So who are the big winners? Well, it would seem like the Northeast region of the country once again gets a whole lot of love. The big loser? Looks like the west coast. The absence of a weekend at The Gorge, leaves only medium-sized venues booked in California and Colorado which is sure to drive demand way up for the Greek Theater (capacity of 8500) and the already highly publicized pair of shows in Telluride (capacity 9000, with 1500 tickets being promised to locals.)

First Time Played: Portsmouth, Virginia; Alpharetta, Georgia

Significant Gaps: Hershey, PA (last played 9/15/2000), Cuyahoga Falls, OH (last played 9/18/2000), Canandaigua, NY (last played 6/22/1995), Berkeley, CA (last played 8/28/1993), Telluride, CO (last played 10/28/1991).

READ ON for the complete list of dates and ticketing information…

We’ve got 29 shows broken up into two legs and they are as follows:
6/11/2010 Toyota Park, Bridgeview IL
[Capacity - 28,000]
6/12/2010 Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls OH
[Capacity - 19,263]
6/13/2010 Hersheypark Stadium, Hershey PA
[Capacity - 30,000]
6/15/2010 nTelos Wireless Pavilion, Portsmouth VA
[Capacity - 6,500]
6/17/2010 Comcast Theatre Hartford CT
[Capacity - 25,000]
6/18/2010 Comcast Theatre Hartford CT
[Capacity - 25,000]
6/19/2010 Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs NY
[Cap. - 25,100]
6/20/2010 Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs NY
[Cap. - 25,100]
6/22/2010 Comcast Center, Mansfield MA
[Capacity - 19,900]
6/24/2010 Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden NJ
[Capacity - 25,000]
6/25/2010 Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden NJ
[Capacity - 25,000]
6/26/2010 Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia MD
[Capacity - 19,316]
6/27/2010 Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia MD
[Capacity - 19,316]
6/29/2010 MSC Brands PAC, Canandaigua NY
[Capacity - 15,000]
7/01/2010 Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion, Raleigh NC
[Capacity - 20,000]
7/02/2010 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte NC
[Capacity - 18,768]
7/03/2010 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Alpharetta GA
[Capacity - 12,000]
7/04/2010 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Alpharetta GA
[Capacity - 12,000]
——————————————————-
8/05/2010 Greek Theatre-U.C. Berkeley, Berkeley CA
[Capacity - 8,500]
8/06/2010 Greek Theatre-U.C. Berkeley, Berkeley CA
[Capacity - 8,500]
8/07/2010 Greek Theatre-U.C. Berkeley, Berkeley CA
[Capacity - 8,500]
8/09/2010 Town Park Telluride, CO
[Capacity - 9,000]
8/10/2010 Town Park Telluride, CO
[Capacity - 9,000]
8/12/2010 Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville IN
[Capacity - 24,000]
8/13/2010 Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville IN
[Capacity - 24,000]
8/14/2010 Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy WI
[Capacity - 40,000]
8/15/2010 Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy WI
[Capacity - 40,000]
8/17/2010 Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh NY
[Capacity - 15,000]
8/18/2010 Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh NY
[Capacity - 15,000]

You can enter Phish’s preorder lottery tickets from now up until March 26 at 11:59 at Phish’s ticketing site. You may request up to four tickets per show, except for the Berkeley and Telluride shows which have a 2 ticket limit per show. Tapers may request up to two taper tickets per show.

So, now that we finally know the dates, what do you think about them? Which shows do you plan on seeing? Let us know by leaving a comment…

The members of Phish will take the stage tonight for the first time in 2010 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City where they will open this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. As previously announced, Phish guitarist/vocalist Trey Anastasio will induct Genesis which will be followed by Phish performing a couple of Genesis classics.

[Screengrab by Jen Bernstein]

Tonight’s ceremony – including Phish’s performance – will be broadcast live on Fuse starting at 8:30PM EDT. The 2010 Rock n’ Roll Hall Of Fame inductees are ABBA, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, The Hollies, The Stooges, David Geffen, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry, Jesse Stone, Mort Shuman and Otis Blackwell. Other musicians due to perform include solo star and J. Geils Band singer Peter Wolf, Pat Monahan, and Fefe Dobson.

