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Happy 4th of July: Celebrate Independence…and the 10-Year Anniversary of Phish’s 7-4-99

whitperson — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:13:53 +0000

Happy Independence Day from Live Music Blog!

I thought I’d drop a quick post to commemorate the holiday while Justin’s off gallivanting at the High Sierra Music Festival. I got a brief text from him saying he’s not getting great mobile service and trying to conserve cell juice, so I think we’ll just wait until the weekend’s out to get his thoughts on HSMF.

Meanwhile, I am catching a few solid sets from the Rothbury Festival courtesy of iclips.net’s Rothbury webcast, which marks a solid start to their summer festival series, dubbed “The Couch Tour.”

Of course, we couldn’t let the 4th of July go by without giving a nod to Phish’s hot and sweaty show at the Lakewood Amphitheater 10 years ago today. What better way to commemorate the 4th of July than with a super slow and psychedelic version of “Ghost” that morphs perfectly into a triumphant “Slave to the Traffic Light.” Check it out:

Phish – “Ghost” (live, 7/4/99) [mp3]
Phish – “Slave to the Traffic Light” (live, 7-4-99) [mp3]

By the looks of the setlist and from what I’ve heard, this show featured some serious jamming and a ton of silly banter and antics in fine Phish fashion.

But as much as I love this “Ghost > Slave” sequence, I still think my favorite Independence Day Phish show took place the following year in Camden. That show already got its own post last year, so you can check out here: Phish Friday | The 4th of Jiboo.

However you celebrate the 4th of July holiday, be safe, have fun, and be sure not to mix too much booze with all those fireworks!

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Rothbury Webcast Schedule, Plus Updates from High Sierra

whitperson — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:23:01 +0000

Justin’s currently on his way to High Sierra for the weekend festivities in Northern Cali, so he’s left me in charge of the reigns here at LMB. Uh oh! That means it’s time for a never-ending stream of workout mixes and long essays on the concert industry.

Kidding aside, hopefully Justin won’t be completely off the grid, so he can send us some periodic updates and tweets from High Sierra throughout the weekend. In the meantime, I’m digging this webcast schedule that iClips just posted for the Rothbury Festival. It’s looking pretty solid, with some good viewing options across the board (check out the full schedule after the jump).

If you’re like me and you can’t make it to either Rothbury or High Sierra this weekend, then make sure to check out the iClips webcast, and while you’re waiting in between sets, you should read our recent interview with iClips.net’s founder, Nate Parienti, about the site’s growth and evolution.

Rothbury Festival 2009 – iClips Webcast Schedule

Friday, July 3

1:45pm · King Sunny Ade
2:45pm · Brett Dennen
3:30pm · G. Love and Special Sauce
4:15pm · Keller Williams
6:30pm · TBA
8:00pm · Toubab Krewe
8:45pm · The String Cheese Incident
12:30am · The Disco Biscuits

Saturday, July 4

1:30pm · Ralph Stanley
2:15pm · Martin Sexton
3:30pm · Jackie Greene
4:45pm · TBA
5:30pm · The Black Crowes
7:00pm · Railroad Earth
8:30pm · John Butler
10:00pm · Lotus
11:30pm · STS9

Sunday, July 5

1:45pm · Toots and the Maytals
3:00pm · Four Finger Five
3:45pm · Yonder Mountain String Band
5:15pm · The Hard Lessons
6:00pm · Willie Nelson
7:30pm · Grace Potter
8:45pm · Flogging Molly
10:00pm · Ani DiFranco
11:45pm · Matisyahu
1:00am · Umphrey’s McGee

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Photos: Marco Benevento Trio and The Bad Plus @ Merkin Hall, NYC 5/14/09

Justin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:30:37 +0000

Our friend Josh Kuckens went to see the Marco Benevento Trio and The Bad Plus at Merkin Hall in NYC in the middle of May. Both of us got busy so the photos couldn’t get posted right away, but we’ve finally got the good ones up. Read on for the pics.

I’m about out the door to High Sierra and I’m psyched I’ll be seeing a few of these guys at the festival. I really wish the Bad Plus was going to be there; that’d be tight.

Marco Benevento Trio

The Bad Plus

See the full set of photos here.

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Phish Halloween Festival Update: Definitely Not Ohio or Kansas

Justin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:41:57 +0000

On a whim I decided to check if Phish.com had any new reveals in the quest to get the to the final location state of the Phish Halloween Festival that I wrote about earlier today, and they’ve now updated the map to make it clear that the festival will not be held in Ohio or ~~Nebraska~~ Kansas. “Phew,” the phans think — am I right?!?!

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Tour Dates: The Flaming Lips 2009 Tour, New Album Due in Sept.

Justin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:22:45 +0000

The Flaming Lips are going out on tour this summer starting at the Pitchfork Music Festival’s Write the Night awesomeness. They’re releasing their first double album ever called, Embryonic, which will be featuring members of MGMT and Karen O. from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Not bad.

Read on for the dates.

The Flaming Lips 2009 Tour Dates

July 2009
19 – Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival.

August 2009
15 – Del Mar, CA – Del Mar Race Track
17 – Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre
18 – Pomona, CA – Fox Theater
20 – Portland, OR – Edgefield Amphitheater
21 – Seattle, WA – Marymoor Amphitheater
23 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheater
26 – Atlanta, GA – Chastain Park Amphitheater
28 – Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
29 – Philadelphia, PA – Festival Pier
30 – Boston, MA – Bank of America Pavilion

September 2009
13 – Monticello, NY – Kutchers Country Club & Resort

[via LiveDaily]

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High Sierra Roll Call?!?

Justin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:01:06 +0000

In between posting tons of stuff before I worry about bathing or feeding myself, I thought I’d get a post going to get some excitement ready for High Sierra Music Festival this weekend. I’ll be there with a camera and a few bottles of sunblock, so I hope to have some updates from the fest if the connection is possible. Tons of my new West Coast friends will be there and I can’t wait to see all the good music.

Who’s going?! Drop some comments and let’s get a crew together.

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Sights and Sounds: Wilco @ Greek Theatre, Berkeley 6/27/09

Justin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:22:58 +0000

Wilco just rolled through California and Saturday night brought them to the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. This was my first time at the storied venue and I was fortunate enough to score a photo pass from their PR company, so I brought my SLR and shot the show from the pit.

Here’s some of the ones that came out either cool or totally crispy:

“I seen like, like an orange…his AURA or whatever, I seen it!”

See my whole set here.

Also, because the show sounded so good, I’m putting up a MP3 download of the show from this source. Remember not to trade this one, kiddos — this is only for your own personal consumption. Thanks to Wilco and taper Todd Fleisher for hooking it up.

Download: Wilco @ Greek Theatre, Berkeley 6/27/09 [zip]

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iClips Announces The Couch Tour

Justin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:32:00 +0000

In case you missed our recent interview with the CEO from iClips, we’ve learned that the company is taking the lead in trying to get quality live concert webcasts to the masses. And even though AT&T Music just did the webcast from Bonnaroo, it looks like they’re not going to be the preferred webcast partner for a few of the festivals that we’ve seen from them in the past. Both Lollapalooza 2009 and Austin City Limits Music Festival 2009 are now going to be webcast free via iClips.net, which is something we’re very excited about. That’s not all, though.

From iClips.net:

Festival Season is upon us in full force – Come celebrate the best music of the summer with iClips! We’re traveling all across America to bring you non-stop footage of your favorite festivals and artists, so that you can watch it all from the comfort of your own home, office, or wherever you may be. So fire up the grill, settle into your couch, escape from the every-day, grab a seat by the pool, and check out the live broadcasts from this summer’s greatest events!

All of the LIVE broadcasts below will be FREE! Stay tuned for further announcements, as we still have a few more events to announce!

July 2nd – 5th
Rothbury Festival

July 18th – 19th
Mile High Music Festival

July 31st – August 2nd
All Points West

August 7th – 9th
Lollapalooza

October 2nd – 4th
Austin City Limits Music Festival

For anybody not going to these festivals already, this is always a fantastic alternative. Free music is good. Free live concert webcasts are really good.

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Video: Grizzly Bear – “Cheerleader” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Justin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:22:48 +0000

This video was too cool in too many ways to list, so it gets its own post today.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: Friday, June 26, 2009 [Hulu]

Updated post with proper copyrighted clip

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The New Phish Album, Plus a Halloween Festival?!? AYFKM?

Justin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:11:48 +0000

Some of you may have noticed that there are some stories that don’t always get the immediate news treatment here on the site, which I’m working to rectify a bit by building a bit more of a news aggregator on the site that will collect the best and brightest stories that you guys need to be aware of. For now, we’ll just settle for my five-day-old commentary on the news that most of you have already seen through Facebook friends or the PT Boards.

The biggest news we’ve missed is that Phish spoke with Rolling Stone about their new album, Joy, with a tracklist and some details about the recording process thus far.

From Rolling Stone (my emphasis added):

Many of Joy’s songs have already become live staples on Phish’s reunion trek, and they unleashed new gems during both of their headlining Bonnaroo sets. Fans are already connecting to the Lynyrd Skynyrd-flavored “Kill Devil Falls,” “Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan” and the epic 13-minute closer “Time Turns Elastic,” which the band released as a digital download in May. According to Anastasio, “Time” took 278 takes to get the song right, as Lillywhite forced the band to nail down all 15 sections of Anastasio’s prog-rock closer. “I wanted every member to play every section perfectly,” Lillywhite said.

If you run the math on that, this song alone took the band at least 62 hours to record (not counting any overdubs or post-production). Lillywhite = studio nazi.

Here’s the tracklist:

“Twenty Years Later”
“Backwards Down the Number Line”
“Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan”
“Light”
“Joy”
“Sugar Shack”
“Ocelot”
“Kill Devil Falls”
“I’ve Been Around”
“Time Turns Elastic”

Following up that news and the final two shows of the tour at Alpine, I started to get pings from all my Phishy friends about a festival to be announced for Halloween weekend in Indio, CA at the site they host Coachella and Stagecoach every year. I didn’t want to run with the story right away, figuring that it would prove to be true or false pretty quick. And sure enough, Phish.com updated in style to show a map of the U.S. with some haunting loops running in the background saying only “Save the Date: A 3 Day Festival 10/30-11/1″ – and the frenzied planning begins!

So far, the map has eliminated the following states: Washington, Idaho, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, North Carolina, West Virginia, and New Hampshire. The latest attack was a swarm of red fire ants (see screenshot below).

And now the speculation begins. What album might Phish cover this year as their first musical costume since 1998’s performance of Velvet Underground’s classic, Loaded? I’ve got money on Thriller, but that would almost be too obvious a choice for them to do. Maybe they’ll do two musical costumes just to blow everybody’s mind. If there’s one thing about this band that everybody should know by now, it’s that you need to continue to expect the unexpected. I can’t wait for Red Rocks.

Also, a footnote, these two news items combined earns our esteemed and soon-to-be-coveted AYFKM tag. I’ll let you decide what that really means if you don’t already — no need to spell it out — and it’s a phrase we’re going to start using whenever something seems just a bit too good to be true.

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