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Cheers, mw

PHISH LATE SUMMER 2009 from Phish on Vimeo.

Pre-sale lottery via Musictoday is open now through Sunday, March 22 at 11:59 PM, EDT.
Phish Second Summer Leg includes:

7/30/09 Red Rocks, Morrison, CO
7/31/09 Red Rocks, Morrison, CO
8/1/09 Red Rocks, Morrison, CO
8/11/09 Toyota Park, Chicago, IL
8/13/09 Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Darien, NY
8/14/09 Meadows Music Theater, Hartford, CT
8/15/09 Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
8/16/09 Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY
8/2/09 Red Rocks, Morrison, CO
8/5/09 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA
8/7/09 The Gorge Amphitheatre, George, WA
8/8/09 The Gorge Amphitheatre, George, WA

Notable: Band will return to Red Rocks for firt time since 1996.

via HiddenTrack:

Once again Livenation.com has put up an event listing for a Phish show before the band has had the chance to announce the whole tour. An event page for a show at Shoreline in Mountain View, CA on August 5 shows that the general onsale will go down on March 29. We hope you didn’t spend all of your money down in Hampton last weekend, because the presale for the second leg of Phish’s summer tour will start very soon.

Oops. Of course, this was really just a matter of when, wasn’t it?

photo by Manuel Lino

A nice, fresh rant on ticketing and the “secondary market” from Trent Reznor (via the Nine Inch Nails forum):

TR thoughts on ticket re-sellers / scalping
As we approach on-sale dates for the upcoming tour, I’ve noticed lots of you are curious / concerned / outraged at the plethora of tickets that somehow appear on all these reseller sites at inflated prices – even before the pre-sale dates. I’ll do my best to explain the situation as I see it, as well as clarify my organization’s stance in the matter.

NIN decides to tour this summer. We arrive at the conclusion outdoor amphitheaters are the right venue for this outing, for a variety of reasons we’ve throughly considered*. In the past, NIN would sell the shows in each market to local promoters, who then “buy” the show from us to sell to you. Live Nation happens to own all the amphitheaters and bought most of the local promoters – so if you want to play those venues, you’re being promoted by Live Nation. Live Nation has had an exclusive deal with TicketMaster that has just expired, so Live Nation launched their own ticketing service. Most of the dates on this tour are through Live Nation, some are through TicketMaster – this is determined by the promoter (Live Nation), not us.
Now we get into the issue of secondary markets for tickets, which is the hot issue here. The ticketing marketplace for rock concerts shows a real lack of sophistication, meaning this: the true market value of some tickets for some concerts is much higher than what the act wants to be perceived as charging. For example, there are some people who would be willing to pay $1,000 and up to be in the best seats for various shows, but MOST acts in the rock / pop world don’t want to come off as greedy pricks asking that much, even though the market says its value is that high. The acts know this, the venue knows this, the promoters know this, the ticketing company knows this and the scalpers really know this. So…

The venue, the promoter, the ticketing agency and often the artist camp (artist, management and agent) take tickets from the pool of available seats and feed them directly to the re-seller (which from this point on will be referred to by their true name: SCALPER). I am not saying every one of the above entities all do this, nor am I saying they do it for all shows but this is a very common practice that happens more often than not. There is money to be made and they feel they should participate in it. There are a number of scams they employ to pull this off which is beyond the scope of this note.

StubHub.com is an example of a re-seller / scalper. So is TicketsNow.com.

Here’s the rub: TicketMaster has essentially been a monopoly for many years – certainly up until Live Nation’s exclusive deal ran out. They could have (and can right now) stop the secondary market dead in its tracks by doing the following: limit the amount of sales per customer, print names on the tickets and require ID / ticket matches at the venue. We know this works because we do it for our pre-sales. Why don’t THEY do it? It’s obvious – they make a lot of money fueling the secondary market. TicketMaster even bought a re-seller site and often bounces you over to that site to buy tickets (TicketsNow.com)!

NIN gets 10% of the available seats for our own pre-sale. We won a tough (and I mean TOUGH) battle to get the best seats. We require you to sign up at our site (for free) to get tickets. We limit the amount you can buy, we print your name on the tickets and we have our own person let you in a separate entrance where we check your ID to match the ticket. We charge you a surcharge that has been less than TicketMaster’s or Live Nation’s in all cases so far to pay for the costs of doing this – it’s not a profit center for us. We have essentially stopped scalping by doing these things – because we want true fans to be able to get great seats and not get ripped off by these parasites.

I assure you nobody in the NIN camp supplies or supports the practice of supplying tickets to these re-sellers because it’s not something we morally feel is the right thing to do. We are leaving money on the table here but it’s not always about money.
Being completely honest, it IS something I’ve had to consider. If people are willing to pay a lot of money to sit up front AND ARE GOING TO ANYWAY thanks to the rigged system, why let that money go into the hands of the scalpers? I’m the one busting my ass up there every night. The conclusion really came down to it not feeling like the right thing to do – simple as that.