UPDATE [9:15PM EDT]: Phish performed two Genesis songs which were broadcast on Fuse with Anastasio’s induction speech in the middle. They kicked off the festivities at the Waldorf this evening with a song that Genesis often used to open their concerts in the early ’70s – Watcher of the Skies.

Trey gave a heart-felt speech that explained what was so unique and ground-breaking about Genesis and focused on the group’s early days calling them “rebellious, restless and constantly striving for something more.” Anastasio went on to say that for Genesis “every musical rule and boundary was questioned and broken.”  He also made it personal stating “it’s impossible to overstate what impact this band and musical philosophy had on me as a young musician. I’m forever in their debt.”

Genesis members Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett accepted the honor with Rutherford explaining that Peter Gabriel had “a very legitimate and genuine excuse” for his absence as he’s rehearsing with an orchestra for an upcoming tour. Hackett, who left the band in 1977, expressed how good it felt to be back with his old mates and gave a plug for his upcoming tour. Collins was given the majority of the time and thanked all of the band’s managers and agents throughout the years and thanked Trey for the “convincing argument.”

Phish returned to the stage for a take on 1981’s No Reply at All from the Abacab album. For this tune, the band was augmented by a three-piece horn section. While the members of Phish, who were all dressed in suits, nailed both tunes they performed on this evening instrumentally, the vocals left something to be desired. Collins told reporters he was “moved” by Phish “playing two very difficult songs very well.”

• AUDIO: Watcher of the Skies, No Reply at All [gotfob]

Mike Gordon’s solo project combines a good dose of funk with a lot of boundless improvisation. The band stopped at the Pearl Street nightclub in Northampton, MA on Saturday to prove how capable and willing they are to put on a fresh, exciting, and unique show. In a post-show conversation with percussionist Craig Myers, “Mike is constantly pushing new sh**. Sometimes the hits come late, but then other times we’ve just created something new.” And more often than not, they’re creating something new.

His backing band is not so much of a “backing band” when you look at how guitarist Scott Murawski and keyboardist Tom Cleary took the helm during portions of Saturday’s show. Murawski’s solos are smooth and story-like, concluding gracefully as Mike subtly brings the band back to a chorus. While Murawski is off on his own improvising, he’s clearly locking into Mike’s playing at all times. Cleary, on the other hand, usually lays low adding color when necessary to every song. However, when it’s his turn to solo, Cleary is unstoppable and wild – he often ends up halfway through his jams standing up and spinning around while playing.

The Saturday show kicked off with Can’t Stand Still, an original song that evokes ’90s era alternative pop. Mike’s voice harmonized and blended well with the voices of the other members of the band who sang backup. While everyone danced in sync to the opening song, Spiral, which followed, was a little hiccup in the setlist. The groove was a little hard to grasp for an audience that wanted to dance. Things quickly changed however when Mike invited Mark Mercier, one of his favorite musicians and Murawski’s Max Creek band mate , to take over Cleary’s position on the boards. Mercier sang lead and jammed on Columbus Stockade, and Cleary came back to do double duty on keys with Mercier on Voices, a standout track from The Green Sparrow.

READ ON for more of Balaji’s thoughts and photos of the MGB…

Mike created a lax and intimate environment (aided by the small size of the venue) by recounting stories of his 16-month-old child and her penchant for calling one of his pet cats “Iz.” He led the audience in a mantra-like “Iz” chant that returned during a few other occasions in the show. Interestingly, Mike adding to the sonic landscape of the show by improvising with a KAOSS-pad-like instrument that manipulated patches of sound with a touchscreen. The stagehands were fixing Murawksi’s monitors many times during the show, and Mike skilfully brought out his new toy to create sound in the mean time. He showed the audience the different beats he could create by tapping on the pad, then he let some members of the audience tap on it to make their own sounds.

