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130-966: Phish is an American rock band noted for their live concerts and improvisational jamming . Audience recordings of Phish's live shows have been traded among fans since the band's earliest days. In addition to numerous studio albums and projects, Phish has maintained a steady output of live releases and albums, including the Live Phish series , the Live Bait series, the Live Phish Downloads series, along with numerous box sets and stand-alone archival releases. The band has also officially released every show they've performed since 2002, which are available at LivePhish Phish recorded and/or released several albums before being signed to Elektra Records in 1991; they remained with Elektra through 2004, before founding their own label, JEMP Records . Phish's albums all feature

260-511: A 1970s kung fu -inspired poster for the opening date in Las Vegas. The 21-date tour is considered one of the group's most popular and acclaimed tours, and several concerts were later officially released on live album sets such as Live Phish Volume 11 in 2002. Phish ended 1997 as one of the ten highest grossing concert acts in the United States that year. In April 1998, the band embarked on

390-632: A Usenet newsgroup, rec.music.phish, which launched in 1992. Aware of the band's growing popularity, Elektra Records signed them that year after they were recommended to the record label by A&R representative Sue Drew. In the summer of 1991, the band embarked on a 14-date tour of the eastern United States accompanied by a three-piece horn section dubbed the Giant Country Horns . In August of that year, Phish played an outdoor concert at their friend Amy Skelton's horse farm in Auburn, Maine that acted as

520-407: A Wall Street crash in 1873. However, it began to develop shortly afterward at an explosive rate. In 1911, the town of Elyton, Alabama, and several other surrounding towns were absorbed into Birmingham. The start of the 20th century brought the substantial growth that gave Birmingham the nickname "The Magic City", as the downtown area developed from a low-rise commercial and residential district into

650-668: A 5% market share of deposits in Birmingham are Regions Financial Corporation , PNC Financial Services , Servisfirst Bank, and Wells Fargo . Nearly a dozen smaller banks have been headquartered in the Magic City, such as Superior Bancorp and Cadence Bank . As of 2009, the finance & banking sector in Birmingham employed 1,870 financial managers, 1,530 loan officers, 680 securities commodities and financial services sales agents, 380 financial analysts, 310 financial examiners, 220 credit analysts, and 130 loan counselors. In 2012, Birmingham

780-404: A busy grid of neoclassical mid-rise and high-rise buildings and busy streetcar lines. Between 1902 and 1912 four large office buildings were constructed at the intersection of 20th Street, the central north–south spine of the city, and 1st Avenue North, which connected the warehouses and industrial facilities stretching along the east–west railroad corridor. This impressive group of early skyscrapers

910-400: A certain manner based on a particular musical cue from the band. For instance, if Anastasio " teased " a motif from The Simpsons theme song, the audience would yell, " D'oh! " in imitation of Homer Simpson . In 1992, Phish introduced a collaboration between audience and band called the "Big Ball Jam" in which each band member would throw a large beach ball into the audience and play

1040-625: A concert scheduled for Halloween night. In October 1994, Crimes of the Mind , the debut album by Anastasio's friend and collaborator Steve "The Dude of Life" Pollak , was released by Elektra Records; The album, which had been recorded in 1991, was billed to "The Dude of Life and Phish" and features all four members of Phish acting as Pollak's backing band. On December 30, 1994, the band made their first appearance on national network television when they performed " Chalk Dust Torture " on Late Night with David Letterman . The band would go on to appear on

1170-409: A daily mean temperature of 43.8 °F (6.6 °C). There are an average of 47 days annually with a low at or below freezing, and 1.4 days where the high does not surpass freezing. July has a daily mean temperature of 81.1 °F (27.3 °C). Highs reach or exceed 90 °F (32 °C) on 65 days per year and 100 °F (38 °C) on 2. Precipitation is relatively well-distributed throughout

1300-494: A day thinking about nothing but Phish" and began discussing a reunion with the other members of the band. Phish received the Jammys Lifetime Achievement Award on May 7, 2008, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden . All four members attended the ceremony and gave a speech, and both McConnell and Anastasio performed, although not together. In response to a June 2008 rumor that Phish had reunited to record

1430-504: A focus on mining, the iron and steel industry , and railroading . Birmingham was named after Birmingham in Warwickshire , England , one of the UK 's major industrial cities. Most of the original settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry . The city may have been planned as a place where cheap, non-unionized, and often African-American labor from rural Alabama could be employed in

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1560-510: A friend of Anastasio's, in the fall of 1984. Daubert ceased performing with the band in early 1985. Keyboardist Page McConnell met Phish in early 1985, when he arranged for them to play a spring concert at Goddard College , the small university he attended in Plainfield, Vermont . He began performing with the band as a guest shortly thereafter, and made his live debut during the third set of their May 3, 1985 concert at UVM's Redstone Campus. In

1690-461: A hot dog. The stunt was reprised at their 1999 New Year's Eve concert before the hot dog was donated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . At the end of 1994, Phish appeared on Pollstar ' s list of the highest grossing concert tours in the United States for the first time, as the 32nd highest grossing act, with $ 10.3 million in ticket sales. Following the death of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia in

1820-412: A key role in the economy. Steel products manufacturers American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO) and McWane are based in the city. Several of the nation's largest steelmakers, including CMC Steel , U.S. Steel , and Nucor , also have a major presence in Birmingham. In recent years, local steel companies have announced about $ 100 million worth of investment in expansions and new plants in and around

1950-472: A major component of the railroading industry, where rails and railroad cars were both manufactured in Birmingham. In the field of railroading, the two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South were nearby Atlanta and Birmingham, beginning in the 1860s and continuing through to the present day. The economy diversified during the later half of the twentieth century. Though the manufacturing industry maintains

2080-424: A major medical and research center. In 1971, Birmingham celebrated its centennial with a round of public-works improvements, including an upgrade of Vulcan Park and the construction of a major downtown convention center containing a 2,500-seat symphony hall, theater, 19,000-seat arena, and exhibition halls. Birmingham's banking institutions enjoyed considerable growth as well and new skyscrapers started to appear in

2210-505: A massive assault on the Jim Crow system . In April and May daily sit-ins and mass marches organized and led by movement leader James Bevel were met with police repression, tear gas , attack dogs, fire hoses, and arrests. More than 3,000 people were arrested during these protests, almost all of them high-school age children. These protests were ultimately successful, leading not only to desegregation of public accommodations in Birmingham but also

2340-407: A new album, McConnell wrote a letter on the band's website updating fans on the current relations between the band's members. McConnell wrote that while the members remained friends, they were currently busy with other projects and the reunion rumors were premature. He added, "Later this year we hope to spend some time together and take a look at what possible futures we might enjoy." That September,

2470-664: A note each time his ball was hit. In so doing, the audience was helping to create an original composition. On occasion, performances of " You Enjoy Myself " and " Mike's Song " involved Gordon and Anastasio performing synchronized maneuvers and jumping on mini- trampolines while simultaneously playing their instruments. Fishman would also regularly step out from behind his drum kit during concerts to sing cover songs, which were often punctuated by him playing an Electrolux vacuum cleaner like an instrument. The band released their second album, Lawn Boy , in September 1990 on Absolute A Go Go,

2600-522: A number of high-profile musicians performing Phish songs, including Jimmy Buffett , The Wailers , Dave Matthews , Arlo Guthrie , Hot Tuna , Tom Tom Club , and members of Pavement and Los Lobos . The members of Phish officially endorsed this album, which also featured an album release concert at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco led by Merl Saunders . In 2002, members of

2730-503: A performance that was simulcast throughout the Boston area by radio station WBCN . The concert was filled with several new "secret language" cues they had taught their audience in order to deliberately confuse radio listeners. Phish began headlining major amphitheaters in the summer of 1993. That year, the group released their fourth album, Rift , a concept album which featured a cover painted by David Welker that referenced almost all of

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2860-461: A prototype for their later all-day festival events. In 1992, the band released their third studio album, A Picture of Nectar , their first release for the major label Elektra. Subsequently, the label also reissued the band's first two albums. Later in 1992, Phish participated in the first annual H.O.R.D.E. festival, which provided them with their first national tour of major amphitheaters. The lineup, among others, included Phish, Blues Traveler ,

2990-530: A radio program on WGDR with Pollock. Phish adopted a number of Nancy's songs into their own set, including "Halley's Comet", "I Didn't Know", and "Dear Mrs. Reagan", the latter song being written by Nancy and Pollock. In his book Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America , music journalist Jesse Jarnow observed that Wright and his music were highly influential to Phish's early style and experimental sound. Wright amicably ended his association with Phish in 1989, but Pollock has continued to collaborate with Phish over

3120-610: A room and jamming for hours on end. One such jam took place at Anastasio's apartment, with a second at Paul Languedoc's house in August 1989. They called these jam sessions "Oh Kee Pa Ceremonies", a reference to the film A Man Called Horse . In July 1988, the band performed their first concerts outside of the northeastern United States, when they embarked on a seven-date tour in Colorado. These shows are excerpted on their 2006 live compilation Colorado '88 . On January 26, 1989, Phish played

3250-701: A secondary severe weather season. Birmingham is located in the heart of a Tornado Alley known as the Dixie Alley due to the high frequency of tornadoes in Central Alabama. The greater Birmingham area has been hit by two F5 tornadoes; one in Birmingham's northern suburbs in 1977 , and second in the western suburbs in 1998 . The area was hit by an EF4 tornado which was part of a larger outbreak in April 2011 . In late summer and fall months, Birmingham experiences occasional tropical storms and hurricanes due to its proximity to

3380-579: A small independent label that had a distribution deal with the larger Rough Trade Records . The album had been recorded the previous year, after the band had won studio time at engineer Dan Archer's Archer Studios when they came in first place at an April 1989 battle of the bands competition in Burlington. Phish, along with Bob Dylan , the Grateful Dead , and the Beatles , was one of the first bands to have

3510-463: A smaller ridge, flanks the city to the north and divides Jones Valley from much more rugged land to the north. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad (now CSX Transportation ) enters the valley through Boyles Gap, a prominent gap in the long low ridge. Ruffner Mountain , located due east of the heart of the city, is home to Ruffner Mountain Nature Center, one of the largest urban nature reserves in

3640-592: A string of racially motivated bombings that earned Birmingham the derisive nickname "Bombingham". A watershed in the civil rights movement occurred in 1963 when Shuttlesworth requested that Martin Luther King Jr. , and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which Shuttlesworth had co-founded, come to Birmingham, where King had once been a pastor, to help end segregation. Together they launched "Project C" (for "Confrontation"),

3770-406: A string quartet (joining the ranks of Tool , Radiohead , and U2 ). Another bluegrass tribute (this time with vocals) by a group of Nashville -based musicians was released later in the year. They consistently vary their set lists while touring extensively. To keep the music fresh and the audiences intrigued, Phish records and performs a number of cover songs from various musical genres. This

3900-489: A strong presence in Birmingham, other businesses and industries such as banking , telecommunications , transportation, electrical power transmission, medical care, college education , and insurance have risen in stature. Mining in the Birmingham area is no longer a major industry with the exception of coal mining. Birmingham ranks as one of the most important business centers in the Southeastern United States and

4030-572: A studio album. Four days after the release of Round Room , the band appeared as a musical guest on the December 14 episode of Saturday Night Live , hosted by former Vice President of the United States Al Gore . During the episode, the band debuted the song "46 Days", appeared in a comedy sketch, and their song "You Enjoy Myself" was featured in a TV Funhouse cartoon segment. During their return concert on December 31, McConnell's brother

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4160-519: A unique instrumental identity. As his senior project for Goddard College, Anastasio penned The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday , a nine-song progressive rock concept album that would become Phish's second studio experiment. Recorded between 1987 and 1988, it was submitted in July of that year, accompanied by a written thesis. The song cycle that developed from the project – known as Gamehendge – grew to include an additional eight songs. The band performed

