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Hi everybody and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host Brian Weinstein. We are just past the mid-point of this Attendance Bias mini-series, in which we preview each venue Phish will play during their upcoming summer 2025 tour. We are coming off our visit to the Palmetto State for the North Charleston Coliseum, and today’s episode is all about a venue that feels like it’s been around forever in the Phish world: the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia, PA. I always group Philadelphia in with Merriweather Post, SPAC, and Jones Beach as part of the I-95 Corridor tour circuit, and while there is truth to that, there is a richer Phish history at The Mann than most venues. 

Today, I am joined by my friends Tom and Stephanie who have long-standing roots to Philadelphia and Tom especially has a long history with the Mann. While there may not be too much for northeast Phish fans to learn about Philadelphia, we do our best to offer recommendations, tips and tricks, and wallow in some good old nostalgia about past Phish shows in Philadelphia, as is our want here on Attendance Bias. 

So get pumped for July 15 and 16, as Tom, Stephanie, and I take a long look at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia.

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Hi everybody and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host Brian Weinstein. We are at the halfway point of the tour by now, having just visited the Schottenstein Center in Columbus for the first time, it is now time to visit an old favorite: The North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, South Carolina for a THREE NIGHT weekend run! A city brimming with both American history and Phish history, we are lucky enough today to be joined by Charleston native Dave Scozarro who tells us about both: places to see, things to do, and highlights from Phish’s 35 years playing The Holy City. 

In a sense, you can track Phish’s entire career arc by keeping track of the venues they’ve played in Charleston since 1990. From small clubs, to larger clubs, to small theaters, and finally, the N. Charleston Coliseum. They moved in in 1995 and never left. Sure, they played two shows at the local tennis stadium a few years ago, and Dave explains why it may not be such a great idea for the Phish crowd for them to continue there.

But there’s so much to love about both Charleston and the coliseum. World-class food in the city, general admission seating in the venue, and almost four decades of music to dig into. Let’s join Dave as he prepares us for July 11, 12, and 13 in Charleston.

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Hi everybody and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host Brian Weinstein. We are almost at the halfway point of the tour by now, arriving from Phish’s 3-night holiday weekend stand at Folsom Field to one of the larger indoor venues on tour: the Schottenstein Center in Columbus on the campus of THE Ohio State University. This is Phish’s first time playing at the Schot, and luckily, today’s guests have a deep well of knowledge about both Columbus and the venue itself. My friends Ryan and Shannon are here to tell about different neighborhoods of Ohio’s capital city, great restaurant recommendations, and stories galore from Phish’s history in Columbus.

For the most part, the modern Phish touring machine has always stopped at the now-defunct Polaris Amphitheater when it was time for the tour to visit Columbus. However, a legendary storm–some remember it as a tornado–made its way over the city during a show in 2000, and Phish hasn’t been back since. The summer of 2025 is the return of the king.

In addition to huge venues and college campuses, that reinforces another trend of this upcoming tour; the band’s return to cities and towns that have been long-dormant on the Phish tour itinerary. Manchester, Boulder, Austin, and now Columbus fans are thrilled to welcome Phish back to their respective cities. Certainly, you can hear the excitement in Shannon and Ryan’s voices.

So let’s dive into pro digs for college kids with Ryan and Shannon to get ready for July 9 at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, OH.

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Hi everybody and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host Brian Weinstein. After an odd summertime Texas stop in Austin, Phish is keeping us disoriented this year: it’s now time for a holiday weekend run in Colorado…but not the one we expect. Instead of the end-of-summer blowout at Dick’s over Labor Day Weekend this summer, we are instead celebrating our country’s independence with a July 4th weekend party at a college football stadium almost double the size of Dick’s: July 3, 4, and 5 at Folsom Field, in Boulder, CO.

