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By the time they got to Loring, they were 60,000 strong.
At least that’s what the producers of “It” hope. A showcase for the Vermont-based quartet Phish, the festival is set for Aug. 2-3 at the Loring Commerce Centre in Limestone. (The parking and camping areas will open at 8 p.m. Aug. 1 and close at 2 p.m. Aug. 4.)
This marks the third time that Phish, which has triumphantly returned after a two-year hiatus, will play at the former Loring Air Force Base. The Great Went concert was held there in 1997, Lemonwheel the next year. A total of 70,000 came to the first event, 62,000 to the second.
So why is the band heading once again to a site more than an hour past the end of I-95? One reason, according to co-producer Dave Werlin, is the job that the area’s residents have done playing host to past events.
“It’s the reception we’ve gotten from folks in Aroostook,” said Werlin, president of Great Northeast Productions in Townsend, Mass. “The sincerity, the graciousness, the warmth, the acceptance has been overwhelming. Both the band and the staff have really responded to the hospitality of people from The County.”
The promoter is also a believer in that first rule of real estate: location, location, location.
“It’s relatively remote,” said Werlin kindly. “It really filters out folks who are not real fans, who may be coming for other reasons. Phish fans are a community, which comes not just for the band, but to come together with each other. They can gather without the distractions of everyday life. Also they’re outdoors people, who really enjoy the environment northern Maine has to offer. It’s a relatively undiscovered area, which makes it very appealing.”
Such a location has its downside when it comes to mounting a multiarts spectacular.
“It’s a significant factor economically,” Werlin said. “So much is trucked in from so far away. Also there’s timing involved, getting people and goods there when they’re needed.”
Tickets for It, which cost $137 for both days, will feature three sets daily by guitarist-vocalist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, keyboardist Page McConnell and drummer Jon Fishman (for whom the group is named). If past events at Loring are any indication, it will have a carnival-like atmosphere, with an assortment of vendors, visual-design pieces, fine artists and other performers taking part as well. Werlin declined to give much detail, as surprise is a big part of the festival experience.
The festival is a collaboration between the Vermont-based Phish organization and Great Northeast Productions. Werlin said that the event is artistically driven by the band, but added that the company’s visual-design staff is very involved as well.
Organizers have made changes based on what they’ve learned from the two past festivals at Loring. First off, they’ve capped the number of tickets sold at 60,000, to create more room at the site (Werlin expects It to be sold out ahead of time).
The concert stage has been moved to a central location from its previous spot on the north end of the runway. This has several practical effects.
“We’ll put every car on the grass with a camping spot,” Werlin said. “That way, people can leave their valuables locked up in the cars, and they don’t have to carry things a great distance. Also it makes it so no one has to walk more than a mile, compared to two-plus miles before. We’re giving people a more pleasant experience.”
There also will be a significant increase in services, including doubling the number of portable toilets, doubling the number of service vehicles pumping out those toilets, and more hand-washing stations, lighting, trash containers and potable-water tanks.
“This is not a nonprofit venture,” Werlin said. “Yet this band goes to extraordinary lengths to accommodate their fans. In 30 years in this business, I’ve never seen a band so sensitive to its fans.”
The festival will have a two- to three-month economic impact on the area, with construction work beginning in earnest this week and cleanup continuing a week to 10 days after the concert. Over the course of the next month, a city, in essence, will be built. A thousand people are expected to work at the show.
“It’s pretty exciting to watch,” said Brian Hamel, president of the commerce center and Loring Development Authority. “It could be the largest city in Maine for the weekend.”
The LCC has grown since Phish was last there, and now has 20 tenants. Hamel said his tenants’ needs must come first.
“We want to make sure our tenants aren’t inconvenienced and are making sure all our tenants’ issues are addressed, such as security and transportation,” he said. “If they weren’t, we wouldn’t be doing this show.”
Hamel said that most of his tenants are weekday operations, with only a couple which have activities over the weekend.
“We’ve worked out a schedule so that the concert and aviation can co-exist,” Hamel said.
There will be no aviation activities at the center from July 25 to Aug. 10. Among the aviation tenants there are the Telford/Volvo Group, which brings planes to Loring for dismantling and overhaul. That company will bring in extra planes to work on before that period.
A percentage of each ticket sold goes to LDA, which Hamel said would help fund infrastructure improvements in the aviation sector. In 1998, the LDA received $95,000.
“We look at the bigger picture of what does it mean to have such an influx to the area,” he said. “This is a big economic boost for local businesses.”
Werlin praised Hamel and the LDA.
“The cooperation from the LDA is fantastic,” he said. “There’s more practical logistical considerations there today than there was, but we’ll work with it.”
