, N.C., St. Louis, Mo., Burgettstown, Pa., Noblesville, Ind., and two nights in East Troy, Wis., to end the tour.
A five-day gap between the North Carolina and St. Louis dates is already fueling speculation among fans that Phish will also headline Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, an annual, four-day gathering in Manchester, Tenn., featuring multiple stages showcasing an eclectic mix of performers. A lineup for Bonnaroo has not been announced.
As with the ticketing process when the band announced in October it would end its 4-1/2-year hiatus to perform three shows in Hampton, Va., on March 6, 7 and 8, a limited number of tickets will be made available through Phish Tickets' online ticketing system, which can be reached through the band's Web site. The requesting process for those tickets has already begun and will continue through noon Saturday.
The remainder of tickets will go on sale to the public beginning Jan. 30 at 10 a.m.
Phish — Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Mike Gordon and Jon Fishman — got its start in 1983. Their improvisational style and mix of different genres made them an enormously successful touring group with a cultlike following. They decided to call it quits after a two-day festival in Coventry, Vt., in August 2004, reportedly after fatigue and personal problems took a toll.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Stephanie M. Peters at stephanie.peters@rutlandherald.com.
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