Back in early June, a Phish.net forum thread appeared with a few YouTube videos that had been uploaded from the exterior of Worcester’s DCU Center where Phish would kick off their 2012 Summer Tour the following evening. A prescient user noted:
Come Labor Day Monday, when the tour has ended, we’ll look back on this night, when we were so eager and anxious that watching a video of a rusty door with muffled sound resonating through it was exciting, and it will feel like it was so much longer ago than it was.
And all those summer memories that haven’t happened yet will flash through our minds.
This is a special night.
Summer is about to begin.
Have fun!!
Indeed, it seems like ages ago that Phish took that stage and opened the tour with Buried Alive and closed the second set with a Buried Alive Reprise after ripping through an incredible second set with outstanding versions of Carini, Ghost, Boogie On Reggae Woman and If I Could, among others. Using the first Worcester show as a stepping stone for the entire summer, the band was seemingly on a mission and many fans were thrilled to be part of it. Fun was had indeed!
We’ve done a handful of surveys in the past to gauge fan sentiment on a variety of topics after a tour and it is always insightful to look at the results. Thanks very much for everyone that responded – we were able to get over 1,500 participants.
We had some pretty interesting results yesterday in the first part of our survey results about the first leg of Phish Summer Tour 2011. In addition to results on everything from fan perception of the songs, the shows, the runs, the prices, the stream, the jamming, who’s going to IX and many others, Hidden Track was thrilled to be recognized by fans so highly. Only Phish.net, Phish.com & YEMBlog ranked higher as a go-to source of information about Phish. So while we recognize the inherent advantage we had by running the survey, thanks for reading and recognizing the coverage Hidden Track provides.
The questions from the survey that remain to be answered are perception of the venues, three words to describe tour, general thoughts about tour and favorite moments and jams.
Three Words to describe Tour
As we did last summer, we created a Wordle from your responses. The larger the word, the more often it appeared in results. Though of course if someone answered “not much jams”, that would make “jams” a larger result. So while not scientifically accurate, this is fun nevertheless. We have included the individual responses below the graphic.
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fun but songy
Intense, Powerful, Funny
improved guitar playing
Rock And Roll
Blissful. Funk. Long-haul.
Pretty kick ass.
page rage
Brought the steam!
Brought Fire Fast
Shorten the setlists!!!
Too many repeats.
God Shit Man
Phish Summer 2011 Summer Tour Leg One is now nothing but a memory. Super Ball IX, which will undoubtedly create unbelievable memories for the fans that are there and also those listening at home, is knocking on the door. But what about the memories of Leg One? What did everyone think? Well over 1,000 fans took the time to fill out our survey and shared their thoughts on the venues, the songs, the jamming, the ticket prices and even the band’s legendary ‘Fleezer.’
[Photo by Parker Harrington]
We will follow up with another survey at the end of the summer after what may be the last tour for a while. Until that time, read on for a snapshot of what fans are thinking about Phish right now.
So is Phish just going through the motions? Or performing at the top of their ability? The very first question sums up the general consensus: Phish is ROCKING! Only 14% of fans rated the First Leg at “Average” or lower. Overwhelmingly, “Phenomenal” or “Very Good, Some Gems.”
[Click on the Graphics to Enlarge and View]
Did everyone think this has been the best tour since Hampton 2009? Yes! A majority of fans [56%] think this is the tour to listen to so far.
Ever since 2009, we’ve been teaming up with Parker Harrington, aka @TMWSIY, who created a comprehensive survey asking fans for their thoughts about the recently completed first leg of PhishSummer Tour 2011. Parker’s poll includes questions about the webcast, your reading habits, the venues and most importantly plenty of questions about the music from the leg. Next week we’ll provide the results.
[Photo by Brad Worsham]
You can make your voice heard by completing the survey found at this link or by READING ON for an embed of the document holding the poll…
During a relatively brief tour of just 15 shows, Phish packed many highlights into the run that concluded in Atlantic City on Halloween. Phish kicked off the tour with a festival show in Texas, three consecutive nights in Colorado, two in the South, six at old school locations in the Northeast and a triumphant three night run in Atlantic City. The buzz throughout the last week or so of the tour was palpable with several shows destined to go down in the history books and be re-visited many times for years to come.
So what did everyone think?
