Phish is a band, and yet so much more.
Despite our combined attendance of close to 400 shows, boiling down this cultural phenomenon and the storied history of this American rock band into 100 things was a daunting task for Jason and me. We could have easily written 1,000 things or even separate volumes of whole books on the music, the tours, the festivals, the fans.
No fan base is more knowledgeable, more obsessed, than the Phish fan base. Any number of fans you’d find at a Phish show could tell you about their favorite performance of “Tweezer” (chapter 93) or regale you with stories from Shakedown Street (chapter 24) or gratefully share how they scored their Miracle ticket (chapter 66). Each fan of this storied band has his or her own tales and narratives. Each of us has our unique history and experiences with Phish, whether we’ve seen this band just once or dozens, hundreds, or countless times. This collection is merely our own version of this shared experience.
100 Things Phish Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, we hope, is the beginning of a longer conversation. Our aim with this book is to inspire a dialogue among fans: chats between jaded vets and student noobs, Big Cypress attendees and Baker’s Dozen crusaders, Cow Funkers and Fuegoists. That said, some readers may disagree with some of our thoughts and opinions here. Even as coauthors of this book we have differing opinions. Hell, we’re not the definitive archivists of this band that continues to perform and tour. We’re just along for the ride, part of the process—and now you are, too.
As we wrote this book, one question kept popping up in our minds. Why Phish? Why Phish over so many other bands out there? Why Phish, still, after 35 years?
Why Phish? Because Phish is so much more than a band. Phish is a culture, a phenomenon, a dance party, a celebration, an inside joke, and a practical joke all the same. Phish is a 30-minute psychedelic improvisational meltdown followed by a two-minute, 100-year-old, a cappella barbershop quartet song. Phish is composition and improvisation. Phish is both humble and confident; spontaneous and rehearsed; four musicians larger than the sum of their parts.
A Phish show can reach religious heights, eliciting shared euphoria, as 20,000 fans revel in the band’s exceptional tension/release improvisations. A Phish show can and will touch upon a plethora of musical genres and still be inherently, uniquely “Phish.” No two shows are ever the same.
As clichéd as it may be to say, it’s foremost about the music. These four virtuoso musicians, performing together for 35 years, have claimed their spot among the annals of great American music, recording 13 studio albums and releasing countless live albums from their more than 1,600 shows.
Why Phish? Because from the stage, they can do anything they put their minds to. To put it plainly: Phish is the best band in the world. There isn’t another band today that could play 13 shows at Madison Square Garden and not repeat a single song.
Why Phish? We could give you a thousand reasons why Phish, but have attempted to distill that into 100 things, 100 whys, some objective, some personal, some historical, some magical, and yet, some still to be written....
This book was a collaborative project. Jason Gershuny wrote chapters 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 30, 35, 38, 40, 46, 47, 49, 50, 72, 74, 84, 88, and 89. All others were written by me, Andy P. Smith.
Start at the beginning and read cover to cover or skip around from chapter to chapter. We hope you enjoy reminiscing, discovering, relistening, and immersing yourself in the world of Phish while reading this as much as we did while writing it.
Thank you for checking out our book, and thank you for making the Phish community such a wonderful, joyful place.
See you on tour!
Phish sets sail into 2018 at MSG. (Jason Gershuny)