As some of you may have heard and most of you certainly haven't (and don't care), Phish announced yesterday that they will be disbanding at the end of their summer tour, this time for good.
Last Friday night, I got together with Mike, Page and Fish to talk openly about the strong feelings I've been having that Phish has run its course and that we should end it now while it's still on a high note. Once we started talking, it quickly became apparent that the other guys' feelings, while not all the same as mine, were similar in many ways -- most importantly, that we all love and respect Phish and the Phish audience far too much to stand by and allow it to drag on beyond the point of vibrancy and health. We don't want to become caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act. By the end of the meeting, we realized that after almost twenty-one years together we were faced with the opportunity to graciously step away in unison, as a group, united in our friendship and our feelings of gratitude.
So Coventry will be the final Phish show. We are proud and thrilled that it will be in our home state of Vermont. We're also excited for the June and August shows, our last tour together. For the sake of clarity, I should say that this is not like the hiatus, which was our last attempt to revitalize ourselves. We're done. It's been an amazing and incredible journey. We thank you all for the love and support that you've shown us.
-- Trey Anastasio
Those of you who know me well know that I'm quite the little Phish fan. I've seen them live 34 times since 1993, which is small potatoes when compared to many others' attendance, but still about 30 times more than I've seen any other musical act. (For a truly frightening look at the obsessive nature of Phish fans, have a look at my Phish stats, compiled by ZZYZX.
Phish has had a huge hand in shaping my musical tastes, not only with their own music, but through their influences, covers, spin-offs, etc. I have enormous respect for the four of them. They've consistently shown integrity and humility while becoming huge stars, something that is more than rare. They've built an amazing organization and fanbase that give back to every community they pass through (through the Mockingbird and Waterwheel Foundations) and they've done it on their own terms, without corporate sponsors or radio or MTV exposure.
It has always amused me -- and occasionally saddened me -- to watch how the music press and music-loving friends of mine tend to dismiss Phish. To have any credibility as a high-minded music critic, you're generally required to loathe Phish, at least in public. They're "noodlers," "hippies," or worse.
Invariably the people who say these things don't know a thing about the band except the impression they get of the legions of fans, who admittedly don't always paint the most flattering picture. (Then again, while Woodstock 99 erupted in riots and fires, Phish's Millennium concert in Florida , the largest concert in the world that night, saw the army hired to clean up sent home early because the fans had sorted and bagged most of the garbage themselves. ) For me, though, it's always been about the music, not the fans or the "scene."
I've been inspired by Phish's refusal to stay still. Every album is different, they're constantly reinventing themselves musically. They take huge risks, which don't always pay off, but they're lucky enough to have fans who are willing to suffer the bumps and bruises that inevitably come with something new. It's easy for a band to get on stage every night and play some hits, the same every night. Phish has arguably never played the same song (the same way) twice.
At their best, I've never heard anything like it. Twenty-some years of constant playing together has created in them a sort of collective mind, and the unspoken communication among them is astounding. I'm fully aware that I bring a lot to this appreciation and that it's far from objective. My knowledge of their music and their personalities allows me to follow along in a way that's impossible with music that isn't as familiar. But what I feel I've really connected to more than anything else is their passion for the music. The joy they experience when it's all clicking is infectious in a way that's hard to describe.
And this brings me to the break up: I fully support it. If they continued playing and touring but they all didn't love it, Phish wouldn't be good. It shows a lot of integrity and care for what they've created that they're willing to let it go, particularly knowing how disappointed -- even angry -- many people will be.
Trey (guitarist) was on Charlie Rose tonight (transcript not available, audio to be posted here) and he talked a little about some of the angry letters he's gotten already. People accuse them, and him specifically, of being motivated by ego and not caring about the fans. They say he's ruining something beautiful. Of course what these fans don't realize is that it can't be beautiful if he doesn't want to do it. They see him as owing them something in return for their years of support. And who's got the ego problem again?
Artists should always do what they want. They owe us nothing. If you like what they create, great. If they change directions and it's not your thing, go find another thing. Better yet, make your own thing. If it's dictated by the fans -- by the market -- it's not art, it's product.
Anyway, thank you Phish. It's been super.
The New York Times sums it up pretty well:
Phish was always a paradox. A band that lived for improvisation, Phish always had plans: performing other band's albums end to end at its Halloween shows and concocting goofy stage spectacles for arenas. It kept trying different recording strategies, from meticulously overdubbed studio productions to its reunion album, "Round Room," made from rehearsal tapes. And it has played nearly every place imaginable, from the club Wetlands Preserve to gigantic, sold-out, multiset marathon concerts in the middle of nowhere. Phish has nothing left to prove. After August Phish's members are likely to turn up with any number of collaborators. That's what happens in the recombinant universe of jam bands. What disappears is two decades of accumulated reflexes: the subtleties of knowing just when another member is going to start shifting keys in a jam, or when to pause for another member's rhythmic fill.
Reflexes can become formulas, and Phish was always too perfectionistic to want to hear that happen. There are songs on the band's Web site from "Undermind," and they are as varied and breezy as ever. Whether or not Phish knew what was coming, the lyrics hint at valedictory: "Run away, run away, run away," Mr. Anastasio sings in "A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing," and in "The Connection," he sings, "I change my direction/One foot follows the other, one foot follows something new." For two decades, that was Phish's strategy all along.
UPDATE :: For all your searchers looking for a transcript of the interview, check this page next week, they'll post the audio of the show. It doesn't look like they provide transcripts.
UPDATE 2 :: The Phish Archive has transcribed the first part of the interview.
