Great Music While High: Phish

Phish is not a rock band. Their Wikipedia page does a good job of scratching the surface with the opening sentence, “Phish is an American rock band noted for their musical improvisation, extended jams, blending of musical genres, and dedicated fan base”, but that’s not really what being at a Phish show is. It’s not really like a normal rock show in that the “dedicated fan base” is on a different level from many things that came before it. Phish is something else.

My home in Denver was recently host to what has become an annual Labor Day weekend event for Phish since the band reunited in 2009 after a 5 year absence. Formed in 1983 in Vermont, the band has been touring pretty much non-stop up until that point, which allowed them to cultivate an audience of rabid fans around the country. Their music is a blend of just about every style you can think of, and in their lengthy career have covered everything from bluegrass to electronica, with stops for jazz, arena rock and many things in between.

Their wide variety of music and totally unique live shows have allowed the band to spawn a small empire of live recordings and merch, starting years ago with the Live Phish CD series and continuing as a website where all live shows are available, including live streaming.

The hordes of fans this weekend reminded me of what makes Phish such a unique experience, because it’s really the experience of the live show that becomes just as important as the music on stage. For me personally, the attraction to Phish came as a 13 year old who was just discovering music, specifically how to play guitar and write songs. What drew me to Phish was first the sense that their music could literally be anything. Putting improvisation at the center of the show makes everything risky, which can be just as frustrating as it is exciting.

Phish live, as it was meant to be experienced.

A friend of mine described Phish well as ‘the Stephen King of bands- it’s the law of averages.’ In their 2000 documentary Bittersweet Motel (directed by future Hangover director Todd Glass!), singer/guitarist Trey Anastasio says it well, “When you take a risk, sometimes you’re going to play shit.” But when they’re on, it’s a high-wire act that compares to nothing else in live music.

But much like their often-compared godfather The Grateful Dead, Phish has also given rise to a large and very dedicated fan base that not only hangs on and often criticizes every note of music, but is also willing to totally follow the band anywhere, both literally and musically.

This is because Phish takes risks that The Dead and many other great “jam bands” never have. Drummer Jon Fishman has worn a circle-spotted frock on stage for the majority of their career, and has been known to solo on the vacuum cleaner. The band also has an on going tradition of playing a special Halloween set where they don a “musical costume”, covering an entire album by a favorite band. It’s these kinds of quirky acts that have endeared the band to countless people that will book flights and plan entire trips around Phish and their tour dates. Being around that again and seeing the automatic sense of community that follows the band reminded me that the journey seems to be just as much of a draw as the music.

That journey can often include drugs, including our favorite one here at Weedist, but there’s more to it than that. Phish can also be easily understood sober if you just keep in mind that they cultivate an environment where anything can and might happen on stage, which the crowd fully embraces. That sense of freedom is what keeps people coming back to Phish, even if they are easy targets for criticism.

If you’re still reading to this point, roll up your favorite strain and listen to this and you can see for yourself: