Summer 2013 marks Phish’s second visit to the Hollywood Bowl, a beloved concert destination for artists and patrons tucked squarely in the heart of America’s pop-cultural capital. L.A. is my home, and the Hollywood Bowl is my backyard venue, so when we decided to run a blog series on summer tour venues, I called "dibs" quickly. It's a special place, and it's my humble pleasure to tell you about it.

The Hollywood Bowl debuted as a proper venue in 1922 and evolved organically over the decades, hosting larger audiences and shedding its iconic band shells from time to time for sleeker and more acoustically pure upgrades. While its location in Hollywood’s heavily trafficked Cahuenga Pass (along the 101 Freeway) is conspicuously urban, the experience of attending a show at the Bowl is more akin to a retreat: once you’ve climbed the hill from the busy street below and passed through the gates, you enter an open, manicured, meditative space designed to minimize sensory friction between audience and performer.

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From the editors: For this installment of our Summer Tour Venue Revue, the editors of Phish.net wanted to extend an invitation to Craig Hillwig (aka @chillwig) to offer his perspective on Phish’s return to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Craig is a longtime fan and taper, who has generously shared countless recordings with the fan community over the years.

Phish returns to the historic Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco for three nights on August 2-4, 2013. Thanks to phish.net for inviting me to guest post about it.

For Phish fans who are also Deadheads, a San Francisco run during the first week of August is highly symbolic. Of course, I'm referring to the “Days Between” - the period between Jerry Garcia's August 1 birthday and the August 9 anniversary of his death in 1995. Eighteen years later, it's still a pretty big deal in the Bay Area. For some sobering context, consider that some of this June's high school graduates were born after Garcia's passing.

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Note received today from Melinda Jennis of Pathways for Exceptional Children (Montville, NJ).

"I wanted to keep you up to date on what is going on with the grant the Mockingbird Foundation gave to us. The concert the Pathways' Rock Band had on April 27th was amazing. The kids sold over 400 tickets and the concert was considered one of the best in the area. We just had Kevin Jonas from the Jonas Brothers come to visit our studio last week and he was so impressed he is coming back in a few weeks to play with our band and practice with them. I have attached our latest newsletter that tells about it all. One of the kids on the rock band was awarded the Hasbro Community Action Hero Award for the Project Win-Win program that the rock band is a part of. Thank you again for all of your help. The grant has helped a purchase a new guitar amp, keyboard, and Presonas mixer/recorder. It has helped us go from good to great!

Thanks you so much again!

Melinda Jennis, Pathways for Exceptional Children"

Your donations, purchases of "The Phish Companion", LivePhish.com downloads, and Phish.net store goods make this possible!

Today marks the 149th episode of Phish.net's longest running game show, Mystery Jam Monday! Once again, be the first person to identify the source (song and date will suffice) of the mystery clip and win one MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. Each of you get one guess per day, with the second “day” starting after I post the hint. A hint will be posted on Tuesday if necessary, with the answer to follow on Wednesday. Now bust out those cotton swabs, clean out those ears, and get ready to listen!

Answer: With an impressive fourth win over the last fourteen MJMs, @PhreePhish is on the fast track to emeritus status. The vague teasing of "Ramble On" in the 12/31/97 Mike's Song initially fooled some contestants, but ultimately the Blog's record dropped to 9-126-14 (that's wins, losses, and hint-aided wins, respectively).

Next week, we'll be celebrating both Phish's return to the stage and the 150th edition of Mystery Jam Monday. Stay tuned.

The Outdoor Arena at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Casino and Resort is one of the smallest venues Phish currently plays at around 7000 seats. Built on an old parking lot sandwiched between the Harvey’s hotel tower and a golf course, it sits only a few feet inside the Nevada State Line and about 900 feet from the shore of Lake Tahoe. As of June 2013 Phish has only made one stop there, for two shows in August of 2011. They are scheduled for two more shows this summer, July 30th and 31st. It’s one of only 3 venues in Nevada that Phish has ever played; the other two being the Alladin Theater and the Thomas & Mack Center, both in Las Vegas. Since they have only played one recent set of shows at Harvey’s, there is no grand history. But, there are some things that make this venue unique and particularly enjoyable.

