Let us Now Go unto MSG and See this thing which Phish has Made Known to Us

The venerable quest has begun, as a formerly weary traveler, newly refreshed thanks to a draught of caramel caffeine, departs one city on his way to another.

The journey, though, unlike adventures experienced, say, during the crusades, will be drab, colorless, without blood or beast or plunder.

But the prize, similar to the chalice -- the Holy Grail -- will, while not imbuing the pilgrim with eternal life, bring him undying splendor: New Year’s Eve with Phish at the newly renovated Madison Square Garden.

A jam-seeking hero etches himself into Phish lore.

Classic Trey

In light of the recent announcement that Trey will embark on an orchestral tour this winter, I thought it might be wise to present clips of the four symphonies he will perform with.

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Colorado Symphony Orchestra

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Los Angeles Philharmonic

Bring Sunscreen, Maybe

The summer rumor mill has already begun spinning, albeit calmly. 

Phish is reportedly considering performing in June at the High Tide Music Festival in Ocean City,Md., according to The Dispatch. The festival, which the resort town approved in October, will take place Jun. 2 and Jun. 3.

Usually know for hosting its own festivities, Phish recently began headlining mainstream music and art festivals -- perhaps as an effort to appeal to a more varied fan base. Since its 2009 revival, the band has played at Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits and Outside Lands. 

Bringing in an act such as Phish, which boasts a mammoth following, is a sure way to boost local commerce. In the past, businesses have lauded the band for attracting fans willing to spend.

Phish had said that it planned to take some time off from touring after its New Year's Eve run at Madison Square Garden. But this latest bit of news points to a possible summer tour.

Moments in a Jar

As in life, there exist certain rites of passage within the Phish community.

Your First Show

Here, you experience what made the band a success -- what your Phish friends have persistently told you from the onset: "You have to see this band live, man."

No matter during summer, winter or fall tour, no matter at Madison Square Garden, Hampton Coliseum or Red Rocks Amphitheater, regardless of song selection, dancing space or drug availability, regardless of crowd energy, police temperament or hippie presence, this show will act as a point of comparison for every other, whether you see five more or 100 more.

Your First Festival

It's your twenty-first birthday, your learner's permit, your first kiss. It's camping with 30,000 to 70,000 of your best friends. It's two to three days of Phish, of Trey's machine-gun solos, Mike's bombs, Page's funky missiles and Jon's strategic back beat.

After your first Phish festival, all other music festivals -- Bonnaroo, Coachella, Wormtown -- will feel terribly stale.

Your First New Year's Eve

Historically, December 31 has brought consistently epic Phish performances. In 1999, in the midst of the Y2K scare, Phish played from midnight to sunrise in front of 85,000 people -- the largest gathering that New Year's night. 

Your First Halloween Show

No other band, past or present, does Halloween quite like Phish. Donning a musical costume, the quartet becomes, for one memorable set, another band. 

In 2009, Phish covered "Exile on Main Street" by the Rolling Stones.

Rolling Stone Publishes Fresh, but Flawed List of Guitar Greats

The upcoming issue of Rolling Stone magazine is all about fiery solos, dreamy melodies and powerful riffs, as it features a revamped list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Along with members of its staff, Rolling Stone invited a host of lauded guitarists, including Phish front man Trey Anastasio, to pick their favorite ax masters.

Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Kieth Richards and Jeff Back top the list. But from there, some of the rankings and selections come across as, at best, questionable and, at worst, ludicrous. 

Notably missing from the list of lick kings was Anastasio himself, who ranked 73rd on David Fricke's 2003 version. (At the time, Fricke was a senior editor for the magazine.)

Being that he was a part of the panel who compiled the list, Anastasio's absence could be explained as a mere conflict of interest -- though that did not seem to keep Eddie Van Halen (No. 8), Derek Trucks (No. 16) or Tom Morello (No. 40), all of whom given a vote, off it. 

As expected, Phish fans showed up to express their outrage at Anastasio not making the cut. They were not the only sect to find flaws in the list, however, as others wondered why the panel left out or poorly ranked their favorite guitarists.

