Concert Tickets   

Trey Anastasio has officially announced a 16 show solo tour that will take place throughout the month of February.

The show will feature Classic TAB members Russ Lawton (drums), Tony Markellis (bass) and Ray Paczkowski (keyboards) as well as a three-piece horn section featuring Russell Remington (tenor sax and flute), Jen Hartswick (trumpet and vocals) and first-timer Natalie Cressman on (trombone and vocals).

According to HT the February 8th tour opener in Charlottesville will be a benefit show for the Kristine Anastasio Manning Memorial Fund on what would have been her 47th birthday.

Trey Anastasio 2010 Tour Dates & Trey Tickets

• 2/8

  Jefferson Theater Charlottesville, VA (SOLD OUT)

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• 2/9

  9:30 Club Washington, DC (SOLD OUT)

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• 2/11

  The Electric Factory Philadelphia, PA

  On sale now!
• 2/12

  House of Blues Boston, MA (SOLD OUT)

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• 2/13

  Oakdale / Chevrolet Theatre Wallingford, CT

  On sale now!
• 2/14

  Count Basie Theatre Red Bank, NJ (SOLD OUT)

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• 2/16

  Terminal 5 New York, NY

  On sale now!
• 2/18

  Pabst Theater Milwaukee, WI (SOLD OUT)

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• 2/19

  Riviera Theatre Chicago, IL (SOLD OUT)

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• 2/20

  State Theatre Minneapolis, MN

  On sale now!
• 2/21

  Uptown Theater Kansas City, MO

  On sale now!
• 2/23

  The Pageant Theater St. Louis, MO

  On sale now!
• 2/25

  Ryman Auditorium Nashville, TN

  On sale now!
• 2/26

  Fillmore Charlotte, NC

  On sale now!
• 2/27

  Tabernacle Atlanta, GA

  On sale now!
• 2/28

  Tennessee Theatre Knoxville, TN

  On sale now!

Disclosure: Jamtopia recieves a small commission when you buy from Ticketmaster. Learn more.

Amid the excitement of the Phish Halloween Album Teaser, this morning Phish announced Fall Tour dates with another custom animation video, but not until after dates leaked on Ticketmaster and LiveNation.

The dates include stops in Detroit, Cincy, Syracuse (Fish's home town), Philly, Albany, Portland, NYC and Charlottesville.

The band will miss the opportunity to play one last show at the Spectrum, but 9,000 lucky fans will get a chance to see the Phish at Cumberland County Civic Center where they tend to melt serious face.

Scroll down for dates and ticket info.

Phish Tour Dates: Fall Tour 2009

• 11/18

  Cobo Arena Detroit, MI

  On sale 10/24
• 11/20

  U.S. Bank Arena Cincinnati, OH

  On sale 10/24
• 11/21

  U.S. Bank Arena Cincinnati, OH

  On sale 10/24
• 11/22

  War Memorial at Oncenter Syracuse, NY

  On sale 10/23
• 11/24

  Wachovia Center Philadelphia, PA

  On sale 10/24
• 11/25

  Wachovia Center Philadelphia, PA

  On sale 10/24
• 11/27

  Times Union Center Albany, NY

  On sale 10/23
• 11/28

  Times Union Center Albany, NY

  On sale 10/23
• 11/29

  Cumberland County Civic Center Portland, ME

  On sale 10/24
• 12/2

  Madison Square Garden New York, NY

  On sale 10/23
• 12/3

  Madison Square Garden New York, NY

  On sale 10/23
• 12/4

  Madison Square Garden New York, NY

  On sale 10/23
• 12/5

  John Paul Jones Arena Charlottesville, VA

  On sale 10/23

Welcome to Vol. 6 of “Who's Got My Extra?” — Jamtopia's series all about the business and pleasure of concert tickets.
See all posts | Buy concert tickets

I've had SeatGeek on my radar for a little while, but they just went live this week and you'll definitely want to take the site for a spin.

Similar to what FareCast does for airfare, SeatGeek provides price forecasts for concert tickets (and sports tickets) using a custom algorithm to crunch historical concert ticket transactions and “other factors” that influence tickets prices.

As you can see in the screengrab above, the site essentially tells you whether to buy now or wait til later using one of seven possible forecasts — sharp decrease, moderate decrease, steady prices, moderate increase, sharp increase, hump, and trough. For events with sufficient data, they even break down the forecast for cheap, medium, and expensive seats.

And the coup de grâce: you can sign up for an alert and they'll email you when it's the best time buy tickets, up to two days before the event. Nice.

We see this as a huge opportunity for a change-the-world type of business.
— Russ D'Souza, SeatGeek Co-Founder, via LA Times

I don't know if they're really gonna change the world, but they might just help you beat the brokers & behemoths and find yourself some cheap concert tickets.

Want more info? Visit SeatGeek.com, follow @SeatGeek, or read the SeatGeek blog.

Photo by laram777

Today Phish confirmed a show Fenway Park on May 31, 2009, delighting fans and making public one of the worst kept secrets of the Summer concert season. The Fenway Park Phish show will be the new kickoff stop for the band's early Summer tour and will follow two nights of Dave Matthews Band at Fenway.

As has become the standard, Phish broke the news with a custom Phish Fenway announcement video. The video features images of Fenway Park accompanied by the musical stylings of Red Sox organist Josh Kantor. Stick around for the second half of the clip where you'll find Kantor playing a cool (but too short) arrangement of Tweeprise.

I can't be sure but I think there might also be some kind of hidden message in the announcement video… will take a closer look later :)

Phish Fenway Tickets

Request Phish Fenway Mailorder Tickets »
A limited number of tickets are available directly through Phish Tickets' online ticketing system. The ticketing request period is currently underway and ends Sun, April 12th at 11:59PM ET.