4290-569: A year) and have released one promo single and four digital singles since. Since 2000, various artists have recorded a number of tribute albums dedicated to the rock band Phish . Like Phish's music, the albums cover a wide range of genres including reggae , bluegrass , classical music , and more. The first Phish tribute album - Sharin' in the Groove - was a double album created by a non-profit group of fans called The Mockingbird Foundation , who also published The Phish Companion . The album features

4420-477: A year, stemming from Anastasio's suspension from the university following a prank he had pulled with a friend. Anastasio returned to his hometown of Princeton, New Jersey following the prank, and reconnected with his childhood friend Tom Marshall ; The duo began a songwriting collaboration and recorded material that would appear on the Bivouac Jaun demo tape. Marshall and Anastasio have subsequently composed

4550-409: Is a city in the north central region of Alabama , United States. Birmingham is the county seat of Jefferson County , Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2023 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 196,910 down 2% from the 2020 census , making it Alabama's second-most populous city after Huntsville . The broader Birmingham metropolitan area had a 2020 population of 1,115,289, and

4680-429: Is a list of live Phish albums released on CD or LP, in recording date order. Phish The band was formed by Anastasio, Gordon, Fishman and guitarist Jeff Holdsworth , who were joined by McConnell in 1985. Holdsworth departed the band in 1986, and the lineup has remained stable since. Most of the band's songs are co-written by Anastasio and lyricist Tom Marshall . Phish began to perform outside of New England in

4810-550: Is also a Unitarian Universalist church in the Birmingham area. The main campus of the Church of the Highlands is located in Birmingham. The church operates schools and churches across Alabama. From Birmingham's early days onward, the steel industry has always played a crucial role in the local economy. Though the steel industry no longer has the same prominence it once held in Birmingham, steel production and processing continue to play

4940-569: Is also one of the largest banking centers in the US. In addition, the Birmingham area serves as headquarters to two Fortune 500 companies: Regions Financial and Vulcan Materials Company , along with multiple other Fortune 1000 companies. In higher education , Birmingham has been the location of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine (formerly the Medical College of Alabama) and

5070-564: Is home to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham , covering 39 counties and comprising 75 parishes and missions as well as seven Catholic high schools and nineteen elementary schools; there are also two Eastern Catholic parishes in the Birmingham area. The Catholic television network EWTN is headquartered in metropolitan Birmingham. There are three Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Metro Area as well, Greek, Russian and American. There

5200-481: Is now the area's largest employer and the second largest in Alabama with a workforce of about 18,750 as of 2011. Health care services providers HealthSouth , Surgical Care Affiliates and Diagnostic Health Corporation are headquartered in the city. Caremark Rx was also founded in the city. Birmingham is a leading banking center and is the location of the headquarters of Regions Financial Corporation . Banks with over

5330-570: Is the largest metropolitan area in Alabama as well as the 47th-most populous in the US. Birmingham serves as an important regional hub and is associated with the Deep South , Piedmont , and Appalachian regions of the nation. Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post– Civil War Reconstruction period , through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably, Elyton . It grew from there, annexing many more of its smaller neighbors, into an industrial and railroad transportation center with

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5460-468: Is the only place worldwide where significant amounts of all three minerals can be found in close proximity. From the start the new city was planned as a great center of industry. The founders, organized as the Elyton Land Company, borrowed the name of Birmingham, one of England's main industrial cities, to advertise that point. The growth of the planned city was impeded by an outbreak of cholera and

5590-509: The 2010 U.S. census : In the 2000 census , there were 242,820 people, 98,782 households, and 59,269 families living in Birmingham. The population density was 1,619.7 inhabitants per square mile (625.4/km ). There were 111,927 housing units at an average density of 746.6 per square mile (288.3/km ). The racial makeup of the city was 62.46% Black , 35.07% White , 0.17% Native American , 0.80% Asian , 0.04% Pacific Islander , 0.62% from other races , and 0.83% from two or more races . 1.55% of

5720-620: The Appalachian foothills – see Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians ) running from north-east to south-west. The valley is drained by small creeks (Village Creek, Valley Creek) which flow into the Black Warrior River . The valley was bisected by the principal railroad corridor, along which most of the early manufacturing operations began. Red Mountain lies immediately south of downtown. Many of Birmingham's television and radio broadcast towers are lined up along this prominent ridge. The "Over

5850-491: The Birmingham, Alabama bluegrass group Rollin' In The Hay collaborated with a number of other bluegrass musicians to release Gone Phishin : A Bluegrass Tribute to Phish , featuring all instrumental versions of Phish classics. The album was a success, and a sequel followed later in the year with a song list that included more obscure Phish songs. In 2004, Phish became one of over a hundred bands to have their songs interpreted by

5980-529: The COVID-19 pandemic . After the 2020 census, Birmingham lost its long-standing status as Alabama's largest city, with Huntsville overtaking Birmingham in total population, though Birmingham remains the state's largest metropolitan area. Birmingham hosted the 2022 World Games in July 2022. In September 2024 a mass shooting occurred in Birmingham, killing four people. Birmingham occupies Jones Valley, flanked by long parallel mountain ridges (the tailing ends of

6110-662: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 . While imprisoned for having taken part in a nonviolent protest, Dr. King wrote the now famous April 16 Letter from Birmingham Jail , a defining treatise in his cause against segregation. Birmingham is also known for the September 15 incident, in which four black girls were killed by a bomb planted at the 16th Street Baptist Church . The event would inspire the African-American poet Dudley Randall 's opus, " The Ballad of Birmingham ", as well as jazz musician John Coltrane 's song "Alabama". In 1998

6240-685: The Island Tour - a four night tour with two shows at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on Long Island and another two at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island . The four concerts are highly regarded by fans due to the band's exploration of a jazz-funk musical style they had been playing for the previous year, which Anastasio dubbed "cowfunk". The band performed

