oh kee pah

“It could happen,” Rick Herrington, director of the town’s Parks and Rec department, said of the potentially quick, overnight turnaround. “I don’t know how well it could happen, as that remains to be seen.”

Herrington points out that the many meetings needed to O.K. the Phish concerts are lined up ideally. Another Parks and Rec meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, and a CCAASE (Commission for Community Assistance, Arts and Special Events) meeting will take place the following week on March 3. If the event is OK’d by both of those groups, the concert issue will go to the Telluride Town Council on March 9. 

But that might be too late for Phish – and the promoters who want to bring the band to southwestern Colorado.

“It may end up that the band won’t have a chance to consider the offer,” Ferguson said. “By the time we would be able to invite them, it might be too late because they can’t hold their entire summer schedule up.”

Trey Anastasio and TAB will headline the inaugural The Hangout Beach, Music and Arts Festival, May 14-16, on the beach in Gulf Shores, AL. Other performers include Flaming Lips, Ben Harper and Relentless 7, Girl Talk, Alison Krauss & Union Station, John Legend, Zac Brown Band, The Black Crowes, Ray LaMontagne, Michael Franti & Spearhead and many others. In addition to four stages and three days of music, the event will include art installations, food vendors, crafts, art, live painting, and non-profit groups.

A limited quantity of early bird tickets are on sale now at a discounted price of $115 for a three-day pass. For complete information on performers, events and tickets, visit http://www.hangoutmusicfest.com

At the end of Trey Anastasio’s mammoth first set at Terminal 5 this past Tuesday, the Classic TAB went backstage, leaving the guitarist to accompany himself with an acoustic guitar. What followed were twenty or so minutes of what makes going to live shows meaningful and worthwhile. Starting with “Brian And Robert,” Anastasio played an acoustic set of Phish tunes that included “Strange Design,” “Sample In A Jar,” “Chalk Dust Torture” and “Wilson.” Anastasio didn’t do anything revelatory with the arrangements, in fact, they were relatively basic. The mini-acoustic set in and of itself wasn’t a rarity nor were any of the songs being dusted off after a period of dormancy. What made the moment so compelling and near-magical was the unanimity of purpose in the room. The sold-out crowd wanted to hear some Phish and Anastasio was giving them what they desired. The communal feeling that spread throughout Terminal 5 was palpable.

Furthur.

It was the name emblazoned on the destination plate atop the bus Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters piloted toward the heart of the sun more than 40 years ago. With Neal Cassady— the inspiration for the character of Dean in Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” no less — behind the wheel, the Pranksters’ merry mobile was far more than a party bus.

Right around that time, Bob Weir (with a little help from his bandmates in the Grateful Dead) wrote his first great song, “The Other One,” and placed within its folds these lines: “Escaping through the lily fields, I came across an empty space/It trembled and exploded, left a bus stop in its place/The bus came by and I got on, that’s when it all began/There was cowboy Neal at the wheel/Of a bus to never-ever land.”

Wednesday, that bus parked outside of a sold-out Shea’s Performing Arts Center, the interior of which looked an awful lot like how one imagines “never-ever land” might appear.

Surviving Dead members Weir and Phil Lesh — joined in Furthur by Dark Star Orchestra guitarist John Kadlecik, Ratdog drummer Jay Lane on percussion and vocals, Ratdog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, Benevento/ Russo drummer Joe Russo, and backing vocalists Sunshine Becker and Zoe Ellis — set out through a lengthy twin-set performance to take the Dead’s notion of eclectic, exploratory improvisation “furthur” down the line.