Yet one should never view these lists -- though supremely entertaining -- as without flaw or set in stone. In some ways, it's fruitless for a publication to even compile one; people will always find reason to gripe about where their favorite musician ends up.

In dealing with such lists, then, the best course is to let fans -- not artists and certainly not editors, reporters or critics -- decide the rankings.

So, to this end, I welcome you to post your list of guitar gods in the comments section below. Go crazy.

Time Flies When You're Dancing

If you have some free time tonight, head over to Hidden Track and check out Dave Onigman's list of the ten noteworthy changes in Phish -- the community and the scene -- since the 2000 release of Bittersweet Motel.

Much has changed.

$22 a ticket? Unbelievable. Now, $22 will buy you only a domestic beer and a soggy hot dog at the venue. 

And, today, the band is completely sober -- a fact Seth Schiesel eloquently noted in his review of Super Ball IX for The New York Times. 

Thankfully, for its members and its fans, Phish has reduced the torrent of drug abuse that derailed it in 2004 to a gentle, invisible mist. 

The Grateful Dead comparisons no longer phase the band as much, though it's amazing that such remarks ever did. 

Attendance has dropped markedly. Just 40,000 traveled to Super Ball IX compared to the 70,000 at Great Went. This comes as no surprise, of course, given the economy and the rise in ticket prices.

Who knows what could change in the next 13 years. 

Maybe the Occupy Wall Street movement will succeed, abolishing student loans and overpriced tickets. Maybe the band will tour the Middle East or return to Asia. Maybe the jam scene will somehow find its way into mainstream media.

Then again, nothing could change. And that wouldn't be such a bad thing. 

Remembrance: Trey Anastasio at Carnegie Hall

Recently, an exceptional clip of Trey Anastasio's 2009 performance with the New York Philharmonic popped up on YEMBlog. The event marked Anastasio's second performance with an orchestra -- his first was with Orchestra Nashville in 2008. 



It features the Phish song "You Enjoy Myself" in its entirety -- a track the classically trained guitarist actually penned with an orchestra in mind. 

Admittedly, the sight of Anastasio in the prestigious Carnegie Hall rather than a smoky arena, wearing a neatly pressed suit instead of a casual flannel, can be quite jarring. 

But as soon as he begins to play, the shock melts away, with the dynamic orchestra providing a perfect backdrop for his delicate patterns. 

And when hoots and howls fill the typically timid opera hall as the song hits its peak, you can't help but smile.

Phish's music has always been about taking risks. For Anastasio, arguably the band's anchor, that means making sure his notes never grow mold.

This performance highlighted Anastasio's willingness to leap musical hurdles, blending genres with the hope of forming something new. 

Here's hoping he puts on the suit again sometime soon. 

Scalped Out

Four minutes.

That's all it took for tickets to Phish's New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden in New York City to sell out on Oct. 29. Poof. Gone. 

Fears come to fruition for thousands of hopeful fans. Shut out again. 

Yet more shocking is the fact that, just fourteen minutes later, StubHub, the online broker, had already amassed over 100 tickets, ranging from roughly $200 for nosebleeds to $7,000 for floor seats.

Clearly, the scalpers won. Using automated Web bots -- cyborg cheats -- they pilfered hundreds if not thousands of tickets before fans could even click their mouses. 

Like professional gamblers studying a betting line, the savvy thieves read the demand and acted accordingly. They knew full well the inherent value of the Dec. 31 ticket. Indeed, to Phish fans, it's considered the Holy Grail. 

And although some flocked to Phantasy Tour, an online forum for Phish fanatics, to post profanity laden threads expressing their outrage, many in the community expected this outcome.

Scalping, they agree, is an unstoppable force fueled by immeasurable greed. 

The consensus: As long as there are tickets, there will be scalpers.

Phish Raise Over a Million for Flood Victims

Phish said Friday that its September 14 benefit show in Essex Junction, Vt. netted $1.2 million for flood relief.

Two charitable organizations, The Vermont Community Foundation and The WaterWheel Foundation will share the proceeds, which will be put toward cleaning up the damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene.

The concert was a homecoming of sorts for the band. Phish had not played a show in their home state since 2004.