My guess as to what will eventually happen if / when Live Nation and TicketMaster merges is that they’ll move to an auction or market-based pricing scheme – which will simply mean it will cost a lot more to get a good seat for a hot show. They will simply BECOME the scalper, eliminating them from the mix.

Nothing’s going to change until the ticketing entity gets serious about stopping the problem – which of course they don’t see as a problem. The ultimate way to hurt scalpers is to not support them. Leave them holding the merchandise. If this subject interests you, check out the following links. Don’t buy from scalpers, and be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What’s in it for them?

(hat tip to BrooklynVegan for the link)

I’ll let this one stand out on its own for now. More ticketing thoughts to follow…

A couple quick notes.

• We’re still tidying up around these parts. Soooo, tags, categories, author names, and all the little details may still need to be tightened up a bit. If you see something that’s off, please be patient. If it’s a serious issue, drop a comment and we’ll get our shit in order a bit quicker.
• With that said, we’ve been able to preserve a solid archive of posts dating back to the site’s launch in March of 2006, despite the fact that the site has survived two migrations and two different hosts.
• You may notice that some posts (mainly those from 2007-2008) occasionally link back to Live Music Blog. That’s because late in 2006, I joined forces with Justin Ward to double the staff at Live Music Blog. Since that partnership began,  LMM and LMB have always been intertwined, at least in topic and scope. As a result, I thought it’d be best to import all my writings from LMB to create a full site archive.

That’s it for the admin silliness. Time to get back to business. Stay tuned. Plenty more to come…

Although our Phish Friday posts may be a bit less frequent these days, we are certainly not calling it quits. With that in mind, I decided to mix together two of my favorite types of posts — Phish Fridays and Podcasts — and piece together a new version of our Hippie Workout Mix with some of my favorite moments of Phish improv, spliced together with a nice, mellow workout in mind. Believe it or not, a while back I used to run to this band’s music all the time. There is something about a perfect Phish jam and a good run that works really well together; call it zen or something. But whether you’re really up for that long workout or just want a really killer DJ-style Phish mix, this should definitely suit your needs.

Enjoy:

• Live Music Blog.com Podcast #063 [mp3] (68.5 MB)
• Subscribe via RSS or Subscribe with iTunes

Try to guess the exact tracklisting in the comments section, and perhaps we can dig up something Phish-related for the winning guess. Be sure to include both song name and show date. Here’s a hint…there are exactly eight tracks.

Also, be sure to check out previous Hippie Workout Mixes, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, for a little bit more energy and intensity.

Have a killer weekend!

Last Thursday, I finally ended my summer concert drought and my long wait for catching My Morning Jacket in 2008.

The band played Charlottesville Pavilion, my hometown venue. It’s a great outdoor pavilion tacked onto the end of Charlottesville’s downtown pedestrian mall and an awesome place to see show. The crowd was a bit sparse as the show got started. Perhaps it was the Thursday night bill or the band’s attempt at being super punctual so as to play the maximum amount of music; they actually came on a bit late. But after over two and a half hours of music, the place had filled out nicely and both the crowd and band seemed to love every minute of it.

With several weeks (months?) of anticipation for this show, I may have over-hyped it and set my expectations a bit high. Although the show was not necessarily a game-changing, bar-raising experience, it was definitely a fantastic concert and one that left me buzzing for days.

To put it simply, I My Morning Jacket puts on a hell of a rock ‘n’ roll concert. They’ve captured some of the best aspects of the classics, like Led Zeppelin and the Who, but they’ve updated them for the millennial set with their own brand of rock.

So I thought I’d try something new with this review and offer up a quick hit-list of show highlights.

“Evil Urges” opener. This song is killer. That phasing keyboard lick is stellar and the chorus (part leading to “I’m ready for it now”) somehow hits the most perfect feeling of dread and feel-good I think I have ever heard. And, of course, the Zeppelin-like riff-rock breakdown towards the end is like an exorcism of Page, JP Jones, and Bonham, that brings the listener as close as you can get to the “Song Remains the Same” without these three players involved.

The lower energy acoustic section of the show is well-placed and a great way to highlight Carl Broemel’s pedal steel playing. The section may be a bit long, but I guess they keep writing great tunes to fit into this spot in the show. But as great as the new slow tunes are (”Sec Walkin’” and “Librarian”), they simply can’t match the beauty and perfection of “Golden, ” which never gets old.

Speaking of which, “Gideon” NEVER gets old, either. I could listen to this song everyday, but it is just that much better in the live setting.

Jim James is much more of a ham and a showboat than I expected. I have seen him rock out onstage with the standards: long hair head-banging, jumping, slamming, flailing about, etc. But on this tour, he’s really stepped up his stage persona and pushed into the realm of theatrical, with props and subtle custom changes. The man actually wears a cape for a few key songs of their set. About the concept of a man wearing a cape, a friend of a friend had this to say. “A guy who wears a cape is either a complete badass or a total whackjob.” Yep.

