Phish will reunite in Virginia

Grab your tackle box: Phish is back. The Vermont-based jam band, which became one of the top draws in the concert business during the 1990s and early part of this decade, will reunite for shows March 6 to 8 in Hampton, Va., and is expected to announce additional performances for 2009.

When the group called it quits in 2004, guitarist Trey Anastasio said his thinking was that “Phish has run its course and that we should end it now while it’s still on a high note.” The band’s final shows Aug. 14 and 15, 2004, in Coventry, Vt., drew about 80,000 fans and movie theaters around the country carried some of the performances.

Only two of the group’s studio albums made the Top 10, but Phish pulled off the unprecedented feat of placing 16 live albums in the Billboard Top 200 albums chart within the span of 14 months in 2001 and 2002.

Tickets go on sale to the public Oct. 18 through Ticketmaster, but fans wishing to get a jump on the general sale can try an online ticket request process under way at a Phish ticket website (phish.portals.musictoday.com).

-- Randy Lewis