Phish?

[camanawannalaya]

For something called the "Phish Sancturay" there is little talk of Phish on the board. So lets get a little talk of the boys going. Where was everyone's first show and how did it change your life?

Personally, i had seen lots of bands play before i saw phish play, and to see them for the first time i was in mouth gaping awe! my life was never the same after that. getting into phish opened sooooo many musical avenues for me it sends me spinning. The music i now know is vast and keeps growing. And it seems like every time i hear a new band, they are GREAT! THe underground music that us folks like to listen to for the most part is by far the best around.

Heads Unite! A musical revolution is afoot!

[zimmerman]

Man, I'll never forget the first time I walked into Nectar's back in '86...

Just kidding! I was dragged to my first show in Niagra Falls 12/7/95. I was quite hesitant to see them because I thought they were nothing but goofballs. Well, let's just say once the gooballs kicked in during first set Possum, I GOT IT. Like a tonn of bricks, I was floored by the tension and release jams in synch with the trippy lights. The rest was gravy, and I was ready for seconds

[bradm]

Back in '94, I started hearing about Phish in the Bela Fleck and Zappa newsgroups. I saw that they were coming to Ottawa, and decided to take a chance.

The first thing that blew me away was that the ticket said 8pm, and they hit the stage at 8:05pm. I don't think I'd ever seen a band do that, before or since.

I hadn't heard any of their music until they started playing, but within four bars of the opener, "Rift", I was *hooked*. The a capella stuff, the trampolines, the GTBT encore, the *vibe* in the room...there was no looking back.

I started buying the albums (starting with "Rift"), and paying closer attention to the scene. There was a bit of a drought in S. Ont. for the next couple of years, but I saw them again in Toronto in '99 and '00 (both good shows, IMO).

Since then, I've expanded, getting into the Dead, more into Bela Fleck, into *tons* of stuff via the Sanctuary (which I hooked up with thanks to a Phish t-shirt I was wearing coming back from the DMB show last year; I bumped into Davey Boy and we got to talking, and he brought us along to Nero at the 'Post...further things from which I haven't looked back...), SCI, Oysterhead, and, of course, Phish.

Sturgeon's Law states that 90% of everything is crap...the flipside, though, is that 10% of everything is *good*. The trick is to get in touch with that 10%, or with someone who's in touch with it, and then *revel* in it.

Aloha,

Brad

[MarcO]

My 1st show was 12-7-95 @ Niagara Falls Convention Centre. I can't say it changed my life right there and then, as I was still heavily into a Pro-Grateful Dead bag, and wasn't prepared to accept songs about hitting Possums and ACDC Bags and stuff. Loved the jamming that night though. Mostly, it planted a seed that would really start to grow after the Buffalo 1996 show and especially 12-11-97 Rochester. Eventually, I found myself standing in the middle of the Florida everglades, dancing with a blue glowstick for eight consecutive hours, but that's another story....

Gotta say, though, I got a copy of that Niagara Falls show a few years later, and it was a fucking great show! I just didn't know at the time.

I bet the Phish-related content will pick up as band member tours are underway, and especially if/when an official announcement is made on the end of the hiatus. I'm a long-time rumour watcher, and personally I'm inclined to believe the rumours that a Fall Tour will go down this year.

[MarcO]

So, where was your first show?

quote:

---

Originally posted by Schwa:

Where was everyone's first show and how did it change your life?

Personally, i had seen lots of bands play before i saw phish play, and to see them for the first time i was in mouth gaping awe! my life was never the same after that. getting into phish opened sooooo many musical avenues for me it sends me spinning.....

---

[peipunk]

Good idea for a thread....Rift was the first Phish I heard in any form...loaned to me by a friend I was playing in a band with who first heard it through a friend at Mt. Allison U in New Brunswick. After that, I bought Billy Breathes just after it came out and proceeded to buy all the albums....still hadn't heard any live stuff (except "A Live One") when me and about 10 other people from PEI went to The Great Went(only 6 hrs from PEI)..... Makisupa opener... into Harpua. Hadn't heard either song before. Sooooo good. If anyone else was there, they might remember the sun breaking through the clouds when Trey kicked out his super held note in YEM..... I think it was the second set that first day I still regard as one of the best sets I ever saw (a super sick Bathtub Gin). Anyway...