The highlights from the second set included Cleary’s vocal lead on Crumblin’ Bones, a song that sent the audience into a frenzy, and the return of Hap Nappy, a song that saw some of its best renditions on the Mike and Trey with The Duo tour of 2006. Hap Nappy was much played much faster than usual, but that only made the dancing more raw and energetic. Though it wasn’t on the setlist, Mike threw a curve ball at his bandmates and segued straight into La La La. Needless to say, the band followed along fluidly. Murawksi’s hilariously caricatured vocals on Cities brought laughter and smiles to the audience. The band’s version more closely resembles the original Talking Heads song than Phish’s slower, groovier interpretation.

The night ended with a fast-paced Swamp Music, a Possum-like blues tune. Such a strong performance showed how the band’s preparation and rehearsals paid off. The band has been together for two years, but Saturday’s show proved that Mike is not afraid to keep taking risks. With a repertoire full of originals and covers that is constantly growing, there is a lot to expect out of Mike Gordon’s new band. Though the next time you’ll see Mike live will probably be with Phish, there’s definitely another album and at least a handful of tours expected from his new band.

Mike Gordon Band
March 13, 2010
Pearl Street
Northampton, MA

Set One: Can’t Stand Still, Spiral, Columbus Stockade*, Voices*, Radar Blip, The Beltless Buckler > I’m Deranged > Dig Further Down

Set Two: What Things Seem, Fire From A Stick, Crumblin’ Bones > Time (The Revelator) > Hap Nappy > La La La, Cities, Be Good And You’ll Be Lonely, Traveled Too Far

Encore: Swamp Music

Show Notes:

* with Mark Mercier on keyboards/vocals

After an extremely long meeting, the Telluride Town Council has approved AEG’s request to hold a pair of Phish concerts in Town Park on August 9th and 10th by a unanimous vote. Now that the town has given the promoters the green light, we move on to the final piece of the puzzle – the band working out a deal with the promoter to actually play the shows.

One of the biggest complaints from Colorado residents last year was the lack of tickets that went to locals. The Telluride Town Council dealt with this issue by working out a deal in which the promoters would put aside 1,500 tickets for each night for local residents. Are you planning to hit these shows? Let us know by leaving a comment below…

• Previously: Booking Phish 101: Telluride & Wrigley
• March Madness: Both Phish and Trey Are Competing in the First Round of HT’s Cover Wars – March Madness Tourny

UPDATE: Merrick Chase of TelluridePhotography.net wrote about and took photos of the Telluride Town Council’s meeting at Rebekah Hall. Read his complete account and check out his photos HERE.

[AEG Live's Don Strasburg and Planet Bluegrass President and concert promoter Craig Ferguson address the Telluride Town Council Tuesday morning on the topic of the now approved Town Park concert dates for Phish on August 9th and 10th of this year. - Photo by Merrick Chase]

All of the winners’ audio/video has been embedded for you and we have linked back to the corresponding Cover Wars that led to each artist’s victory. We have enjoyed running this piece for you every week (or maybe, three times per month?) and hope you enjoy Cover Wars March Madness. My personal highlight would have to be us running The Ballad Of Curtis Loew edition in early May and seeing Phish pull the cover from deep off the shelf three weeks later at Fenway Park. Let’s look at the first eight matchups…

1) Cortez The Killer (Built To Spill) vs. The Maker (DMB)
2) Sultans of Swing (Trey) vs. O-o-h Child (Trey)
3) Will It Go Round In Circles (The Bridge) vs. Godzilla (GUTML)
4) Ballad Of A Thin Man (GD) vs. A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall (Joan Baez)
5) Sweet Virginia (Phish) vs. Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Clare & The Reasons)
6) You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Max Creek) vs. Eminence Front (MC)
7) Naive Melody (Perpetual Groove) vs. Time (Flaming Lips)
8) Lenny (Umphrey’s McGee) vs. Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ (UM)

For bout number one, we’ve got Built To Spill covering Neil Young’s Cortez The Killer vs. DMB’s cover of Daniel Lanois’ The Maker…

