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Hi everybody and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host Brian Weinstein. Today, we continue our 2025 miniseries where we preview each venue on Phish’s late summer tour by visiting an old favorite: the Ameris Bank Amphitheater in Alpharetta, GA–colloquially known simply as “Alpharetta.” And when I say “an old favorite,” I mean for the band and fans.

Today’s guest -Dave Defeo–has never missed a Phish show at Alpharetta, and has lived in the area for over two decades, so he’s well equipped to give us the skinny on the amphitheater and its surrounding area. What I love most about this episode is that, since Phish has been playing Alpharetta for 15 years, there’s not too much new information to give about it (although we do our best), but there is a treasure trove of Phish history at Alpharetta. I don’t have the patience or capacity to check this, but I think there are more musical clips in today’s episode than any previous Attendance Bias episode. All good ones, too!

More than that, Dave owns and operates a restaurant just outside Atlanta called “My Parents’ Basement” that sounds like a dream come true–food, arcade games, comic books–all the stuff you wish you had in one place. But he’ll describe it more in just a few minutes.

So let’s talk about pinball, Lakewood, and Rage Against the Machine with Dave DeFeo to get ready for September 16 and 17 at the Ameris Bank Amphitheater in Alpharetta.

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Hi everybody and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host Brian Weinstein. Today, we continue our 2025 miniseries of previewing each venue on Phish’s late summer or early fall tour with a brand new venue–not just new to Phish fans but new to the world–the Coca Cola Amphitheater in Birmingham, Alabama.

Today’s guest to give us the inside scoop on the amphitheater is none other than the co-host of the Phish Phry Podcast and Alabama native, Bobby Shirley. Bobby and his son Oliver were on Attendance Bias about two years ago to tell about their experience at the Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama where Bobby took Oliver to his first show and they were lucky enough to meet Trey before the show started.

Bobby returns today to review Phish’s long history in the Birmingham area, diving into their two appearances in 1994, and their several performances at the Oak Mountain Amphitheater over the next 20-plus years.

More than that, the Coca-Cola Amphitheater just opened at the time that Bobby and I spoke, so for all of you listeners who are planning to catch Phish at in Birmingham, we’ve got good news: this seems like the perfect place for a mid-September two night stand in the south.

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Hi everybody and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host Brian Weinstein. We are at the start of the late summer/early fall 2025 tour, and so it is time to look ahead to the venues Phish will be playing. This run is 8 shows in 4 separate venues, including today’s preview of the Bourbon and Beyond Festival in Louisville, KY on September 12.

While the rest of this tour is made up of familiar, or at least traditional, venues, this one night show on September 12 is the first time Phish is playing this particular festival, and the first time that Phish has played in Louisville since 1995. Our friend Andrew from Louisville is a resident of the city who has been waiting for Phish to announce a show in his hometown for a long time and was thrilled when the festival announced Phish as a headliner, although we both agreed that it’s a bit of a head scratcher. As we’ll hear Andrew explain, Bourbon and Beyond isn’t a typical music festival, although the musical headliners over the past few years have become more and more impressive, with Phish topping the list (at least for him).

But the reason Phish is playing the festival doesn’t matter. The important thing is that the band is returning to the city that might best represent their theater era of the mid-90s, so who knows what they’ll bring to the stage when they play the Derby City in September.

So let’s join Andrew as he gives us the history, the recommendations, the tips, and tricks to prepare for Phish’s headlining spot at the Bourbon and Beyond festival on September 12, 2025.

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Hi everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. I think that all Phish fans, or fans of live music in general, would agree that the venue in which you see a show is inextricably linked to your experience at that show. It’s almost impossible, at least for me, to separate the setting from the experience. We go deep into that idea with today’s guest, Jordan, the founder and owner of the VenueLlama website as well as Fire on the Mountain Chicken Wings.

Today, Jordan chose a segment from one of his favorite shows that he thinks expresses pretty much everything a Phish show can be: the second half of September 3, 2022 at Dick’s: the portion we discuss includes The Moma Dance, No Quarter, 2001, and Split Open and Melt. Dick’s may be the most-represented venues on this podcast and I’m thrilled that Jordan chose this section and this show, because it’s another gem to explore.

A chicken wings restaurant speaks for itself, but a theme that runs throughout our conversation is our opinions, references, and general romanticizing of various concert venues for live music both domestic and international. Of course, a venue can provide the ultimate Attendance Bias, and I think Jordan and I did a good job investigating that aspect of the concert going experience, as well as how he hopes that VenueLlama can make the experience the best it can be.

So let’s join Jordan to talk about chicken wings, Spanish architecture, and Freetown Christiana as we discuss the last segment of September 3, 2022 at Dick’s.

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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 journalist and writer Mike Ayers. Mike’s new book, “Sharing in the Groove: The Untold Story of the ‘90s Jamband Explosion” covers exactly that–it’s an oral history of how a new scene and community developed, grew, and thrived in from the late 80s to the turn of the century. I read it in about 2 and a half days, and if you have any interest at all about the roots of our current jamband scene, it’s a must read.

