Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Certain Phish shows can be seen as flashpoints for the band’s career–Amy’s Farm in 1991, New Year’s ‘95 at MSG, Big Cypress for sure, the Wingsuit set...many of them have been covered on this podcast. Much more rare is a three or four-night run that can be pointed to as a turning point. And I don’t know if there’s a better-known four-show run that is universally praised and seen as a high-water mark as 1998’s Island Tour. Even at the time, we knew that we were seeing and hearing something special, but its place in Phish history only became clear as the years went by.
However, at the time, not everybody had the best time at the Nassau Coliseum and the Providence Civic Center. Today’s guest, artist Patrick Smith, tells of an unsettling experience during the first set of the first show of the Island Tour–April 2, 1998. Still new to Phish and making some rookie mistakes in 1998, not everything went according to plan for Patrick and his friend, but I’ll let him tell the story, including why we are only covering the first set on today’s episode.
More exciting than the show, though, is the fact that Patrick is an artist, and THE artist who created the iconic four-portrait cover of the Pharmer’s Almanac, Volume 6–a seminal and essential guide to the band that was released in 2000. My copy has disintegrated from overuse over the past 25 years, but all of its information, including the cover that Patrick illustrated has pretty much merged with my Phish DNA and lives forever in my memory.
Keeping things in-house, Patrick learned about Attendance Bias from another special guest who had a crucial part to play in the Island Tour, but again, I’ll let Patrick tell the story.
For now, join Patrick and I to talk about hotel reservations, timing your boomers, and Norman Rockwell as we discuss set 1 of April 2, 1998 at The Nassau Coliseum.
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