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Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Before we get started with today’s episode, I just want to remind everyone that if you enjoy the podcast, you can show your support by leaving a rating and review of it wherever you get your podcasts. You can also visit www.buymeacoffee.com/attendancebias and donate anything you can to keep the podcast going. Now, onto today’s episode:

It’s always exciting when a guest reaches out to tell about their experience at a Phish festival. On Attendance Bias, we’ve heard about pretty much all of them, except Big Cypress and Coventry. But wait…today’s guest, Matt Leaf messaged me to tell about his ride to a forgotten festival. A “proto-festival” as we call it throughout today’s episode. Matt has quite a personal story to tell how he ended up at a free, 3-set show at Larrabee Farm in Auburn, Maine on August 3, 1991, most commonly known as “Amy’s Farm.”

There was no ferris wheel, no cheeky names for campgrounds, and no secret late-night sets…but it still set the tone and, as Matt calls it, the “rough draft” that would eventually blossom into the Clifford Ball just 5 years later, and Big Cypress by the end of the decade.

Things were just on a smaller scale then. Matt explains how he got into the scene through his older brothers’ love of the Grateful Dead in the mid-80s, and then some fortuitous connections at a Maine summer camp steered him into the direction of Phish, which in turn led him to this free show that has lived in the tape decks of thousands of fans for years.

It was almost excruciatingly exciting to hear about being at Amy’s Farm from a first-person point of view. You can even hear my voice speed up at certain points because I wanted to know more and more about what it was like to be there. Matt showed up today, big time, giving all the details that stand out in his memory as well as giving his take on the big picture of “what it all meant,” both at the time the show was played, and in retrospect as we look back and listen back today. There’s a lot to digest as we join Matt to talk about the sound quality, sold out tshirts, and extension cords as we time travel back to Amy’s Farm on August 3, 1991 in Auburn, ME.

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Hi everybody and welcome to today’s episode of Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Before we get started, I want to remind you that you can support Attendance Bias by going to www.buymeacoffee.com/attendancebias and donating anything you can manage. You can also leave a rating or a review of the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Now, onto today’s episode:

Shopping for car insurance? Invested in the drama of an elevated dining Chicago restaurant, scrolling Netflix lately and came across the new show Free Bert or adult cartoon Chicago Party Aunt? If any of the above is true for you, then you already know today’s guest. Actor Chris Witaske who you may recognize as the guy trying not to become his parents in the Progressive tv commercials, as Pete in the FX show The Bear, or as the villain on Free Bert with the exquisitely chosen character name Landon Vanderthal, is also a huge Phish fan. He and I were lucky enough to sit near each other on New Year’s Eve 2025 and had the greatest time watching a bunch of Broadway-style milk cartons dance across the stage of Madison Square Garden. By the time the third set was over, Chris, myself, and everyone around us were reminded of what we already knew: Phish is incredible, and we are so lucky to see them at another peak of their career.

I got in touch with Chris a few days after New Year’s and asked him if he would be interested in basically nerding out about Phish for an hour, based on a jam of his choice. He was immediately game, and after a bit of discussion, he asked if “Tweezer” from New Year’s Eve 2025 would be too “on the nose.” That was immediately followed up with a message that said, “it’s so good.”

I obviously want my guests to tell us about whatever show or jam they want, but after a few relistens, it’s clear that this 30 minute Tweezer from New Year’s Eve is a bona fide classic. It’s one of the jams of the year, and Chris had so much to look forward to in 2026 that it was an auspicious start to the year. It’s a great long jam, but there’s so much more to it than just the music.

But let’s hear it from Chris as we talk about Deep dish pizza, High Fidelity, and having too many options in a Phish calendar year, as we discuss “Tweezer” from December 31, 2025 at Madison Square Garden.

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Hi everybody and welcome to Attendance Bias. I am your host, Brian Weinstein. Before we get started with today’s episode, I just want to remind everyone that if you enjoy the podcast, you can show your support by leaving a rating and review of it wherever you get your podcasts. You can also visit www.buymeacoffee.com/attendancebias and donate anything you can to keep the podcast going. Now, onto today’s episode:

Last year around this time, once Phish announced their summer tour dates, I aired a new series called “Venue Previews.” The goal was to introduce fans to each venue Phish would play on their summer tour, and have a guest tell us about the ins and outs of each city, as well as review Phish’s history in that venue. I loved it so much that when today’s guest, Howard Fuchs proprietor of the Smokin’ Sandy Pineapple food truck, rang me up, we came up with an idea that was similar, but different.

Today’s episode is the inverse of a “Venue Preview.” Instead, it is a “Venue Remembrance." Howard was in college in the late-80s and early-90s in Ithaca, New York. During his time there, he saw Phish no less than 5 times in the now-legendary club, The Haunt in Ithaca. The Haunt no longer exists, but Howard recalls specific details of seeing Phish at least five times in the 1990 calendar year. Today’s episode is a look back at those five Phish shows (although no audio exists from one of the shows).

More than that is a look back at the city of Ithaca, its natural beauty, and its socially conscious attitude that pervaded the community for decades, including the time period we’re discussing today. Now, for those of us who are just here for the music, there’s another layer to this story.

1990 was a tremendous year for Phish. They were regularly venturing out of New England, mostly to college campuses and small clubs in the northeast. At the same time, they were recording Lawn Boy while still writing new material that would eventually appear on A Picture of Nectar. All the while, they were grinding it out in their van, playing these venues, most of the time without recordings or even surviving setlists. These are shows we know happened, but don’t know anything about. And more often than not, these venues are no longer standing.

That’s why today’s conversation with Howard is such a treat. Not only does he wax poetic about The Haunt, but we get to be a fly on the wall during a time of the band’s history that, I would guess, most listeners of this podcast did not experience. As a side bonus, we get to hear the band’s evolution in real time through the lens of The Haunt, which they played 5 times, from January to November of 1990, before moving on to the beginning of their small theater era.

So let’s journey to the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. Bring your sweatshirt and $7 for the cover charge as Howard and I talk about crunchwraps, slipping on bracelets, and finding your tribe in college as we remember The Haunt, in Ithaca, New York.

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