Phish tour opens early with Fenway Park concert

The concert season for American jam band Phish is starting a few days early in an historic setting. Opening day for the iconic group's highly anticipated summer 2009 tour has been pushed up to May 31 and will take place at Fenway Park, home of major league baseball's Boston Red Sox.

Demand has also led to the addition of a third night to Phish's stand at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, NY. The band's June 4-5 run, which previously served as the tour opener, will be preceded by a new show on June 2.

Phans can request advance tickets for the new Boston and Wantagh shows via Phish Tickets's limited allotment through Sunday, April 12. General on-sales start on April 17 for the Nikon, followed by public sales on April 18 for Fenway. Both dates offer reserved seating with ticket prices set at $49.50.

Phish has announced two separate tour legs for their long-awaited reunion. The first summer dates close out with a June 20-21 stand at Alpine Valley Muisc Theatre in East Troy, WI. A second round of summer shows picks up with a July 30 through August 2 block at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO, and ends August 16 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

The summer concerts are part of Phish's first full-length tour since the group split in August 2004. Tickets for the nearly 30-date run have been a hot commodity among the band's followers. According to the official Phish Web site, all dates but the most recently announced have sold out.

Unprecedented demand for tickets caused problems for fans during the two earlier stages of on-sales. In late January, ticket orders flooded Live Nation on the first day of sales, causing the site to freeze and presenting would-be ticket buyers with error messages. Just a couple months later, Ticketmaster errantly released Phish tickets before the official on-sale date. The company quickly cancelled the thousands of orders processed during the window of error, offering $50 gift cards to affected customers as an apology.