Phish
Phish | |
|---|---|
| File:PhishTreyFist.jpg | |
| Background information | |
| Years active | 1983–2000, 2002–2004 |
| Members | Trey Anastasio Mike Gordon Page McConnell Jon Fishman Jeff Holdsworth |
Phish was an American rock band most noted for its extended jams and unique improvisation. The band's four members performed together for 21 years until their breakup in August of 2004. Although the group received little radio play or MTV exposure, Phish developed a large following by word of mouth. Phish's music had elements of many genres, including jazz, bluegrass, country, heavy metal, reggae, folk, ska, pop, blues, show tunes, classical, acoustic, progressive, and calypso. The band performed 226 originals (of the 234 they penned) and 383 covers (songs originally performed by another artist), a total of 609 songs, plus approximately 63 other items that may be included in setlists but are not songs per se (such as the "Wormtown Jam" from 7/2/97)[1]. Each Phish concert was different in terms of the songs included and the order in which they appeared, and (for many songs) in the way in which they were performed. Most of their songs were never played the same way twice. Along with Bob Dylan and The Beatles, Phish were one of the first bands to have an Internet newsgroup - Phish.net - launched in 1991.
The Beginning
Phish was formed in 1983 at the University of Vermont by guitarists Trey Anastasio and Jeff Holdsworth, bassist Mike Gordon, and drummer Jon Fishman. In 1985, Page McConnell joined on keyboards. A year later, in 1986, Jeff Holdsworth left the group after graduation, thus solidifying the band's classic lineup, which remained unchanged for the rest of their career.
In Phish's nascent stages, the band wrote complex progressive rock fugues and mixed them with intense improvisation. These were developed in early practice sessions that have become legendary: On at least three occasions, the band locked themselves in a practice room for up to fifteen hours, under the influence of psychedelic mushrooms and marijuana. These "Oh Kee Pa Ceremonies" were the product of listening to each member and reacting through a constant flow of musical communication, and provided the basis for the band's later, more elaborate practice rules such as "filling the hey hole." In essence, Phish created their own form of improvisation, with a set of rules, goals, and listening exercises.
In mid-1986, Anastasio and Fishman transferred -- under the persuasion of McConnell, who received $50 cash for each transferee -- to a smaller school named Goddard College, located in the hills of Plainfield, Vermont (Gordon remained at the University of Vermont). In mid-1986, Phish distributed at least six different experimental self-titled cassettes, one of which is sometimes referred to as The White Tape. The recording contained mostly avant-garde experimental pieces, long instrumental passages, electronic noise, and studio trickery, along with four standard full-band tracks. The most circulated version of the compilation travelled in tape-trading circles for over a decade before being officially released in 1998.
In the autumn of 1986, the group began working with luthier Paul Languedoc, who built custom guitars and basses. Languedoc designed instruments for Anastasio and Gordon, as well as speakers, and was officially hired as the band's sound engineer on October 15, 1986, at a show at Hunt's Bar in Burlington, Vermont. Because he had built the instruments and the speakers, Languedoc had complete control over the sound of the live Phish experience from very early on, resulting in high-quality concert sound for the remainder of the band's career.
The band's second studio experiment was a concept album written by Trey Anastasio entitled The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday. The recording was Trey's senior project statement at Goddard College in the spring of 1987. Elements of the story have comprised no less than 13 songs, only 7 of which were featured on the actual recording. The band played the complete album from top to bottom on only five occasions (in 1988, 1991, 1993, and twice in 1994). The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, also known as "Gamehendge," became a "legend" among Phish's growing subculture, with a variety of interpretations[2].
By 1988, Phish was developing a dedicated following in the Northeastern United States that followed the band from show to show. In 1988, the group packed into their van and drove across the country to Colorado, only to find that the promoter had cancelled the shows. Phish went across the street and played another club throughout the week. Few people attended, but many of them taped the concerts, and distributed their recordings throughout the area. Two years later, Phish returned to Colorado, and found that almost every show had sold out by word of mouth. This process enabled Phish's fan base to grow without involving the mainstream media.
Also in 1988, Phish recorded a double studio album entitled Junta, which contained long, classical/progressive compositions that sought to explore and extend the boundaries of rock music.