6370-750: The Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine , near the Canada–United States border . In October 1997, the band released their second live album Slip Stitch and Pass , which featured selections from their March 1997 concert at the Markthalle Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany . Following the Great Went, the band embarked on a fall tour that was dubbed by fans as the "Phish Destroys America" tour after

6500-531: The Paradise Rock Club in Boston ; the owners of the club had never heard of Phish and refused to book them, so the band rented the club for the night. The show sold out due to the caravan of fans that had traveled to see the band. The concert was Phish's breakthrough on the northeastern regional music circuit, and the band began to book concerts at other large rock clubs, theaters, and small auditoriums throughout

6630-519: The Shelby County School System to form their own school systems. Some argue that the region suffers from having so many suburbs because companies can receive large incentives to move a short distance to another city, with no net gain in the area's economy. Birmingham suburbs (in order of population, 2020 US census): Birmingham has a humid subtropical climate , characterized by hot summers, mild winters, and abundant rainfall. January has

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6760-592: The Spin Doctors , and Widespread Panic . That summer, the band toured Europe with the Violent Femmes and later toured Europe and the U.S. with Santana . Throughout the latter tour, Carlos Santana regularly invited some or all of the members of Phish to jam with his band during their headlining performances. The band ended 1992 with a New Year's Eve performance at the Matthews Arena in Boston, Massachusetts ,

6890-429: The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry since 1947. In 1969 the University of Alabama at Birmingham was established, one of three main campuses of the University of Alabama System . Birmingham is also home to two private institutions: Samford University and Miles College . Birmingham was also home to Birmingham-Southern College , before its closure in 2024. Between these colleges and universities,

7020-594: The 1930s hit Birmingham especially hard as sources of capital that were fueling the city's growth rapidly dried up at the same time that farm laborers, driven off the land, made their way to the city in search of work. New Deal programs put many city residents to work in WPA and CCC programs, making important contributions to the city's infrastructure and artistic legacy, including such key improvements as Vulcan's tower and Oak Mountain State Park . The wartime demand for steel and

7150-703: The 1990s. Phish has developed a large and dedicated following by word of mouth, the exchange of live recordings, and selling over 8 million albums and DVDs in the United States. Phish were signed to major label Elektra Records from 1991 to 2005, when the band formed their own independent label, JEMP Records , to release archival CD and DVD sets. Phish was formed at the University of Vermont (UVM) in 1983 by guitarists Trey Anastasio and Jeff Holdsworth , bassist Mike Gordon , and drummer Jon Fishman . Anastasio and Fishman had met that October, after Anastasio overheard Fishman playing drums in his dormitory room, and asked if he and Holdsworth could jam with him. Gordon met

7280-561: The Birmingham Pledge, written by local attorney James Rotch, was introduced at the Martin Luther King Unity Breakfast. As a grassroots community commitment to combating racism and prejudice, it has since then been used for programs in all fifty states and in more than twenty countries. In the 1970s, urban-renewal efforts focused around the development of the University of Alabama at Birmingham , which developed into

7410-453: The Birmingham area and was felt in the neighboring states and as far as the Carolinas. The 2003 Alabama earthquake centered in northeastern Alabama (magnitude 4.6–4.9) was also felt in Birmingham, Atlanta, Tennessee , Kentucky , and both Carolina states. In the 2020 United States census , there were 200,733 people, 93,300 households, and 46,816 families living in Birmingham. According to

7540-469: The Birmingham area has major colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, law, engineering, and nursing. Birmingham is also the headquarters of the Southeastern Conference , one of the major U.S. collegiate athletic conferences. Birmingham was founded on June 1, 1871, by the Elyton Land Company whose investors included cotton planters, bankers and railroad entrepreneurs. It sold lots near

7670-619: The Central Gulf Coast. The record high temperature is 107 °F (42 °C), set on July 29, 1930. The record low is −10 °F (−23 °C), set on February 13, 1899 . The Birmingham area is not prone to frequent earthquakes; its historical activity level is 59% less than the US average. Earthquakes are generally minor and the Birmingham area can feel an earthquake from the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone. The magnitude 5.1 Irondale earthquake in 1916 caused damage in

7800-475: The General Assembly ran county governments as extensions of the state through their legislative delegations. In the 1950s and 1960s Birmingham received national and international attention as a center of the civil rights struggle for African-Americans. Locally the movement's activists were led by Fred Shuttlesworth , a fiery preacher who became legendary for his fearlessness in the face of violence, notably

7930-600: The Ghost , Phish performed several songs from the album on the public television music show Sessions at West 54th in October 1998, and were interviewed for the program by its host David Byrne of Talking Heads . In the summer of 1998, the band held Lemonwheel, their second festival at Loring Air Force Base in Maine. The two-day event attracted 60,000 attendees. The band played another summer festival in 1999, called Camp Oswego and held at

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8060-444: The Great Went festival and the recording of The Story of the Ghost . Phish were nominated in two categories at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2001: Best Boxed Recording Package for Hampton Comes Alive and Best Instrumental Rock Performance for "First Tube" from Farmhouse . During Phish's hiatus, Elektra Records continued to issue archival releases of the band's concerts on compact disc. Between September 2001 and May 2003,

8190-574: The Mountain" area, including Shades Valley, Shades Mountain and beyond, was largely shielded from the industrial smoke and rough streets of the industrial city. This is the setting for Birmingham's more affluent suburbs of Mountain Brook , Vestavia Hills , Homewood , and Hoover . South of Shades Valley is the Cahaba River basin, one of the most diverse river ecosystems in the United States. Sand Mountain ,

8320-611: The Oswego County Airport in Volney, New York . Unlike other Phish festivals, Camp Oswego featured a prominent second stage of additional performers aside from Phish, including Del McCoury , The Slip and Ozomatli . In July 1999, the band released an album of improvisational instrumentals titled The Siket Disc . The band followed that release with Hampton Comes Alive , a six-disc box set released in November 1999, which contained

8450-457: The Phish website that the band would disband at the end of their 2004 summer tour. He wrote that he had met with the other members earlier that month to discuss the "Strong feelings I've been having that Phish has run its course, and that we should end it now while it's still on a high note." By the end of the meeting, he said, "We realized that after almost twenty-one years together, we were faced with

8580-446: The United States, and remains their best selling album to date. Phish ended 1995 with their first New Year's Eve concert at Madison Square Garden. The concert was released in its entirety on the live album Phish: New Year's Eve 1995 – Live at Madison Square Garden in 2005. In early 1996, Anastasio and Fishman formed a free jazz side-project called Surrender to the Air , inspired by

8710-835: The United States. The Southern Baptist Convention has 673 congregations and 336,000 members in the Birmingham Metro area. The United Methodists have 196 congregations and 66,759 members. The headquarters of the Presbyterian Church in America had been in Birmingham until the early 1980s; the PCA has more than 30 congregations and almost 15,000 members in the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan area with megachurches like Briarwood Presbyterian Church . The National Baptist Convention has 126 congregations and 69,800 members. The city

8840-442: The United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 151.9 square miles (393 km ), of which, 149.9 square miles (388 km ) is land and 2.0 square miles (5.2 km ) (1.34%) is water. Most of the metropolitan area lies outside of the city itself. In 2007, the metropolitan area was made up of 7 counties, 102 cities, and 21 school districts. Since then Alabaster and Pelham have broken away from

8970-663: The album was issued in October of that year. The album's first single, "Free", peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart and No. 11 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and was their most successful song on both charts. By 1997, Phish's concert improvisational ventures were developing into a new funk -inspired long form jamming style. Vermont-based ice cream conglomerate Ben & Jerry's launched "Phish Food" that year. The band officially licensed their name for use with

9100-571: The area, such as the Somerville Theatre , Worcester Memorial Auditorium and Wetlands Preserve . That spring, the band self-released their debut full-length studio album, Junta , and sold copies on cassette tape at their concerts. The album includes a studio recording of the epic " You Enjoy Myself ", which is considered to be the band's signature song . Later in 1989, the band hired Chris Kuroda as their lighting director. Kuroda subsequently became well known for his artistic light shows at

9230-467: The band has reunited. Phish's music blends elements of a wide variety of genres including funk , reggae , progressive rock , psychedelic rock , folk , country , jazz , blues , bluegrass , electronic music , and pop . The band is part of a movement of improvisational rock groups, inspired by the format of the Grateful Dead 's live performances and colloquially known as " jam bands ", that gained considerable popularity as touring concert acts in

9360-466: The band held their first festival, The Clifford Ball , at the decommissioned Plattsburgh Air Force Base on the New York side of Lake Champlain . The festival attracted 70,000 attendees, making it both Phish's biggest concert crowd to that point and the largest single concert by attendance in the United States in 1996. Phish recorded their sixth album Billy Breathes in the winter and spring of 1996, and

9490-419: The band made no reference to the hiatus, and left the stage without saying a word following their encore performance of "You Enjoy Myself", as The Beatles ' " Let It Be " played over the venue's sound system. Bittersweet Motel , a documentary film about the band directed by Todd Phillips , was released in August 2000, shortly before the hiatus began. The documentary captures the band's 1997 and 1998 tours,

9620-477: The band planned to end their hiatus that December with a New Year's Eve concert at Madison Square Garden. They also recorded Round Room over the course of four days in October and released it on December 10. The band had initially planned to record the new album live at the Madison Square Garden concert, but instead felt that demos they had recorded of the material were strong enough to merit release as

9750-729: The band played three songs at the wedding of their former tour manager Brad Sands. Later in 2008, the band reconvened at The Barn , Anastasio's farmhouse studio in Burlington, Vermont , for jamming sessions and rehearsals. On October 1, 2008, the band announced on their website that they had officially reunited, and would play their first shows in five years in March 2009 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia . The three reunion concerts were held on March 6, 7, and 8, 2009, with "Fluffhead" being

9880-456: The band released an experimental short-subject documentary called Tracking , also directed by Gordon, which depicted the recording sessions for the album. Foreshadowing their future tradition of festivals , Phish coupled camping with their 1994 summer tour finale at Sugarbush North in Warren, Vermont , that show eventually being released as Live Phish Volume 2 . On Halloween of that year,

10010-419: The city center for the first time since the 1920s. These projects helped diversify the city's economy but did not prevent the exodus of many of the city's residents to nearby independent suburbs. In 1979, Birmingham elected Dr. Richard Arrington Jr. as its first African-American mayor. The population inside Birmingham's city limits has fallen over the past few decades, due in large part to " white flight " from

10140-529: The city of Birmingham proper to surrounding suburbs. The city's formerly most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic white, has declined from 57.4 percent in 1970 to 21.1 percent in 2010. From its highest population of 340,887 in 1960, the population was down to 200,733 in 2020, a loss of about 41 percent. That same period saw a corresponding rise in the populations of the suburban communities of Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Alabaster, and Gardendale, none of which were incorporated as municipalities until after 1950. In 2006,

10270-624: The city's steel mills and blast furnaces, giving it a competitive advantage over industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast . From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was a primary industrial center of the South . The pace of Birmingham's growth during the period from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames The Magic City and The Pittsburgh of the South . Much like Pittsburgh , Birmingham's major industries were iron and steel production, plus

10400-620: The city's visitors bureau selected "the diverse city" as a new tag line for the city. In 2011, the Highland Park neighborhood of Birmingham was named as a 2011 America's Great Place by the American Planning Association. In 2015, the International World Game Executive Committee selected Birmingham over Lima, Peru and Ufa, Russia , for the 2021 World Games, but the event was delayed a year due to

10530-439: The city. Vulcan Materials Company , a major provider of crushed stone, sand, and gravel used in construction, is based in Birmingham. In the 1970s and 1980s, Birmingham's economy was transformed by investments in bio-technology and medical research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and its adjacent hospital. The UAB Hospital is a Level I trauma center providing health care and breakthrough medical research. UAB