Built To Spill – Cortez The Killer

Dave Matthews Band – The Maker

READ ON to place your vote in this matchup and to check out and vote on the other seven March Madness bouts in this part one of our Round of 32…

For bout number two, we’ve got Trey Anastasio taking on himself as his band’s covers of Dire Straits’ Sultans of Swing takes on TAB’s cover of O-o-h Child by The Five Stairsteps…

Trey Anastasio – Sultans Of Swing

Trey Anastasio – O-o-h Child

Bout number three features The Bridge’s cover of Billy Preston’s Will It Go Round In Circles vs. GUTML’s version of Godzilla by Blue Oyster Cult…

The Bridge – Will It Go Round In Circles

Give Us The Money Lebowski – Godzilla

Today’s fourth matchup pits two Dylan covers – the Grateful Dead’s take on Ballad Of A Thin Man vs. Joan Baez’s version of A Hard Rains Gonna Fall…

Grateful Dead – Ballad Of A Thin Man

Joan Baez – A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall

Our fifth pairing finds Phish’s cover of the Sweet Virginia by the Rolling Stones taking on Clare & The Reasons’ version of Everybody Wants to Rule The World…

Phish – Sweet Virginia

Clare & The Reasons – Everybody Wants To Rule The World

For match number six, it’s Max Creek vs. Max Creek as the pioneering jammers version of You Can’t Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones takes on their version of The Who’s Eminence Front…

Max Creek – You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Max Creek – Eminence Front

Bout number seven presents PGroove’s cover of This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) by the Talking Heads vs. The Flaming Lips’ version of Time by Pink Floyd…

Perpetual Groove – This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)

Flaming Lips – Time

For matchup number eight, we’ve got Umphrey’s McGee battling it out with themselves as their cover of the Rolling Stones’ Can’t You Hear Me Knocking fights it out with their cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Lenny…

Umphrey’s McGee – Lenny

Umphrey’s McGee – Can’t You Hear Me Knocking

The action continues on Friday with part two of the Round of 32.

Here’s the rest of the March Madness schedule:

03/16 – March Madness Sweet 16
03/19 – March Madness Elite 8
03/23 – March Madness Final 4
03/30 – March Madness Finals

Voting for round one is open until Sunday at 11:59 PM (EDT).

In honor of today’s anniversary of the Phish reunion shows, we wanted to reprint Hidden Track founder Ace Cowboy’s thoughts Hampton.

To accurately describe what it’s like having the popular rock band Phish back on the Hampton Coliseum stage, let me steal a quip from that lovable ol’ drunkard Arthur when he tells Linda about owning a yacht: “It doesn’t suck.”

[All Photos By Dave Vann]

This weekend was absolutely top-drawer, a once-in-a-lifetime gala event. This weekend was all about energy, and not in that typical hippie bullshit geodes and quartz kind of way; not “energy, brah.” This weekend was about everyone’s stories being interwoven with their own, connected by being part of something bigger, a participatory séance, the resurrection of a lost world. This weekend was about thousands of people at the exact same time falling collectively back in love with something they once adored so much.

Page is getting most of the accolades, and deservedly so. I’m not sure if he’s louder in the mix than ever before, but he played magnificently this weekend. Fishman and Gordon, as well. I made a joke on my Twitter page that Trey is now the worst player in the band, though I really don’t believe that. Page, Mike and Fishman clearly all had better weekends than Big Red, but there’s an unfair burden on Trey – no matter how well or poorly Page and Mike and Fish play, all eyes will always be on Crimson Dago. Everything he does on stage is magnified and parsed and agonized over.

Trey’s got the unenviable task of playing the hero or the goat every single night. It’s like he’s the A-Rod on a team full of Jeters. He’s become Trey-Rod. Let’s take him out from under the microscope for a while. He fucking nailed every single melodic, chirpy jam on the run; he just needs to find his sea legs on the so-called Type II jams. And he will. Anyone really want to go on record and doubt him? Just say so.