On January 26, 1989, Phish played the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, Massachusetts. The owners of the club had never heard of Phish and refused to book them, so Phish rented the place out themselves. The owners were stunned to see a huge line of people wrapped around the street trying to get in. The show had sold out due mostly to the caravan of Phish fans that had traveled to see the band.
Much of the sensation of drama and intensity of the live concert experience was a result of lighting designer Chris Kuroda, who first worked with the band in April 1989. Kuroda used an array of lights and lasers to accompany the music, which gave the effect that he was jamming with the band. He learned every composed section of each song, and designed light-based reactions to fit each note. When the band improvised, Kuroda improvised. He was such a large part of the Phish concert experience that in the late 1990s, a group of fans lobbied to have Kuroda recognized as an official member of the band (fans have likened simply listening to a Phish concert on tape or CD as the equivalent of watching a movie with your eyes closed).
By late 1990, Phish concerts were becoming more and more involved. The band made a consistent effort to involve the audience in their performances. The group developed a special "secret language" where the audience would react in a certain manner based on a musical cue from the band (for instance, if Anastasio played a bar of The Simpsons theme song, the audience would yell, "D'oh!," imitating lead character Homer Simpson). Another favorite was "All Fall Down," where the band would play a descending group of notes and the audience would fall on their backs to the floor. Around this time, Phish introduced the "Big Ball Jam," which began with each band member throwing a large beach ball into the audience. Each time a particular ball was hit, the corresponding band member played a note, so in essence, the audience was performing and creating a composition on the spot.
Drummer Jon Fishman would often play a vacuum cleaner like a woodwind instrument, and the group would switch instruments to the left one member at a time in an experiment called the "Rotation Jam." Another of Phish's performance antics involved Gordon and Anastasio jumping on mini-trampolines in the middle of a song entitled You Enjoy Myself, doing synchronized maneuvers on the trampoline while playing their instruments.
The group also experimented with tension and release jamming, in which a jam would "bubble up" and condense itself into a tight, usually off-key musical corner, and then explode back to the main theme. Some fans found that this technique made the concert experience more energized and frantic than other bands of similar genre, such as The Allman Brothers Band or The Grateful Dead.
In 1991, Elektra Records became aware of the band's growing popularity, and signed the band after attending one of their concerts. In 1992, their major label debut, A Picture of Nectar, was released, with far more extensive production than Junta from 1988 and Lawn Boy from 1990, which were re-released on Elektra as well.
In 1992, John Popper of Blues Traveler organized the first annual H.O.R.D.E. festival (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere). The lineup included Phish, The Spin Doctors, Blues Traveler, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit, and Widespread Panic, providing Phish with their first national tour of major amphitheaters. That summer, the band toured Europe with the Violent Femmes and later toured both Europe and the United States with guitarist Carlos Santana.
Climb to the Top
Phish began headlining major amphitheaters in the summer of 1993. That year, the group released another studio album, entitled Rift, which continued the band's streak of challenging, complex music, packaged into a concept album as part of heavy promotion from Elektra.
The group changed their songwriting approach again for their 1994 release Hoist. The album featured simpler songs with emotionally introspective lyrics, a change that became part of the group's overall sound. This shift to a more traditional song format was met with criticism from many fans. In addition, the band made their first and only video for MTV.
Although 1994 was a controversial year in the studio for Phish, it is considered by many fans as one of the best concert years in the band's history. The band was peaking musically, taking their performances into uncharted territory both in terms of intensity and musical interaction between band members. The group had become so popular that they sold out Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 30, 1994. Earlier that day, they made their national television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman, where they appeared a total of seven times over the next decade. On New Year's Eve, the band headlined the Boston Garden. Before midnight, the band wanted to make a special effort to get close to every fan in the house, so they flew in a giant mechanical hot dog over the crowd and performed music while throwing candy to the audience.
For Halloween night in 1994, the group promised to play an entire album from another band, dressing up, so to speak, in a "musical costume." The band took fan votes on their website and ended up performing the entire, 30-song, self-titled Beatles classic known as The White Album, sandwiched between two complete sets of Phish's own music.
In 1995, the band experienced a continued growth of their fan base following the demise of HORDE (which didn't fold until 1998), increasing pop culture references to the band which threatened to bring it above radar, and the death of Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia.