I think “Anytime” is my latest favorite tune.

I think I finally get the slow rock of songs like “Master Plan,” “Dondante” and “I Think I”m Going to Hell.” These songs, though slower in tempo, rock just as hard as the uptempo rockers, with maybe even more intensity.

And if MMJ has a “jam vehicle” then “Dondante” is it. They really stretched out this version nicely, with some interesting changes in tempo, new riffs, and Carl Broemel trading his ax for his sax. Really good stuff and exactly the kind of song-stretching improv that I want more of from this band.

The show-ending segment of “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream, Part II,” “Mahgeetah,” and “One Big Holiday” is one of the best ways to end a rock concert. Period.

Obviously, the show left me impressed and pleased. Overall, I’d say my only complaint with MMJ is that this was really the same show as Radio City Music Hall in June. They have mostly been playing the same set of tunes throughout this tour. I am not at all suggesting they should become some kind of jamband, but it would be nice to see them stretch out tunes a bit more, as they do it really well. They might also employ a taste of those surprise setlist shenanigans from their infamous Bonnaroo sets. Just a taste.

But this concert (and perhaps this tour) was not about stretching, jamming, setlist surprises, or playing fun covers. It was a way to feature their latest album, Evil Urges, and to showcase the best of the band’s songbook. For MMJ, the concert setting is all about accentuating their unique songwriting talents and creating an intense stage performance that is less about surprises and spontaneity and more about raw energy and power.

Listen:

My Morning Jacket Live at Charlottesville Pavilion on 2008-09-04 [Live Music Archive]

Download:
Live Music Archive | Torrent

Setlist:

1. Evil Urges
2. Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt.1
3. Off The Record
4. Aluminum Park
5. The Way That He Sings
6. Thank You Too!
7. I’m Amazed
8. Evelyn Is Not Real
9. Masterplan
10. Sec Walkin
11. Golden
12. Phone Went West
13. Librarian
14. I Think I’m Going To Hell
15. Dondante
16. Lay Low
17. Gideon
18. Anytime
19. Run Thru
———-
20. Wordless Chorus
21. Highly Suspicious
22. Smokin From Shootin
23. Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt.2
24. Mahgeetah
25. One Big Holiday

[MyMorningJacket.com]

Phish – “Julius” Solo [YouTube]

I guess it’s only a matter of time before they officially reunite for a full tour. Maybe those March ‘09 rumors on Phantasy Phish aren’t so crazy after all.

Thanks to Gibs and Jon W. for the heads-up.

Photo © Thomas Hawk

Relix is confirming a Spring 2009 tour by all of the surviving members of The Dead:

Sources confirm that the surviving members of the Grateful Dead — guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh,and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann — are planning to tour in April and May of 2009. There’s no word yet on the band’s configuration — previous configurations of “The Dead” and The Other Ones have included singer-guitar hero Warren Haynes, guitar ace Jimmy Herring, singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi, singer Joan Osborne, keyboardists Jeff Chimenti and Rob Baracco, as well as guitarists Mark Karan and Steve Kimock.

While Ratdog and Phil & Friends seem to have found their niche in the post-GD touring world, nothing really compares to getting all the surviving members together on a stage. The big question is who will fill in on guitar duties. Jimmy Herring seemed pretty busy with Widespread Panic until they announced that they’d be taking some time off during 2009. So he’s a possibility. As much as I would love to see it happen, it’s hard to imagine Steve Kimock ever re-joining with The Dead. So, Herring seems like the obvious bet. But Mark Karan maybe? Warren Haynes? Larry Campbell? I’m sure we’ll find out more specifics soon enough.

Also, it looks like the band is planning another “Deadheads for Obama” show. Relix has now confirmed the show will take place on October 13 at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, PA, and it will also feature the Allman Brothers Band and an undetermined opening act. Warren Haynes and Jeff Chimenti will respectively fill in on guitar and keyboard duties for the band.

Photo © Justin Ward

While Andrew gets set to dig into a Mike Gordon show tonight, I am getting absolutely pumped to see My Morning Jacket this evening at the Charlottesville Pavilion.

I feel like almost every other guy in the crew has gotten to see MMJ in 2008 except for me. Justin and the guys saw their huge show at SXSW in March. Then Sam caught them at Radio City Music Hall back in June. Now it’s finally my turn. And I couldn’t be more excited, because this summer has been totally weak on the concert front for me. I have been knee-deep in work and it has really been cutting into my free time for concerts and blog posts. Although the hard work has paid off, I am in dire need of a big bad rock show to combat my summer concert drought. I really can’t think of a better way to do so than by watching Jim James and the boys rip through some big-time rock ‘n’ roll at my hometown venue.

For a recent sample of the band live, go ahead and stream the show below from Radio City Music Hall in June:

My Morning Jacket Live at Radio City Music Hall on 2008-06-20 [Live Music Archive]