Calling all phans: Better get your Phish tix before they’re gone. The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts’ website will go live on March 3 with presales of tickets for Phish in concert at the Sullivan County outdoor venue on July 22 and 23 (both shows start at 7:30pm). Naturally, this pair of long-awaited area appearances by the reigning CEOs of the jam-band universe will be among the biggest concert events of the summer season, so if you’re a phollower (all right, we’ll stop now) you best swim and not sleep. There’s even a two-day pass package for those who want to make a weekend of it and experience both shows.
Of course, Bethel Woods, the site of the original Woodstock Music Festival, is the perfect spot for Phish to return to. The band’s obvious forebears, the Grateful Dead, were among the headliners at the 1969 festival and their colorful audience, like that of the Dead’s audience, relishes epic, improvisational explorations (it’s no coincidence that many Deadheads joined Phish’s audience when Jerry Garcia’s 1995 passing took the Grateful Dead off the road—nor is it a coincidence that Phish guitarist and vocalist Trey Anastasio would act as Garcia’s stand-in during the Dead’s 50th anniversary “Fare Thee Well” concerts 20 years later).
Phish was formed in 1983 in Burlington, Vermont, by Anastasio, drummer John Fishman, bassist Mike Gordon, and guitarist Jeff Holdsworth; keyboardist Page McConnell joined soon after Holdsworth left, in 1985. Now one of the biggest concert acts in the world (they’ll do four nights at Madison Square Garden in August), Phish has released dozens of studio and live albums and influenced an entire generation of jam bands.
Phish will perform live at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on July 22 and 23. Visit the Bethel Woods website for tickets and information.
This article appears in February 2022.