The impact of the latter is somewhat uncertain. Although Phish's music was very different than the Dead's, the fan culture that had grown up around both bands was similar. Each concert was the centerpiece of an event that included a sort of temporary village in the parking lot. Before, during, and after a concert, people socialized and did business (buying, selling, trading of various goods) outside the venue. Many fans who toured with the Grateful Dead began to follow Phish, and there was a certain shift of parking lot vendors, artisans, and drug delears from the Dead to Phish - many of whom made the shift in 1994, prior to Garcia's death. Regardless of whether it began before or after Garcia's passing, the growing number of people who came for the culture rather than the music created some problems. Shows became crowded with people looking for drugs, easy money, or just a big party. Phish was thereby challenged in a number of ways, including interaction with the audience, intimacy of the parking lot scene, and ultimately conflicts with venues and localities.
That fall, Phish challenged the audience to a chess game. A huge chessboard was lowered down on stage before each show and between sets. The band made one move before the show, and between sets a representative from the audience made one move, based on votes tallied in the lobby. At the end of the tour, the band and audience were tied 1-1. Phish performed Quadrophenia by The Who with an entire horn section for Halloween 1995. Their first live album, A Live One, featured songs from 1994 concerts, and was Phish's first gold album.
In 1996, Phish released Billy Breathes, which featured a mostly acoustic second side that continued to display the band's simpler, stripped down song approach. That summer, they put on The Clifford Ball, a two-day festival, which took place at an empty air force base in Plattsburgh, New York. 65,000 people showed up. MTV was on-hand to make a documentary of the experience. Phish set up their own makeshift city, complete with an amusement park, restaurants, a post office, playgrounds, arcades, and movie theaters. For two days, a Phish concert was the ninth largest city in New York. Aside from six sets of Phish, the band hopped on a flatbed truck at 3:00 AM and drove through the campground, serenading the audience. The concert's production company, Great Northeast Productions, went on to host six more Phish festivals.
In 1997, a new jamming style emerged from Phish's improvisational ventures, which came to be known as "cow funk". The previous Halloween saw Phish perform the Talking Heads album Remain in Light, which is extremely groove based and funk-oriented. The frenzied, manic tension and release jams gave way to a smoother, simpler, funky style. Jams were becoming so long that several sets that year only contained four songs. That same year, Ben and Jerry's ice cream launched Phish Food, which remains one of the company's most popular flavors. The band's royalties from Phish Food are donated to their non-profit foundation, the Waterwheel Foundation. Also created in 1997, the foundation consisted of three seperate branches - The Lake Champlain Initiative, The Touring Branch and the Vermont Giving Program.
That summer, the band drew 70,000 people to its second festival, The Great Went, held in Limestone, Maine, just miles from the Canadian border. That weekend, the festival became the largest city in Maine. Throughout the weekend, the band had the audience paint their own individual piece of art. Each piece of fan artwork was attached to make a huge tower that was several stories high by the end of the weekend. Backstage, Phish was also creating their own piece of art. During a jam on the final day of the weekend, the band passed their artwork through the audience. The audience attached the band artwork to the fan artwork, thus connecting band and audience in true fashion. The tower was then burned to the ground.
In 1998, the band tried a new approach to recording. They recorded hours and hours of improvisational jams over a period of several days, and then took the highlights of those jams and wrote songs around them. The result was the funky The Story of the Ghost album (followed by the all-instrumental The Siket Disc in 1999). Phish headlined Farm Aid in the summer of 1998, sharing the stage with Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and Paul Shaffer. The group also returned to Limestone, Maine for The Lemonwheel festival, which drew another 70,000 fans. Once again, the concert was the largest city in Maine. This time around, the band had the audience make candles throughout the weekend. At the end of the show, the band lined the stage with candles, turned out all the lights, and played one long, quiet, ambient jam. They encouraged the audience to leave the concert area and mill about and talk to one another, play on the Ferris wheel, or just stroll around, allowing the music to simply be background music and act as the soundtrack to whatever was going on.
For their 1998 Halloween show in Las Vegas, the group performed Loaded by The Velvet Underground as their musical costume. Somewhat less-known than their earlier "musical costumes", much of the audience was unfamiliar with the album, and some people were disappointed in the selection. Two nights later, the band played in the middle of Utah. Many people elected to skip the far drive to the middle of nowhere to see what they supposed would be just a normal Phish show following the annual Halloween celebration. Playing to a small audience of only 4,000 people, Phish performed Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd in its entirety towards the middle of the second set. Many fans who missed the show were surprised and upset, but it only cemented Phish's "you snooze, you lose" attitude, and sense of humor.
