Phish

views updated

Phish

Rock band

Phish was founded on October 30, 1983, when four college students in Vermont got together to play a distinctive fusion of rock, jazz, funk, bluegrass, boogie, and even vacuum cleaner noises. Although Phish played to a lone fan in a local bar at their first public appearance, within 10 years their popularity and their quirky style mushroomed—independent of media hype—in an unusually obsessive, oddball manner; Phish’s longstanding devotees have jealously monitored the band’s burgeoning popularity and even begrudge them their new fans. In 1993, a decade after their formation, Phish sold 300,000 concert tickets—even though the band had not sold 300,000 copies of any of their first four albums.

Phish is comprised of bassist Mike Gordon, keyboard player Page McConnell, drummer Jon Fishman—the source of the band’s name—and guitarist Trey Anastasio, who is also chief songwriter and lead singer. The band was spawned after Anastasio, with an itch to form a band, distributed some simple flyers on the Burlington campus of the University of Vermont. Gordon, Fishman, and another guitar player responded, and the fledgling group began performing to small crowds at gigs on and around campus. Shortly thereafter, Page McConnell, a student at Goddard College, replaced the original guitarist and introduced keyboards to the band. Anastasio and Fishman soon transferred to Goddard, but Gordon remained at the University of Vermont to study filmmaking. Within ten years, Phish would be earning more than $5 million annually in concert ticket sales.

Since the beginning, Phish’s key to success has been the formation of a “secret” band apart from traditional media—one that relies upon word-of-mouth advertising from fans, memorable music, unusual concert antics, and “insider” jokes among fans that can only be appreciated by regularly attending their shows. For example, bandmembers provide certain silent cues for the audience that mean “turn around” or “fall to the floor“; a person who has never seen Phish perform live could conceivably attend a concert and be perplexed when most of the audience drops to the floor or turns to face the other way. This “insider knowledge” is part of the Phish act that longstanding fans seek to preserve.

The History of the Vacuum Cleaner

Since Phish’s sound and style are difficult to peg, they have been compared to both the Grateful Dead and the late Frank Zappa, two acts that have faced similar dilemmas. Though not entirely unwarranted, these comparisons rankle many of Phish’s most ardent fans,

For the Record…

Members include Trey Anastasio (born Ernest Anastasio, September 30, 1964, in Fort Worth, TX; received music degree from Goddard College), guitar, lead vocals, songwriter; Jon Fishman (born February 19, 1965, in Philadelphia, PA; received music degree from Goddard College), drums, vocals; Mike Gordon (born June 3, 1965, in Boston, MA; received degree in filmmaking from the University of Vermont), bass, vocals; and Page McConnell (born May 17, 1963, in Philadelphia; received music degree from Goddard College), keyboards, vocals.

Group formed on October 30, 1983, in Burlington, VT; played in bars and small concert halls for five years before releasing first album, Junta, in 1988; released second album, Lawn Boy, in 1990. Signed with Elektra, 1992. First MTV video produced in the spring of 1994.

Addresses: Record company —Elektra Records, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019. Phish Update— P.O. Box 219, Lexington, MA 02173; or send electronic mail to info@phishnet or to rec.music.phish through the Internet’s “Usenet News.”

who feel the band is unique. As with followers of the Grateful Dead, Phish’s fans willingly travel across the country to see them perform, and many even follow their tour from city to city. In addition, Phish bandmembers incorporate unusual sounds into their music— such as the swoosh of a vacuum cleaner—which is considered reminiscent of Zappa.

But the true inspiration for the band’s use of the vacuum cleaner as a musical instrument was drummer Jon Fishman’s mother. Putting a new spin on an age-old form of punishment, she once felt compelled to vacuum the profanities right out of her upstart son’s mouth. She “sucked all those f-words right down her Hoover,” according to Musician magazine. “I used to bring up the vacuum cleaner to make her feel guilty,” Fishman joked in the same article, “but now she just asks, ‘Aren’t you glad I did it?’ … The first few times you do it, you’re going to cut your mouth, so just resign yourself to it. Your cheek will get caught and it will be a nightmare. Bleeding all over the place.… [But] it’s the king of flatulence sounds.”