10660-512: The decennial census, the state legislature did not undertake this until the early 1970s, when forced by a federal court case to enforce " one man, one vote ". In addition, the geographic basis of the senate, which gave each county one seat, gave undue influence to rural counties. Representatives of rural counties also had disproportionate power in the state house, and failed to provide support for infrastructure and other improvements in developing urban population centers such as Birmingham. At this time,

10790-771: The entirety of their performances on November 20 and 21, 1998 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia . The set marked the first time that complete recordings of Phish concerts were officially released by Elektra Records. To celebrate the new millennium, Phish hosted a two-day outdoor festival at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in Florida in December 1999. The festival's climactic New Year's Eve concert, referred to by fans as simply "The Show", started at 11:35 p.m. on December 31, 1999, and continued through to sunrise on January 1, 2000, approximately eight hours later. The band's performance of

10920-466: The festival were released on a DVD set, also called It , in October 2004. In November and December 2003, the band celebrated its 20th anniversary with a four-show mini-tour of shows in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. The December 1 show at Pepsi Arena featured a guest appearance by former member Jeff Holdsworth, who sat in with the band on five songs, including his compositions "Possum" and "Camel Walk". On May 25, 2004, Anastasio announced on

11050-408: The first song the band played onstage at the first show. Approximately 14,000 people attended the concerts over the course of three days, and the band made the shows available for free download on their LivePhish website for a limited time, in order to accommodate fans who were unable to attend. Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( / ˈ b ɜːr m ɪ ŋ h æ m / BUR -ming-ham )

11180-569: The group in March 1986 following a religious conversion. Anastasio and Fishman relocated in mid-1986 to Goddard College after a recommendation from McConnell. Phish distributed at least six experimental self-titled cassettes during this era, including The White Tape . While based at Goddard College, Phish began to collaborate with fellow students Richard "Nancy" Wright and Jim Pollock. Pollock and Wright were musical collaborators who made experimental recordings on multi-track cassettes, and had been introduced to Phish through McConnell, who co-hosted

11310-491: The group promised to don a fan-selected " musical costume " by playing an entire album from another band. After an extensive mail-based poll, Phish performed the Beatles ' White Album as the second of their three sets at the Glens Falls Civic Center in upstate New York. The "musical costume" concept subsequently became a recurring part of Phish's fall tours, with the band playing a different album whenever they had

11440-467: The group's concerts. A profile on Phish appeared in the October 1989 issue of the Deadhead magazine Relix , which marked the first time the band had been covered in a major national music periodical. By late 1990, Phish's concerts were becoming more and more intricate, often making a consistent effort to involve the audience in the performance. In a special "secret language", the audience would react in

11570-400: The hiatus. In April 2002, Phish guest starred on the episode " Weekend at Burnsie's " of the animated series The Simpsons . The episode marked the band's first appearance together, albeit as animated characters, since the hiatus began. Phish provided their own voices for the episode and performed a snippet of "Run Like an Antelope". In August 2002, Phish's manager John Paluska announced

11700-436: The horn section of R&B group Tower of Power . To promote the album, Gordon directed the band's only official music video, for its first single " Down with Disease ". "Down with Disease" became a minor hit on rock radio in the United States, and was the band's first song to appear on a Billboard music chart when it peaked at #33 on the magazine's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart that summer. To further promote Hoist ,

11830-551: The label released 20 entries in the Live Phish Series . These multi-disc sets featured complete soundboard recordings of concerts that were particularly popular with the band and their fanbase, similar to the Grateful Dead 's Dick's Picks archival series. In November 2002, the label released the band's first concert DVD, Phish: Live in Vegas , which featured the entirety of the September 2000 concert at which Anastasio announced

11960-474: The largest soft-drink bottlers in the United States, each with more than $ 500 million in sales per year, are located in Birmingham. The Buffalo Rock Company , founded in 1901, was formerly a maker of just ginger ale , but now it is a major bottler for the Pepsi Cola Company . Coca-Cola Bottling Company United , founded in 1902, is the third-largest bottler of Coca-Cola products in the U.S. AT&T has

12090-439: The late 1980s and experienced a rise in popularity in the mid 1990s. In October 2000, the band began a two-year hiatus that ended in December 2002, but they disbanded again in August 2004. Phish reunited officially in October 2008 for subsequent reunion shows in March 2009 and since then have resumed performing regularly. All four members pursued solo careers or performed with side-projects and these projects have continued even after

12220-474: The majority of Phish's original songs throughout their career. Anastasio returned to Burlington in late 1984, and resumed performing with Gordon, Holdsworth and Fishman. The quartet named themselves Phish in October 1984, shortly before they performed their first concert together following Anastasio's return to UVM. Anastasio designed the band's logo, which featured the group's name inside a stylized fish. The band's members have given several different origins for

12350-479: The mid-2000s. A ^  : The Live Phish Downloads Series is regularly updated with shows both old and new, available as downloads in various formats, with select shows* made available on CD From 1992 to 2004 Phish was signed with Elektra Records and released seventeen CD promo singles for radio DJs and one commercial cassette single , " Down with Disease ". In 2005 Phish started their own record label , JEMP Records (in association with Rhino for

12480-493: The music of Sun Ra , which also featured Marshall Allen , Michael Ray , John Medeski , Oteil Burbridge , Kofi Burbridge , and Marc Ribot , among other musicians. The group's only album, Surrender to the Air , was released in March. Following an appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in April 1996, Phish spent the summer of that year opening for Santana on their European tour. In August 1996,

12610-431: The name Phish. In Parke Puterbaugh's 2009 book Phish: The Biography , the origin is given as a variation on phshhhh , an onomatopoeia of the sound of a brush on a snare drum. In the 2004 official documentary Specimens of Beauty , Anastasio said the band was also named after Fishman, whose nickname is "Fish." In a 1996 interview, Fishman denied that the band was named after him, and said the onomatopoeic inspiration behind