Update (April 14, 2009 @ 9:00pm) The mailorder window is over and the announcements have been sent. Congrats to those who scored Phish Fenway Tickets in the lottery, and best of luck on Etix for those who didn't.

Buy Phish Fenway Tickets via Etix Public Onsale »
Tickets go on sale to the public on Saturday, April 18th at 10:00am. Tickets can be purchased online at Etix or charge by phone at 800.514.3849 or at the Orpheum Box Office.

Update (April 16, 2009 @ 11:30am) Yesterday a number of fans succeeded in getting Phish Fenway tickets using a leaked Fenway employee presale password (which was “fenphish” in case you were curious). Given that most of these folks are not actually Fenway employees, there's still a chance these tickets will get canceled a la Red Rocks. Meanwhile, today is the season ticket holder presale for Phish Fenway tickets, and again some fans are reporting on message boards that they were able to pull tickets. For the rest of us, tomorrow beckons.

Update (April 18, 2009 @ 9:01am) Etix = fail. Site totally crashed about 1 second after the Phish Fenway ticket onsale time. Oh well.

Update (April 18, 2009 @ 10:00am) Phish tickets for Fenway are sold out. Search for secondary market Phish Fenway tickets on Jamtopia.

This morning Phish announced 12 more summer tour dates which unlike the early Summer tour offers some welcome news for fans in the Mountain states and West coast.

Phish Tour Dates: Late Summer Tour 2009

• 7/30

  Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO

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• 7/31

  Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO

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• 8/01

  Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO

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• 8/02

  Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO

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• 8/05

  Shoreline Amphitheatre Mountain View, CA

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• 8/07

  The Gorge Amphitheatre George, WA

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• 8/08

  The Gorge Amphitheatre George, WA

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• 8/11

  Toyota Park Chicago, IL

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• 8/13

  Darien Lake Performing Arts Center Darien Center, NY

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• 8/14

  Meadows Music Theater Hartford, CT

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• 8/15

  Merriweather Post Pavilion Columbia, MD

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• 8/16

  Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saratoga Springs, NY

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Once again the band used a custom announcement video to break the news, this time featuring a Google Earth zoom into some farmland culminating in a large “09” painted on a field. Birds rages in the background of the video with tour dates superimposed on top.

Upon initial viewing, I thought this video was about 1/3 as cool as the other two announcement videos. But a post on The Butter Room changed my opinion drastically. Per The Butter Room, the video is a clue as to the whereabouts of an (as yet) unannounced end-of-summer Phish festival.

According to Rand & McNally over there — “doing a little research and utilizing Google’s Earth and Maps” — the festival will be on a small family-owned farm in Georgetown, Texas. Take a look at the embedded google map below to see the exact spot of the “09” in the video.

The Butter Room contacted Georgetown’s Public Information Office who did not confirm a Phish festival, but did indicate that “a touring band with a substantial following has indicated interest in using the location for a festival in late September.” Looks like our friends in the Lone Star State may be in for a little musical treat in September!

NOTE: The Phish festival in Texas is apparently not happening. See below for updates.

And of course speculation continues that Phish will kick off their Summer tour not at Jones Beach on June 4th but at Fenway Park on May 31st, following a two-night stand by (another Red Light act) Dave Matthews Band.

Welcome to Vol. 5 of “Who's Got My Extra?” — Jamtopia's series all about the business and pleasure of concert tickets.
See all posts | Buy concert tickets

Yesterday Wall Street Journal reporter Ethan Smith blew the lid off one of the worst kept secrets in the music business — Concert Tickets Get Set Aside, Marked Up by Artists, Managers.

And best of all, he named names, so you know exactly which artists are gouging their fans with inflated prices for concert tickets.

Smith outs a wide range of artists and managers, from Neil Diamond and Celine Dion to Bon Jovi and Van Halen to Billy Joel and Elton John. Even no-longer-bald Britney Spears gets called out for a little scalping.

Virtually every major concert tour today involves some official tickets that are priced and sold as if they were offered for resale by fans or brokers, but that are set aside by the artists and promoters, according to a number of people involved in the sales.

Of course none of the acts the WSJ contacted got back to them… probably embarrassed that they're now in the same camp as Gene Simmons, in it for the money and not the music.

Hey, at least Gene's not trying to hide anything.

Update (March 16, 2009): Well it seems Michael Jackson may have a little Mike Damone in him too, at least according to the veiled accusation in this WSJ article.

Meanwhile, guy-who-gets-it Trent Reznor clued in his fans with incredible transparency on the NIN forum (see quote below) — picking up a story that, as Lefsetz noticed, didn't get much traction in the media beyond the original article.

The true market value of some tickets for some concerts is much higher than what the act wants to be perceived as charging. For example, there are some people who would be willing to pay $1,000 and up to be in the best seats for various shows, but MOST acts in the rock / pop world don’t want to come off as greedy pricks asking that much, even though the market says its value is that high.
Trent Reznor on the NIN forum

Related Links

• Concert Tickets Get Set Aside, Marked Up by Artists, Managers [WSJ]
• Singer Neil Diamond Under Scrutiny in Ticket Markup Arrangement [FOXNews]
• Who's Scalping Those Concert Tickets? Artists And Agents, Frequently [Consumerist]
• Scalping [Lefsetz Letter]
• Trent Reznor thoughts on ticket re-sellers / scalping [NIN Forum]
• AEG Accuses Ticket Agent Of Scalping Jackson Show [WSJ]
• More Scalping [Lefsetz Letter]