Although Phish enthusiasts form an enormous musical tribe at concerts and typically dance for hours, their support extends beyond the realm of live performances: in the 1990s era of computer cyberspace, fans created the Phishnet file on the Internet, which boasted over 40,000 subscribers in the summer of 1994. A Phish hotline was also created for fans who want to know the band’s touring itinerary, and the Phish Update Newsletter, with a circulation of 50,000, is published regularly in Massachusetts.

A glimpse into the Phishnet file reveals the nature of Phish fans and the struggle between old and new devotees as Phish’s popularity continues to grow throughout the 1990s. Esoteric debates as to the significance of particular Phish lyrics or items of clothing are heated and rampant; old fans scorn the “uneducated” newer ones; the pros and cons of drug use at Phish concerts are debated; rides to concerts are offered and requested; copies of live Phish performances are put on the selling block; the merits of general versus reserved tickets are discussed; and fans, for the most part, lament Phish’s rising popularity as a threatening prospect.

That Phish Feeling

The mutual admiration society among Phish fans has created a camaraderie and a secret club atmosphere at live shows, which is one reason the fans feel too much media exposure will ruin their fun. With an emphasis on live performances instead of televised videos, Phish has been able to retain their ardent fan base. Phish concerts are also marked by whimsy; often a bandmember will jump on a trampoline while playing, or float a large, helium “earth” ball over the audience; the pitch and tone of the music will then mirror the ball’s journey.

“I think a lot of [our popularity] has to do with the feeling at the shows,” guitarist Anastasio told Newsweek writer Kendall Hamilton. Drummer Fishman added that their live concerts create “that communal spirit.” Each step Phish has taken toward greater popularity is accompanied by assurance to longstanding fans that this “communal spirit” will not be compromised—starting with their move from a small bar in Burlington to a larger bar in the same city. But when vocalist Alison Krauss joined Phish on their 1994 record Hoist, some original fans were irked—as evidenced on the Phishnet—simply because a guest vocalist was a departure for the band.

After playing in clubs and small theaters for five years, Phish released their first album, Junta, in 1988. They signed with the Elektra label in 1992, and the albums Lawn Boy and A Picture of Nectar soon followed. In 1993 Phish recorded Rift, their first record with an outside producer, Barry Beckett; Beckett has also worked with Etta James and Aretha Franklin, and his ear for a soulful tone is evident on Rift. The next year, the band released Hoist, produced by Paul Fox, who is noted for his work with Robyn Hitchcock and XTC.

Fans Begged, “Say No to Video”

Since the early 1990s, fans have been wondering if Phish would “sell out” and make a video for MTV; many hoped they would remain a safely guarded secret. In the spring 1994 edition of the Phish Update Newsletter, a longtime fan wrote: “Is it true that you’re coming out with a video? Please don’t! Do you know how trendy that will make you? It’s great for you, but it sucks for us.… You are so important to me that I feel protective over you.”

Phish finally did put out a music video in the spring of 1994 after debating the move for three years. The video may suggest a shift in the band’s aspirations, in spite of the fact that Anastasio once told People magazine contributor Peter Castro: “What worried us about doing a video was the thought of ‘What if we suddenly have this big success?’ But we’re already successful.… Not everyone needs MTV.” One Phish fan, a Brown student, told Hamilton, “Phish couldn’t play an empty hall. There needs to be feedback between the crowd and the band.”

In spite of their ballooning popularity, the members of Phish remain dedicated to their original personal philosophy. “It all comes down to that instinct for freedom,” Gordon commented in Musician. “Those moments of rock ‘n’ roll, of improvisation at its most intense, celebrate freedom.” And as Fishman explained to Castro: “I always believed that if you pursue what you love, all the material things will fall into place. When we start thinking … ‘How do we make this album big?’ instead of ‘How do we make it good?, ’that’s when our decline will begin. I hope that never happens.”