If I may sound both nerdy and pretentious at the same time, I do consider myself a student of history. I’m fascinated by how customs, cultures, and patterns develop over time, whether or not we’re aware of them at the time. I love looking back, or listening to others–primary sources–look back and tell their stories with wisdom and insight. Park me in front of a Ken Burns documentary, and I’m occupied for hours.

Now, if you do that and then make the topic something that I experienced and am genuinely interested in, I’m hooked. That is what Mike’s book did for me. I caught the 2nd half of the 90s jamband explosion once I broke away from mainstream radio and got into Phish, moe., and then other lesser known jambands in the latter-half of the 90s. But all I knew about them were their music, the names of the bandmembers, and the basics of their history. What Sharing in the Groove offers is the behind the scenes look as to what brought this music, and this scene to me, and to you, and how everyone had a role whether or not we knew it at the time. Mike and I talk about different topics that the book touches on for nearly an hour of this episode, yet we barely scratch the surface. Again, “Sharing in the Groove” is a must-read.

On top of that, Mike chose an all-time jam for his Attendance Bias pick: The Went Gin, “Bathtub Gin” from the Great Went festival, August 17, 1997. When he first suggested it, I was genuinely surprised that it hadn’t been discussed on this podcast already. Now, we don’t go deep into the festival itself, but this singular 15 minute jam is enough to break down and appreciate as much as any other track ever discussed on here.

But enough from me. Let’s join Mike to talk about fraternity budgets, tape trading, file sharing, God Street Wine, and more as we discuss his book Sharing in the Groove, as well as the Went Gin from August 17, 1997.

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Hi everybody and welcome to this week’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Whenever a guest messages me and wants to tell a story about a show from the fall 1995 tour, it’s nearly impossible to say no. And when it’s a guest who has previously been on the podcast, I know it’ll be a compelling conversation. Such is the case today, when Brian Blatt joins me to tell about Phish’s incredible show from December 7, 1995 at the Niagara Falls Convention Center in Niagara Falls, NY.

Brian is the host of the High Pitched Cavitation radio show, and has previously came onto Attendance Bias to discuss his experience seeing Phish in April, 1994 at the Concert Hall in Toronto. That conversation centered around seeing Phish in the great north at a time when they were at the tail end of their theater and smaller venue era but still playing large venues in the summer and the end of the year. They had a foot in both worlds, in a transition period. By today’s show in December 1995, the transition is nearly complete. Phish was at the end of a 3-month tour where they would play anything and everything.

It came to a head in a most explosive way at Niagara Falls, and fans of a certain tape-collecting age know all about it. If you’re a newer or newish fan, you might know that this show has been released officially by LivePhish. Whether or not this show is new to you, it’s worth a listen for sure.

So let’s join Brian to talk about West Coast Phish, Western New York Phish, and Tetris, as we discuss December 7, 1995 at the Niagara Falls Convention Center, in Niagara Falls, NY.

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Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. I would imagine that most of us have been there: a Phish show where the first set gets off to a typical start, and then something happens-maybe a bustout or a special guest-that makes the show instantly memorable. Or maybe a show where the weather takes a turn for the worse and the show has to end early or there’s a downpour that’s almost as memorable as the music. Well, today’s guest, Ric Hickey is here to tell us about a show that has both: July 1, 1999 at the Starwood Amphitheater in Antioch, Tennessee.

When Phish comes to Nashville, it’s not a given that there will be special guests onstage, but the odds are in your favor. Ric tells us about seeing Phish in the early 90s around the Cincinnati area and various parts of Ohio, but also how he became familiar with the Nashville area. The 1999 summer tour has become a popular time to discuss on Attendance Bias, and Ric was there for the tour’s first few shows in the southeast. While he wasn’t a bluegrass aficionado at the time, he was still impressed by the lineup of country royalty that joined Phish during the first set of this show for a mix of bluegrass standards and Phish originals. Then, a rollicking rainstorm caused an early end to the 2nd set, leaving most fans went, muddy, disoriented, but hopefully satisfied. But we’ll let Ric tell the story.

Let’s join Ric to talk about the complex chord progression of Billy Breathes, short-lived DAT recordings, and what a dobro guitar sounds like as we discuss July 1, 1999 in Nashville.

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 Hello everybody and welcome to today's bonus episode of Attendance Bias. Today is a recap episode, so it's going to be a little different from what you may expect from normal episodes. I do have a co-host today that is JW Josh from the Stub Me Down Podcast. He and I tend to do recaps after Phish runs that we've attended either together, or at least both of us attended at the same time.

And today is hot on the heels of the Forest Hills 2025, summer, two-night run, we both had a lot of thoughts about this two night run, about the crowd and the environment, the venue, as well as the music play. So today's gonna be a little different because I did not edit even a word of this, and I also did not include any music clips.

I thought it would be in the best interest to get it out as soon as possible. So whether you were at the Forest Hills two night stand, one night of them, or you weren't there at all, but you just want to get a look or a listen as to what it was like to be there, give it a listen. You could always hear Stub Me Down, Josh's podcast, anywhere you get podcasts, and then we'll continue regular episodes of Attendance Bias after the summer tour is over.

In the meantime, enjoy today's Forest Hills recap with myself, Brian Weinstein and Josh from the Stu Me Down podcast.

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