READ ON for the rest of Ace Cowboy’s thoughts on the Hampton run…

No matter which set you most enjoyed from this weekend’s run, we can all agree on one undeniable absolute truth: If you’re returning home from these shows with anything less than an ear-to-ear smile, a gigantic boner (or the less popular clit-boner equivalent) and a positive outlook for the future of this band, then it’s probably in your best interests, as well as possibly the national interest, that you stay far away from Phish henceforth. Just go away. No more live shows, no more message boards, no more cynical e-mails to fellow jaded vets. A sloppy batch of notes in Punch You in the Eye or Silent in the Morning is no match for the look on everyone’s face when the opening notes of Fluffhead became audible over the deafening roar.

But if, following a prolonged second hiatus, you somehow managed to be a hyper-critical reactionary ingrate about a 12-hour, 83-song romp through one of the most impressive and expansive catalogs in modern music, then all hope may be lost. I cannot even begin to comprehend how you could find the slightest fault in anything that transpired from the moment the band stepped on stage – including Cactus in his emo-sleeveless-Michelle Obama outfit – ‘til the minute you checked out of your [destroyed] hotel room. And if that’s you, know this: There may come a day when I jazzercise on your grave.

They didn’t jam enough!

Trey messed up the YEM lyrics for chrissakes!

I counted 27 flubs in the first set alone!

My uncle touched me in the shower when I was nine!

Big picture, folks, big picture. Rome wasn’t burnt in a day. (Wait, that’s not right.) Well, Rome wasn’t built that quickly, and what took this band more than 20 years to build cannot be re-captured in a few months of rehearsal. This was simply a simple celebration, an uprooted time capsule of the band’s history; it could never be an immediate return to 25-minute facefucking jams that are talked about solely by date and title, and it wasn’t.

The return to glory merely began this weekend. From here on out there will be flubs, but it’s time to accept these meaningless minor bungles as an inevitability in order to get to the good stuff. And if this weekend is any indication, the good stuff will come in droves this summer. Hampton was a showcase for the future, a supreme flash of the arsenal.

But the sheer madness of this weekend was much more than just the music. It’s the anticipatory stomach churn before the show. It’s the house lights going down. It’s the conversations you haven’t had in nearly half a decade. It’s the snippets of other people’s conversations you haven’t heard in nearly half a decade. It’s the jargon. It’s the lingo. It’s nonstop games of Cornhole on the Ramada Inn grassy knoll. It’s the ticketless guy in the Matthew Lesko costume trying to stand out, and the ticketless guy in the Antelope costume who indulged us with his best Mick Jagger impression. It’s a guy from South Carolina sneaking in on Saturday night and getting a five-minute screamfest from all his friends when he arrived at the seats. It’s feeling the feeling we all forgot. It’s Phish.

News and notes: An astounding lack of arrows on the setlist – there will be a buyer’s market for arrows on summer tour…If you had to pin me down on my favorite tune of the weekend, it’d probably be Suzy…Or AC/DC Bag…Or about 50 others…I love those new green laser pens that a few people in the crowd wielded…two old tunes that have been inserted into Phish songs were played in the same set: The Landlady (PYITE) and The Asse Festival (Guelah)…Speaking of, Kuroda [coincidentally??] used rainbow lights during The Asse Festival…and lastly, the crowd may have grown five years older, but we’re five years more the wiser (and much sorer in the morning – “cash or trade for a heady hamstring and calf massage!”)…I’ve never seen a better crowd in my life, at any show, Phish or otherwise. ‘Til June.

[Yesterday's Meeting - ©Merrick Chase / Telluride Photography.Net]

For instance, let’s take the proposed Phish shows that AEG Live and Telluride Bluegrass are attempting to hold in Telluride on August 9th and 10th. We first learned about the possibility of these shows through a terse tweet from the Telluride News on February 17. Later that evening, Telluride radio station KOTO broadcast a report that featured an interview with Telluride Jazz director Paul Machado and Telluride Bluegrass Festival director Craig Ferguson in which the pair laid out all of the approvals that would need to be obtained before an official offer could be made to the band. That interview gave us all a behind-the-scenes look at the hoops promoters must jump through to hold Phish concerts in atypical venues.

