So what if they APPEARED together onstage? They didn't PLAY together, which is pretty lame if you ask me. What else do any of them have going on?

\Was at Coventry.
\\Defied orders to stay parked on highway.
\\\Found dry campsite.
\\\\Scene was better than the shows. Too much crying, not enough cowbell.
\\Worst. Ending. Ever.
\\Waiting for band members' money to run out so they'll go back on tour.
\\Slashie Greenburg!

GurneyHalleck: So what if they APPEARED together onstage? They didn't PLAY together, which is pretty lame if you ask me. What else do any of them have going on?

I think Trey played with Page if I'm not mistaken. Gordon was too sick and Fish, well who knows.

You know it'll happen in time. Just wait for the festivals to run out of bands to reunite from the 80s and early 90s and the rest of the 60s' acts to burn off. They'll need a headliner.

Speaking as someone who has volumes of no-longer-listened-to Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic, et al albums, I must say that I can think of absolutely nothing more horrible in this world than the "Jammy" awards.

Ouch.

El Chode: GurneyHalleck:
You know it'll happen in time. Just wait for the festivals to run out of bands to reunite from the 80s and early 90s and the rest of the 60s' acts to burn off. They'll need a headliner.

In a day and age when Dark Star Orchestra, a Dead COVER band, becomes a major player in the jamband festival circuit, a Phish reunion tour would be a major financial cornucopia for some promotion company. Which is why they're holding off for now. Build up the fervor.

HotLonelyTeenageGirl: Speaking as someone who has volumes of no-longer-listened-to Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic, et al albums, I must say that I can think of absolutely nothing more horrible in this world than the "Jammy" awards.

As someone who has volumes of Dead, Phish et al albums & boots that I listen to, I can think of no bands currently touring that even come close to being artistically worthy of touring around the country with. The only band even coming close to worthy has been the Black Crowes, whose lack of consistency can be forgiven in light of the fierce loyalty they've displayed to their fans. And the aforementioned DSO, whose evocation of the Dead spirit has been economically feasible and spiritually revitalizing in direct proportion to the amount of energy exerted to see them.

\get off my pot patch!

GurneyHalleck: In a day and age when Dark Star Orchestra, a Dead COVER band, becomes a major player in the jamband festival circuit, a Phish reunion tour would be a major financial cornucopia for some promotion company. Which is why they're holding off for now. Build up the fervor.

Nah, they're just getting a lot of respect because of their ability. I think the Dead's archivist has been touring with them recently.

Besides you've got a lot of bands around now that are keeping the tradition alive, from the Crowes to Tea Leaf Green to Railroad Earth and Particle. You also have guys like Marco Benevento keeping the scene alive in NYC. The problem is that aside from maybe the Crowes and WSP, you don't have any marquee headliners that will fill a festival anymore.

GurneyHalleck: I can think of no bands currently touring that even come close to being artistically worthy of touring around the country with.

That's pretty goddamned sad, dude. If I didn't work for a living, I'd have no problem hitting the road with the Flaming Lips, for example. Maybe you should try listening to some music that hasn't been stale for the past 10 years.

HotLonelyTeenageGirl: GurneyHalleck: I can think of no bands currently touring that even come close to being artistically worthy of touring around the country with.

That's pretty goddamned sad, dude. If I didn't work for a living, I'd have no problem hitting the road with the Flaming Lips, for example. Maybe you should try listening to some music that hasn't been stale for the past 10 years.

Same with Wilco or My Morning Jacket. Together they form the trifecta of live awesomeness today. Maybe throw in a little ween for good measure

Anyone else notice subby spelled fish wrong?

HotLonelyTeenageGirl: Maybe you should try listening to some music that hasn't been stale for the past 10 years.

Thanks for reminding me why I don't tour with bands anymore.

Does anyone know what to do with all these damn analog tapes?

GurneyHalleck: Thanks for reminding me why I don't tour with bands anymore.

theres plenty of great live action out there, for pretty much everyones tastes. i dont understand how people think theres not, its not hard to find(im pretty sure you guys have the internet).

this event wouldve been much more relevant had phish broken up in 1990 and this happened in 1991.

FTFA: the latter of whom happened to be simultaneously performing upstairs in Madison Square Garden's arena.

So the awards were held in the train station? LOL

I interview trey once when he was with oysterhead. All i can remember was that les claypool was being a rubber becuase the interview wasn't about him. Sorry Les... no one cares who you reunite with.

GurneyHalleck:As someone who has volumes of Dead, Phish et al albums & boots that I listen to, I can think of no bands currently touring that even come close to being artistically worthy of touring around the country with.

I think the problem that came along in the wake of Phish is that the scene no longer had the one big band at the top of the heap. Umphrey's, moe., Disco Biscuits, String Cheese, the Mule, etc., all had strong followings even before Phish broke up, but the scene has become too divided for any single one of them to become the same sort of juggernaut.

As far as personally goes, I just don't have the time to get really into any of these bands the way I did with Phish. I got into them when I was about 14 or 15 (I'm 29 now) and saw them through their last tour, but my life is obviously extremely different now than it was then, when I had the time to observe and dissect all of that minutiae, and plan my vacations around going to shows.

Stray Slacker: Does anyone know what to do with all these damn analog tapes?

heh. I'm in the same boat. 100 shows, no working cassette player. Bittorrent sites seem to be the best replacement option.

Personally, I only use Acid© brand acid.

HotLonelyTeenageGirl: Speaking as someone who has volumes of no-longer-listened-to Dead, Phish, Widespread Panic, et al albums, I must say that I can think of absolutely nothing more horrible in this world than the "Jammy" awards.

Ouch.

Yeah, it's a pretty brutal scene. I used to love the music, but like everything else, my taste continued to evolve. There are some amazing bands out there.

The bummer is, after seeing so many Phish shows and the like, I find myself dissatisfied with the length of shows I see nowadays. If the opener isn't that good, I'm only getting about an hour and a half from the band I went to see. At least the Phish shows were a solid 2-set affair and the whole night was an experience.

Btw ... fantastic headline, at least the first 4 words anyway.

meh, Phish never did much for me. I did like the scope of their events, and I think they're good enough guys, and Trey is a very good guitarist. I've seen Oysterhead, saw some Phil shows w/Trey. But for a band that has a designated lyricist, their songs are lame. And the fans were ridiculously well, Abercrombian. Someday they'll get together and make a big splash and plenty of money, and good for them.

Railroad Earth was mentioned. One of the best bands out there right now, since SCI disbanded.

/Keep dancing. You're welcome to stay on my lawn all you'd like. Just put your trash in the bags, please. Mmmm, nice hula hoop.

Amem on the Railroad Earth, who unlike Phish can actually write lyrics.

I love Phish, I still do.

Yes, Phish lyrics are stupid.

Yes, Phish jams were sometimes pointless.

However, this band changed my life forever. They made me a better person. After seeing my 2nd show I had better relationships with my family and friends. I learned to love myself more and everything in my life improved.

People I have talked with over the years have had similar experiences with The Grateful Dead and Phish, so I know I am not "crazy" or making this shat up.

Bottom line, Phish made the world a better place for a lot of us.

I hope they come back.

skater: Amem on the Railroad Earth, who unlike Phish can actually write lyrics.

ever listen to todd schaeffer's original band "from good homes"? equally as awesome

El Chode: GurneyHalleck: In a day and age when Dark Star Orchestra, a Dead COVER band, becomes a major player in the jamband festival circuit, a Phish reunion tour would be a major financial cornucopia for some promotion company. Which is why they're holding off for now. Build up the fervor.

Nah, they're just getting a lot of respect because of their ability. I think the Dead's archivist has been touring with them recently.

Besides you've got a lot of bands around now that are keeping the tradition alive, from the Crowes to Tea Leaf Green to Railroad Earth and Particle. You also have guys like Marco Benevento keeping the scene alive in NYC. The problem is that aside from maybe the Crowes and WSP, you don't have any marquee headliners that will fill a festival anymore.

Uh...moe.?

KingKauff: Uh...moe.?
FAIL

Paging Eric Cartman...

As a member of a mega jamband, I'm getting a kick out of some of these replies.

Coincidentally, yesterday I was trying to think of something to do other than what I was supposed to be doing. So, I made my first Urban Dictionary entry, for the term "phish." Seemed like the right thing to do at the time...

Phish

A contemporary jam band contrived of four musicians, plodding along with guitars, keyboards, drums, bass, and voice, containing "lyrics." Ironically, despite rampant allegations of creative genius, these perpetual noodlers are a regressive bore, with their roots firmly entrenched in the already explored and conquered vein by a forty year old jam band called (the)grateful dead.

