Phish was formed in 1983 at the University of Vermont by guitarists Trey Anastasio and Jeff Holdsworth, bassist Mike Gordon, and drummer Jon Fishman. In 1985, Page McConnell joined on keyboards. A year later, in 1986, Jeff Holdsworth left the group after graduation, thus solidifying the band's classic lineup, which remained unchanged for the rest of their career. In Phish's nascent stages, the band wrote complex progressive rock fugues and mixed them with intense improvisation. These were developed in early practice sessions that have become legendary: On at least three occasions, the band locked themselves in a practice room for up to fifteen hours, under the influence of psychedelic mushrooms and marijuana. These "Pa Ceremonies" were the product of listening to each member and reacting through a constant flow of musical communication, and provided the basis for the band's later, more elaborate practice ruses such as "filling the hey hole". In essence, Phish created their own form of improvisation, with a set of rules, goals, and listening exercises. In mid-1986, Anastasio and Fishman transferred under the persuasion of McConnell, who received $50 cash for each transferee to a smaller school named Goddard College, located in the hills of Plainfield, Vermont (Gordon remained at the University of Vermont). In mid-1986, Trey distributed at least six different experimental self-titled cassettes, once of which is sometimes referred to as ''The White Tape''. These compilations contained mostly avant-garde experimental pieces, long instrumental passages, electronic noise, and studio trickery, along with four standard full-band tracks. The most circulated version of the compilation travelled in tape-trading circles for over a decade before being officially released in 1998.In late-1986, the group began working with luthier Paul Languedoc, who built custom guitars and basses. Languedoc designed instruments for Anastasio and Gordon, as well as speakers, and was officially hired as the band's sound engineer on October 15, 1986, at a show at Hunt's Bar in Burlington, Vermont. Because he had built the instruments and the speakers, Languedoc had complete control over the sound of the live Phish experience from very early on, resulting in high-quality concert sound for the remainder of the band's career.
The band's second studio experiment was a concept album written by Trey Anastasio entitled ''The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday''. The recording was Trey's senior project statement at Goddard College in the spring of 1987. Elements of the story have comprised no less than 13 songs, only 7 of which were featured on the actual recording. The band played the complete album from top to bottom on only five occasions (in 1988, 1991, 1993, and twice in 1994). ''The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday'', also known as ''Gamehendge'', became a "legend" among Phish's growing subculture, with a variety of interpretationshttp://www.phish.net/faq/tmwsiy.html.By 1988, Phish was developing a dedicated following in the Northeastern United States that followed the band from show to show. In 1988, the group packed into their van and drove across the country to Colorado, only to find that the promoter had cancelled the shows. Phish went across the street and played another club throughout the week. Few people attended, but many of them taped the concerts, and distributed their recordings throughout the area. Two years later, Phish returned to Colorado, and found that almost every show had sold out by word of mouth. This process enabled Phish's fan base to grow without involving the mainstream media.
Also in 1988, Phish recorded a double studio album entitled ''Junta'', which contained long, classical/progressive compositions that sought to explore and extend the boundaries of rock music.On January 26, 1989, Phish played the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, Massachusetts. The owners of the club had never heard of Phish and refused to book them, so Phish rented the place out themselves. The owners were stunned to see a huge line of people wrapped around the street trying to get in. The show had sold out due mostly to the caravan of Phish fans that had traveled to see the band. Much of the sensation of drama and intensity of the live concert experience was a result of lighting designer Chris Kuroda, who first worked with the band in April 1989. Kuroda used an array of lights and lasers to accompany the music, which gave the effect that he was jamming with the band. He learned every composed section of each song, and designed light-based reactions to fit each note. When the band improvised, Kuroda improvised. He was such a large part of the Phish concert experience that in the late 1990s, a group of fans lobbied to have Kuroda recognized as an official member of the band (fans have likened simply listening to a Phish concert on tape or CD as the equivalent of watching a movie with your eyes closed).By late 1990, Phish concerts were becoming more and more unique. The band made a consistent effort to involve the audience in their performances. The group developed a special "language" where the audience would react in a certain manner based on a musical cue from the band (for instance, if Anastasio played a bar of ''The Simpsons'' theme song, the audience would yell, "D'oh!," imitating lead character Homer Simpson). Another favorite was "All Fall Down," where the band would play a descending group of notes and the audience would fall on their backs to the floor. Around this time, Phish introduced the "Big Ball Jam," which began with each band member throwing a large beach ball into the audience. Each time a particular ball was hit, the corresponding band member played a note, so in essence, the audience was performing and creating a composition on the spot.Drummer Jon Fishman would often play a vacuum cleaner like a woodwind instrument, and the group would switch instruments to the left one member at a time in an experiment called the "Rotation Jam." Another of Phish's performance antics involved Gordon and Anastasio jumping on mini-trampolines in the middle of a song entitled You Enjoy Myself, doing synchronized maneuvers on the trampoline while playing their instruments. The group also experimented with tension and release jamming, in which a jam would "bubble up" and condense itself into a tight, usually off-key musical corner, and then explode back to the main theme. Some fans found that these innovative techniques made the concert experience more energized and frantic than other bands of similar genre, such as The Allman Brothers Band or The Grateful Dead. In 1991, Elektra Records became aware of the band's growing popularity, and signed the band after attending one of their concerts. In 1992, their major label debut, ''A Picture of Nectar'' was released, with far more extensive production than ''Junta'' from 1988 and ''Lawn Boy'' from 1990, which were re-released on Elektra as well. In 1992, John Popper of Blues Traveler organized the first annual H.O.R.D.E. festival (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere). The lineup included Phish, The Spin Doctors, Blues Traveler, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit, and Widespread Panic, providing Phish with their first national tour of major amphitheaters. That summer, the band toured Europe with the Violent Femmes and later toured both Europe and the United States with guitarist Carlos Santana.