Over the past few weeks, these potential Phish shows have cleared a number of “hurdles” including yesterday when Telluride’s arts board put the shows on the town’s calendar. Next, the promoters need approval from the town council next Tuesday. That would leave AEG and Phish to work out a deal that would bring the band to town, a deal that may have already been agreed upon so that the band could leave the dates open on its schedule.

READ ON for more on the potential shows at Wrigley and Telluride…

Telluride isn’t the only locale debating whether to bring Phish to town. As we mentioned a few weeks back, Phish is one of the bands that potentially may play Wrigley Field in Chicago. Today, the Cubs got a go-ahead to hold concerts on September 17th and 18th which bookends the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. According to the Sun-Times, Mike Lufrano, Cubs senior vice-president of community affairs confirms that either Phish, DMB or Paul McCartney will get the gig. There’s also talk in the article that the Cubs may or may not seek approval for an additional concert in July.

We should find out in the next few weeks whether Phish will play at Wrigley and/or Telluride’s Town Park. When the band schedules dates at sheds such as Jones Beach, Camden or Alpine Valley, they are able to keep the details of the process under wraps for the most part. When dealing with these unique venues we all get to see how “the deal goes down.” We’ll have more on Phish’s potential shows in Telluride on Tuesday after the Town Council meeting.

• More on Phish’s Potential Shows in Telluride: TelluridePhotography.Net and Jamtopia.com

This two-disc set contains tight versions of Mike’s latest and greatest tunes (Can’t Stand Still, Spiral), gems from his first few albums (Beltless Buckler, Dig Further Down), a Phish tune (Meat) and a slew of well-played, re-invented covers (Cities, Takin’ It To The Street, 15 Step). Cactus remixed this release himself from the group’s multi-track recordings.

We’ve got five copies of the CD to giveaway to our listeners as well as a grand prize of a pair of tickets to a March show of your choice. To enter, simply leave a comment below with your name, age, hometown and a song that you think the Mike Gordon Band should cover. All entries must be received by 11:59PM on March 3. We will pick one entry at random to win the tickets and then five entries at random to win the CD. We’ll only accept one entry per person.

READ ON for the tracklist of Mike Gordon’s latest release…

Mike Gordon, Scott Murawski, Tom Cleary, Todd Isler, and Craig Myers
10/3/2009 – The Town Ballroom, Buffalo, NY

Disc One – Set One

01) Can’t Stand Still
02) Sound
03) Pretend
04) Spiral
05) Nobody’s Home
06) Cities
07) Dig Further Down

Disc Two – Set Two

01) The Beltless Buckler
02) 15 Step
03) When The Cactus Is In Bloom
04) Couch Lady
05) Meat
06) Time For Loving Is Now
07) Emotional Railroad
08) Only A Dream
09) Taking It To The Streets

Let’s take a look at six other stories [...]

As DaveO mentioned in Last Week’s Sauce, Chicago natives Wilco will offer a free webcast of tomorrow night’s sold-out show from Madison, WI through their website. The action starts at 8:30 PM CST in the WilcoWorld Roadcase where you can also take in a number of past performances.

Let’s take a look at six other stories of interest…

• Epicurean Musician talks to Avett Bro Joe Kwon about food
• Merriweather Post Pavilion tells LN/Ticketmaster to shove it
• Check out Andy Kahn’s interview with producer Michael Slaboch about a documentary on Al Jarnow’s animated, time-lapse and stop motion films that ran on 3-2-1 Contact and Sesame Street
• Support a worthy charity while meeting Furthur bassist  Phil Lesh
• Check out Metallica’s Mustaine-drenched demos from 1983
• Our friends at Breakfast On Tour interview Keller Williams

Finally, Phish fan Tim Saccardo put a bunch of time, love and effort into making a fantastic 14-minute short film documenting his experience at the band’s most recent festival in Indio, CA. Phi8h: Halloween Phish in the Desert gathers video, still shots and music from that wonderful weekend.