Phish to Launch Tour
Phish have lined up a twelve-date tour, their first in more than
two years, to follow their previously announced New Year’s Eve at
New York City’s Madison Square Garden and trio of shows in Hampton,
Virginia. Currently the tour is scheduled to begin on February 14th
in Inglewood, California, and the dates run through March 1st in
Greensboro, North Carolina. Their very first gig back
together, however, is scheduled for December 14th, when the group
plays Saturday Night Live.
Though each member of the four-piece band has busied themselves
with side projects — guitarist Trey Anastasio with his own touring
band, bassist Mike Gordon with a film about the making of the
latest Gov’t Mule record and an album with Leo Kottke, drummer Jon
Fishman with Pork Tornado, and keyboardist Page McConnell with Vida
Blue — the dates will be their first public appearances as Phish
since October 2000, when the band announced an indefinite
hiatus.
In between the members’ respective projects, the group got
together for some writing and rehearsal sessions earlier this year.
Plans were for the group to congregate at a later date and record a
new album for release early next year. But within the first few
days of playing together, Phish pulled together thirty songs,
recording twenty and selecting a dozen for Round Room, a
new studio album due December 10th.
“The idea was to record whatever new songs we had learned for a
demo, so that I could go out on tour with Pork Tornado and still
have them to learn while I was out here,” Fishman says. “September
was looked at as the incubation period to get together and
brainstorm, put rough versions on tape, then come back in November,
rehearse it and record it again; more refined versions, and maybe
record it yet again before New Years. And then put out an album
after New Year’s. Well, we learned twenty new originals, and
another ten we didn’t have enough time to get to. The problem with
Phish, if there’s ever been a problem, is that we’ve never been
able to keep up with Trey and Mike, in terms of writing. We’ll
probably have another album of material recorded and done before
New Year’s [laughs]. It’s stupid. When Phish is working
and fresh and feeling good, there’s nothing like it.”
Prior to the New York City gig, Mike Gordon and Leo Kottke are
still on tour and will be until November 19th. Fishman and Pork
Tornado wrap up their tour tonight in Clifton Park, New York.
Tickets for Greensboro go on sale December 13th, and for all
other dates, ticket sales begin December 14th.
Phish tour dates:
12/31: New York, Madison Square Garden
1/2-4: Hampton, VA, Hampton Coliseum
2/14: Inglewood, CA, Great Western Forum
2/15-16: Las Vegas, Thomas and Mack Center
2/18: Denver, Pepsi Center
2/20: Rosemont, IL, Allstate Arena
2/21-22: Cincinnati, US Bank Arena
2/24: East Rutherford, NJ, Continental Airlines Arena
2/25: Philadelphia, First Union Spectrum
2/26: Worcester, MA, Worcester Centrum Center
2/28: Uniondale, NY, Nassau Coliseum
3/1: Greensboro, NC, Greensboro, NC