Today’s guest, Bryan from Boulder., has lived in the college town for over 20 years and has a lot to offer Attendance Bias listeners today. While thousands of Phish fans have made Dick’s their summer family reunion this year is a change of scenery, not to mention an adjustment to the calendar. When these shows were rumored, and then announced, there were mixed feelings among the fanbase (at least those who made their opinions known online). Bryan explains why there’s so much to look forward to in Boulder, and how, in many ways, Folsom Field has a lot to offer, compared to Dick’s. 

But it’s not all just a comparison of two Colorado stadiums. There’s also the band’s history in Boulder, the activities within and around the city, restaurant and brewery recommendations, and more. I think a lot of us are curious about what this run is going to look like, and today’s episode might be able to give us some answers to frequently asked Folsom questions.

So let’s join Bryan from Boulder, longtime resident, to give us the lowdown on what to expect for July 4th weekend at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado.

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Hi everybody and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host Brian Weinstein. After two days off and a very very long drive, we are at the third stop of our tour: The Moody Center in Austin, Texas for June 27 and 28. It’s rare that Phish stops in Texas, rare that they stop in Texas for the summer, and even more rare that they’ll play in Austin–it’s been about 15 years since the capitol city entertained the band and its fans. 

Today’s guest, Dianna Hank (known in social media circles as Dianna 2Ns) lives in Austin and is thrilled for Phish to come back to the offbeat city and help keep it weird. If Austin is a city you haven’t gotten around to visiting, Dianna makes a strong case for why you should make your way to the City of the Violet Crown, for Phish or otherwise.

While Phish has a respectable history in Austin, including an appearance on the long-running PBS show Austin City Limits, and an appearance at the related festival, this 2025 weekend run is primed to be the best. This is the band’s first time playing the new, air-conditioned, indoor venue for a two-night run with guaranteed pre-show and post-show live music to be found, great vibes and delicious food in abundance, and more. 

So whether you’re on tour, a Texas native, or flying into town just for the weekend, Dianna is here to give us the lowdown on June 27 and 28 at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

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Hi everybody and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host Brian Weinstein. We are fully on tour by now, having visited Manchester, New Hampshire and now on the 9-and-a-half-hour drive to the Pete–that is the Petersen Events Center, on the University of Pittsburgh campus–in Pittsburgh, PA. For whatever reason, the band decided to skip Star Lake in Burgettstown in favor of this modest-size collegiate arena that has played host to Phish twice in recent memory. 

But if you’re on tour and decide to skip Pittsburgh because it’s out of the way, you’re missing out on a whole lot. Today’s guest, Emily Bush, bleeds black and gold. With deep family roots in Pittsburgh, and an understanding of the city’s amenities and history, she offers an insider’s guide to what Phish fans should see, do, eat, drink, and expect for the first single-night stop of the tour.

Although I don’t think a visit to Pittsburgh is in the cards for me this summer, there were points during today’s conversation, when I wanted to suggest to my wife that we move to the Steel City. After I got off the call with Emily I started to Google some of the apartment complexes and neighborhoods she mentions, and although I’m staying in New York for the foreseeable future, moving to Pittsburgh is not a 0% option, regardless of how Phish plays this summer.

So let’s get excited for the second stop of the tour: June 24, as Emily gives us the low down on The Petersen Events Center, and Pittsburgh as a whole in today’s episode.

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Hi everybody and welcome to the first episode of this new series of Attendance Bias: over the next few weeks, we are going to take a look at venue Phish is going to play on their upcoming 2025 summer tour; from old favorites like SPAC and The Mann, to first-time visits for Phish, like Folsom Field and Forest Hills Stadium.

Today, I am joined by returning guest Chris Casey and his partner Jenn, both New Hampshire natives, to give us a local view of the SNHU Arena, or the “SNU,” at which Phish will open their summer tour with a 3-night run on June 20, 21, and 22.

Phish doesn’t have a big history at the venue, but Chris and Jenn have a long history in Manchester, and New Hampshire as a whole. So, what follows is a mix of a venue preview and a travelogue. I hope you enjoy it and look forward to our previews of other venues on the summer tour.