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Diehard fans aren't made. They're called.

Ask a Bengals fan, or a Mets fan, or a Phish fan. Nobody gets into Phish music because Phish music is cool. We get into it and we bend our lives around it because we can't not do that.

Sometimes, nobody seems to understand. But any Juggalo would, and that's the axis of rotation for Nathan Rabin's new book You Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Me.

Rabin, who recently left his post as Head Writer at The A.V. Club, compares and contrasts the Phish and Insane Clown Posse communities through the lens of his own personal and professional turmoil. We caught up with Rabin as he finished a promotional stop in Madison, WI.

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On July 26 and 27, 2013, I will be returning to Quincy (or is it George?), Washington for the seventh Celebration of the Lizards at the Gorge. I have not missed a Phish show at this amphitheater hewn from the living rock of Gamehendge...and you really shouldn’t either. Each of the twin-bills to date (1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2009, and 2011) has to me musically portrayed in graphic detail the myriad geologic processes that formed the stunning otherworldly landscape that supports and surrounds the venue. This blog post is intended to highlight the tastiest jams from each of the “Cave P” vintages past while exploring the rugged terrain that provided the terroir for the tunes. The Gorge Amphitheater lies in a land shaped by both fire and ice. Over the course of their past six visits, the music Phish has produced in this setting has covered every emotional facies change from happiness to sorrow. Such a traverse obviously includes some time spent in sonic puddles of lukewarm water. Digging down deep, we’ll work our way from the bottom to the top, chronologically speaking.

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Chicago has played host to such legendary Phish shows that I felt a little intimidated having to write a blog entry on them. I wondered if I could really find something new to say about shows which I didn’t attend but which are so well known in the community. So instead of just writing a review or an essay, I decided to compose a sestina to capture some of my feelings about Chicago, Phish, and our fan community.

Each stanza (except for the the envoi) focuses on and draws from a different show. The end words are taken from Carl Sandburg’s famous poem, Chicago.

Five of the shows I chose to focus on seemed like no-brainers. I wasn’t sure which one to select for the sixth until I noticed that 4/10/93 was "Barefoot" Bob Eckhart's first show. Bob passed away in January and our community came together in a big way to raise money for the education of Bob’s children. Donations to Bob’s family would still be welcome, so if you are interested in helping, please send me a private message.

Bob was at every one of these shows, and this poem is dedicated to him.

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On July 16 and 17, 2013, Phish will return to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park for their third twin bill at the summer home of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO). The amphitheatre, owned by the ASO parent organization Woodruff Arts Center, features a 7,000 seat fan-shaped roofed pavillion and low-angle lush green lawn that will accommodate an additional 5,000 fans that are in turn encircled by some of the heritage trees that are characteristic of the larger 45-acre park in which the amphitheatre is set. The amphitheatre will be enjoying its sixth summer concert season since opening in May 2008. The Woodruff Arts Center in turn, is completing its 45th year since being established in October 1968 as the Memorial Arts Center in memory of over 100 of Atlanta’s arts and civic leaders lost in a June 1962 crash on takeoff of Air France Flight 007 (a Boeing 707 named The Chateau de Sully) as it departed Orly, France. This crash, represented the first civilian jet disaster with greater than 100 deaths (130 total); making it the worst single plane disaster at that time, the third worst air disaster overall through 1962, and the catalyst that changed Atlanta’s modern cultural history forever.

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Welcome to the 148th chapter of Phish.net's Mystery Jam Monday! Per usual, if you're the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip, you'll win an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. Each contestant gets one guess per day, with the second “day” starting after I post the hint. A hint will be posted on Tuesday if necessary, with the answer following on Wednesday. Enjoy!