Loring was one of Phish’s last stops before the group went on hiatus after its Oct. 7, 2000, show in Mountain View, Calif.
The band had picked up the banner of improvisation-based rock after Jerry Garcia died and the Grateful Dead stopped performing in 1995.
From 1995 to 2000, Phish toured nonstop, grossing $11.6 million over a single weekend at its millennium concert at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. In 1999 and 2000, the band’s shows took in more than $55 million.
In the end, Phish became more about business and less about fun.
“We were doing things that required a lot of energy and weren’t about music,” Anastasio told Rolling Stone in a March interview.
To that end, the group’s members separated and undertook the musical side projects that they never seemed to have enough time for before.
Anastasio headed up his own band, touring and cutting a self-titled 2002 album, and teamed with Primus bassist Les Claypool and ex-Police drummer Stewart Copeland in Oysterhead.
Gordon produced the documentary “Rising Low,” about the band Gov’t Mule and its late bassist, Allen Woody, and cut an album, “Clone,” with Leo Kottke. McConnell created power trio Vida Blue with bassist Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers Band, Aquarium Rescue Unit) and drummer Russell Batiste (the Meters). Fishman played with the Jazz Mandolin Project and recorded with his side band, Pork Tornado.
In addition to these solo projects, all Phishheads had to comfort them was 20 volumes in the “Live Phish” recorded concert series, released throughout the two years of the hiatus.
Phish’s reunion began last August, with a getaway for the four to a hotel in Lake Placid, N.Y. By mid-October, the band had mixed and recorded “Round Room,” which was released last December. Their sold-out reunion concert was held New Year’s Eve at Madison Square Garden, and they followed that up with a short winter tour. They’ve just started their 21-date summer tour. (The group now sells audio downloads of each concert at livephish.com.)
This year may be the blueprint for Phish’s future, with fewer shows and more time for other diversions.
“I think in the future you’ll see Phish stay together but still weave in their other projects around Phish’s schedule,” co-promoter John Paluska, the group’s longtime manager, told the Boston Globe. “I don’t think there will be another big hiatus.”
Although Phish has released 11 studio albums over its almost 20 years of existence, the only way to appreciate the band is to see it live. Those recorded versions of songs serve only as foundations for the musical invention to come, as individual songs can go on for 10, 15, 20 or even 30 minutes in concert.
This makes Phish a love-’em or hate-’em kind of group. As David Segal wrote in The Washington Post about the Jan. 7 show in Hampton, Va.: “During the more than 21/2 hours of music and 18 songs, its members did prove that you’re either with them or not, totally on board or thoroughly baffled. This is the sort of band that nobody sort of likes. Either you find Anastasio’s 12-minute solos mesmerizing … or you’re wondering when he’ll wrap it up, for the love of God.”
The It concert marks the first time since Lemonwheel that Phish has come to Maine, and local fans are ready.
Dean Beers and Valerie Shaw, both of Bangor, are getting married July 27 and are trying to arrange a honeymoon at the festival.
Shaw went to both The Great Went and Lemonwheel, and Beers went to the second event. It’s the only exposure both have had to Phish. So why honeymoon there instead of, say, the Poconos?
“We both really love the music, and really like camping, and you meet new people,” Shaw said. “We think that will be a lot more fun than going to some resort. There’s stuff to buy, stuff to see, and always interesting people. I remember one woman last time holding up a cardboard sign that said, ‘free hugs.’ So we hugged her. They’re really nice people.”
Beers added, “It was a fun groove, really laid back. I was a bit into smoking things that I no longer do. We were hanging out with nothing to do except explore all these different shops.”
Based on their experiences, what would they like to see improved?
“Better bathrooms, better ATM service, a more central location, so you wouldn’t have to walk 2 miles to the stage,” Beers said.
Gus Nevells of Hampden is a faithful Phish fan who has been to 32 previous shows. In addition to attending “It,” he’ll be hitting the road for the prior two weeks to follow the band for three nights of performances in Indiana and one concert each in Pennsylvania and Georgia.
“I go for the music,” Nevells said. “They never play the same set. They don’t use a set list. They get a feel what the crowd wants and play it. It’s just a fun time.”
Nevells, who attended the previous two festivals at Loring, is hoping for a collection of real Phishheads.
“Last time, I didn’t like that there weren’t as many true Phish fans,” he said. “There were a lot of people there just for the party atmosphere.”
Co-promoter Werlin said he needs three things for It to be a success: “Good attitudes, good weather and good luck, not necessarily in that order.”
Tickets for It are available on the Internet at Phish’s ticketing site, http://phishtickets.ric.net, and via Ticketmaster Online at http://ticketmaster.com. Tickets may also be charged by phone at Ticketmaster at 775-3331. There is a limit of six tickets per person.
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