12740-460: The name was the sound of an airplane taking off. In late 1984, Phish began to play regularly at Nectar's bar and restaurant in downtown Burlington, and performed dozens of concerts across multiple residencies through March 1989. The band's 1992 album A Picture of Nectar was named in honor of the bar's owner, Nector Rorris, and its cover features his face superimposed onto an orange. The band would collaborate with percussionist Marc Daubert ,

12870-666: The official book Phish: The Biography , Anastasio expressed that "Coventry itself was a nightmare. It was emotional, but it was not like we were at our finest. I certainly wasn't". The festival weekend was beset by logistical issues, including heavy rain, muddy conditions in the festival area and a traffic jam on Interstate 91 . Following the break-up, the band's members remained in amicable communication with one another. The members also occasionally appeared on each other's solo albums and collaborated on side-projects. In 2005, Phish formed their own record label, JEMP Records , to release archival CD and DVD sets. The label's first release

13000-568: The opportunity to graciously step away in unison, as a group, united in our friendship and our feelings of gratitude." The band's eleventh – and at the time final – studio album Undermind was released in June 2004. The band's summer 2004 began with two concerts at Keyspan Park in Brooklyn, New York . The first concert was recorded for the live album and concert documentary Phish: Live in Brooklyn , while

13130-556: The planned crossing of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North Alabama railroads, including land formerly a part of the Benjamin P. Worthington plantation. The first business at that crossroads was the trading post and country store operated by Marre & Allen. The site of the railroad crossing was notable for the nearby deposits of iron ore, coal, and limestone  – the three main raw materials used in making steel. Birmingham

13260-433: The population was under the age of 18, 11.1% was from 18 to 24, 30.0% from 25 to 44, 20.4% from 45 to 64, and 13.5% was 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 85.7 males. The median income for a household in the city was $ 31,898, and the median income for a family was $ 38,776. Males had a median income of $ 36,031 versus $ 30,367 for females. The city's per capita income

13390-437: The population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 98,782 households, out of which 27.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.1% were married couples living together, 24.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.0% were non-families. 34.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. In Birmingham, 25.0% of

13520-446: The post-war building boom gave Birmingham a rapid return to prosperity. Manufacturing diversified beyond the production of raw materials. Major civic institutions such as schools, parks and museums, were able to expand their scope. Despite the growing population and wealth of the city, its residents were markedly underrepresented in the state legislature. Although the state constitution required redistricting in accordance with changes in

13650-442: The precipitation that falls in the summer are from thunderstorms, most of which occur in the afternoon and evening hours. The spring and fall months are pleasant but variable as cold fronts frequently bring strong to severe thunderstorms and occasional tornadoes to the region. The fall season (primarily October) features less rainfall and fewer storms, as well as lower humidity than the spring, but November and early December represent

13780-510: The product, the only time they have ever allowed a third-party company to do so, and were directly involved with the creation of the flavor. Proceeds from the flavor are donated to the band's non-profit charity The WaterWheel Foundation , which raises funds for the preservation of Vermont's Lake Champlain . On August 8, 1997, Phish webcast one of their concerts live over the internet for the first time. On August 16 and 17, 1997, Phish held their second festival, The Great Went, over two days at

13910-577: The program seven more times before David Letterman 's retirement as host in 2015. For their 1994 New Years Run, Phish played the Civic Centers in Philadelphia and Providence as well as sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden and Boston Garden , which marked their debut performances at both venues. For the December 31 show at the Boston Garden, the band rode around the arena in a float shaped like

14040-424: The quartet of Trey Anastasio (guitar), Mike Gordon (bass guitar), Jon Fishman (drums), and Page McConnell (keyboards), often joined by a number of guest musicians. Beginning in late 2001, the "Live Phish" series are multi-CD sets chronicling complete shows picked by the band spanning their entire career. The original twenty-volume "Live Phish" series was released by Elektra Records and launched while Phish

14170-570: The second featured a guest appearance by rapper Jay-Z , who performed two songs with the band. Later that summer, the band appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and performed a seven-song set from atop the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater for fans who had gathered on the street. The 2004 tour finished with the band's seventh summer festival on August 14 and 15, which were billed as their final performances. The Coventry festival

14300-550: The series was then released in sporadic batches through May 2003. Among the initial twenty volumes, there are four two-disc sets, twelve three-disc sets and four quadruple-disc sets totaling over forty-seven and a half hours of live recordings ranging from 1989 to 2000. The original plastic fold-out CD pages eventually began leaking a sticky liquid goo that often ruined the CDs within the covers. Elektra Records thus began re-issuing several Live Phish Volumes 1 through 20 in clamshell CD cases in

14430-627: The song "Heavy Things" at the festival was broadcast live as part of ABC 's 2000 Today millennium coverage, giving the band their biggest television audience up to that point. 75,000 people attended the sold-out two-day festival. In 2017, Rolling Stone named the Big Cypress festival one of the "50 Greatest Concerts of the Last 50 Years". Following the Big Cypress festival, the band issued their ninth studio album Farmhouse in May 2000. "Heavy Things", which

14560-527: The songs on the record. The album was the band's first to appear on the Billboard 200 album chart, debuting at #51 in February 1993. In March 1994, the band released their fifth studio album Hoist . The album featured an array of guest performers, including country singer Alison Krauss , banjoist Béla Fleck , former Sly & The Family Stone member Rose Stone , actor and trombonist Jonathan Frakes , and

14690-447: The suite in concert on six occasions: in 1988, 1991, 1993, twice in 1994, and in 2023, without replicating the song list. The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday has never received an official release, but a bootleg tape has circulated for decades, and songs such as "Wilson" and "The Lizards" remain concert staples for the band. Beginning in the spring of 1988, members of the band began practicing in earnest, sometimes locking themselves in

