Ahh, to be one of the lucky few able to nab tickets to a date on Phish’s 2003 comeback tour. But what is a girl to do when she doesn’t actually know any Phish songs, apart from their hilarious but seemingly insignificant cover of Snoop Dogg’s classic “Gin and Juice?”
For all of you out there as clueless as I was, the band is named after drummer Jon Fishman and includes Mike Gordon on bass, Page McConnell on keyboards and Trey Anastasio covering the group’s guitar and vocal duties. As Phish’s unofficial leader, Anastasio started the band in 1983 at the University of Vermont. He and lyricist Tom Marshall, by day a computer programmer for the Prudential Insurance Co., wrote many of the band’s songs.
After nearly three dozen live and studio albums, Phish has only released one video — “Down with Disease” — to MTV. The group is and always will be a “live” band. Comparable to the Grateful Dead in live-performance caliber, Phish has played for more than 70,000 fans and performed concerts that have clocked in at more than eight hours. (They also allow fans to record and share concert audio in that same great Deadhead tradition.)
Late 2000 dealt Phish fans an utterly disappointing blow. The band announced its decision to call it quits. But after working on respective solo projects and relaxing, band members reconciled and during a practice session accidentally readied enough new material for a record. “Round Room” was released in December, and now Phish is back for a sold-out tour. So there’s Phish, in a Phishbowl.
Held at the roomy Great Western Forum in Inglewood (packed to capacity at 18,000), Phish’s tour opener was all about the love. With no vacuum cleaners or giant hot dogs in sight (previous Phish stage antics), this was a slimmed-down band, refreshed and excited to play. After a fairly late start, the band took to the stage and began its first set with “My Sweet One.” According to phish.net, the band then played “Cover of the Rolling Stone” for the first time (no doubt because they are gracing the cover of the current issue). They ended the first, 65-minute set with “Golgi Apparatus.”
After a 45 minute intermission, the band came back on for an 85 minute second set which included “Prince Caspian,” “Loving Cup” as an encore and a rendition of “AC/DC Bag,” which saw one overzealous fan climbing onstage and yelling “I Love You Phish” into Anastasio’s mic (to much crowd applause) before security promptly led him offstage. A highlight? I think so.
The beauty of a Phish concert is that you really are just sitting in on a jam session among four friends. Tomorrow’s show can prove radically different from tonight’s. The band might “jam” or improvise at the formal end of a song for more than 10 minutes, and one song may unexpectedly but smoothly transition to the next without stopping for air.
These guys are incredible musicians, who also possess an uncanny intimacy and amazing ability to communicate musically. They are somehow able to retain their individuality while working as a group. My only complaint for the show? Sometimes the energy was just not there, but the unofficial fifth member of the band, lighting director Chris Kuroda, more than made up for it by filling the arena with brilliant color and design. The light show was almost reason enough to pay $37.50.
While many in the audience were “chemically enhanced,” the crowd’s positive vibe was undeniable. These people were there simply for the music, enjoying every riff, every chord and delighting in being able to share the experience with so many others – similar to themselves or not. Rare for these times, it truly was an atmosphere of love. (Would you have expected anything less on Valentine’s Day?)
Even though it wasn’t my normal “cup of concert tea,” I enjoyed the Phish show, but I did miss the stage antics (a product of today’s conditioned short attention span). The show was much more of an experience for the “Phisheads” than for the “newbies.” (It’s almost as if there’s an inside joke that only the experienced fans and the band understand.) At the same time, a music-and-concert lover (regardless of the preferred genre) has to experience Phish live at least once, and it was just my time.
— Review by Jennifer Clay
February 20, 2003