Cultural Icons
By 1999, Phish were an American institution. They were considered the biggest concert band in the country. With the millennium on the horizon, fans knew that Phish was going to pull out all the stops. They decided to skip the annual summer festival in order to prepare for the New Year's Eve Millennium Celebration. However, at the last minute, they decided to hold a summer festival anyway. 65,000 people came to an abandoned airport in upstate New York for Camp Oswego held in July. The following weekend just a few towns away, the disaster at Woodstock 1999 was making new headlines as 200,000 people rioted and burned the concert grounds in an ugly scene. The media failed to mention that a large number of people came together for a peaceful, friendly weekend across the state at a Phish concert. However, New York Governor George Pataki did make mention of the peacefulness of the Phish show as compared to the debacle at Woodstock.
For the Millennium Celebration, Phish went to the southern-most tip of the US - The Florida Everglades - at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. It was the largest Phish concert ever, and widely considered the greatest. There were huge New Year's Eve concerts all over the world that night - Sting, Barbra Streisand, Elton John. Of them all, Phish's was the largest. Peter Jennings reported on the huge audience in a episode of ABC World News Tonight. 85,000 people showed up for two nights of music, culminating with a seven-and-a-half hour second set that began at midnight and ended at sunrise. The band's performance of "Heavy Things" was broadcast on ABC's Millenium coverage. At the beginning of the set, Trey Anastasio mentioned that the band had portable toilets onstage so they could use the restroom during the marathon set, and a team of security guards lined the stage to prevent band members from "wimping out" and trying to leave the stage.
When the band left the stage in tears at sunrise after the extremely emotional performance, Trey Anastasio said to Jon Fishman, "we should stop."
It is perhaps, then, no surprise that the band's hiatus came but ten months after Big Cypress: They kept going, but Phish had realized that there was nothing more in the music world they could do. They had accomplished more than any other touring band and on their own terms. They glided through the year 2000 with no Halloween, no summer festival, and no new material. The poppy-sounding Farmhouse album, released in May 2000, contained recycled material from their live repetoire dating back as far as 1997. That summer, the band announced that they would be going their separate ways following their upcoming fall tour. On October 7, 2000 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, they played what was to be their final concert before their then indefinite hiatus. There were no frills; the band played a regular show and left without saying a word as Let It Be by The Beatles played over the PA while the audience gave the crew a standing ovation.
The members of Phish always had musical projects outside of Phish, but the breakup allowed them to explore them more deeply. Trey continued his solo career (which began in 1998) and formed the supergroup Oysterhead with Primus bassist Les Claypool and drummer Stewart Copeland of The Police. He also did orchestral work and conducting with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Mike Gordon made two films - Outside Out and Rising Low - and made an album with acoustic guitar legend Leo Kottke before launching his own solo career. Jon Fishman alternated gigs with The Jazz Mandolin Project and his rowdy bar band Pork Tornado. Page McConnell formed an electronic trio, Vida Blue, with Meters drummer Russell Batiste and Aquarium Rescue Unit bassist Oteil Burbridge.
The community of smaller bands surrounding Phish exploded during the breakup. Phish-influenced bands like moe., The Disco Biscuits, String Cheese Incident, Umphrey's McGee, and Particle experienced a swell in their audience, and the annual Bonnaroo festival (based on Phish's summer extravaganzas) opened the doors for several groups inside and outside of the jam band world.
One More Time
Over two years after the breakup, Phish announced that they were reforming and would return to the stage on New Year's Eve 2002 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. To capture the very first moments of the reunion, the band recorded a new album, Round Room, in only three days. When the band's much-hyped return to the stage took place on New Year's Eve, they pulled a prank on the audience that actually fooled the entire US media. Page McConnell's brother was introduced as actor Tom Hanks, who came onstage to sing a line from the Phish song "Wilson" (also a name from the movie Cast Away, starring Hanks). Because of McConnell's uncanny resemblance to the actor, the US media reported that Tom Hanks had "jammed with Phish" at their reunion show. The prank was revealed days later.
