I don't know yet if I'll be able to watch the webcast tonight but I'm already getting prepared... and ridiculous too !

[UPDATE] I'm set. I'll be there at 2 AM in France and posting on the European Phish Phan Page on facebook ! See ya in the webcast !

[UPDATE 2] READY !

The answer to the question was quite simple : The summer tour 98 was nicknammed "Summer of covers" because the band played a brand new and unique cover each night.

You were 4 to post the correct answer in the comments here. 2 more dvd were given on my french website Gamusik with the exact same question but there was no answer at all ! So instead of choosing 2 winners among the 4 who entered here, I declare everyone's a winner ! So Robert, Dan, Maui and Marko, you'll get an email from me soon.

Meanwhile, I watched the concert last sunday and it was a pleasure to seen my 3 years old son dancing to the music ! But I must admit he was better impressed by the cover art of the boxset. He thought the bridges was for trains and he tried to put the disc in the player on his own... The disc ended stuck really deep inside the player and I had to open it completely to get it back ! Hopefully the dvd wasn't broken and he really enjoyed the menu with the cars on the bridges !

Oh yeah, the show is great with a 35 minutes Runaway Jim and a marvelous Reba ! The video quality is better than you would expect from a VHS source and it's really band focused with very few full stage view.

I hope you winners will enjoy this dvd !

I think I have a rather big Phish collection but I don't often show the items I buy. So here are some of the last Phish related vinyls and discs I recently received.

• Marco Benevento - Tigerface

The last Marco Benevento record is as good as the previous ones is not better. Moreover Mike Gordon plays bass and mandolin on Escape Horse, a tune already released last year as a limited 7" disc.

• Jennifer Hartswick - Ocean Floor

Like most of us, I discovered Jennifer Hartswick with TAB, but the girl really need more recognition for his solo work. All of her 3 albums are absolutely great, very jazzy and funky, and her contribution to Everyone Orchestra's first studio album makes it feel like one of her own.

Continue reading...

Just like last year late announcement during the New York webcast, Phish's brand new show from taken from the archives was announced last week for a release this very tuesday.
December 6 1997 The Palace at Auburn Hills is another installment of the famed "Phish Destroys America" fall 1997 tour. livephish.com has already officialy released a lot of shows from this tour like the next day show in Dayton, the one from Denver as Volume 11, last year's 3 shows boxset Hampton/Winston-Salem or 2 concerts from New Year's Run at Madison Square Garden (12/29 et 12/30).

As strange as it may seems, for someone like me who discovered Phish in 1998 and who downloaded countless tapes for the 97/98 era, I'm totally new to this show. I've never heard of the "Tweezabella" from Set 2 before last week, so it's with a virgin state of mind that I woke up this morning at around 6 AM to download my daily phix.

The first set starts oddly like a reversed set 2 with Golgi Apparatus and Run Like An Antelope. The second song already sets the tone for the night when you didn't expect it with a 10 minutes improvisation that goes seamlessly from funk to rock.
Train Song provides the first rest before the boys alternate big funky combos (Bathtub Gin > Foam and Fee > Maze) with fast rocking numbers (Sample in a Jar and Cavern).
The quiet little jam out of Fee merges into the intro of a Trey-leaded Maze that goes in every directions and ends in a big peak before coming back to the quiet outro. Roller-coaster style.

Continue reading...

Chicago '94 includes, as its name suggests, two concerts played in 1994 at the UIC Pavilion in the université of Chicago, in a 5 month interval, on june 18th and november 25th.

43 tracks, 4 sets over 6 discs and even the soundchecks of both nights are presents! All of this in an illustrated box by Jim Pollock.

The boxset will be released on July 31th and you can already pre-order it on Dry Goods and livephish.com, where both shows are available separatly : 6/18/94 and 11/25/94.

And for a lucky one, I have a copy for you to win just by leaving a comment here to tell why you're interrested in this boxset.
You can also tweet the following line to double your luck :

Win the new @Phish Chicago 94 Boxset at #BouncingAroundEuroom http://tinyurl.com/BouncingChicago94 @YomeNetSan

The winner will be randomly choosen among comments and tweets made between now and Friday 3rd August 13:00 (France time). This contest is open to european residents only.

Meanwhile, here are the setlists with 3 excerpts for each show for your listening (and downloading) pleasure !

French version here :
http://gamusik.netsan.fr/post/2012/07/27/Concours-Gagne-un-coffret-Chicago-94-de-Phish.aspx

But with mkdevo's HD videos, official Vimeo channel, the livephish Android App, webcasts, a cool poster from Ben Whitsell and my 3 years old son, it's becoming quite amazing !

Here are a mp3 from each concert to listen and download.

Divided Sky 6/18/94 

David Bowie 6/18/94 

Llama 11/25/94 

Simple 11/25/94 

I'll have "a handfull" of boxset to give away in the next weeks, so stay tuned while enjoying summer tour !

