I guess Trey caught a recent Dead show.
Sugaree, love the user name. Thanks for bearing this good-news-in-disguise. The first Phish show I attended (in 1995) was awesome. The next one was also pretty good, but they were touring for “Billy Breathes” at the time – not my favorite – and the descent into the mellow, meandering instrumentals with poorly-written nursery couplets for lyrics had already begun. This is not to say that “Taste” didn’t sound great, and there was an amazing bit of synchronicity when a song (I forget which) burst from its brooding jam into a flurry of major chords, just as the sun came out and lit up the early-afternoon clouds in a (really! I wasn’t even high!) rainbow.
Still, though, despite the insistence that “you haven’t seen them until you’ve seen them live”, I don’t think I could really bring myself to sit through another 55-minute noodling version of Tweezer during a second set. I prefer–and maybe I always have preferred–their studio work. Perhaps if Fishman were a better singer, or if the sound work at the shows weren’t so top-heavy (Trey! turn your freaking guitar DOWN!), I could appreciate some of the novel a cappella pieces or excellent covers they play.
As it is, I’ll be content with my collection of studio albums and a few live tapes. They were a great band and remain great musicians. I hope I come across them in other side projects, but I’m glad the band has finished their run. Phish have learned (as the cast of SNL never seemed to) that half of the greatness of performing is knowing when to stop.
The big question, of course, is how many months will it take before Phish fans notice? 
The Dead said the same stuff when Jerry died, but they won’t be able to stay out of the spotlight or resist the millions they will be offered in ten years or so.
And sugaree, you are so right about the recent Dead shows…I was at Bonnaroo last year and they were so boring that they almost ruined the awesomeness of the rest of the shows.
I won’t pretend this doesn’t suck, especially since their summer tour isn’t coming anywhere near me.
But you know what? If they’re not into it, I’m not into it. I feel bad for people who won’t ever get to see them, but I’ve been to seventeen shows, and the last was as good as the first. I really can’t complain.
Besides, this just encourages the side projects. The year they were on hiatus featured the best stuff any of them has made in the studio in years. Trey’s studio album, Mike Gordon and Leo Kottke’s “Clone”, Vida Blue’s debut (not to mention their follow up “The Illustrated Band”, which I loved)…all were better than the thoroughly-OK “Round Room”.
All I can say is thanks, and bring on the Trey Band!
Thought I’d emerge from mostly lurkdom to chime in on this subject. I’m in agreement with the sentiments expressed so far–if they think it’s over, it’s over. I’m bummed, especially since real-life obligations have prevented me from seeing as many shows as I’d like since they came back from hiatus. I was hoping to catch Coventry, but that’s not going to happen due to out-of-town guests coming in that weekend. Alas…
But Phish has given me some great memories, and some of the best friends I could have (not to mention more tapes than I can lift). I’m just glad I started seeing them when I did. I can’t believe 10 years has passed since I discovered them.
There was, for a long time, a coalition of Phish Fans known as PLM, or People for a Louder Mike. (That is, they wanted the bass turned UP.) The consensus at one point was that they had been successful, and Mike was coming through a lot more clearly; I can’t remember exactly when this was.
Did that one member ever go to jail for taking nudie pics of that little girl?
This was unfortunate news to me, considering I’m a huge Phish fan. But the consensus seems to be that they aren’t the same as they used to be, and it’s not a good thing.
Sadly, I’ve never been to a Phish show before (I am going to make sure to before they play their last show), but I own many bootlegs/live CDs, and for the most part I prefer their studio stuff. Jamming is great, and Phish is superb at it, but jamming for the sake of jamming just gets OLD. I can’t listen to a 30-minute Tweezer or YEM anymore because it’s just the same old shit. There is only so much you can do with a song, and they have stretched the limits with all of their classics. They certainly aren’t coming out with brilliant material anymore- Picture of Nectar and Junta bring Farmhouse and Round Room to shame (I like both CDs, though). Maybe my experience would be enhanced by hallucinagenics, I don’t know.
They’re fantastically talented, and easily match the Dead as far as prowess and reputation, but maybe it’s a good thing that they’re going.
I saw Phish once and only once here in Lousville at the Palace in about 1993, and, without question, it was the best concert I have ever seen. Aside from the incredible musicianshop, the great songs, those guys put on a show. And it wasn’t pyrotechnics and crap like that, it was lights and trampolines and just all around coolness. For a long time I harbored a secret wish to follow them on tour, although life was always getting in the way. Now even 0.01% chance of such a thing occuring is gone.
They weren’t nudie pics, no charges were ever filed, and everyone involved said that the whole thing was blown way out of proportion.
I just can’t agree. No, their studio output isn’t that good, but I never really get the urge to pop in Junta or A Picture of Nectar, either.
