"It's wierd. After a Phish show, the crowd is so silent. There's really nothing you can do except look at your friends, bask in the aftetrglow, and just say, "Wow!" Everyone will take turns saying it, but that's all anyone can manage to get out." -Civic Center Providence, RI
"Funniest story of the night: before the show, a group of Heads were outside the venue selling a tarp-full of sweaters and similar gear. A cop car comes screeching up next to them, two cops get out (decked our in full cop gear) and demand to see the guy's "goddam vending permit." And the kid pulled one out! People were literally cheering for them. Then- get this- the cops starting browsing the goods and by the the time I walked away I think one was planning to buy one! Best story of the night." -Mike Kuras 12/12/99 "Bathtub had a spacey jam which was also mellow and jazzy. It seemed for a little while that they were so into this jam that they went back into Bathtub like, 'oh yeah, now back to the bathtub that we started about 20 minutes ago.'-Gigglebuke 12/15/99"
You may be a lawyer in your 30s who catches only two shows a year, or a dreadlocked twentysomething nomad who attempts to deduce which songs will be played on a particular night -- either way Phish will hit you with something unexpected. There's always a dream set that has yet to be played, an old tune the band might dust off for the first time in a decade, or a new song waiting to make its debut. Phish history is history waiting to happen, and diehard tour heads are determined to be there when it does. -Robin Rothman 12/16/99 Dirt was amazing! This song gets better every time to my ears and the
crowd still doesn't get into. Sometimes I think Phish should play a whole
concert of slow songs and _teach_ the crowd how to listen. -Kaz 12/15/99 Say what you will, it's impossible to find a group of 80,000 concert-goers who care as passionately about both a band and taking care of the concert site as the Phish fans do. -Jeff Clemens, "The Neapolitan" The Phish New Years Concert required more than a thousand employees, 650,000 watts of lighting, 2.7 megawatts of electrical power, 20,000 gallons of fuel, 13 miles of cable, 70 telephone lines, a million pounds of ice, 200,000 gallons of drinking water, 1,200 portable toilets, three separate catering kitchens serving 25,000 meals to crew and staff, and, backstage, private bars such as the Betty Ford Clinic, where a tasting of a new microbrew took place late Thursday afternoon. -Greg Baker, "The Miami Herald" Although getting there certainly wasn't fun, frustrated fans can be credited with making the best of it. Most people trying to reach the venue, set in a wildlife refuge halfway between Naples and Fort Lauderdale, had already driven for hours, in some cases all day and night, before suffering through the massive back-ups on I-75. Still, what might have legitimately been a riot was transformed into a party, with Phishheads hopping from car to car and along the medians, greeting the people who had essentially become their neighbors, and sharing war stories from the road.
That friendly vibe would remain all weekend. -Dave bienenstock "Wall of Sound" I am shooting a 16mm film about Phish. Can I come backstage and get some footage ... and do you have a 16mm camera I can borrow? -Request to the Band at Big Cypress The scene's gotten ridiculously large, but it's not mass media. It's about taking a friend. I've always dreaded the thought of them playing stadiums, but they've made it so everyone can still have an enjoyable time. Spreading her arms wide, motioning to the sheer expanse of the reservation, she exclaims happily: I'm not smooshed! I'm going on a ferris wheel! -Marcie Vogel "There were times when Mike was touring for nine months straight," recalls Priscilla with a smile. "Then he'd come home and throw off my whole routine!" So is it hard for the couple to continually readjust between "normal" life in Vermont and the bubble world of the road? Both Mike and Priscilla pause and trade a knowing look. Then Mike suggestively arches an eyebrow and replies, "Which one is the bubble world?" -from Miami New Times
"It's kind of silly when [fans are] making pie graphs about set list openers. But then, I always liked a good graph."
- Mike Gordon in an interview with the Detroit Free Press, December 5, 1997 "MUSIC IS SORT OF THE LAST PURE THING ON EARTH.
WE'VE KIND OF ALWAYS SEEN IT AS A THING WHERE
IT'S AN ESCAPE.
YOU CAN LET GO OF WITH THE MUSIC
AND LOSE YOURSELF."
-TREY
My biggest concern was they were going to trash the place up," said Tiger, who had a change of heart when Great Northeast promised a rigorous cleanup and numerous announcements for concertgoers to respect the land. "They didn't leave a cigarette butt," he said. -Tiger, Spokesman for the Seminole Tribe
"The real reason I don't have to tune or break strings is because of the pact with the Devil
that I made. That's just one of the clauses in the pact with the devil. Actually, contract
negotiations for artists have improved since Robert Johnson. You gotta have a good lawyer
when you're dealing with the devil. My contract is way better than Robert Johnson's."