[bouche]

Phish content can be found at http://www.gadiel.com/phish/

This site was never intended as a phish fansite, but more of a resource for those phish fans that want more than phish, and as a place to try out internet stuff. The entire jamband community is built off of phish fans and this is a sanctuary for you all.

However, when phish are going to return, you'll hear about it here before anywhere else I'm sure.

My first show (7-5-94)was a great experience thanks to a giant shove from Dave Andrews. He made Wackamole and I go to Ottawa and see them at the congress centre right around the time we were trying to see as much dead as possible.

[Akron]

Why thank you Schwa!!

Finally a topic that us non-Ontario based lurkin folk can sink their teeth into!! First time I heard Phish was the tune "Contact" while playing chess at Jimmy Dorey's place back in 92'. I thought it was ridiculous, absoloute crap...then I heard Y.E.M, Divided Sky, Bowie, and the rest of Junta!! For the next few years we were all pretty busy with that "other" band. In fact it was not until the summer of 96 and a roadtrip to Plattsburg for the Clifford Ball that I would witness the bliss of Phish. Of all of my tour adventures, Big Cypress definetly tops the list.

What really interests me is hearing from those fellow Canadian heads who have spent any substantial time doing the Phish Tour "thing". What are your impressions of the scene as a Canadian? How were you welcomed (or not)? Is this a purely American culture where Canadians and other non-U.S. folks can enter but never really belong??

[junkbondking]

cool topic indeedy....

4/4/90 Quigley's Pizzeria University of Colorado, Boulder CO

it was a friday, the first semester after i quit playing college hockey and attended good old smoke a bowlder. one other hockey playing guy from VT told me that this band called "fish" was playing in the boulder/ft collins/denver area for the next few weekends.

went down to quig's at nite, which was wierd cuz that was where you could get a cheep slice of pizza and a 3.2 beer for lunch. the place was small, the size of nectar's, and they played on the little riser in front of the big screen tv screen.

a short show of maybe 1.5 hours, mike did say that they were playing a show the next day at J.J. Mc Cabe's (the famous 4/5/90) but i remember the lizards song most of all. i think they struck a chord with me on 4/4, but it was not until the next nite, during the mike's->wekapaug that i "got" the music. the funny thing is, i got a random mailbomb, with no return addy with that 4/4 and 4/5 show in it around the end of the run in 2000. i swear you can hear my yelp of dee light during the mikes-weekapaug at jj's.

the boys came along at the right time for me, as i was growing disenchanted with the dead at that time, had jut given up my chosen hockey career, and was generally not in a very generous mood most of the time.

[bradm]

Just a question: how many Sanctuarians were at the Ottawa show in '94? I know bouche and the Sloth were, and so was I, how many others? (I remember talking to one of two people [especially one guy who let me in front of him in the beer line]); I wonder if any of them are on the Sanctuary?)

Aloha,

Brad

[Harpua]

Heres some Phish news for ya.

Trey Summer Tour Dates Announced

3.6.02

Trey Anastasio and his band will play 23 concerts at various indoor and outdoor venues across the United States this summer. Well, it's not quite summer, but it *feels* like summer, right? Kicking off the tour May 21 with seven dates on the west coast, Anastasio and his band will trek east playing a mix of amphitheatres, arenas and large theatres, including two-night stands at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas and Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver. East coast highlights include a stop at New York City's Radio City Music Hall plus a stop in Trey's home state of Vermont when he plays the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction.

We're excited to announce that the Vegas concerts will also feature special guest bands on each night: Los Lobos and Spearhead will open on May 31 and The Roots and Antibalas will open on June 1. Trey and his band will also close both nights of the multi-band Mountain Aire Festival in Calaveras County in Northern California over Memorial Day Weekend. The full festival lineup will be announced within the next couple of weeks.

It is very likely that an additional tourdate will be added on to the end of the tour by the middle of March. Trey also intends to do more North American dates this fall.

Anastasio's band consists of Anastasio, bassist Tony Markellis, drummer Russ Lawton, keyboardist Ray Paczkowsi, trumpeter Jennifer Hartswick, alto saxophonist Dave Grippo, trombonist Andy Moroz and tenor saxophonist Russell Remington. A recent addition is percussionist Cyro Baptista, who joined during the recording sessions for the new studio album and will be part of the touring lineup.

