BANGOR – Anticipation was high when Phish performed two distinctly different shows back to back at Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion in Bangor on July 25 and 26.

Maine fans react to Phish's cancellation of N.Y. festival

Still wondering what the fuss is about regarding Phish? The band’s newly issued six-CD box set “St. Louis ’93” explains it as well as anything. The collection comprises two complete concerts, performed four months apart, at the 1,700-seat capacity American Theater in St. Louis. 

A conversation with Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s

At this moment, in a modest radio studio on the coast of Maine, computer servers are connecting listeners around the world to music by the band Phish and related artists.

The labels are bringing out the big guns this fall and expectations are high that some of their biggest selling artists will wrap the year on a high note. Here's our second installment of new fall releases from veteran music-makers.

As Phish prepares for the first show of their summer 2013 tour, at Darlings Waterfront Pavilion in Bangor on July 3, a look back at some of the legendary band's Maine visits is in order.   

Although details surrounding many of Phish's early shows remain sketchy, most authoritative accounts agree that the band's first three Maine appearances took place in January 1989 with an initial stop in Bar Harbor at College of the Atlantic's Gates Center Auditorium on January 20^th.  

On the following evening, Phish headed up route 1A for a show in Orono at the now defunct Oronoka restaurant and motel, famous for their "Food You'll Remember" and meals that were seemingly never-ending.  It is believed that the group spent the night upstairs at this venue where they returned for another show almost exactly one year later.

Most Phish fans have a favorite era of the band's evolution and can eloquently state their case by citing specific shows and jams.   For many, it's the groove that hit the group in the mid to late 90s when a certain funkiness began to permeate Phish shows, a welcome ingredient that fit their music perfectly.  That fact is made abundantly clear on the band's new archival release, 'Ventura,' a 6-CD box set comprised of two complete concerts performed a year apart at Ventura County Fairgrounds in Ventura, California in 1997 and 1998.  

For 'Ventura,' Phish archivist Kevin Shapiro has selected two vastly underrated performances that reveal the band in top form, delivering a master class in improvisation and showmanship with the emphasis on groove.

50,000,000 music fans can't be wrong  

It's one of the biggest parties in all of music, and this year's celebration promises to be the most impressive to date. On Saturday, April 20, music lovers around the world will come together for Record Store Day, an event that has grown beyond even its creator's wildest imagination.   

In 2007, Chris Brown, head of marketing for nine Bull Moose stores in Maine and two in New Hampshire, came up with the idea of setting aside a special day to celebrate independently owned record stores and the customers who love to inhabit them. Five hundred stores around the country liked the idea enough to join for the event's inaugural in 2008, and within four years the party had blown wide open with more than 1,500 stores in 21 countries on five continents taking part. 

LEWISTON Pardon Me, Doug, a band that pays tribute to the music of the popular Vermont jam band Phish, will perform at the Franco-American Heritage Center on Friday, Feb. 22 at 9 p.m.

Phish is known for their dedicated legions of followers, known as 'phans,' many of whom travel great distances to see multiple shows on each tour. They're also known for their long shows that completely change from night to night. During a stretch of four Madison Square Garden concerts leading up to New Year's Eve, for example, Phish played 90 songs without repeating a single tune.