As a live band, I think it’s easy for the fans to become jaded because we tend to see so many shows. For a new perspective, sit next to a newbie. At my last show (3/1/03, Greensboro), I sat next to two kids who drove up from Atlanta for their very first show. The opener was a pretty standard Chalkdust Torture, and while I enjoyed it, the looks on their faces were priceless. They were being blown away, just like I was when they opened with Chalkdust at my very first show (11/7/96, Rupp Arena). One of my colleagues was also there for her very first show, and she couldn’t stop talking about it for a week afterwards.
That’s why I agree with Trey–they’re not stopping because things are going downhill, but because they don’t want them to do so.
The first news story I heard said they definitely were not nudie pics, and then the second story I heard said they definitely were nudie pics, and then I never heard anything else about it.
I was just wondering what ever happened with the situation.
Hear, hear.
For a second, when I read the news on CNN, it was like the bottom just dropped out. I know that’s mostly due to the fact that I am beyond excited about seeing them for the first time in 7 years at SPAC next month. Its been ten years for me too, and all of a sudden I feel really old. There’s no show like a Phish show, and I’m going with the people that first introduced me to them, for a crazed weekend - like the ones I used to enjoy much more often before mortgage payments and the rest of Real Life set in. (Of course, now I’m not using the electric bill/rent money for a ticket as I did in my reckless youth, so its an OK tradeoff.)
Hit that midlife crisis a bit early, didn’t I?
I fall into the never-liked-any-studio-album-past-Hoist camp. But the shows are filled with songs I do enjoy, and even the so-so ones from the last 5 years or so at least gave me a break until the next great song ripped out.
And finally, the only emoticon I feel necessary at this moment: 
Thanks, Jurph.
I’m just feeling resigned, but at least I’m going to 6 shows: the 2 at Keyspan Park in Brooklyn, the 2 at SPAC, and the festival at Coventry, Vt. Coventry is going to be such a blowout. I feel blessed to be able to say goodbye.
I might have to sign up to play phantasy tour. My husband thinks the summer tour closer will be YEM. My money’s on a cover of either “Good Times, Bad Times” or “Loving Cup.”
So, will the lead singer be going back on *Walker:Texas Ranger[?i]?
I saw the Dead in '85, and they were boring back then. The band was clearly in a state of drug-addled torpor, and besides the drummers, nobody seemed to want to move much more than is absolutely necessary to stand in place, sing, and play a guitar. The only exception was the last number “Aiko Aiko”, where they woke up so suddenly it was jarring. The lightshow was about as unimaginative as any concert I’ve ever been to. Sometimes, almost randomly placed between the molten fades to some-or-other shade of pinkish-purple, the brights would sweep over the crowd like a tidal-wave of white light; it was hilarious to watch the Deadheads be almost physically knocked over by the beams and then slowly right themselves to resume Karma Surfing in their usual state of acidified solopsism. For me the entertainment was the crowd. Truly a sight to behold. I was almost tempted to jump in a van and tag along for a few more shows, simply because I saw a LOT of ugly, unkempt, dirty little guys in tie-died Salvation Army duds dancing with some of THE sweetest little hippie babes busting out of their peasant clothes I have ever seen. Seriously, one of these chicks just latched onto me and started dancing all night and I was in fucking heaven. She was so stoned she probably didn’t know my ass from my ear, and that was all well and good as far as I was concerned.
Never went to a Phish show, but I imagine the scene was probably very similar, as all the Deadheads pretty much morphed into Phisheads.
Most definately. And I think the keyboardist is getting back together with Paul Simon.
Yeah, the scene is very similiar, Loopydude, save for the fact that while I strongly suspect the members of Phish to be on intimate terms with mind-altering substances (Mike, I’m looking at you), they never seem to let the drugs take control. The crowd may be in a state of “acidified solopsism,” but the band never falls into an onstage “drug-addled torpor.” So the music stays sharp.
I love the scene as much as I love the shows. All the bartering, the tour dogs running loose, and the long patchwork dresses remind me of a fantasy medieval marketplace.
Long time fan here, feeling the bitter/sweet rollercoaster of emotions over this one. I first heard about them in a Bass-Player magazine article describing Mike’s approach to music and I remember thinking “I’ve got to check these guys out!” I have all the CD’s and have purchased and downloaded the most recent shows I went to, as well as many gigs of shows from furthurnet.net.
I only made it to two shows, one before and one after the hiatus. I took newbie friends to both, and I have to agree with DoctorJ - attending with a wide-eyed friend who had never heard them before the CD I played on the way to the show made the show just as much as the boys on stage. The last show I saw started with YEM, bouncing on trampolines, and the energy in that staduim went INSANE!
But then, after witnessing the mediocrity that is the Dead sans Jerry, I have to say that 21 years is a damn good run for any band.
At least I have my tapes…
For those who aren’t on the e-mail list, Trey is going to be on Charlie Rose tonight on PBS. Check your local listings (it’s on at 11:30 PM around here).