in the integrity or the essence of what
we're after. ... When you get to the size
of things as they are now, you'll play
things that you know the crowd will
like but that you wouldn't necessarily
pick."
But there's a flip side: "The situation
we're in now almost pushes us more to
do something different. I mean, what if
we did something that made half our
crowd leave? That'd mean we only had
half a bazillion people.
"The bottom line is, there is noth-
ing to lose. The worst you can do is
fall on your face. No one gets hurt."
That adventurous attitude appar-
ently is what spurred The Siket Disc,
Phish's most recent album. The album
is sold only through Phish's official
Web site (www.phish.com ) and mail
order service, by an unusual arrange-
ment with the band's record label,
Elektra.
Siket (named for Phish's recording
engineer) is an all-instrumental album
that was recorded about the same time
as the group's previous album, The
Story of the Ghost. It's more ambient
and less rhythm-oriented than most
Phish records, and Fishman says it
represents a new direction for the
band.
"It felt like, All right, we're taking a
chance here!' It wasn't really catering
to anything but itself. It was just this
weird plant that we put out. The atti-
tude was, 'Quick, get it out before we
can analyze it!'"
Phish's improvisatory style and the
ardor of its tie-dye-flaunting fans, who
follow the band around and set up
makeshift villages at each tour stop,
has led to inevitable and endless com-
parisons between Phish and the
Grateful Dead.
So it's a surprise when Fishman
actually brings up the subject of the
late, lamented San Francisco band,
without any prompting.
"A lot of people compare us with
the Grateful Dead," he volunteers.
"And I will say they had an influence
on what we do.
"But one thing I don't want to do is
get fat and lazy and rest on my laurels
for my last 10 years. It's sad that this
thing that was important to American
culture for so long just became
[uncomplimentary four-letter word]."
"The Beatles taught us not to sell
our publishing rights. And the Dead
taught us not to rest on our laurels."
Considering the energy Phish
brings to its new work, the band won't
be slowing down anytime soon.
The group, whose members —
r
Fishman, Gordon, guitarist Trey
Anastasio and keyboardist Page
McConnell — got together in
Burlington, Vt., in the early '80s, is
putting out more adventurous music
than it was four or five years ago,
when it was struggling to deal with
growing fame.
Fishman is a fan of the Residents, a
Bay-Area performance group known
for its oddball exploits and for scrupu-
lously hiding the identities of its
members.
Phish's members no longer have the
luxury of obscurity, but the band. does
like to indulge in Residents-style
stunts — jumping on trampolines
during concerts or breaking into a
sudden barber-shop-quartet number.
Once, the band made its entrance rid-
ing atop a giant replica of a hot dog
suspended from the ceiling.
Over the past few summers, Phish
also has staged a series of vast, one-
time festival concerts with fanciful
names such as Lemonwheel and the
Great Went. And it recently
announced plans for a three-day New
Year's blowout to take place on
Florida's Big Cypress Seminole Indian
Reservation.
How does Phish pull off these
giant concerts peacefully, when an
event such as Woodstock '99 degen-
erates into chaos and violence? Ask
Fishman for a 10-word answer, and
in his typically verbose manner, he
rattles off a 10-minute treatise. The
essentials:
"When we approach these festivals,
we think of the things we didn't like
when we went to festivals as concert
goers. And we've paid a lot of atten-
tion to the feedback we've gotten on
them.
"After the first one, the feedback
was that it was great but hard for
handicapped people to get back to
their campsites. So we started a shuttle
service.
"Woodstock's approach was, 'How
can we make as much money as possi-
ble?' I thought the guy from MTV
said it right: 'If you treat people like
animals, they're going to act like ani-
mals.'
"But you're investing in your future
if you do it right." fl
Phish performs 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 2, at the Palace
of Auburn Hills. $25
advance/$27 day of show. (246)
645-6666.
John Tanktsychtik Detroit Free Press
January 8th, 1999
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