Robert Randolph, ?uestlove and Stanton Moore are among the acts scheduled to appear at HeadCount’s Get Out and Vote Party. The event will take New York’s Highline Ballroom on November 3, the night before the 2008 election. Other musicians confirmed to appear include the Disco Biscuits’ Marc Brownstein and Aron Magner, The Spin Doctors’ Chris Barron, Ween’s Dave Dreiwitz, American Babies’ Tom Hamilton and Scott Metzger and the Benevento-Russo Duo. In addition to being a fulltime musician, Brownstein also serves as HeadCount’s co-chair. The concert is a culmination of Magic Hat Brewing Co.'s Participation program.

Tickets and more information can be found at www.magichat.net/participation, along with an entry form to win a trip for four to New York City with VIP tickets to the concert. Absentee ballot applications can also be accessed from that site for out of town fans hoping to attend the performance.

Metzger has been named the event’s musical director, while ?uestlove will DJ between sets. The entire event will be streamed on www.iclips.net.

As dramatically announced via video, Phish will reunite for a series of shows this March. As of press time, the quartet's first full performances since 2004 will take place at Hampton, VA's Hampton Coliseum on March 6, 7 and 8, 2009. Last month, the band played a surprise three-song set at the wedding of longtime road manager Brad Sands.  The group is expected to announce a handful of additional dates in the near future.

The announcement arrives after a flurry of rumors hit the group's web of message boards and fansites yesterday. 

Hampton Coliseum's intimate size and general admission seating has made the venue a fan and band favorite since the group first headlined the room in 1995. Since that time Phish has filled the Coliseum on eleven additional occasions, most recently on its farewell tour in 2004.

Rumors of a Phish reunion had reached new heights in recent months after the four musicians accepted a lifetime achievement award at New York's Theatre at Madison Square Garden last May. Since that time the players have appeared onstage in a number of different configurations, most recently when Mike Gordon sat in with Page McConnell at South Burlington, VT's Higher Ground this past Saturday. Trey Anastasio has also tested out a number of new possible Phish songs onstage, most notably his co-compositions (with longtime lyricist Tom Marshall), "Alaska" and "Backwards Down the Number Line."

Anastasio announced Phish's breakup on May 25, 2004, and the group played its final show on August 15 of that year. At the time of his original announcement, Anastasio said, "Last Friday night, I got together with Mike, Page and Fish to talk openly about 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. Once we started talking, it quickly became apparent that the other guys' feelings, while not all the same as mine, were similar in many ways -- most importantly, that we all love and respect Phish and the Phish audience far too much to stand by and allow it to drag on beyond the point of vibrancy and health. We don't want to become caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act. By the end of the meeting, we realized that after almost twenty-one years together we were faced with the opportunity to graciously step away in unison, as a group, united in our friendship and our feelings of gratitude."

A limited number of tickets for Phish's upcoming shows will be available through the group's secure online ticketing system. One of the ways the group plans to avoid the overhead that plagued its later years is by partnering with companies like Musictoday. Anastasio will also kick off a solo tour at New York's Roseland Ballroom on October 16.

Trey Anastasio has made headlines on what happens to be his 43^rd birthday. A post on the fan blog MerrySwankster has led to a flurry of rumors that Phish will begin its comeback at Hampton, VA’s Hampton Coliseum next March. The post on MerrySwankster is the latest of several unsubstantiated rumors that have surfaced since early September. Though Phish has made no formal announcement about any tour plans, the four musicians did reunite for a performance at road manager Brad Sands’ wedding earlier this month.

In June, Page McConnell posted the following message on Phish.com:

Given the volume of speculation and rumors that have bubbled up recently, I have been asked to make a statement… Here goes.

For me, the last four years have been great. I’ve spent quality time with my family and have watched my daughter grow. I took great pleasure and pride in writing and recording an album. I’m living a healthy lifestyle. I travel as little as possible and I sleep in my own bed. It took a couple of years after the break up to begin talking to my old band mates, but once the conversations began to flow it wasn’t long before the friendships were rekindled. And I can honestly say that I’m closer with all of them now then I’ve ever been in our 20-year relationship.

Recently the conversations have turned toward the possibility of spending some time together. Currently many of us have plans and projects already in the works, most notably Mike, who made a great album and is about to hit the road in support of it. Given that I might not even see some of the guys for the next six months, I would say that the announcement of a reunion is premature. However, later this year we hope to spend some time together and take a look at what possible futures we might enjoy. In fact the only real decision that has been made is that when we do get together, it will only be the four of us, hopefully with no distractions. I am really looking forward to that.

I want to say just a few more things. The prospect of Phish reuniting is something I consider very seriously, and I think about it a lot. And lastly, as always, there is plenty of misinformation floating around. Try not to focus too much on secondhand sources and random gossip. If there is anything real to announce, it will come from the four of us as a group.

Until then, Page

On Saturday, Anastasio performed his latest orchestral work at Nashville, TN’s Ryman Auditorium. Please click here for a full review of that performance.

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals will spend most of December on the road with Oasis. The singer/songwriter toured Canada with Oasis earlier this year, before beginning a solo theater tour this past Thursday. Though Adams did not play with Oasis onstage, he did fill in for singer Liam Gallagher at one of the group’s recent soundchecks. Adams’ arena tour with Oasis will begin at Oakland, CA’s Oracle Arena on December 3 and later make stops in Los Angeles (12/4), Las Vegas (12/6), Denver (12/8), Minneapolis (12/10), Chicago (12/12), Detroit, MI (12/13), New York (12/17), Camden, NJ (12/19) and Washington, DC (12/20). The two groups will also makeup a previously scheduled London, ON appearance on December 15 that was cancelled after a fan attacked Noel Gallagher. “OASIS ARE GOING FURTHER INTO UNCHARTERED TERRITORY ‘AND’ REMAINING TRUE TO WHO THEY ARE,” Adams wrote in his blog. “They are my fucking living rocknroll dream band and i’d have a general admission ticket EVERY chance i had to see them at home.”