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Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Not many guests have come on the podcast to talk about anything from the year 2000. It’s kind of a lost year when most fans consider the tail end of 1.0. 1999 gets a lot of love, Big Cypress is the unquestioned greatest of all time, but what about those 52 shows that capped the 1.0 era? 

Today’s guest, Brad Rosen, joins us today all the way from Israel to help plug in that gap. Brad went to a bunch of shows on the 2000 fall tour, and if he had his way, I have a feeling that he would want to have an episode about every single one. But we were able to whittle today’s guest spot down to highlights from the Albany 2000 run: September 8 and 9 2000 at the Knickerbocker Arena, known then as the Pepsi Center.

Phish was just about a month away from their first hiatus, but this 2-night stand presents a band that has it all, with maybe the edges beginning to fray as they drift from one jam to another with few boundaries in sight. Throughout the show, you can hear the crowd responding to the band with ceaseless energy, although we’ll also hear Brad explain how, if there were few boundaries in the music, things were definitely fraying in the lot scene. 

So give Farmhouse another spin, make some room for Michael Ray, and don’t forget to stop at Hershey as Brad and I discuss September 8 and 9, 2000 in Albany.

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Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. At Dick’s in 2013, Phish famously used the setlist to spell out the phrase: “Most Shows Spell Something.” It was a good goof at the time, but it also inspired thousands of fans to take the message literally and inspect the band’s song choices at any given show and, sometimes, craft a motif, theme, or narrative that might change a listener’s perspective and they would see and hear the show through a completely different lens than usual. 

Today’s guest, Jeffrey Rosenberg tells us that at least one show spelled something. Jeffrey chose to discuss August 9, 2024 at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Where most of us would hear a standard-great Phish show that night, Jeffrey heard meditations on love, action, addiction, recovery, and more. At times, today’s conversation may sound like the podcast version of the Always Sunny in Philadelphia Pepe Silvia meme, but as you listen, I hope you can hang with Jeffrey and I, whether or not you think the theory holds water.

But in the end, that’s what Attendance Bias is for: every fan gets their own story, and every fan’s perspective is valid. As you’ll hear me say a few times during today’s episode, I’m grateful that Jeffrey came on the show to share his perspective, because he was able to talk about songs that I’ve heard literally hundreds of times and, with a few sentences, provide a new way for me to consider the lyrics. It stuff like that, that makes this podcast such a joy. I hope you feel the same way after today’s episode.

So let’s join Jeffrey to talk about New York tornadoes, summer 2000, and The Mary Tyler Moore show as we discuss August 9, 2024 at Bethel Woods.

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Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. At Dick’s in 2013, Phish famously used the setlist to spell out the phrase: “Most Shows Spell Something.” It was a good goof at the time, but it also inspired thousands of fans to take the message literally and inspect the band’s song choices at any given show and, sometimes, craft a motif, theme, or narrative that might change a listener’s perspective and they would see and hear the show through a completely different lens than usual. 

Today’s guest, Jeffrey Rosenberg tells us that at least one show spelled something. Jeffrey chose to discuss August 9, 2024 at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Where most of us would hear a standard-great Phish show that night, Jeffrey heard meditations on love, action, addiction, recovery, and more. At times, today’s conversation may sound like the podcast version of the Always Sunny in Philadelphia Pepe Silvia meme, but as you listen, I hope you can hang with Jeffrey and I, whether or not you think the theory holds water.

But in the end, that’s what Attendance Bias is for: every fan gets their own story, and every fan’s perspective is valid. As you’ll hear me say a few times during today’s episode, I’m grateful that Jeffrey came on the show to share his perspective, because he was able to talk about songs that I’ve heard literally hundreds of times and, with a few sentences, provide a new way for me to consider the lyrics. It's stuff like that, that makes this podcast such a joy. I hope you feel the same way after today’s episode.

So let’s join Jeffrey to talk about New York tornadoes, summer 2000, and The Mary Tyler Moore show as we discuss August 9, 2024 at Bethel Woods.