Phish So This Episode Is Definitely Going to Be My Most

Phish

So this episode is definitely going to be my most contemporary considering the band

Phish exists still, and as a result of that my notes are going to be less focused on the history of the band Phish and more of an examination of the Jam Band

Phenomena/Movement in general. The reason this is going to be titled the Phishcast, however, is that my guest, Charlie Kirby, is himself a big fan of the band. He has seen

Phish a number of times with the most recent being about a week and a half ago, am I correct? --

--Would you like to talk for a minute or two about your personal history with the band?

--And while we’re on the subject of Phish history, have you looked into the band’s past or are you more just riding the wave so to speak?

Well I have a little bit of band history I can read off, but for longtime fans of the show I want to note that this is more or less the only part of the show that I’m using Wikipedia as a source, for better or for worse, so here we go:

The band was formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 by Trey Anastasio, Mike

Gordon, Jon Fishman, and Jeff Holdsworth, joined by Page McConnell in 1985. In 1986 Holdsworth left and the 4 remaining men (Anastasio, Gordon, Fishman, and McConnell) are still the members of Phish to this day.

The band first started when Trey Anastasio heard Jon Fishman playing drums in their dorm and asked if he and Holdsworth could come jam with him. Gordon, however, answered an ad they put out for a bassist but apparently he also loved to jam so it worked out. They started off playing covers at shows at their college but only had a few before Trey got suspended from UVM following a prank he pulled on a friend which I will read about from “Phish: The Biography” now,

(https://books.google.com/books?id=eXD8AgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=phish&pg=PA25# ​ v=onepage&q&f=false) ​

Trey then went home to Princeton, New Jersey where he formed a songwriting partnership with his childhood friend Tom Marshall, which would according to Wikipedia, over time produce most of Phish’s original compositions.

Once he came back to UVM he began performing with the boys again and they would come to call themselves Phish, after drummer Jon Fishman and (Charlie may have to verify this) the pshhhhh sound of a brush on a snare drum. Phish would soon take on

McConnell after he did a few guest stints and learned the ways of the band from

Gordon. They played for about a year as a quintet before Holdsworth had a religious conversion and quit the band, making the familiar lineup we have today.

Honestly thats all I really want to get into as far as the hard history of the band, I more want to discuss with you the cultural side of Phish and what impacts they have made on live musical performance as well as just general creation of an identity and lifestyle that extends beyond the music.

So Phish is a jam band. I personally do not really have a huge affinity for the genre but I am not vain enough to think my tastes really matter in the grand scheme of things. Jam bands and bands of people jamming have and always will be entertaining to people if only because it is an expression of musicality that is different than a prepared or planned piece of music. You get to see experimentation and change that you can get with non-jam bands, but with these bands that is the central tenant. There’s a sense of chaos and confusion inherent in a jam performance and, correct me if I’m wrong

Charlie, but the same could be said for the crowd at such shows.

Phish shows are notorious for being a “free-spirited” environment in terms of drug use and social norms. People are invited to do whatever they want to do, free of judgement and I can only assume in most cases supplied with ample support. This kind of setting can be very liberating to people who live otherwise conventional lives and if you don’t mind. I’d like to ask you a little about the people you’ve met or know from your experiences with Phish shows:

--What would you say the average age is at a Phish concert?

--Are there a lot of people from office type/inside jobs or is it more of a blue-collar affair?

One of the most interesting things I’ve learned about Phish from you, and this is something we’ve talked about before, but its their streaming service. The idea that there are fans of literally anyone so dedicated to the band that they want access to high quality recordings of all their live performances which can easily last for hours truly blows my mind. That being said I don’t really go to a whole lot of live shows anyway and

I especially don’t really like recordings of live shows so maybe I will never truly understand but it just seems to me a bit redundant.

I do know of people who are musicians themselves that really enjoy watching a live performance in order to see what musicians are actually capable of doing in real life as opposed to on a recording; and I will admit that especially with jam bands the stamina and energy on these performers is truly incredible.

A quick story about this, I have a close acquaintance from high school who you may know, Sam Carrico, but his name isn’t important. What is important is that every time you were hanging out with him and he had access to youtube he would start playing videos of the band Primus and probably a few Phish vids here and there but I don’t really recall. To be honest I still don’t understand it and like I said I maybe never will, but

I will say on Phish’s part, its a great business model.

--Are you a member of Livephish+?

--Do you like other jam bands or is Phish your one and only?

--Do you have anything else you would like to say to the audience about Phish?

Normally I would have my guest go off on a tangent about something they want to talk about but I didn’t really know if you’d have like 10 minutes of words about Phish so I didn’t build that into the show, sorry.