If length were the yardstick of musical greatness, these silly men are the Ron Jeremy of jam bandom. Unfortunately for them and their fans, it isn't. Where Grateful Dead were a respectable band charting new musical territory while hitch-hiking the social torrent of the 1960's, Phish are an evolutionary hangover of that scene; an appendix, floating there aimlessly amidst the rest of the musical organism, only to hemorrhage on the unsuspecting college student.

These fans fall into either one of two stereotypes with 98% reliability. (The other two percent, although statistically negligible, are generally people that have errantly meandered into a group of Phish fans, having been the accidental beneficiary of a contact high. They follow the sheep looking for Doritos.

Type A: This Phish fan comes from the bowels of baby-boom parents. There is a strange and disconcerting melange of Benjamins and tie-die, patchouli and birkenstocks. They arrive at college in a Volkswagen Jetta fitted with a ski-rack, and they will smoke mercury (Hg) as long as you remind them that it is "natural." Fronting the failed idealism of "peace, love, and happiness," these people are like a badger in a dishwasher (on) when confronted with actual hardship. Not so loving, indeed. (To witness what a cognizant human being deduces from this mentality, read the lyrics of "Common People" by Pulp).

Type B: This type is equally offensive in odor and candor, however lacks the ability to establish an actual friendship. They want your drugs. Everything else is inconsequential.

Many fans cite grandiose concert performances as another crucial perk of the Phish experience (e.g. hot dog suits and sparkles, sometimes even balloons and disco balls (!). These, of course, are convenient distractions to the painful reality that you are listening to an eighteen minute circle-jerk lubricated with hashish and patchouli (dirt). A Phish show is an Auschwitz of terrible guitar tone and stupidity, albeit with fewer ashes (not by many) and with corpses that move slightly more.

Fact: The lyrics of this music will decrease your I.Q. score 13 points (+/-2). Do not attempt to comprehend Phish "lyrics." Do not confuse these "lyrics" as anything besides the comparable babble of a toddler with a annoying and terminal language disorder.

"Isn't Phish the best band in the..."

*PUNCH TO PHISH FANS FACE*

m1lgram-

from a non phish fan: congratulations, that was quite a pathetic attempt at being witty. you have a bright future at saturday night live or mad tv.

mahavishnunj: m1lgram-

from a non phish fan: congratulations, that was quite a pathetic attempt at being witty. you have a bright future at saturday night live or mad tv.

Thx! Likewise! Please leave your address, and I'll gladly send you your 38 seconds back!

/relax, mang.
//sheesh.

Phish getting back together?

I knew there was a reason I bought that M-16...

for those with old analog tapes, there are cheap cassette drives that you can plug into your pc and rip tracks as mp3s or whatever. I've gotta believe there's a service that would do it for your. I also got tons of good shows from etree.org - which at the time used ftp but I think uses bit torrent too. archive.org used to have the entire dead catalog available for free download, but I think bob weir pulled the plug on that (you should check).


as for a phish reunion? meh. they lacked life and spontaneity the last couple of go-rounds. I know it sounds all "back in my day..." but they were really much more fun to see in the early 90s. i'd still probably go tho. the dead in the late 80s/early 90's were about 20 yrs past their prime but the shows were still tons of fun.

as for most of the rest of the "jam bands?" they get pretty boring to me. some are great jamming musicians but the songs are just not good. the dead stand apart from the jam bands of today because they wrote great songs. the songs were not just the bit between jams, but were the seeds of all that beautiful improvisation.

maybe it's just me, but i find most of today's jam bands "songs" to be the tedious part between jams. blah blah blah.

and les claypool is a freak in the best way possible. i saw him at one of these shows play a tune called "dee's diner" with a girl named gabby lala who rocked the electric sitar.

and a quick note to m1lgram:

phish were really a different animal than the dead. I totally agree that their lyrics are inane and suck iq points, but I think their form of jamming was way less of a noodling circle-jerk than many of the jam bands out there. while each jam differed, they all had a formal structure that carried from rendition to rendition. if you get beyond the stinky patchouli wearers and the trust fund babies acting like vagabonds, there's some excellent musicianship in there.

and they rip off the tradition created by zappa more than that of the dead, imo.

Good points.

Your life will be spared. :)