By 1994, Phish was well established as an international touring act and already well known to a growing group of hardcore fans. Amidst a tour packed with highlights - it was this summer that convinced the band to start multi-tracking their live shows - this show was recorded for posterity on 2-track DAT. Lightning rarely strikes twice in the same place but Chicago '94 is an example of just that.

Paul Languedoc's stereo soundboard mixes re-mastered by Fred Kevorkian carry the intensity and intricacy of these special shows to listeners' ears eighteen years later. Chicago '94 contains nearly six hours of music performed at both shows for a total of 43 songs, including material from the UIC soundchecks. The shows are presented in a 6-CD box set with new artwork by longtime collaborator and Chicagoan, Jim Pollock.

I've learnt how to download old shows, to find unfindable discs, to read setlists the day after the concert. Since 2003, livephish.com sells each show played by the band and since 2009, you have to wait only an hour after the last note ! Some shows were streamed live on Sirius Radio.

Last year, Phish started to do webcast of some concerts so one can listen and watch the show on Internet. What american people call Couch Tour is now really a whole tour without leaving your couch. Now you don't have to wait the day after the show to download and listen to it (what already was a great step forward), you can simply live it live, almost like you were there... and even better ! Yes, no more rain, not wait in line for the bathroom, no 7$ beer...

On this side of the Atlantic, you still have to wake up in the middle of the night. I did it for New Year's Eve and it was a strange eperience to celebrate the new year at 6 in the morning with headphones on, while chatting with other european fans on facebook.

Continue reading...

I've Already told you about Brooklyn Sessions, the first studio album from Everyone Orchestra. But I received last week my signed CD and today is the official release date.

Now, for the first time, Everyone Orchestra has taken the conducted improvisation concept mastered in their legendary live shows into the studio on Brooklyn Sessions. Conductor Matt Butler invited past collaborators—musical friends like drummer Jon Fishman (Phish), keyboardist/pianist Marco Benevento, Al Schnier (moe.), Jen Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band), guitarist Steve Kimock, saxophonist Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band), vocalist/percussionist Jans Ingber (The Motet), mandolinist Jamie Masefield (Jazz Mandolin Project) and bassist Reed Mathis (Tea Leaf Green), to join him for several days of exploration and co-creation. The results range from hard-hitting grooves that take unexpected twists and turns (“Boots”), to sweet and expansive (“Pensive”), all with a spirit that is both liberated and focused.

For me it's, by far, the best album of 2012 and one of my favorite of all times. Yes already.

You can now listen to it on bandcamp and buy it in several places.

Enjoy !

• Bandcamp
• Buy the CD at Home Grown Music
• Buy the CD at Amazon.com
• Buy the mp3 at Amazon.com
• Official Website

I promise, this will be the last article about Jam in the Dam 2012 but I wanted to conclude with a collection of all the articles.

Waiting and planning

2011-03-17 It's the closest to a Phish show we get for several years !
2011-07-20 Jam in the Dam, here I come !
2011-11-22 Jam in the Dam schedule

2012-02-08 I'll be tripping with this strange design
2012-02-27 Amsterdam is getting closer and closer
2012-03-05 QR Code card contest
2012-03-12 Setting up and loosing money

Live reports from Amsterdam

2012-03-14 Jam in the Dam : Live tweeting
2012-03-15 Jam in the Dam : Night 1
2012-03-16 Jam in the Dam : Night 2
2012-03-18 Jam in the Dam : Night 3

Post-trip reviews, photos and recordings

2012-03-20 Amsterdam : Travel and discoveries
2012-03-21 Amsterdam : Arriving at the Melkweg
2012-03-22 Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 1 - Lotus
2012-03-23 Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 1 - Mike Gordon
2012-03-23 Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 1 - Dark Star Orchestra

2012-03-29 Amsterdam : Third day and signing session
2012-03-29 Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 2 - Keller Williams
2012-03-30 Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 2 - moe.
2012-03-30 Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 2 - Mike Gordon

2012-04-10 Amsterdam : Day 4
2012-04-11 Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 3 - Mike Gordon
2012-04-19 Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 3 - Keller Williams >
2012-04-19 Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 3 - Dark Star Orchestra >
2012-04-19 Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 3 - > Lotus >
2012-04-19 Amsterdam : Jam in the Dam 3 - > Dark Star Orchestra (Reprise) 

The pictures I sent during the festival can be seen as-they-were-sent on LightBox.

I don't know if it's really worthwhile but for the sake of completeness, here are all my Amsterdam tweets.

And finaly, a list of links with reports, pictures and other stuffs :

• Official web site
• Gratefulweb.com article
• Gratefulweb.com photos
• Glidemagazine.com : Diary day one
• Glidemagazine.com : Diary day two
• Glidemagazine.com : Diary day three
• Stefan Schmitz's pictures
• More pictures from Sam Friedman
• Playlist of videos found on Youtube
• Hightimes.com Night One
• Stephen's Blog with his bass signed, Mike 1, Mike 2, moe. 1, moe. 2 and Keller

See you at the next Jam in the Dam ?

2013 ?

2014 ?