Climb to the Top
Phish began headlining major amphitheaters in the summer of 1993. That year, the group released another studio album, entitled ''Rift'', which continued the band's streak of challenging, complex music, packaged into a concept album as part of heavy promotion from Elektra. The group changed their songwriting approach again for their 1994 release ''Hoist''. The album featured simpler songs with emotionally introspective lyrics, a change that became part of the group's overall sound. This shift to a more traditional song format was met with criticism from many fans. In addition, the band made their first and only video for MTV.Although 1994 was a controversial year in the studio for Phish, it is considered by many fans as one of the best concert years in the band's history. The band was peaking musically, taking their performances into uncharted territory both in terms of intensity and musical interaction between band members. The group had become so popular that they sold out Madison Square Garden in New York City on December 30, 1994. Earlier that day, they made their national television debut on ''The Late Show with David Letterman'', where they appeared a total of seven times over the next decade. On New Year's Eve, the band headlined the Boston Garden. Before midnight, the band wanted to make a special effort to get close to every fan in the house, so they flew in a giant mechanical hot dog over the crowd and performed music while throwing candy to the audience. For Halloween night in 1994, the group promised to play an entire album from another band, dressing up, so to speak, in a "musical costume." The band took fan votes on their website and ended up performing the entire, 30-song, self-titled Beatles classic known as ''The White Album'', sandwiched between two complete sets of Phish's own music. In 1995, the band experienced a continued growth of their fan base following the demise of HORDE, increasing pop culture references to the band which threatened to bring it above radar, and the death of Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia. The impact of the latter is somewhat uncertain. Although Phish's music was very different than the Dead's, the fan culture that had grown up around both bands was similar. Each concert was the centerpiece of an event that included a sort of temporary village in the parking lot. Before, during, and after a concert, people socialized and did business (buying, selling, trading of various goods) outside the venue. Many fans who toured with the Grateful Dead began to follow Phish, and there was a certain shift of parking lot vendors, artisans, and drug delears from the Dead to Phish - many of whom made the shift in 1994, prior to Jerry's death. Regardless of whether it began before or after Garcia's passing, the growing number of people who came for the culture rather than the music created some problems. Shows became crowded with people looking for drugs, easy money, or just a big party. Phish was thereby challenged in a number of ways, including interaction with the audience, intimacy of the parking lot scence, and ultimately conflicts with venues and localities.That fall, Phish challenged the audience to a chess game. A huge chessboard was lowered down on stage before each show and between sets. The band made one move before the show, and between sets a representative from the audience made one move, based on votes tallied in the lobby. At the end of the tour, the band and audience were tied 1-1. Phish performed ''Quadrophenia'' by The Who with an entire horn section for Halloween 1995. Their first live album, ''A Live One'', featured songs from 1994 concerts, and was Phish's first gold album.In 1996, Phish released ''Billy Breathes'', which featured a mostly acoustic second side that continued to display the band's simpler, stripped down song approach. That summer, they put on The Clifford Ball, a two-day festival, which took place at an empty air force base in Plattsburgh, New York. 65,000 people showed up. MTV was on-hand to make a documentary of the experience. Phish set up their own makeshift city, complete with an amusement park, restaurants, a post office, playgrounds, arcades, and movie theaters. For two days, a Phish concert was the ninth largest city in New York. Aside from six sets of Phish, the band hopped on a flatbed truck at 3:00 AM and drove through the campground, serenading the audience. The concert's production company, Great Northeast Productions, went on to host six more Phish festivals and the Bonnaroo Music Festival, though Phish was not on the playbill, all based on The Clifford Ball.In 1997, a new jamming style emerged from Phish's improvisational ventures, which came to be known as "cow funk". The previous Halloween saw Phish perform the Talking Heads album ''Remain in Light'', which is extremely groove based and funk-oriented. The frenzied, manic tension and release jams gave way to a smoother, simpler, funky style. Jams were becoming so long that several sets that year only contained four songs. That same year, Ben and Jerry's ice cream launched ''Phish Food'', which remains one of the company's most popular flavors. That summer, the band drew 70,000 people to its second festival, "The Great Went", held in Limestone, Maine, just miles from the Canadian border. That weekend, the festival became the largest city in Maine. Throughout the weekend, the band had the audience paint their own individual piece of art. Each piece of fan artwork was attached to make a huge tower that was several stories high by the end of the weekend. Backstage, Phish was also creating their own piece of art. During a jam on the final day