[CLICK ON IMAGES FOR FULL-SIZE VIEW]
In the most lopsided of question of not only this survey, but all the prior ones as well, the resounding majority certainly felt that this was THE tour since the reunion. As Phish nears the 100 show mark since Hampton, it’s hard to argue that several of these fifteen were not among the best.
Overall Grade for Fall Tour
Solid again, with a much larger percentage of fans scoring a B+ or higher than previous tours. Only 10% scored a B or lower. For three of you, we’ll catch you at the next WSP show.
READ ON for more results from our Fall Tour Survey…
We’re over a week removed from the end of Phish Fall Tour 2010 and now that you’ve had a chance to digest what went down, we’re asking you for your opinion on the 15-show run. Our pal Parker Harrington has put together an extensive survey that you can take through this form.
[Photo by Regan Teti Marscher]
The polls close tomorrow, so be sure to make your voice heard as we find out what the best jams, segues, bust outs and MMMM (Most Memorable Mike Moment) were from the recently completed tour.
What an amazing summer for Phish. Building on the momentum gained in 2009, the band came out in force for what will truly be a memorable summer for years to come. Interestingly, Leg 1 and Leg 2 were like distant cousins rather than soul brothers. They could not have been more different and we thought it would be interesting to re-survey the masses to get their opinions on the second leg, the overall tour and some other assorted questions. Over 600 responses were received. This time, though, all questions were optional, so in some cases the responses do not always add up to the total amount of survey responses. Without further ado, here are the results:
Best Venue, Leg Two
In the vote that was clearly in the bank before any responses were received, Telluride takes the cake with over 40% of the vote. The Greek and Alpine of course garnered quite a few votes as well. Perhaps the only surprising aspect of the survey was that over 40 people felt that Jones Beach was the best venue and that it was only a handful of votes away from Deer Creek.
Best Lot Scene
Telluride nearly came up with another victory in this category but fell a few votes short of Deer Creek. The other three venues were each around 10% of the vote.
READ ON for more results from our Phish Summer Tour Survey…
Once again, we’ve teamed up with Parker Harrington, aka @TMWSIY, who created a comprehensive survey asking fans for their thoughts about the recently completed second leg of Phish Summer Tour 2010. Parker’s poll includes questions about the scene, your reading habits, the venues and most importantly plenty of questions about the music from the leg.
[Photo by Adam Kaufman]
In other poll news, last week we asked our readers to grade the tour and with over 1,000 fans responding, the band earned a B or above from over 90% of those who participated. The results are down just a tad from the last leg in which 95% gave Phish a B+ or above. 5.4% graded the band a B- this time around, where is just about where I had ‘em.
Our pal Parker Harrington – aka @TMWSIY - put together a wide-ranging survey about Phish Summer Tour 2010 and received nearly 1,000 responses. Parker has kindly permitted us to share the results with our readers…
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and voting! Tried to reach out to a varied cross-section of the fan base through Twitter, YEMBlog, PT, PhishPosters, What.CD, and many other message boards and fan groups. This should be a pretty good snap shot of what the fans think.
Killing in the Name takes this one hands down. Was this partly due to the ‘recency’ effect or getting sandwiched in an epic Harpua? The Rover and I am the Walrus, of course, made strong showings as well. My pick would be Free Man in Paris. While I didn’t really know it before, I loved it. Poor little Lit ‘O Bit with only seven votes. Likewise, note the lukewarm reaction to Waits’ Cold Water. It will be interesting to see which, if any of these, make a return visit in the future.
READ ON for the rest of the results from the Summer Tour survey…
We’re nearly two weeks into Phish Summer Tour & the band has played nine shows thus far. After the first four gigs, we asked fans what they thought of the tour & at that point nearly 90% of respondees gave Phish an A or a B. We want to see if the fanbase’s thoughts on tour have changed, so we’ve set up another poll. This time we’ve added intermediate grades so if you would rather give ‘em an “A-” rather than an “A” you can do so.
With four Phish Summer Tour 2010 gigs in the books, we’ve got a decent sample size to start taking the temperature of the fanbase. Whether you’ve attended the shows or just listened to recordings, we want to know what you think of the first four shows of the first leg.
After the jump, we’ve set up a poll in which you can give the band a letter grade from A – F. Pick one of the options and if you’ve got the inclination – leave a comment explaining your vote. While you’re at it, let us know what you think the quartet can improve on starting tomorrow in Hartford.
READ ON to grade the start of Phish Summer Tour 2010…
