# How and where do I get started with Phish?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-where-do-i-get-started-with-phish/460135
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 15, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-where-do-i-get-started-with-phish/460135 "2008-08-15T20:01:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Drakkar\_Sauna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drakkar_Sauna)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-where-do-i-get-started-with-phish/460135/1 "2008-08-15T20:01:59Z")
I heard some of Phish’s music and I liked it, and based on a friend’s enthusiasm and proselytizing, they seem to be the exception among jam bands, with strong songwriting and neat concepts underlying all of the chops. He was telling me about the different storylines that tie together some of their different songs, including ones that they never put on an album, like this whole “gamehenge” thing and how it’s this storyline and there are auxillary songs that continue the story and so on. The live jams that he’s played me were pretty interesting - rather than the sort of wanking that I expect from jam bands, there was a real fluidity and intelligence to their improvisation, more akin to a legitimate jazz or improv group rather than a bunch of stoners dicking around. Moreso, their jams seemed to evolve - he played me some early-nineties stuff and their “live one” album, all of which was more Grateful Dead-style jamming, but then some later-nineties stuff was more funky and almost disco and Talking Heads-influenced.
So where do I start with this band? Studio albums, plus recommend some particularly great or representative live shows that I can easily find on the Internet Archive or whatever.
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### Author:  [@SuntanTigerTamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanTigerTamer)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-where-do-i-get-started-with-phish/460135/2 "2008-08-15T20:24:55Z")
Courtesy of my Phish uber-fan friend:
He suggests Junta, Billy Breathes, and Story of the Ghost for studio albums. For live stuff he recommended, [phish.com](http://phish.com) has the 97 Fall Tour and the 98 and 99 Summer Tours available for pay download.
Live live stuff should be available in torrent form, if one knew where to look…
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### Author:  [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2008, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-where-do-i-get-started-with-phish/460135/3 "2008-08-15T22:13:18Z")
Junta Junta Junta.
And more Junta.
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### Author:  [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-where-do-i-get-started-with-phish/460135/4 "2008-08-15T22:33:53Z")
If I were making a Phish Appreciation Kit for a newbie, it would include _Junta_, _Billy Breathes_, _A Live One_, and their NYE show from 1995 at Madison Square Garden (now available on CD).
All of their studio albums are hit and miss, but all of them up through _Story of the Ghost_ are worth listening to.