The Phish 2015 Headers: An Explanation

I recently got a message from somebody stating ” I love the setlists, but the header makes no sense!”  They were upset that I drew mountain for the Kansas City show, everyone knowing that Kansas has no mountains.  I was kind of excited, because this was the first time I’d received a comment regarding my headers.  I’d consider these my favorite part of creating my illustrated setlists, since each one is different, and carries a significance about the show.  When I started doing the setlists in 2014, most were an illustration based on the venue itself.  They were inked drawings that were colored digitally, and I was never a fan of them (I’ve had no formal Photoshop training, so it’s been a learning process).  When I was sketching out ideas for this year’s setlists, one of my main goals was to avoid digital as much as possible. My second concern was what the theme would be.  I didn’t want to do the same thing as last year, since I figured they would play venues they’d played in 2014.  Right before summer tour started, I had done a commissioned piece that consisted of illustrations of the whole Gamehendge saga, including all the other songs that have been confirmed to be related to TMWSIY, or took place in Gamehendge (at least according to the internet).  Having sketched (and drawn)  all these songs, it seemed fitting to use this as the basis of 2015’s summer tour.  I used all the songs from TMWSIY, as well as a couple songs that are Gamehendge related.  The last couple shows are based on songs played at the shows.

The Headers:

7-21 Bend I

The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday:  Col. Forbin steps through the door into Gamehendge

7-22 Bend II

The Lizards : “We can swim it if we tried”

7-24 Shoreline

Tela

7-25 Forum

Wilson

7-28 Austin

AC/DC Bag

7-29 Grand Prairie

Fly Famous Mockingbird

7-31 ATL I

Col. Forbin’s Ascent

8-1 ATL II

The Sloth

8-2 Tuscaloosa

Punch You in the Eye.

8-4 Nashville

Possum

8-5 KC

Divided Sky.  Probably would’ve been better without mountains, based on the location.

8-7 Blossom

Llama

8-8 Alpine I

Kung

8-9 Alpine II

Esther

8-11 Mann

Scent of a Mule (Played at the show)

8-12 Mann II

Slave to the Traffic Light.  It seemed fitting, seeing how close the Philadelphia Zoo is to the Mann Center.  I actually made a poster based off this song  for the Mann 2014 shows.

8-14 Walnut Creek

Reba.  My favorite header.

8-15  MPP I

Run Like an Antelope (played at the show)

8-16 MPP II

Wingsuit. I prefer a literal interpretation of this rather than the convention definition of the word

8-21 Magna I

An interpretation of the camping based on photos of Magnaball since I couldn’t make it 😦

8-22 Magna II

Inspired by the “Poster is Dead – Poster’s so Dead” plane flyby.

8-23 Magna III

Inspired by the Drive-In set the night before.  Marquee includes a mashup of songs played that night.

9-14 Dicks I

Bike. Played at 2.42% of live shows

9-5 Dicks II

Sleeping Monkey. Leo’s choice.

9-6 Dicks III

The “Thank You” encore called for a minimal header in order to fit in my setlist.

These headers were quite a blast (and a challenge) to draw.  I do have some original ink and watercolors of some of the headers available (email me or contact via ig, twitter, fb for availability), and can make some custom posters using the headers based on shows attended.