14820-489: The summer of 1985, Phish went on a short hiatus while Anastasio and Fishman vacationed in Europe; during this time, McConnell offered to join the band permanently, and moved to Burlington to learn their repertoire from Gordon. McConnell officially joined Phish as a full-time band member in September 1985. Phish performed with a five-piece lineup for about six months after McConnell joined, a period which ended when Holdsworth quit

14950-428: The summer of 1995 and the appearance of "Down with Disease" on Beavis and Butt-Head , the band experienced a surge in the growth of their fan base and an increased awareness in popular culture. In their tradition of playing a well-known album by another band for Halloween, Phish contracted a full horn section for their performance of The Who 's Quadrophenia in 1995. Phish's first live album, A Live One ,

15080-509: The tour in the middle of studio sessions for their seventh album, and were inspired by the quality of their performances to further incorporate the cowfunk style into subsequent sessions. The resulting album, The Story of the Ghost , was released in October 1998. The album's first single " Birds of a Feather ", which had been premiered on the Island Tour, became a #14 hit on Billboard's Adult Alternative Songs chart. To promote The Story of

15210-431: The trio shortly thereafter, having answered a want-ad for a bass guitarist that Anastasio had posted around the university. The new group performed their first concert at Harris Millis Cafeteria at the University of Vermont on December 2, 1983, where they played a set of classic rock covers, including two songs by the Grateful Dead . The band performed one more concert in 1983, and then did not perform again for nearly

15340-488: The year, sometimes falling in the form of snow during winter. 10.3 inches (26.2 cm) fell on March 13, 1993, during the 1993 Storm of the Century , which established the highest daily snowfall, one-storm, and winter season total on record. Normal snowfall for 1981–2010 was 1.6 in (4.1 cm). For the same period, the median monthly snowfall for each month was zero. The summer months are hot, with high humidity. Most of

15470-399: The years, designing some of their album covers and concert posters. By 1985, the group had encountered Burlington luthier Paul Languedoc , who would eventually design custom instruments for Anastasio and Gordon. In October 1986, he began working as their sound engineer. Since then, Languedoc has built exclusively for the two, and his designs and traditional wood choices have given Phish

15600-499: Was Phish: New Year's Eve 1995 – Live at Madison Square Garden , which was released in conjunction with Rhino Records in December 2005. The album was named the 42nd greatest live album of all time by Rolling Stone in April 2015. The label subsequently released several other archival live box sets, including Colorado '88 (2006), Vegas 96 (2007), At the Roxy (2008) and The Clifford Ball (2009). In December 2006, Anastasio

15730-445: Was $ 19,962. About 22.5% of families and 27.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 41.9% of those under the age of 18 and 18.3% of those age 65 or over. The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies published data showing that in 2010, among metro areas with a greater than one million population, Birmingham had the second highest ratio of Christians, and the greatest ratio of Protestant adherents, in

15860-645: Was aired in October. In the summer of 2000, the band announced that they would take their first "extended time-out" following their upcoming fall tour. Anastasio officially announced the impending hiatus to the band's fans during their September 30 concert at the Thomas & Mack Center in Paradise, Nevada . During the tour's last concert on October 7, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California ,

15990-457: Was arrested in Whitehall, New York for drug possession and driving while intoxicated, and was sentenced to 14 months in a drug court program. In 2007, while Anastasio was undergoing rehabilitation, the other members of Phish surprised him on his birthday with an instrumental recording they had made for him to play along with on guitar. During his rehabilitation, Anastasio said he "spent 24 hours

16120-424: Was introduced as actor Tom Hanks . The impostor sang a line of the song "Wilson", prompting some media outlets to report that the actor had appeared at the concert. At the end of the 2003 summer tour, Phish returned to Limestone, Maine for It , their first festival since Big Cypress. The event drew crowds of over 60,000 fans, and was the band's final festival to be held at Loring Air Force Base. Highlights from

16250-502: Was named for the town in Vermont that hosted the event, which was held at the nearby Newport State Airport . The concerts were simulcast in movie theaters and on XM Satellite Radio . "The Curtain With" was the final song the band performed at their then-final concert on August 15. After Coventry, the members of the band admitted they were disappointed with their performance at the festival; In

16380-479: Was nicknamed "The Heaviest Corner on Earth ". In 1916, Birmingham was hit by the Irondale earthquake , with a 5.1 magnitude. A few buildings in the area were slightly damaged. The earthquake was felt as far as Atlanta and neighboring states. While excluded from the best-paying industrial jobs, Black Americans joined the migration of residents from rural areas to the city for its opportunities. The Great Depression of

16510-458: Was on hiatus from recording and touring (October 2000 to December 2002). Numbered 01 through 20, each multi-disc set was made available individually and featured innovative packaging: a cardboard slipcase containing the compact discs housed in a foldable plastic page that could be stored in a ShowCase binder that was sold separately or with select copies of Volume 06. The first six volumes were simultaneously released on September 18, 2001. The rest of

16640-613: Was released as the album's first single, became the band's only song to appear on a mainstream pop radio format, reaching #29 on Billboard' s Adult Top 40 chart that July. The song also became the band's biggest hit to date on the Adult Alternative Songs chart, reaching #2 there. In June 2000, the band embarked on a seven-date headlining tour of Japan. In July, they taped an appearance on the PBS music show Austin City Limits , which

16770-496: Was released during the summer of 1995 and featured selections from various concerts from their 1994 winter tour. The album charted at number 18 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and was reported to have sold around 50,000 copies in its first week on sale. A Live One became Phish's first RIAA -certified gold album in November 1995. In 1997, A Live One became the band's first Platinum album, certified for sales of 1 million copies in

16900-589: Was the 9th largest banking hub in the United States by the amount of locally headquartered deposits. In 2014, Birmingham was the 10th largest banking center. Birmingham is a powerhouse of construction and engineering companies, including BE&K , Brasfield & Gorrie , Robins & Morton , and B.L. Harbert International which routinely are included in the Engineering News-Record lists of top design and international construction firms. Two of

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