Phans Rejoice

Phish is getting back together. No group performing today has the emotional potency and musical impact that Phish had throughout the 90's and into the new millennium. If you are unfamiliar, a quick history:

Phish is a four-piece (guitar, bass, drums and keys) formed in the mid-80's while the founding members were still in college. Their musical style can only be called eclectic because they do not fit into any one definable genre (except the "jam-band*" label many have stamped on the music). Phish played hundreds of songs influenced by rock, bluegrass, funk, reggae, folk, classical, and jazz. Their oftentimes extended improvisations led to the jam-band label and popular recognition as inheritors of the Grateful Dead legacy. Going from small clubs to theaters to some of the biggest musical festivals ever held, Phish carved out a unique niche market for themselves in a time of MTV and 90's pop-rock radio prevalence. In 2004, Phish broke up and are now reuniting in 2009.

In 2001, I was an angst-driven Rage Against The Machine fan and had yet to discover the life-changing, musical world of Phish. Now, RATM is a fantastic group but it was only so long before my comfortable existence in life would clash with the violent socialist ideals of such a politically weighty group. Phish's music encompassed much more than any political opinion for me. In fact, the music was apolitical and seemed to encompass life itself. With over 620 original compositions, Phish music is literally a microcosmic world in and of itself. Trey Anastasio's guitar playing had (and still has) an enormous influence on me, as did the band's composition and live strategy. Without Phish, there is no way I'd be sitting in this Minneapolis coffee shop, enjoying a day off from tour with my band, analyzing last night's show on headphones.

Given the fact that Phish is an integral part of my musical life, you will be surprised to hear that their reunion is bittersweet for me. This is for a number of reasons. First, a large part of our band's fledgling fan base are Phishheads and will depart for Phish tour at the drop of a hat. What's more, I want to go to, too! On the For/Sure Productions side of things, Phish tour prevents us from bidding on one of our planned acts for Mountainside Mardi Gras: Porter, Batiste, Stoltz with Page McConnell (of Phish), on keys. It is both satisfying and scary to realize how intertwined my existence is with the super-group.

Ultimately, Phish's reunion will force me and the rest of the band to step away from the shadow of some of our favorite musicians and find a unique musical voice. I certainly don't want people shouting "Trey" at me for the rest of my life every time I pick up a guitar. True, there are worse guitar players to be compared to, but I'd like to think that my musical vision is more comprehensive than that...

But, it doesn't mean I won't see you in the parking lot when Phish comes to Colorado....

*A note about the "jam-band" label and associated contexts. I wrote recently about a review we received in a Denver paper. In it, FGF was labelled as "hippie music", as if that was a definable genre of music. Simon and Garfunkel, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles would all be considered "hippie music" by some people, despite how different these bands were. This prompted at least one insightful letter to the editor by an apparently attractive female reader named Whitters, and my decreased respect for Westword as a publication in general. Their reviewers should remember that the word "music" is half of the useless title "music critic".