------------------------------ From: STAFFORD@hycad5.dnet.hac.com Subject: PHISH = PHUN! 4-15-92 Widespread Panic and PHISH at the Variety Arts Theater in Los Angeles 4/15/92. Missed all of Widespread except their last number, so, no comment. I have never heard or seen Phish before last night. If it weren't for posts on rec.music.gdead, would have never enjoyed this musical group. Thanks to all you PhishHeads out there. I give you a big chinese bow. Phish started playing at 9pm consisting of a keyboard player, lead and bass guitars and drums. Clear mylar with pastel paint on it was hung behind the group and colored lights were shown on & thru for effect. They took a short break and finished their 2nd set around 11:40 The only way I can describe the music is rock-jazz and a little bit of free-form-fiddlefaddle. There were a few tunes that had some country, some with latin beats, most tunes had a few long instrumental jams. Songs I noted were named (I think): Falling in the Well Maybe So, Maybe No The theme song from National Public Radio's "All Things Considered Bag it, Tag it (sell it to the butcher at the store Cracklin' Rose (a Neil Diamond tune) Sweet Adeline (a capella - vocals only) Encore: Rocky Top A rather large hairy drummer dressed in a black and orange moo-moo came from behind the drum kit with a pre 1970 Electrolux canister vacuum cleaner. He put the hose end up to the mic and made some strange sounds with it and his mouth. Another interesting moment was when the lead guitarist played drums while the moo-moo clad drummer played the cymbals and sang lead vocals on Cracklin' Rose. Both guitar players engaged in some antics involving tiny trampolines and bending knees and turning round & round (PHISHersize?). Also, the bass player had big hair in the first set. In general, this was the most entertaining original group I have seen in a very long time. Their musicianship is pretty darned good 2, IMHO. PHISH = PHUN! Catch them live if you can. Jack Stafford@hycad5.dnet.hac.com Now back to your regularly scheduled program. . . . ------------------------------ From: ALJONES@pitzer.claremont.edu Subject: Variety Arts Theater 4-15-92 It was quite a show I must say!! The boy's first time in Southern California. The theater was actually very nice for downtown LA, but the management was a REAL drag. They did NOT let the tapers tape!! There was no taping at all except for what Paul and/or JP were doing. The manager apparently thought that these tapers were going to be selling these tapes and he was afraid that he wasn't going to be making the money. It didn't seem to even phase the guys at the soundboard, even after the tapers tried to get them to talk to the manager (oh well???). Panic came out first and played a beautiful set. They did a great soundcheck of "She caught the Katy" They weren't letting people in to the theater part yet from the lobby but being the audio enthusiasts that we are we managed to get down in there with no disturbance to anyone. Panic opened with J.J. Cale's "Travellin' Light" Then a little later in the set they did a great "Driving Song" -> "Weight of the World" -> ? -> (into) "Driving Song" at which point they closed with "Makes Sense to Me" Then Phish came (and so did we)!!!! The set list goes as follows: * YEM - Mikes bass solo had "Groove is in the Heart" jam, then Trey jumped in and changed it to "Funky Town" **YEM - Vocals jam was amazing, they must have gone in and out of at least four different songs, all in perfect harmony. It almost sounded rehearsed (yes, thats how good it was!)!!!!! *** Fish man comes up right before he's about to sing "Cracklin' Rose and says, "All right now, we've got a choice. Its either Neil Diamond ... or .. Syd Barrett. ... NEIL IT IS!! **** Right before My Sweet One, Trey announced that "This next one is by the third greatest song writer of all time..." At which point Fish raised his hands in glory then slammed into "MSO" The first set, honestly, kinda lagged (ie. one of my favs. Foam Guelah) Otherwise everything from Stash on was jammin'. THEN, I don't what they did back stage but when they came out for the second set, you could just feel it! The Chalkdust was soarin' and I was groovin' right below where all the Electra reps were. And thery were all smiles :-) Then the YEM was mind blowing! See out here inthe west not a lot of people know about bouncin when they're on the tramps. But that soon ended. Every- one was bouncin' during Page's organ solo 9which was needless to say, amazing. Trey solo was so colorful and bright. He was using every trick in his book (cuz as you know he re-wrote the book on guitar soloing :-)! I don't think I could say anything more (in the way of words) I guess you could just tell by them smiles and glassy eyed looks every one had after the show. It is too bad that noone gotta a tape of this, except JP. Well I'm off to Santa Babs in an hour. Hope to see all of you at the Warfield and the rest. Enjoy .. (No longer) Sufferin' from Petrified Phish Disease, Alex aljones@ptnext.claremont.edu P.S. If you are anywhere NEAR northern California on Saturday, highly recomend that you make the trip to Stanford. Don't worry about all the stuff. Just stay LP (that's Low Profile). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: AFOSTER@cmcvx1.claremont.edu Subject: L.A. show reviewed in L.A. Times 4-15-92 Here's a reveiw of Phish's 4/15 show in Los Angeles from today's Calendar section: A prediction: By 2000, every college town worth its salt will have its very own Grateful Dead surrogate, a latter-day hippie band complete with its own group of fans that follows it around from gig to gig. A number of such bands are already in place, including Burlington, Vt.'s Phish, which played at the Variety on Wednesday, jamming out the kicks for a boisterous bunch of tie-dye-clad kids who weren't even born during the Haight-Ashbury heyday. Though it's been embraced by young Deadheads, Phish (whose fans, of course, are known as Phishheads) proved to be more noteworthy for its differences from the Dead than its similarities. This quartet has chops, imagination and a lot of humor that give its wittily surreal songs and intricate jams an idiosyncratic character that only occasionally resembles the Dead's more free-form journeys. Can you imagine the Dead engaging in the silly, deadpan choreography of Phish singer-guitarist Trey Anastasio and bassist Mike Gordon? Would one of the Dead's drummers ever come out front to sing Neil Diamond's "Cracklin' Rosie," as did Phish's Jon Fishman, or would the Dead ever encore with a perfect barbershop-quartet "Sweet Adeline" and a hyper-driven "Rocky Top"? It's hard to say how this tomfoolery would go down with the old- timers, but Wednesday it was abundantly clear that Phish has struck a chord with Deadheads: The Next Generation. Well, there it is. A pretty accurate description of Phish's general style, but it's difficult to see whether or not the article praises or criticizes Phish overall. It's just good to see the band get space in a major metropolitan newspaper, especially on their first SoCal tour. -Andrew ------------------------------ From: s4610160@titan.ucc.umass.edu (dicA deaH) Subject: Re: L.A. show reviewed in L.A. Times 4-15-92 In article <1992Apr18.210628.27051@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU> AFOSTER@cmcvx1.claremont.edu writes: >Here's a [abbreviated] reveiw of Phish's 4/15 show in Los Angeles from >today's Calendar >section: > A prediction: By 2000, every college town worth its salt will > have its very own Grateful Dead surrogate, a latter-day hippie > band complete with its own group of fans that follows it around > from gig to gig. A number of such bands are already in place, > including Burlington, Vt.'s Phish, which played at the Variety on > Wednesday, jamming out the kicks for a boisterous bunch of > tie-dye-clad kids who weren't even born during the Haight-Ashbury > heyday. > > Though it's been embraced by young Deadheads, Phish (whose fans, > of course, are known as Phishheads) proved to be more noteworthy ... > timers, but Wednesday it was abundantly clear that Phish has struck > a chord with Deadheads: The Next Generation. > >Well, there it is. A pretty accurate description of Phish's general style, >but it's difficult to see whether or not the article praises or criticizes >Phish overall. It's just good to see the band get space in a major >metropolitan newspaper, especially on their first SoCal tour. > > -Andrew The article is derogatory to the band and its fans. And they don't call themselves Phishheads. The author is a moron. L.A. is gross (sorry if you have to live there) and the LA Times is pretty gross, too. Do we want more Phish fans? Venues get bigger, scene gets uglier. But, more people (could) get "turned on". Who knows... =============================================================================== "Better heresy of doctrine, Scott.Kaufman@STPEC.umass.edu than heresy of heart." or John Whittier s4610160@titan.ucc.umass.edu Mary Garvin, Stanza 22 (413) 253-4245 ---------------- From: twent@wam.umd.edu (Anthony J. Went) Subject: Re: L.A. show reviewed in L.A. Times Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1992 15:31:29 GMT dicA deaH writes: >Andrew Foster writes: >> >>Well, there it is. A pretty accurate description of Phish's general style, >>but it's difficult to see whether or not the article praises or criticizes >>Phish overall. It's just good to see the band get space in a major >>metropolitan newspaper, especially on their first SoCal tour. >> >> -Andrew >The article is derogatory to the band and its fans. And they don't call >themselves Phishheads. The author is a moron. >Do we want more Phish fans? Venues get bigger, scene gets uglier. But, >more people (could) get "turned on". Who knows... 1. I agree that the article in the Times painted Phish in the wrong light, and I didn't especially like it. It did note some cool things about Phish, but made the wrong conclusion... 2. Phish phans _have_ been known to call themselves Phishheads, but I don't think there is a standard word for them yet. I do remember "aPhishionado" being suggested as a deliberate move away from "Phishhead" here on the net... someone noted that the imagery was cool, but the connotations were bad... 3. Not the "no more fans" argument again! That's kind of selfish to want to enjoy an incredible band yourself and not want anyone else to. Sure, we'd rather see them in a club than in the Meadowlands, but you can't hope that people don't get turned on to them... Just some thoughts... tony -- Tony Went (twent@wam.umd.edu) University of Merryland "I'd like to hear my options so I can weigh them, what do you say? Five pounds, six pounds, seven pounds..." - Phish ------------------------------