List | 10 Little Known Facts About Phish Island Tour
By Team JamBase Apr 2, 2015 • 8:20 am PDT
As Phish fans all around the globe celebrate the 15th (now 17th in 2015) anniversary of what’s been dubbed “The Island Tour” (due to four spring shows taking place in Long Island & Rhode Island) -we here at JamBase wanted to throw together a Top 10 list for our readers. As we started to dig in, we were amazed at just how many significant factoids there were -we didn’t even get to include the super-nerdy stats about how many measures long the intro was in these early versions of Birds of a Feather. Without further ado:
#1: Rare case of teasing a song before it’s been debuted: The 4-3-1998 Mike’s Song included teases of Mozambique which would not be debuted by Phish until 9-9-1999. (Source: Phish.net song history)
#2: Only Oh Kee Pa Ceremony> You Enjoy Myself: For such an amazing song pairing that opened the 4-5-1998 show, this has never been repeated (Source: Phish.net song history)
#3: Phish was so motivated by their performances at the Island Tour shows that they took one day off before heading to Dave O’s Farmhouse for a five-day recording session in which they laid down tracks that would up on Story of the Ghost. (Source: Wikipedia -The Story Of The Ghost)
#4: Phish announced the Island Tour on February 24, just 37 days before the start of the run and a mere four days before tickets went on sale. (Source: rec.music.phish)
#5: First Phish release to be put out simultaneously as a download and in physical format. (Source: Phish.com news item)
#6: Only unfinished version of 2001 -and what a version it is. (Source: Phish.net song history) [Correction:] One of two unfinished renditions of 2001 -the other notated as such: 11/26/1997
#7: Only unfinished Possum -you know they are feeling it when they don’t even finish Possum. (Source: Phish.net song history)
#8: Between 2-13-1997 and 4-5-1998 there were four unfinished versions of Maze. There have been none since and there were none prior to 2-13-1997. (Source: Phish.net song history)
#9: Despite its legendary status in regards to jamming, only one track appears on the Phish.net "20 minute jam" chart (Roses Are Free 4-3-1998) (Source: Phish.net 20 Minute Jam Chart)
#10: The Island Tour was the first Live Phish release to include soundchecks. (Source: Phish.com news item)