At the end of the 2003 Summer Tour, Phish held their first summer festival in four years. The It festival was once again held in Limestone, Maine. 70,000 people showed up. At 2:30 AM after the first show, in an elaborate stunt, the band performed on top of the air traffic control tower overlooking the air force base. Musically, the It festival is considered one of the strongest of all the festivals, and somewhat seen as the band's last great run (along with their four night stand for the 2003 New Year's Eve celebration in Miami, Florida). In December 2003, the band celebrated its 20th Anniversary. The band shocked the Phish world by inviting founding Phish member Jeff Holdsworth to jam onstage for the first time since 1986. Phish placed Holdsworth front and center, and allowed him to lead the band for the rest of the concert, just as he had done two decades earlier.
In order to avoid the exhaustion and pitfalls of previous years of non-stop touring, Phish played only sporadically after the reunion. Tours were now only about two weeks long. Though the band debuted a wealth of new material and had clearly improved on their classic improvisational style, they were not practicing their older material, and were therefore becoming sloppy. Phish made a name for themselves by practicing and being "tighter than a mosquito's ass" in concert (as one fan put it). Watching Phish's trademark precision decline onstage was a tough pill for many to swallow; the band simply did not play enough to gain the momentum that had carried previous tours. Though the Miami New Year's run, now the stuff of legend, was one huge bright spot, overall fans knew something had to change.
After a lackluster, oddly detached run of shows in Las Vegas in April 2004, Trey Anastasio announced on the Phish website that the band was breaking up for good after a small summer tour. Their final album, Undermind, was released in the late spring. The band played an excellent run of shows in June, even jamming with rapper Jay-Z at a show in Brooklyn. Another highlight of the June tour was a short seven song set performed outside from the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City during an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, delighting fans who had gathered on the street outside the theater and channeling the spirit of The Beatles in their final public performance on a rooftop in London. The final shows were to be the last huge Phish summer festival - Coventry, named for the town that hosted the event which was held in the group's homestate of Vermont. 100,000 people were expected to attend. It was broadcast to thousands more in movie theaters across America.
Unfortunately, an entire week of rain had flooded the concert field to the point where people were turned away, causing a huge traffic pileup on the highway. Mike Gordon got on the radio and told everyone who wasn't already in to turn away...no more cars were allowed. At that point, only about 20,000 people were in the concert area.
The fans did not fight police, drive cars through barriers, or riot. Instead, tens of thousands of them got out of their cars and walked as far as 30 miles to the venue. The local residents stepped in and began shuttling fans in and out of the site and to their vehicles. It was an extremely emotional showing and a perfect example of the incredible bond Phish has with their audience. However, the weather and situation took a toll on the band and the fans. There were no special surprises like a late night set or an audience participation game. Even worse, the band played sloppily, mostly due to the emotional roller coaster of playing their last show. They broke down crying onstage several times, especially when Page McConnell erupted in tears during the poignant ballad "Wading in the Velvet Sea." Unable to continue singing, he turned the microphone to the audience, who took over in chorus. Adding tragedy to the unfortunate events of the festival, 25 year-old Ian Niles Gardiner of Bristol, Connecticut, was found dead in a tent at 2:18 in the morning the Monday after the last show ended.
Despite the negatives, Coventry was an emotional goodbye for Phish and its audience, a somewhat tragic end to one of the most incredible stories in rock music. Without any help from radio, MTV, or album sales, Phish became the biggest live band in America, and a group that Rolling Stone Magazine called "the most important band of the 1990s."
Band Members (1983-2004)
Trey Anastasio - guitar, vocals
Mike Gordon - bass, vocals
Jon Fishman - drums, vocals
Page McConnell - keyboards, vocals (joined in May 1985)
Jeff Holdsworth - guitar, vocals (left in May 1986)
Phish played their first show on December 2, 1983 and their final show on August 15, 2004 (they were on "hiatus" from October 7, 2000 until December 31, 2002).
Their Music
Phish's musical ethos is a playful mix of skilled improvisation, psychedelic rock, folk, bluegrass, funk, jazz, a capella/barbershop quartet, reggae, heavy rock, and intricate compositions. Some of their original compositions (such as "Theme from the Bottom") tend towards a psychedelic rock and bluegrass fusion, with more rock, jazz, and funk elements than the Grateful Dead and other earlier so-called jam bands. Their more ambitious, epic compositions (such as "Reba" and "Guyute") are often said to resemble classical music in a rock setting, much like the music of one of their heroes, Frank Zappa.
