Attendance Bias Brian Weinstein

Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. 
I am ecstatic to introduce today’s episode, as it features both a knowledgeable guest who is well known within certain circles of the Phish community, and a thorough, wide-ranging discussion about three of the greatest improvisational rock concerts ever played: Phil and Friends at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco on April 15, 16, and 17, 1999.
While not a Phish show, or even a Grateful Dead show, this run of concerts was a milestone for both bands. Not only was it the first time that members of the two major jambands shared a stage, it’s notable that songs from both Phish and the Grateful Dead were played over the three nights. 
I’ve been listening to these shows since soon after they were played and they haven’t aged a day. When Charlie Dirksen of Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation volunteered to discuss them and tell about what it was like to actually be there, I couldn’t wait to hear about it. These shows have lived in my head for over 20 years, so to hear a first-person account of what they were like made for one of my favorite conversations I’ve ever had for this podcast.
This episode easily could have been three hours long–every time a song was mentioned, it took a lot of willpower on my end not to insert yet another music clip. But there was so much to discuss before we even get to the music. Let’s join Charlie to chat about his responsibilities at Phish.net, Steve Kimock’s guitar wizardy, and where John Molo fits into everything, as we break down Phil and Friends from April 15, 16, and 17 at the Warfield Theater, in San Francisco, CA.

Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. 
Today, we’re taking on one of the big ones: one of the most pivotal shows in the band’s 40 year career. Guest Jeff Paradise was at the first modern Phish Halloween show, October 31, 1994 at the Glens Falls Civic Center, where the band played a 3-set show that included the band’s first musical costume; a full cover of The Beatles’ White Album in the second set. The full show lasted about 5 hours, concluding at around 3:30am in a remote upstate New York minor league hockey arena.
Jeff was in college in Ithaca, NY at the time, bouncing around college towns to see Phish, frequently at the behest of his friends, since Jeff was the guy with the car. At this point of the band’s career, being a college student in upstate NY or New England was a golden age of being a Phish fan. Chances are that, if they weren’t playing withing a few hours drive this week, they would be next week. 
It’s easy to look back now and see how monumental this show was–a band covering a double album of the most famous band in rock and rock history, and Jeff points out that, even compared to other big Phish shows of the era, the historicity of the show was apparent even in real time. Anyone in the audience in Glens Falls that night knew that they were witnessing history.   
Even with that, we have a lot more to cover about this five-hour, three-set show. So join Jeff and I as we discuss Dark Side of the Moon fakeouts, mailing in postcards, and making it back in time for class with October 31, 1994 at the Glens Falls Civic Center.

Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein.
We’ve covered plenty of shows from the summer of 1999 on Attendance Bias but, lest we forget, there was a lot more to that year than a raucous summer tour. There was also a fall tour and a lesser-explored December tour, which took place entirely within the last month of the millennium. Today’s guest, Brent Summerville, chose one of the last Phish shows of 1999–December 16 at the Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, NC–to review today. Although portions of the show are available on YouTube, there are certain nuances that we can only hear from someone who was in attendance. Luckily, we have Brent here to tell us all about it.
At the time, Brent was moving back to North Carolina from Michigan, and had been seeing Phish for five years. He brought a friend to this show, which he rarely did at the time, and was on his old college campus where he had lots of ties to this small basketball court-turned-concert venue.   
Phish broke out a monster second set for this show, and it joined the fabled 5-song second set club, with a version of Sand full of soundscapes, as well as a soul-cleansing Tweezer. But there’s more to it than that. Let’s join Brent to chat about college basketball, Trey’s keyboard setup, and cold Michigan winters as we revisit December 16, 1999 at the Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, NC.

Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias, or more really, the third and final episode of “This Time Will be Different: 15 Years Since Hampton.” I am your host, Brian Weinstein.
Today’s episode ends our look back at what led to Phish’s comeback at Hampton, 15 years ago on March 6, 2009. If you haven’t listened yet, previous episodes have covered The pressures that led to the hiatus in 2000, the multi-faceted hot mess that was 2004, and the rebirth of the Phish experience in the early spring of 2009.
When I first had the idea for this miniseries, I figured that today’s episode, the one about Hampton 2009, would be an enormous undertaking. A full weekend of shows, easily making up the most important run of the band’s career, marking the turning point from the past to the present that would introduce the 3.0 era. Yet, as my co-hosts and I were speaking–Charlie Dirksen and Scott Marks from Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation–it became more about our experiences and our personal feelings during that all-important March weekend.  
In the end, that’s what Attendance Bias is about–each guest’s own experience at any given show. There is a lot more of this story to be told but, for now, this love-fest about Phish coming back to life  will settle things for now.To wrap things up, please welcome Scott Marks and Charlie Dirsken of Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation as we continue This Time Will be Different, Episode 3.

Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias, or more accurately, episode two of “This Time Will be Different: 15 Years Since Hampton.” I am your host, Brian Weinstein.
Today, I join my two co-hosts: Scott Marks and Charlie Dirksen of Phish.net and the Mockingbird Foundation, to take a look at the 2.0 era, as well as Phish’s breakup in 2004. For those of you who listened to episode 1, it was clear but not obvious, that Phish needed a break after Big Cypress, and it was never really in doubt that they would get back together. But in the second half of 2.0, mostly in the 2004 calendar year, it was glaringly obvious that Trey’s physical health was in jeopardy, and the scene as a whole was rotting from the inside. 
In a little while, you’ll hear Scott compare these three episodes to the original Star Wars trilogy–today’s episode is The Empire Strikes Back. Our heroes are at their lowest point, and you have to be knocked down before you can rise up and win the day. 
It’s telling that on Attendance Bias, 2.0 has, by far, the least number of shows represented by guests. It was, and continues to be, a divisive time in the band’s history. I originally planned this episode to be about the time of Phish’s breakup-2004 to 2008, and what the scene was like without the biggest band on tour. However, this conversation took a different route and we just went with it. It wasn’t always a pretty ride, but it has heart and makes the comeback in the next episode all the more meaningful.
But we have to have the darkness before the dawn. Today, please welcome Scott Marks and Charlie Dirsken of Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation as we continue This Time Will be Different, Episode 2.

Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein.
The first week of March is always a conspicuous part of the year for me. No religious or secular holidays, no birthdays or wedding anniversaries in my social circle, but there is one series of dates that will always deserve some deep thoughts, if not any flowers, chocolate, or greeting cards: March 6-8 , 2009, when Phish returned to the live stage at the Hampton Coliseum. 
As of 2024, it will be 15 years since that beautiful weekend. Being a Phish stats nerd, round numbers hold significance for me, and looking back, it sometimes feels like the reunion happened to a completely different person. This is the topic for a three-episode miniseries, called: “This Time Will Be Different: 15 Years Since Hampton.” 
For the next three episodes, I will be joined by two co-hosts, Scott Marks and Charlie Dirksen of Phish.net and the Mockingbird Foundation. The three of us will take a look back, not only at the 2009 Hampton Reunion, but at the major Phish events that led to it, including the band’s hiatus from 2000-2002, the breakup from 2004-2008, and then episode 3 will focus on that glorious weekend in March 2009. 
But let’s not skip too far ahead. Today, please welcome Scott Marks and Charlie Dirsken of Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation as we open This Time Will be Different, Episode 1.