Thursday, February 4, 2016

A Big Pot of Jam

Since our last update, we've seen announcements of the big Coldplay and Pearl Jam tours we forecasted, including the latter's appearances at Bonnaroo, Fenway Park, and Wrigley Field. Still to come is an announcement of Pearl Jam's 25th anniversary event in Seattle this September, not to mention the big upcoming Guns 'n Roses tour.

Next up, however, are jam bands Dead and Company and Phish, both of whom we expect to announce their summer tours over the next week, the Dead as soon as tomorrow.

The Dead Have Lots of Company
We believe the Dead & Co. tour will be bookended by two major festival appearances, opening with 2 already-announced shows at Bonnaroo in June and closing nearly two months later at or around a return home to Golden Gate Park, where the band will join our previously-forecasted headliners Radiohead and LCD Soundsystem at Outside Lands during "Jerry week" in San Francisco. 

In between, the band will play large-scale weekend stands in or near New York City (plans to play Citi Field or a neighboring site in late June may have been moved to July), Boston (Fenway Park on or about August 1st, Jerry Garcia's birthday), Albany (the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in mid-June), Chicago (Wisconsin's Alpine Valley Music Theatre the second weekend of July), Denver (the University of Colorado at Boulder's Folsom Field during July 4th weekend), and more (Ohio's Legend Valley in mid-July, perhaps?). 

Look as well for the band to hit a series of slightly smaller outdoor "sheds," some of them well-known to older Deadheads, including Albuquerque's Isleta Amphitheater (July 4th), the Austin360 amphitheater at Circuit of the Americas (during the following week), "Deer Creek" near Indianapolis (mid-June), Merriweather Post Pavilion between Baltimore and Washington (mid-July), "Pine Knob" and "Star Lake" near Detroit and Pittsburgh, respectively (same), and amphitheaters in both Washington State and Oregon circa Outside Lands. Following the tour, Bob Weir will hit the road with Ratdog, joining Gregg Allman and friends (including, we believe, former Allman Brother Dickey Betts) and Phish's Trey Anastasio at the Peach Music Festival in mid-August.

Phish Reels a Few in Too
For their briefer part, Phish will play big weekend stands at Wrigley Field (the last weekend of June), SPAC (July 4th weekend), Washington's Gorge Amphitheater (mid-July), and the Denver area's Dick's Sporting Goods Park (Labor Day weekend), with appearances in between at, among others, New York City's historic Forest Hills Stadium and San Francisco's famed Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Earlier plans to play weekend stands in Las Vegas or Atlantic City have not come to fruition.

Will the Bands Interlock?
Finally, while it appears that our speculated late-August Dead/Allmans return to Watkins Glen raceway will not come to pass, look for some big names to unite instead towards the end of Summer at Virginia's jam-happy Lockn' Festival, where we expect Phish to play two nights sandwiching appearances by assorted Dead member solo projects (Ratdog, Phil Lesh and Friends,  etc.).

Stay tuned for updates soon on a host of festivals both in and outside the USA...

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