While Trey Anastasio has never clearly affirmed or denied musical leadership of Phish, he was viewed by many fans and enthusiasts as its frontman for a number of reasons. This is principally because he composed the music for the vast majority of the band's original repertoire (however, all four permanent band members have made lasting contributions to the catalog). A versatile composer of music across a wide spectrum of genres, Anastasio used techniques ranging from riff-based and/or verse-chorus songwriting to unusual chord progressions, modes, atonality, polyrhythm, irregular and compound meters, and polyphonic textures somewhat in the tradition of neoclassical composers such as Stravinsky and Ravel. Anastasio's adventurous use of polyphony has often been highlighted, although many commentators have mistakenly referred to the use of fugue in examples which are actually of a simpler type of counterpoint, canon (e.g., in the tune "Reba").
The Phish pieces written by Anastasio after the band had begun touring nationally on a full time basis, as well his compositions for his past and current touring projects outside of Phish, have tended with few exceptions to focus on simpler, more direct songwriting than many of the more involved works of earlier years. Accordingly, dynamic, large-scale improvisation became more of a driving force than detailed composition in the band's final decade. Anastasio has said that this shift was at least partially due to time constraints imposed by Phish's increasing fame, family responsibilities of the members, and other considerations. As a band of carefree college students, Phish was able to spend vastly more time writing and rehearsing challenging material. Many of the tracks on the early Junta, as well as some other material from roughly the same period (1985-1990), were notated wholly or partially in full score by Anastasio and were learned by the band in this manner; all four members are experienced at reading notation. This contrasts starkly with their later practice of making demo tapes of original compositions, some of which were later released for sale, from which the band would then aurally pick up and develop selected material.
Sometimes several compositional forms and elements were blended into a single piece of music, with the end result rarely coming off as overly cerebral because of the collective musicianship of the bandsmen and because of the innate "groove" of much of the music. This aesthetic reflects Phish's taste for danceable music with intellectual and artistic depth, in a tradition that can be traced as far back as the instrumental dance music of baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach and can be followed through the hard-swinging but intricately crafted arrangements featured by many big bands of the early 20th Century. Anastasio, in particular, has spoken of his lifelong attraction to music that can be richly appreciated in both the intellectual and the corporeal planes of experience. An increasingly common criticism of some modern popular music has been that, while it is often catchy and danceable, these qualities sometimes come at the expense of musical depth. Phish and other jam bands have always striven to bring the best of both worlds to their fans. This attitude was also a driving force behind bebop jazz, which characteristically featured virtuosic and harmonically complex improvisation over the choruses of well-known popular tunes (jazz standards), often taken at unusually fast speeds.
Anastasio has repeatedly credited Vermont-based composer, pianist, and teacher Ernie Stires as a major source of early inspiration and instruction in musical composition and arranging. The importance of this influence in Phish's early trademark sound (Junta, Lawn Boy, Rift) cannot be overestimated. While not a household name, Stires is widely lauded in certain musical circles as a stunningly unique composer of art music. He is most distinguished, perhaps, for juxtaposing atonal melodies and harmonies against catchy swing rhythms. Stires is a cousin of the well known late-Romantic composer Samuel Barber, and has been sought out as a tutor and mentor by a number of pop, rock, and jazz musicians.
Also, Anastasio's vibrant electric guitar was consistently the most prominent voice in Phish, and he sang more lead vocals than any other member, both onstage and in the studio. From the band's inception through the mid-1990s, Anastasio's guitar playing was recognizable by its rich, full tone and incredible sustain, a style owing much to Carlos Santana. Later on Anastasio became well known, both in and outside of Phish, for his skilled, tasteful, and often pioneering use of an extensive rig of electronic effects to enhance or otherwise alter the sound of his guitars. His extensive use of a pitch shifter, of phrase sampling devices and long "space" delay, and of multiple-stage overdrive became signatures of his sound, apart from the unique tonal qualities of his custom built Languedoc guitars. Gordon and McConnell are also known for judicious use of electronic effects.
