Entertainment For Lively Minds
… and Phish for bitter minnows…
I don’t know anything about Phish. I think they may be the heirs to the legacy of The Grateful Dead, eternally jammin’ their way across America. They’re ubiquitous enough over there to have been mentioned on an episode of The Simpsons, but I don’t know a single person who listens to them. I imagine they sound like Blues Traveler or The Dave Matthews Band, and I bet they probably played at Woodstock 2.
Of course this could be solved by a quick look at Wikipedia but where’s the fun in that? I like the idea of going off on one, completely misinformed.
However, Phish have come onto my radar as they recently appeared at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in order to induct the least Rock & Roll band ever, Genesis. They did an OK version of Watcher of The Skies, and a pretty ropey No Reply At All, but this speech from frontman Trey Anastasio is a heartfelt tribute to the I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) Hitmakers and proves what a fan he is. You don’t get this sort of thing at the Brits when someone lobs Robbie Williams his 47th gong…
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Farmhouse
Have one album..this is the only tune I like and your description is pretty close
Its funny those bands that only Americans really like - when I lived out there there was a big Californian thing for Oingo Boingo - never heard of them over here
Speaking as the house Deadhead...
Phish were part of that post-Dead generation of jam bands - Umphrey's McGee, Sting Cheese Incident, Gov't Mule, and the like. They were about long extended segues of songs, reworked covers and, perhaps crucially, the social scene surrounding the gigs - car park bazaars, tailgate parties, dancing in the lobbies etc. In the post-Dead world there was a desire by fans to recreate the whole vibe of following a Dead tour.
As you might expect, there's a slight smell of trying to recreate the past and the audiences for post-Dead jam bands are often younger than the Dead fans they're trying to emulate.
Phish were the most commercially successful but, personally, I prefer Umphrey's, as they bring a bit of humour to the party.
And they have a Ben & Jerry's ice cream named after them
Phish food.
They're a big college band, apparently. I've never heard a note of their music either.
I'd always suggest coming to Phish via the Dead
but they're all over Spotify if you want to dip in.
As with all the 'jam bands' they're really more of a live experience and the studio albums are perhaps less essential than live shows.
archive.com is a huge resource of sanctioned bootlegs for most of these bands (Dead, String Cheese Incident, Umphrey's etc etc)
http://www.archive.org/browse.php?collection=etree&field=%2Fmetadata%2Fc...
Does
whoever recorded this take a hit at about 2:05?
Every Hallowe'en, Phish play an album in it's entirety
Last week it was Waiting For Columbus - start to finish - and very good it was too. Not a patch on the original, of course, so ultimately a fun but pointless exercise. The audience enjoyed it though :-)