Phish Reunites, But Will Their Tour Be Green?
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 10. 1.08
Image credit: toddwickersty @ flickr
After splitting up in 2004, Phish is reuniting for a trio of concerts next spring. The prolific jam band will play March 6-8 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia, with additional 2009 touring announcements to follow. Guitarist/vocalist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, keyboardist Page McConnell and drummer Jon Fishman haven't played together since 2004.
Aside from being one of TreeHugger readers' favorite bands, Phish is notable on the green scene for their tasty partnership with Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream -- Phish Food. One of the "Top 10 Flavors," Phish joined Jerry Garcia and Dave Matthews as musicians who have inspired ice cream flavors; according to a Phish statement on the Ben & Jerry's website, "Our share of proceeds from this pint sale goes toward environmental efforts in Vermont’s Lake Champlain Watershed."
When it comes to the actual forthcoming tour, though, we'll have to wait and see if they can build up some more green cred. Phish would do well to emulate some of these green touring ideas from other successful bands.
With green tours, outspoken climate change activism, and even telecommuting across the pond for TV appearances, Radiohead is leading the way for many green bands. They've even thrown their weight around a bit, pushing festivals where they play to go green. Many bands, including Phish, can probably learn a lot from these guys.
They can probably learn some lessons from Live Earth, the "largest global entertainment event in history". While there was much speculation about how green the event would be, most reviews were mixed (and Bob Geldof was not a fan at all). The takeaway: it's tough to scale up green efforts at a multi-location festival, and it's easy to look like you're greenwashing if you can't pull it off.
The green touring beat goes on, with Pearl Jam, Barenaked Ladies, Gomez, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and more, all adding some green flavor to their tours. Will Phish add themselves to the list? With 5,842,798 tickets sold to 475 previous shows, there'll certainly be some folks there to witness it. Advance tickets can be requested through their site until October 8, and tickets go on sale to the public on Saturday, October 18th. ::Phish via ::Billboard
More green tours and musicians
Best Foot Forward for Radiohead to Reduce Their Ecological Footprint When on Tour
Radiohead Telecommute To Play Conan, Saving CO2
Radiohead's Thom Yorke Asks For Bigger, Binding CO2 Cuts
Barenaked Ladies' Green Tour
Pearl Jam Announces Carbon Portfolio Strategy
Clif Bar Launches Green Notes Program
These Rock and Rollers Are Carbon Neutral
Sonic Fabric Recycles Phish
More reading on Live Earth
Al Gore Announces Live Earth Concert
Bob Geldof Slams Live Earth
Madonna Writes New Song for Live Earth Concert
How Green Will Live Earth Be?
Survey: Will Live Earth Hurt the Planet More than Help?
Live Earth Live : London
Solar Powered Refrigerator Could Bring Health and Energy Savings to Rural India
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Phish has had a Greenpeace table at all their concerts since 1994, and their fans have organized a volunteer "Green Crew" to clean up and recycle after every one of the events.
On July 15, 1994, they had a completely solar-powered show at Jones Beach, New York. I'm not certain if they ever did that again. The band could lead by example and perhaps make an effort to power more of their shows with alternative energy sources and extend the green idea to their touring vehicles. Overall though, I think they're one of the more environmentally conscious bands out there today.
I hope so, but I'm going to see them regardless.
The Radiohead "green" initiative is a good start but they need to move past the low hanging fruit and start addressing the big questions like how can we reduce our tour footprint throughout its life cycle? I wonder if a comprehensive LCA, taking into account tangential influences like audience transportation and production equipment, has been performed. If not, maybe that will be my next project. Any event that allows 50,000 people to sit idle in their cars for hours (or days) has failed to address a huge area for improvement.
How can we reduce the impact of the automotive exodus that is Phish Tour? There will be hundreds of thousands of road tripping fans departing from across the continent, hell bent on making it to the show at any cost. Remember the traffic jams at Coventry, IT, and every major show since 1996? Its not that Phish Heads don't care about their impact, they are simply victims of a lack of options and organizational foresight.
I don't know what the solution is, but it will likely be made up of many different components. Perhaps a centralized ride-sharing database could improve the long-distance portion of the trip, while decentralized shuttle buses similar to the nascent systems in our national parks could be used for entrance to the venue. The organizers should also provide a tool to calculate and offset the carbon footprint for your trip, although the effectiveness of such programs is debatable.
Obviously the best bet is to get the tapes after the show or go to a local simulcast, but that's no phun...
Anyone else want to bike to VA?
their band shwag was made of hemp before it was hip.