Trey's de facto leadership being duly noted, the other members of Phish were far from merely supporting personnel. Each played a unique and indispensable role in the band's persona and overall sound, and they have each enjoyed successful music careers outside of Phish. Jon Fishman's relentlessly inventive but rock-steady drumming was clearly a major source of the group's solidity and cohesiveness. Bassist Gordon is cited for his straight ahead, no-frills, but imminently tuneful and deeply sensitive playing. McConnell is highly regarded as a master of the Hammond B3 organ and is a brilliant texturist and a winsome soloist on other keyboard instruments such as the clavinet, the Rhodes piano, acoustic piano, and various synthesizers.
Bassist Mike Gordon wrote a number of compositions for the Phish catalog, beginning perhaps with "Minkin" from The White Tape. His compositions are marked by humorous lyric content and a straightforward musical style. As another example, Gordon penned the music for the title track of 2002's Round Room, which is a more rhythmically and harmonically complex piece of music than exemplified by his usual songwriting style within Phish.
On many album credits, multiple members or all the members of Phish are listed as composers. This has been the cause of some confusion. While not exclusively true, it is generally the case that Anastasio was the composer of most of these numbers, with other band members thereafter making contributions to the music to varying degrees of significance. These changes were sometimes subtle and sometimes major, and ranged from more or less immediate revisions to alterations that were years in the making.
Particularly in lengthy jams and in the less thoroughly composed and more lyrically styled material, the dynamic interplay and collective improvisation between all four members was certainly as much a calling card for the band as were Anastasio's kaleidoscopic compositions and guitar work. It is in this respect that Phish has often been musically (as opposed to socially) compared to the Grateful Dead, and this aesthetic is really at the heart of all jam bands by connotation. Neither Anastasio nor Grateful Dead guitarist/composer Jerry Garcia ever definitively acknowledged themselves as figurehead of their respective organizations, though widely perceived as such among their fans; this is indicative of the community spirit and sense of partnership evoked by much jam band music, with the musicians viewing themselves as equal parts of a whole.
Tom Marshall, a boyhood friend and schoolmate of Anastasio, was the primary lyricist for Phish, though by no means the only one. Marshall, an accomplished biologist, has written lyrics ranging from arbitrarily assembled nonsequitur ("Stash") to the poignantly expressive ("Lifeboy"), and all points in between. Though most fans never attached the importance to Phish's lyrics that they did to the music, Marshall's lyrical style was a distinctive part of the Phish experience. Often Anastasio would pull lyrics for compositions from large notebooks of prose and poetry kept by Marshall, although the two have also directly collaborated on a number of songs. Anastasio himself is the next most prolific contributor of Phish lyrics, notably in the Gamehendge cycle. Both lyricists focused heavily on wordplay and musical language, with content taking a subordinate role to the sounds of the words and phrases. Therefore, many of the lyrics were open to interpretation, allowing fans to draw their own personal meaning from the lyrics. In essence, if a song lyric suddenly had deep meaning to the listener, it was by accident, which Phish fans insisted was part of the band's magic. Trey Anastasio has mentioned that some Phish songs don't have a particular meaning to him personally until years later. This trend was gradually reversed beginning with the albums Hoist and Billy Breathes. Many fans have noted that Phish's lyrics seemingly grew "deeper" and more meaningful as the artists themselves grew older and more seasoned.
Phish truly transcended genres, as evidenced by the sheer number and varying backgrounds of guests who took the stage with them over the years. Notables include Willie Nelson, Santana, Kid Rock, Dave Matthews, Sarah McLachlan, B.B. King, Son Seals, George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic, Noel Redding, Neil Young, Del McCoury, Wynonna Judd, Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss, Jimmy Buffett, Jim Carrey, Buddy Miles, Jay-Z, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Ken Kesey, and many others.
Starting with their reunion concert on New Year's Eve 2002-2003, Phish began releasing every concert for download on Live Phish. Since then they have released various important shows from their 21 year career other than more recent concerts.
No two shows in Phish history have ever been the same, and most songs were not played exactly the same way twice.
Discography
Although studio albums don't paint an entirely accurate picture of the band's creative talent, the band released many. They recorded their debut album, Phish, in 1986, and began touring nationally soon after, playing 150 concerts in 1990 alone. They were signed to Elektra Records in 1991. All Phish albums feature the classic lineup of Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Jon Fishman, and Page McConnell.