of the weekend, the band passed their artwork through the audience. The audience attached the band artwork to the fan artwork, thus connecting band and audience in true fashion. The tower was then burned to the ground.In 1998, the band tried a new approach to recording. They recorded hours and hours of improvisational jams over a period of several days, and then took the highlights of those jams and wrote songs around them. The result was the funky ''The Story of the Ghost'' album (followed by the all-instrumental ''The Siket Disc'' in 1999). Phish headlined Farm Aid in the summer of 1998, sharing the stage with Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and Paul Shaffer. The group also returned to Limestone, Maine for The Lemonwheel festival, which drew another 70,000 fans. Once again, the concert was the largest city in Maine. This time around, the band had the audience make candles throughout the weekend. At the end of the show, the band lined the stage with candles, turned out all the lights, and played one long, quiet, ambient jam. They encouraged the audience to leave the concert area and mill about and talk to one another, play on the Ferris wheel, or just stroll around, allowing the music to simply be background music and act as the soundtrack to whatever was going on. For their 1998 Halloween show, the group performed ''Loaded'' by The Velvet Underground as their musical costume. Somewhat less-known than their earlier "musical costumes", much of the audience was unfamiliar with the album, and some people were disappointed in the selection. Two nights later, the band played in the middle of Utah. Many people elected to skip the far drive to the middle of nowhere to see what they supposed would be just a normal Phish show following the annual Halloween celebration. Playing to a small audience of only 4,000 people, Phish performed ''Dark Side of the Moon'' by Pink Floyd in its entirety towards the middle of the second set. Many fans who missed the show were surprised and upset, but it only cemented Phish's "you snooze, you lose" attitude, and sense of humor.Cultural Icons
By 1999, Phish were an American institution. They were considered the biggest concert band in the country. With the millennium on the horizon, fans knew that Phish was going to pull out all the stops. They decided to skip the annual summer festival in order to prepare for the New Year's Eve Millennium Celebration. However, at the last minute, they decided to hold a summer festival anyway. 65,000 people came to an abandoned airport in upstate New York for Camp Oswego held in July. The following weekend just a few towns away, the disaster at Woodstock 1999 was making new headlines as 200,000 people rioted and burned the concert grounds in an ugly scene. The media failed to mention that a large number of people came together for a peaceful, friendly weekend across the state at a Phish concert.For the millennium celebration, Phish went to the southern-most tip of the US - The Florida Everglades - at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. It was the largest Phish concert ever, and widely considered the greatest. There were huge New Year's Eve concerts all over the world that night - Sting, Barbra Streisand, Elton John. Of them all, Phish's was the largest. Peter Jennings reported on the huge audience in a episode of ''ABC World News Tonight''. 85,000 people showed up for two nights of music, culminating with a seven-and-a-half hour second set that began at midnight, and ended at sunrise. The band had portable toilets onstage so they could use the restroom during the marathon set, and a team of security guards lined the stage to prevent band members from "wimping out" and trying to leave the stage. When the band left the stage in tears at sunrise after the extremely emotional performance, Trey Anastasio said to Jon Fishman, "we should stop."They kept going, but Phish had realized that there was nothing more in the music world they could do. They had accomplished more than any other touring band, and on their own terms. They glided through the year 2000 with no Halloween, no summer festival, and no new material. The poppy-sounding ''Farmhouse'' album, released in May 2000, contained recycled material from their live repetoire dating back as far as 1997. On October 7, 2000 in Mountain View, California, they played what was to be their final concert. There were no frills; the band played a regular show and left without saying a word as ''Let It Be'' by The Beatles played over the PA. The members of Phish always had musical projects outside of Phish, but the breakup allowed them to explore them more deeply. Trey continued his solo career (which began in 1998) and formed the supergroup Oysterhead with Primus bassist Les Claypool and drummer Stewart Copeland of The Police. He also did orchestral work and conducting with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Mike Gordon made two films - ''Outside Out'' and ''Rising Low'' - and made an album with acoustic guitar legend Leo Kottke before launching his own solo career. Jon Fishman alternated gigs with The Jazz Mandolin Project and his rowdy bar band Pork Tornado. Page McConnell formed an electronic trio, Vida Blue, with Meters drummer Russell Batiste and Aquarium Rescue Unit bassist Oteil Burbridge.The community of smaller bands surrounding Phish exploded during the breakup. Phish-influenced bands like moe., The Disco Biscuits, String Cheese Incident, and Umphrey's McGee experienced a swell in their audience, and the annual Bonnaroo festival (based on Phish's summer extravaganzas) opened the doors for several groups inside and outside of the jam band world.