Phish will visit Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, a city with under 2,000 residents, tonight to play a venue – now called Post Gazette Pavilion – that has seen more than its share of bust outs and stellar performances over the years. There seems to be something about those pine trees at the back of the lawn that makes Phish want to deliver something special at this shed.

post-gazette-pavilion

Having already pulled out Destiny Unbound and Curtis Loew at Fenway Park, When the Cactus is in Bloom in Asheville and Highway to Hell and oh yeah, Bruce Springsteen at Bonnaroo, one has to assume that something rare or new altogether will find a spot in the setlist tonight.

Phish’s first show at the then-Star Lake Amphitheatre was on 8/13/97 and they wasted no time in giving fans something rare with the only performance to date of Elton John’s Amoreena. That show also featured the third-ever Izabella, the fifth-ever Crosseyed and Painless and one of the funkiest Gumbos ever played.

READ ON for a look at the other Burgettstown Phish shows…

On 8/11/98, the show opener was again a first-timer, an awesome cover of Bob Marley’s Trenchtown Rock. Also in that first set was the reappearance of Little Feat’s Time Loves a Hero, which had not been played since 11/5/88, a span of 900 shows. The second set opened with a monster Runaway Jim that exceeded the half-hour mark.

Fans in attendance on 7/21/99 had to endure a fantastic AC/DC Bag > Cities before getting their “one timer” with a choppy but A-for-effort cover of Pavement’s Gold Soundz.

The 7/7/00 show was “boring” by Burgettstown standards with no one-timers or new covers but it did see the return of Shafty, not played in the previous 146 shows, as the meat in the middle of a fantastic Maze sandwich. A groovy Ghost > Gotta Jibboo opened the second set.

Then there was 2003. One of the biggest “you snooze you lose” shows of the post-hiatus era thus far. Rumor has it that an iPod loaded with everything from the Phish catalog given to the band led to a show of bust outs that opened with Daniel making it’s first appearance in 282 shows. Old school favorite Camel Walk, a smoking version of the Velvet Underground’s Cool it Down (previously only played on 10/31/98), Timber Ho and McGrupp all made first set appearances. Set two opened with Crosseyed and Painless, Thunderhead and Brother and before the crowd could catch its breath, the Ooom Pa Pas were upon us for the first Harpua since 11/2/98. Wedged into Trey’s narration was Bittersweet Motel, a song that references the general geographical area of Burgettstown, and Fishman on vocals for Elvin Bishop’s Fooled Around and Fell in Love.

It will be interesting to see what the boys have in store tonight. But if history has told us anything, I wouldn’t be late getting to my seat if I had a ticket.