Answer: The Blog woefully waves its white flag this week. Despite the majority of its 34 seconds consisting of crowd noise, with a few scant seconds at the end vaguely inferring the return back to Foam, @yunkfunk was able to ID the 12/4/94 Foam. The Blog promises to appease the masses, and will at least try to stick to a more traditional, mostly-audible clip for Monday's upcoming one-hundred-and-forty-ninth Mystery Jam.

Merriweather Post Pavilion. As any Northern Virginian, current or former, would tell you: I love it and I hate it. I went to several shows there, so I loved the proximity, but hated the traffic and the parking. Now, if you narrowed it down to just Phish shows, I'd immediately think of one moment: the 8/8/98 Sabotage encore. There's a great story there, but it's not the one I'm going to tell today.

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When I think about Phish, one of the very first things that comes to mind is New York. I know they’re not a “New York” band and have their roots in Vermont and New England, but it’s impossible to discuss even a cursory history of the band without intertwining the band’s glorious history there. Phish has unquestionably put their stamp on the Empire State playing every nook and cranny of the state from college quads and campuses in the early years to tiny clubs and rooms like Aiko’s in Saratoga, The Chance in Poughkeepsie, The Haunt in Ithaca, The Wetlands in the City and Clement’s Brew Pub in Syracuse. Seemingly in the blink of an eye, Phish was performing to 70,000 fans at one of the most awe-inspiring festivals ever seen at the Clifford Ball in Plattsburgh, to some of the world’s grandest stages in Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall (and everything in between in New York City). Having played nearly 100 different venues in New York, Phish has performed there more often than any other state with Vermont being a not-that-close second. (California & Massachusetts round out the other top four).

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Holmdel, New Jersey’s PNC Bank Arts Center was my hometown venue and will forever be close to my heart. Growing up in tiny Hazlet, about 45 miles south of New York City, we usually had to travel into the Big Apple or up to The Meadowlands to see big acts unless it was summer. The Garden State Arts Center, as it was called from the time it opened in 1968 until PNC Bank bought the naming rights in 1996, was a mere mile from the house where I grew up and each summer would host a wide variety of musical acts. As a tot my parents took me to see doo-wop revivalists Sha Na Na at the shed, which was one of my first musical experiences and over the years I saw dozens of concerts there.

Bands such as the Allman Brothers Band, the Steve Miller Band and Santana would seem to visit each summer and even if I couldn’t afford a ticket that night, I was still able to hear the music quite well from the parking lot. From the time I was nine I would go away for eight weeks each summer to sleepaway camp which certainly cut into my Arts Center-going opportunities. That never phased me much until 1994, when I found myself entering a passionate love affair with the music of Phish.

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It’s hard to process the fact that July 6 will mark the passage of thirteen years since the last time the nation of Canada – or any land outside of the Unites States, for that matter – hosted a Phish show. A variety of theories abound to explain the lengthy embargo, from previous border-crossing difficulties, to Trey’s probationary terms stemming from his December 2006 arrest, to the band’s devotion to Dunkin’ Donuts and utter contempt for Tim Hortons.

Regardless of the actual reasoning, it will come to an end a mere three days following that milestone. That roar you vaguely remember coming down from north of the border this past winter? Well, okay – it was almost certainly the celebration of professional hockey’s return from yet another labor stoppage. But there’s a slim chance it was the long-neglected Canadian contingency of Phish fans cheering the announcement of the upcoming July 9, 2013 show at Toronto’s Molson Canadian Amphitheatre.

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Welcome to Part 147 of Phish.net's Mystery Jam Monday! (Give or take a day.) As usual, if you're the first person to identify the source of the mystery clip, you'll win an MP3 download courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. Each contestant gets one guess per day, with the second “day” starting after I post the hint. A hint will be posted on Wednesday if necessary, and the answer will be posted on Thursday. Good luck!

Answer: You know, it's getting awfully hard to fool the MJM audience. By knowing that this week's mystery jam came from the February(-ish?) 2004 jam at the Barn featured in Undermind's bonus DVD doc, "Specimens of Beauty", first-time winner @j_led deftly wins this week's MP3 download. Guys, gals, don't be appalled if next week's selection ends up being a silent jam.

See you Monday(-ish?)!