Studio Albums
1. Phish (The White Tape) (unofficially circulated in 1986 - officially released August 1, 1998)
File:Ghenge.gif 2. The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday (unofficially circulated in 1987 - never officially released)
File:Junta cover.jpg 3. Junta (cassette released in 1988 - CD released May 8, 1989)
4. Lawn Boy (September 21, 1990)
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5. A Picture of Nectar (February 12, 1992)
6. Rift (February 2, 1993)
8. Billy Breathes (October 15, 1996)
9. The Story of the Ghost (October 27, 1998)
10. The Siket Disc (released online July 15, 1999 - released in stores November 7, 2000)
12. Round Room (December 10, 2002)
File:B00022LJC4.01. AA260 SCLZZZZZZZ .jpg 13. Undermind (June 15, 2004)
Live Albums (besides LivePhish series)
1. A Live One (recorded live throughout 1994 - released June 27, 1995)
File:B000BU0CA2.01. SCLZZZZZZZ .jpg 2. New Year's Eve 1995 (recorded live on December 31, 1995 - released December 20, 2005)
File:Ssp.jpg 3. Slip, Stitch & Pass (recorded live on March 1, 1997 - released October 28, 1997)
4. Hampton Comes Alive (Recorded live on November 20 & 21, 1998 - released November 23, 1999)
Note: All album information is taken from The Pharmer's Almanac and The Phish Companion.
Phish has also released a steady stream of recorded live concerts from their archives. Six albums were released twice each year. The Live Phish Series began in late 2001, and ended after they released twenty complete live concerts. They have also released three DVDs of live performances, one from a Las Vegas performance on September 30, 2000, a documentary about life on the road entitled Bittersweet Motel and a documentary about their 2003 festival in Limestone, Maine called, simply, "It".
Because Phish's abilities were so grounded in their live shows, concert recordings are commonly-traded commodities. They can be purchased through the Live Phish Website, or traded on any number of music messageboards. Phish fandom is generally considered to be very welcoming and approachable for outsiders.
Celebrity Fans
There are many celebrities and musicians who have expressed their love for Phish, including Matt Groening, Fran Drescher, Robert Plant, Jerry Seinfeld, Fred Savage, Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater, Danny Tamberelli of The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Al Franken, Al Gore, Jimmy Buffett, Incubus, Pat Metheny, Yes, Bill Walton, Jeremy Shockey, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Nash, Danny DeVito, David Letterman, Roger Waters, The Grateful Dead, Steven Wright, Gene Simmons, Jane's Addiction, Carrot Top, Matt Morris, Phil Jackson, Kurt Vonnegut, Barry Zito, Primus, Howard Lederer, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O'Brien, Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash, Rick Moranis, and many others.
Fan Activities
Phish fans (a.k.a. Phishheads) have produced a noteable range of expressions of their interest in the band. Most often reported in media, and apparent at shows, are the many vendors (of food, t-shirts, art, etc.) reminiscent of "shakedown street" at a Grateful Dead concert. Less apparent are the dozen or more fan organizations - formal and informal, for-profit and nonprofit - which fans have created and maintained, often for the benefit of other fans and, indirectly, to the benefit of the band. These include a variety of groups with some presence at shows, including the Phellowship (celebrating seeing shows sober together), Clifford Care Bears (a one-tour effort regarding awareness about "hard" drugs), People for a Louder Mike (an informal effort to increase Mike Gordon's bass in the house mix), the Green Crew (controlling trash and refuse), and the Mockingbird Foundation. Additionally, fans have organized online in various ways, including brianrobert.com (connecting gay Phish fans), the Phunky Bitches mailing list (connecting female fans), through etree.org, through Usenet newsgroups rec.music.phish, in various IRC channels, and in the original Phish.net, started in 1991 and still active. Fans have also produced a number of books, including The Phishing Manual, The Pharmer's Almanac, and The Phish Companion.
External links
- Phish's Official Website
- Live Phish Downloads
- The Phish.Net
- Stellar Live Concert Photos from Phish's later years
- A site encouraging Phish to reunite
- Trey Anastasio Photo Galleries + other bands
- Everythingrock: Phish
- The Rhombus.com
- Unoffical Guitar Tab Archive
- An unofficial fanpage.
- The Mockingbird Foundation