- Trey Anastasio
Take religion -- it would be cool if people just said, "we like the teachings of [insert prophet of your choice], and we want to study them and beat them into our kid's heads until they can't think for themselves". That would be fine -- but as soon as you 1) begin worshiping an invisible man and 2) talking about afterlife with any authority and 3) really believing those silly creation stories and ESPECIALLY 4) saying that your religion is better than everyone else's, you begin to lose credibility as far as I'm concerned. -Tom Marshall "I'm really happy with the way this one came out, and I don't always feel that way....This band is really, really good at conflict resolution. But if we get outside our normal space, the tendency is to cave in. Then the album comes out, and I'll say, 'That's not what I would've done, but whatever.' On this album, I wouldn't change anything." - Trey Anastasio
O: What's the worst thing a fan has done to you?
Trey: Well, there have been some... There was a fan who broke into Fish's house and lived there while he was away for two weeks, eating his food. I don't even like talking about that one because it's so weird, you know? That was pretty bad. One guy threw a small glass full of liquid acid in our drum tech's face.
O: The guy threw acid?
Trey: Yeah. Hallucinogenic acid, not like--
O: Okay, because I was like, "That's attempted murder, isn't it?"
Trey: Not to mention it's wasting acid. "There was one Dead show I saw," Anastasio says as we stop at a light. "One show I'd rank as one of the best concerts I've ever seen." He squints into the distance, remembering.
"It was at Hartford Civic Center, 1982 or '83," he continues. "And it was just a concert, you know? It wasn't about the vibe; it wasn't about the scene. I wasn't hanging out with my friends and stuff. I was just standing there, alone. Just listening to the music."
Wow. And you weren't on acid or anything.
"Oh, no. I was." -Spin Magazine
No one in Phish can confirm that Jon Fishman was the inspiration for the band's name, but he is clearly their not-so-secret weapon-the ghost in their machine. And this is a vital role. Because, despite being a wired phenomenon, Phish is, ironically, one of the most militantly human rock groups going: unquantized, unlooped, unshaven-committed to the warts-and-all, Be Here Now moment. And more than any other member, Fish, with his 5'5" frame, portly bearing, and spaced-out sense of wonder, personifies this ethic. -Spin Magazine
"It's weird," Fishman says of his spotted sundress. "I remember I just tried it on, stood in front of the mirror, laughed, thought I looked like Barney Rubble or something. Then I wore it that night onstage for a joke." He blinks and rubs his stubbly chin. "And I just wore it every night for the next 15 years."
-Spin Magazine
"Trey Anastasio: Once there was a guy called 'The Timer.' He stood in the front row at every show. He had a clipboard and a stopwatch. He was a brilliant math researcher, getting his Ph.D. at someplace like MIT. Whenever we started to play, he would start his stopwatch. His idea of quality was length. Whenever the jam wasn't long enough, he would shake his head disapprovingly. So we had to ask him to not stand in the front row anymore. I have since heard that he is still timing everything, but just from the back of the hall."-Sonic Net "Mark McGwire is to the Cardinals what Trey Anastasio is to Phish." - John Buchigrasse on ESPN's Sportscenter 6/30/00
"Some of the metaphysical groundwork for what turned out to be an exceptional musical event [3/1/97 Slip, Stitch, and Pass show] might have been laid the previous evening. Enjoying a night off, the members of Phish, along with their crew and friends, embarked on a raucous bout of partying that would have done Van Hagar proud. The festivities began at the hotel bar, where several rounds of a potent libation known as Dr. Joe's Knockout Punch were consumed. One overturned glass table and a mass eviction later, the party moved onto the tour bus, which became an impromptu mosh pit as tapes by Rage Against the Machine and other blared. 'There might have been 20,30 people on the bus,' says Gordon, 'opening the skylights and jumping out of them'. Next, they explored the subterranean clubs and discos of Hamburg, dancing to the latest electronica and house music into the wee hours." - From an Elektra press release about SS&P
"I went online in a Phish chatroom once. I logged on as Crackhead and was talking about smoking crack with Trey backstage. And they were like, 'Bullshit! He doesn't do that!' and I was like, 'Yes he does.' And they were like, 'What was Brad Sands, Phish's road manager wearing?' and I said 'Red Shirt, black tie, standing over by the hors d'oeuvre tray'" - Trey Anastasio - "Back to the Phuture" article in July 2000 SPIN mag
