Attendance Bias

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Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Today’s guest is Katie, but she is probably better known as The Phunky Witch around the Phish Twitter community. For today’s episode, Katie chose a stunning, psychedelic segment from Phish’s visit to the Sphere in Las Vegas: “Theme from the Bottom into Split Open and Melt” from April 19, 2024. 

Even though the band’s 4-show stand at The Sphere happened fairly recently, I just knew it was a matter of time before a guest chose to talk about the music from that run. From any perspective, The enormity of The Sphere seems to be the perfect venue to discuss attendance bias. Is it possible to convey the experience of being at The Sphere in words? Or does one have to be in attendance to understand what it’s like? Luckily, Katie chose a segment of the show where we can hear the musical magic and she does a great job explaining why it was special to be there.

So let’s join Katie to talk about red eye flights, the Nassau Coliseum, and black eyes as we discuss “Theme from the Bottom into Split Open and Melt” from April 19, 2024 at The Sphere in Las Vegas.

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Hi everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Today, we welcome back guest Adam Jerugim. Adam previously told about seeing “Harry Hood” on April 18, 1992 at Stanford University, and after today, he seems to be the Attendance Bias resident expert on west coast Phish in the 90s. 

In today’s episode, Adam and I expand our conversation to a full show, and that full show is Phish at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco on May 27, 1994. This was the third of three shows at the Warfield, and it came toward the last week of the 1994 spring tour. 

On Attendance Bias, we often talk about transitional years and signposts to major musical changes in the Phish evolution but when it comes to late spring and summer of 1994, it’s okay to just sit back and show to love to a band at a major peak. This show, while maybe not a tentpole of a peak year, still has superlative versions of David Bowie, Harry Hood, Reba, plus some trademark Phish goofiness and oddity appearances. But we get into all that in a moment.

One theme I loved talking about with Adam was Phish’s growing popularity on the west coast at this time. While the band would make their debut at Madison Square Garden late in the year and celebrate New Year’s Eve at Boston Garden, they were still reasonably in the middle of the pack when it came to the west coast. Selling out three nights at The Warfield seemed to send a signal that things were about to change, big time. Today’s show, as classic as it is, still frames the band at a time when they were about to blow up big time up and down the Pacific coast. There’s a lot going on.   

So let’s join Adam to talk about the Bay Bridge, opera singers, and whether shushing is better than wooing as we discuss May 27, 1994 at The Warfield Theater.

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Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. If you pay attention to the Phish podcast world, or the Goose podcast world, then you’re certainly familiar with today’s guest: Ryan Storm. Ryan is the host of the Almost Always There podcast as well as We Move Through Stormy Weather on Osiris Media, and you’ll find his reviews, commentary and general thoughts about the jamband scene at all of his outlets, which you can find in today’s show notes.

Ryan previously appeared on Attendance Bias in the summer of 2023 for a Madison Square Garden recap, and we were trying to arrange a traditional Attendance Bias appearance since even before that! Today is that day! Ryan chose to tell his story about the Phish show from October 22, 2021 at the Ak-Chin (though I knew it as Desert Sky) Pavilion in Phoenix, AZ.  While the summer 2021 tour was a mixed bag in terms of Phish and the Phish community  coming back from  quarantine and getting back on its feet, the fall tour was full of musical highlights and the true beginning of the 4.0 era.

Plus, this was likely the last traditional Phish tour; the band would announce several dates all over the west coast, with several being one-night stands. It’s likely that this tour will be the last time that you could go city to city and see just two shows. Along with the slew of new songs and keyboard and guitar effects, this was the end of one era and the beginning of another. 

So let’s join Ryan to talk about family, tension, and much more as we discuss October 22, 2021 in Phoenix Arizona.

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As we prepare for Ryan Storm's episode about 10/22/21 at The Desert Sky Pavilion in Phoenix, we also are preparing for our next episode with Adam Jerugim: 5/27/94 at The Warfield in San Francisco.

Have memories from spring 1994? Call 516-366-5732 and leave a message of your thoughts, opinions, and memories from spring 1994!

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Hi everyone! Do you have memories, thoughts, ideas, or criticisms about 10/22/21 at Desert Sky Pavilion? Want to share them? Call 516-366-5732 and leave a message as we get ready for the next Attendance Bias episode with Ryan Storm of Osiris Media! I can't wait to hear from you!

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Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. There are a lot of Phish shows that are seen as turning points in both the band’s career and the evolution of their sound over 40 years. The Paradise in 1988, Gamehendge in Great Woods, New Year’s ‘95, Halloween 1996, and dozens more. Those are the high profile ones. Because there are also shows that can fit the description of “turning points” but don’t get the same sort of attention as the ones I just mentioned. Today’s guest, Josh Buswell-Charkow was in attendance for such a show: November 2, 1996 at the Coral Sky Amphitheater in West Palm Beach, Florida.

This show isn’t exactly an unknown–Phish did release a DVD of it after all–but it does get lost in the hubbub of the band’s Talking Heads Halloween costume and then the insane Las Vegas show that closed the tour in December.  The popular narrative often goes that Phish covered Remain in Light on Halloween, played small venues in Europe in the winter of 1997, and changed their sound to the cow funk we all know and love by the middle of the summer.

However, there were little steps in between those touch points and today’s show is one of them. Guest starring percussionist Karl Parazzo for the entire show, the listener can hear the band changing their overall sound almost on the spot, infusing the Talking Heads-style repetitive rhythm while purposely making space for the guest star. 

But there’s even more to it than that. Let’s join Josh to talk about the best time to be in Florida, the best Phish guest stars, and more as we discuss November 2, 1996 at the Coral Sky Amphitheater.

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Hi everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. It was an absolute thrill to talk to today’s guest, Michael Benjamin about July 6, 2012 at SPAC. It was a thrill for two main reasons: First, I knew I was talking with a real fan about a genuinely exciting show, because he drove over 6 hours to get to the venue, and crossed the border, since Michael lived in Canada at the time. 

But also, today’s conversation selfishly granted me a wish that I didn’t even know I had. Michael comes to us today from Stockholm, Sweden. I’ve had Canadian guests before, so Michael isn’t the first international guest, but I’ve never had a European guest! Attendance Bias has gone intercontinental! We are everywhere!

But a little more close to home: this show was the first night of a 3-night run at the beloved upstate New York venue during a peak year of Phish music. It’s a common thread of this podcast to wonder when Phish was actually “back” after they returned in 2009, and 2012 seems to be as good a year to suggest, for a number of reasons that Mike and I discuss in just a few minutes.   

So let’s join Mike to talk about touring costs, whether or not Ocelot is a bathroom songs, and when the band will return to Toronto as we discuss July 7, 2012 at SPAC.