Tour dates and full tour information, including on-sale info, can be found on the Tour Dates page on this site. To view an HTML-only listing of the tour dates, please visit http://phish.com/print/tour_print.html. See the corresponding news item for details on the Trey Tickets-by-Mail online ordering window, which begins next Tuesday, March 12.

[DanMTL]

my first show...

LEMONWHEEL

after years of avoiding phish, i drove out to lemonwheel, had a sick time. 20 shows later, including oswego and big cypress, i must say that phish reinstilled my desire to improve and keep playing music. a full on addiction. i learned about a lot of these "underground" bands. most of em i liked automatically just because of their association with the phish scene. but the problem i find with most "jambands" ( a word that is growing old IMO) is that instead of writing their own music , and taking an improvisational approach to it, they take one aspect of something that phish does, and streches it out ad infinitum. shit, i dont know how i ot on this tangent. maybe it is a whole other topic altogether. waht i am trying to say is that phish opened my ears and eyeslike no other band ever has. but i also learned that the phish periphery can lead to closed mindedness, cuz frankly, no one can ever be phish.

[Blane]

More specifically:

TREY ANASTASIO TOUR MAY-JUNE 2002

May 21 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre

May 22 Salem, OR Salem Armory Auditorium

May 24 San Francisco, CA Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

May 25 Angels Camp, CA Mountain Aire Festival

May 26 Angels Camp, CA Mountain Aire Festival

May 28 San Diego, CA Open Air Theatre

May 29 Los Angeles, CA Greek Theatre

May 31 Las Vegas, NV Thomas & Mack Center

With special guests LOS LOBOS and SPEARHEAD

June 1 Las Vegas, NV Thomas & Mack Center

With special guests THE ROOTS and ANTIBALAS

June 3 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre

June 4 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre

June 6 Chicago, IL UIC Pavilion

June 7 Detroit, MI Fox Theatre

June 8 Noblesville, IN Verizon Wireless Music Center

June 9 Cleveland, OH Tower City Amphitheater

June 13 Saratoga Spr., NY Saratoga Performing Arts Center

June 14 Mansfield, MA Tweeter Center

June 15 Essex Junction, VT Champlain Valley Fairgrounds

June 16 Darien Center, NY Darien Lake Performing Arts Center

June 18 New York, NY Radio City Music Hall

June 20 Holmdel, NJ PNC Bank Art Center

June 21 Camden, NJ Tweeter Center

June 22 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion

How about a nice BIG Sanctuary reunion in Vermont?? It'll be a blast!

[Booche]

Harpua drove me to the Ball for our first one, maybe I can return the favor and take him to that VT show!

The Ball was the start of watching our friends drop to the ground from heat, lack of water and too much of everythings just enough.

"Phried, get it? It starts with a PH"

[Giggles]

04/09/94 Broome County Arena - Binghamton, NY

I was playing hockey for the Boston Prostars or some shit like that at the time. The team, like most American teams that would come to Canada for "Big Name" tounaments, was comprised of mostly Canadians...however, as I walked into the dressing room listening to "Live Dead" on my diskman, the CD case cover visib;e, a young American fellow asked me perhaps one of my most loved questions ever: "Ever heard of Phish?" I went with this long haired fellow, whom was from Syracuse, the following week to a city up the road from him called Binghamton. To be quite truthful, I was amazed by the sounds coming from these four dudes on stage...perticularly Trey. He really kicked my ass...but I wasn't getting the crazy lyrics and all of what Phish is...I was too in love with Jerry and the Dead I guess. I would see Phish on a few occasions over the next few years as my American chum and I would meet up for tournies and plan which shows to go to. It wasn't untill the Phish Phunk of '97 that I started to focus more attention towards Phish...................................................................................................Where are those Nerologs at?

Giggles

[Davey Boy 2.0]

and what a Ball it was, Booche.

I initialy felt like I was one of the few that weren't being told the "secret handshake", but that feeling melted away with the sick jams.

[reba]

i didn't know that was your first show too boochie....

mine was the second night.....davey-boy, treyter and me. what a drive that was. and what a pay-off too.

[scottieking]

Despite having been a huge fan for a few years before, I actually didn't get to see my first show until Lemonwheel due to an extended stint in Southern Asia. It was a pretty emotional time. I'd only been back in the country for 2 weeks, the plan was to take the long way to Maine via Ottawa, Montreal. My grandma passed away our first day on the road, so we turned around (we were in Ottawa), went to the funeral, my Dad said go, and we burned 13 and a half hours straight to Maine. By the time Mike's Song kicked in, overwhelmed, I burst into tears of release and joy. Wouldn't be the last time I cried at a show, but it was an emotional beginning to an amazing legacy of shows. One that I have no doubt will continue for years to come....

