Outside of feature-length live show Phish documentaries such as It or Phish 3D, there are a few recording session documentaries as well (Tracking, the Undermind bonus DVD, the Rift promo), not to mention some fan-made documentaries. But perhaps best of all is the 2000 documentary film Bittersweet Motel.
Directed by filmmaker Todd Phillips (Old School, The Hangover), Bittersweet Motel follows Phish through the band’s 1997 summer and fall tours, and includes footage from their spring 1998 European tour, culminating with Phish’s August 1997 festival The Great Went in Limestone, Maine.
On opening weekend, August 25, 2000, the film took in less than $40,000 and grossed just short of $381,000 for its theatrical run in the United States.
The 84-minute film has an 8.1 rating on IMDB. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 43 percent on the Tomatometer and 93 percent audience score.
My favorite part of Bittersweet Motel occurs about 37 minutes into the film. The filmmaker asks a harmonica-playing, dreadlocked fan, “Is it true you have to be on drugs to listen to Phish? That’s what someone said.”
“No,” the fan says. “Someone said that?”
“Why would somebody say that?” the filmmaker asks.
“Because they like drugs?” the fan retorts. “I don’t know. I like to see Phish sober. Less restrictions to that place where you need to go. For music, more or less.”
“What’s the place?”
“The place? It’s in your soul.”
“Oh…”
“That place. That’s why I see Phish shows.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Because they take you to a new level, that you’ve never experienced, of music appreciation. “
As a rockumentary, Bittersweet does a nice job of letting the viewer inside the world of a touring rock band. We go on the bus, back stage, and literally over the shoulders of the band members during an a cappella rendition of “Hello My Baby.”
Perhaps the most cringeworthy part of the film is when Trey Anastasio is haggling with a shop owner over the price of a .357 Magnum handgun. It’s clear Anastasio has no sincere interest in purchasing the gun and the back-and-forth is just for shits and giggles, but for the gun shop proprietor it’s very real and sincere.
Also, there’s a fair amount of drinking in this film, which, knowing now how drug and substance abuse within the band contributed to their 2004 breakup and Anastasio’s subsequent DUI arrest and successful rehabilitation, makes those bits uncomfortable to watch.
But all in all, good and bad, Bittersweet Motel is a gem in the annals of Phish history, capturing a time and place where the band and its fans came together to celebrate something at what felt like a peak moment in time. And it was—kind of.
“We played a bad set,” Anastasio says, laughing to Fishman, off camera but on mic after the first set of The Great Went. “Phish: Five sets to redeem ourselves, the new live album. Starting with just a really terrible disc one.”
There are plenty of quotes you can pull from this documentary, but, like most statements, taken out of context their meaning and intent can be distorted. And so, watch for yourself! It’s a great film, capturing a pivotal time and place for the Phish from Vermont.