“We are all tremendously appreciative of the band members and everyone else involved,” said VCF President and CEO Stuart Comstock-Gay. “This is an incredible contribution they are making to rebuilding Vermont.”

Phish also released a list of the other major donors that contributed to the effort.

Foundation Thanks Phish and Its Fans

The Vermont Community Foundation issued a statement Thursday thanking the Phish community for attending the band’s benefit show in Essex Junction.

According to the press release, The WaterWheel Foundation, which oversees the band's charitable donations, plans to announce in the coming days how much money the concert raised, as well as how the money will be spent.


The VCF and The WhaterWheel Foundation will share all proceeds from the show. So far, Phish has raised $9,285 towards flood relief. 

The show lured 12,000 fans to the Champlain Valley Exposition Wednesday and included an address from Gov. Peter Shumlin.

Lazy Writers Beware: Phish Fans Attack

When scribes from the outside world – bloggers, journalists, etc. – write terribly inaccurate pieces about our beloved band, we react swiftly and in droves, like a swarm of angry bees or a pack of hungry lions.

It’s not that we can’t handle the abuse; we regularly critique the most minute aspects of Phish. But there’s a fine-line between constructive criticism and blindly thrown barbs. So those who cross it must be ready for the return fire.

Usually that comes in the form of a machine-gun barrage of comments. And, generally, they aren't insensitive or rude. In fact, the majority are eloquent, well-thought-out responses, explicating why the article is (a) misinformed, (b) poorly written or (c) under researched.

More often than not, our ire falls on those who focus their pieces around that age-old stereotype: all Phish fans are hippies, either of the stinky or strung-out variety. It’s boorishly overused and epitomizes the definition of lazy journalism.

By playing up this obvious fallacy and using it as a crux, the writer demonstrates a stark lack of research and an unprofessional level of ambivalence.

Indeed, there is an abundance of drugged-out free spirits at a Phish show.

That’s not the point: there are also business professionals, teachers, mechanics, students, heck, even plumbers, all there to step outside of their regular routines and see their favorite band play their favorite tunes.

To them, to us, a Phish concert is a blissful escape – an event we wait months and, in some cases, years to attend, collectively shelling out millions (wait, hippies don’t have money, right?) in hard-earned pay.

To others, though, Phish will always be a target for tired clichés and desultory denigration.

Most recently, a blogger from sevendaysvt.com, Lauren Ober, posted an article titled “Here For Phish? How About You Lend a Phreaking Hand?” in which she demands that, while waiting for Phish’s Sep. 14 benefit show, fans lend a hand cleaning up Vermont,  recently ravaged by flooding from Tropical Storm Irene.

The problem isn’t with Ober’s request, which is perfectly acceptable; the fault lies, instead, in her delivery.

Aside from annoyingly spelling words wrong (“phlood,” “phrom”), Ober’s post painfully rehashes the hippie stereotype. And she employs it to insult the eager fans who were waiting outside of the FlynnCenter box office Saturday for tickets.

First, she surmises (it’s unclear how) that they all smoked weed before securing their spots in line.

Then, as her coda, she tosses in the predictable patchouli reference and claims Phish fans should thank Vermont for inventing marijuana.

In the end, Ober fails in both her feeble attempt at satire and her noble appeal for assistance.

She places little emphasis (one sentence) on the fact that the reason fans are there in the first place is to attend a show that’s raising money – $75 for each ticket – for flood relief. Phish and its fans are clearly contributing.

Of course there is always more to do – more houses to rebuild, more bridges to fix, more towns to clean up. But asking for help in a condescending tone while, at the same time, berating and mocking those whom you’re asking doesn’t work.

It never has and never will.

Ober recognized this later after her blog was bombed with 100 comments, most pointing out her blunder, and she promptly posted an apology. “In retrospect,” she writes, “I realize that it was ill-timed and ill-conceived.”

You got that right.

Perhaps she should have omitted everything save for her second to last paragraph, where she aptly offers up outlets for fans wanting to help. Or maybe she could have changed her tone, scrapping the lame gimmicks for a little pathos.

In any case, Ober learned what many before her already knew: If you attack our band, we will fight back.