This and That

Since words can’t do justice to the amazing experience that was being a part of the AWESOMETOWN team, I thought that I would share some of my pictures with you from the weekend. A lot of them are shot from behind the stage, but this was not me trying to get a new creative angle. Enjoy.

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I approve this Trailer.

Technology is an always growing monster, but the good kind like in Monster’s Inc. There are very few industries that have been effected by technology more than the music industry. In my lifetime alone there was the invention of the record button to make mix tapes with my ridiculously sized boom box off the radio, the Compact Disc, mp3s and my personal favorite the external USB friendly hard drive which is a great tool for storing obscene amounts of music digitally.

Napster

Looking back on the history of the music technology tango, we have Napster who came onto the scene in the mid-late 90s and is still seen as one of the pioneers of the getting new music into people’s hand movement and they did it by way of peer to peer file sharing. Similar technologies are used today in the way of BitTorrent and online file sharing (senspace, mediafire, rapidshare, etc.) and it continues to evolve due to the growing popularity of the personal mp3 player(iPod, Zune, etc.) As a music fan there is always music a few clicks away, which translates to Life is Good!

The band Dispatch greatly benefited from Napster’s infiltration of the college market and were able to grow to become one of the nation’s most popular unsigned (by choice) bands. The Grateful Dead, Phish & the jamband music scene as a whole grew exponentially off the back of its fans sharing their music. Originally it was the classic B+P where you’d send someone blank tapes and enough money for postage and they’d make a copy of the show and send it back to you. These were very popular especially with list service groups. I know I made a lot of trades back in the day via rec.music.phish and The Phish Bowl on AOL. Now through BitTorrent and sites like etree.org and the Live Music Archive it is even easier to get shows right after they happen, the previous way could take weeks to get you your favorite show from someone’s list. Now we have instant gratification. (more…)

My wife & I have a list of 5 artists / bands that we have yet to see that are still alive and playing. A top of both of our lists (#1 or #2 on both) is Paul Simon. When we were dating there was a period of almost a year where we would each month get the other person an album that we loved or thought that they needed to have in their collection. She gave me Graceland as a gift one month and it has since been a constant in my musical library that always puts me in a good mood. I have always enjoyed his catalog, including a lot of Simon & Garfunkel, but that album always stands by itself to me in a league of its own.

Fast forward to present day. In early January it was announced that they would be re-opening the Beacon Theater in New York City, a musical landmark. The performer for the two night-extravaganza would be, that’s right you probably guessed it, no other than Paul Simon himself. Tickets were to go on sale with the dreaded Ticketmaster three weeks before the show. I was beyond excited to try and get them and in turn get to cross him off the list. The ticket gods weren’t in our favor as I don’t have an American Express Gold and so I couldn’t get tickets via the week-long pre-sale. Really? A week, these people are so rich that they need a week to get around to buying tickets?! As you can see I’m a little bitter :laugh:

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March 6-7-8 2009

So as you may or may not know I was lucky enough to score two 3-day packages for Phish’s return three-night run at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA on March 6,7 & 8 2009. We’re very excited to be able to be there for this special occasion as I brought Sue with me to the previous hiatus return at MSG. Unfortunately due to the whole being a teacher thing, Sue can’t take off more than one day during that period of time in March due to it being during the testing period at school. The obvious choice was to take the time off to be there for the Friday night show.

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Christmas comes early. It seems that each month the Phish gods shine upon us with goodies from the archive and this month was no different. Fresh off the announcement of Summer Tour dates and rumored Bonnaroo announcement coming next week, the Clifford Ball DVD has everyone excited. Last night and into today the band updated their YouTube channel with 5 new video clips from their forthcoming DVD package. These include Bathtub Gin, Fluffhead, Sample in a Jar, Punch You in the Eye and the legendary ‘Flatbed Jam’. Check them all out below:

Phish - Bathtub Gin - Clifford Ball DVD
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Phish Summer 2009

Phish has just announced another date as part of their summer tour, June 10th at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, TN. This is just another sign that the band will be headlining Bonnaroo as the rumors have been reporting all over the interweb. One can only assume there will be more dates to follow…

For more information: http://phish.com/news/index.php?year=2009#story417

check out this great song called Evolve which was written & recorded by my nephew Evan http://tinyurl.com/79wkbp very proud of him

Umphrey’s McGee Release Mantis Next Tuesday, Jan. 20th http://tinyurl.com/7vxxgz