[PassedOutGuy]

well ive gotta jump on that 12.7.95 niagara falls gig as well and ohhh what a night! with killer versions of Split and Mikes> Weekapaug i was totally "hooked" ... remember waiting outside in the freezing cold for 25 minutes in line before we realized it was the will call line... but that venue was phun!

[Blane]

Why do you guys have to start interesting threads when I'm trying to get my work done??

I invite you all to come along and experience my turbulent (and verbose) Phishstory:

July 1995- Northern Ontario

Kim Brooks and Frank Deresti bring along Rift to a cottage party and introduce me to the wacky band.

Sept. 1995- I move to Ottawa, where my buddy/floormate Jonny Luke proudly shares his 250+ Dead and Phish tapes, which I immediately begin dubbing like a madman.

Dec. 1995- Jonny, Myself and our friend Jaimie decide to run down to Lake Placid for the 2 phish shows since everyone else has left for Xmas break. Unfortunately, not a single rental agency would give us a car since we were all under 25. We called everywhere for a ride, and found nothing. Missed the shows. On the bright side, I got to hear bits of it over the telephone, as I tried to arrange tix for the 2nd night with the venue.

Aug. 1996- Clifford Ball approaches. I've been following the setlists on Phish.net and am psyched for my first show. Sadly, my ride-arranging abilities again show their weakness, as I learn that making plans with certain old-school Ottawa "heads" (whose names will go unmentioned)is a terribly bad idea. Blane gets left behind. Again.

Aug. 14th-17th, 1997. This time I'm not going to miss out. I buy my tickets, and arrange a lift to TO, and then head down with my ex to Darien Lake. Great show, at long last. Kesey comes out, and blows my mind. We slack off large getting back the next day, and I find myself having to fly from TO to Ottawa so that my girlfriend and friend can pick me up at the airport in time for us to make it to the Went. We drive all night and arrive in Limestone, where I say "wow, I'm so glad we made it. Let's get our tickets together and grab some beer before going in". Margaret, who was supposed to pick up the tix at my apt., suddenly realizes that they are still there, in my dresser drawer. Sweet. Anyhow, we shell out 50 each and get another ticket, and let me tell you, I could have bought 3more tix and still felt I got every penny's worth.

After that i saw lots of shows, and now I like phish a lot. the end.

[TheSloth]

04/29/93 Le Spectrum, Montreal, QC

I had basically heard a bit of studio Phish before and enjoyed it (but wasnt in love) and had seen Phish bumper stickers every where on Dead tour so I decided to hop into the car going to Montreal to see if these guys from Vermont could actually play.

I layed down my 20 bucks(could have been less, cant remember) got a stamp at the door and then got my ass so massively kicked that I was a jabbering idiot at the end of the show. Im not joking, I was almost speechless and it took me about 1/2 hour before I could even sum up what I just saw into a proper sentence. The only way I can describe that show was musical assault. By the end of the first song I knew i was gonna love them.

[doubleB]

First show

Osweego NY.... took too many mushrooms and puked on a hippie.... tried E for the second set and have never looked back!

How did it change my life??

HAHAHAHAHA... you wouldn't recognize me! It was religious..... enough said

[dogatthestation]

At the end of 1997 I began to occasionally hang out with this group of "weirdos". I would go over to their "apartment" which was all decked out in some kind of strange "grateful dead" apparel. I am not kidding here folks they had a Jerry Garcia portrait made out of beer caps on their ceiling. Anyways I would smoke alot of pot and play mario cart while listening to this strange trippy music in the background. One night they start talking about going to see this band "fish" so I say yeah I may as well go along, these people seem like they might be ok to go see a few shows and have fun with. So I bought my tickets and went to see the shows and they were fun. I wonder whatever happened to my strange friends and their strange apartment.

The shows...

7/15/98 Portland

7/16/98 The Gorge

7/17/98 The Gorge

"Memories of the way we were"

[reba]

and that strange woman who seduced and married you? didn't you find her at that apartment too?

[dogatthestation]

Oh yeah I forgot about her.