Del.icio.usPhish
Fact Sheet
| Country | USA |
| Official site | http://www.phish.com |
Phish is also releasing a steady stream of recorded live concerts from their archives, which contain thousands of concerts. Six albums are released twice each year. The Live Phish Series began in late 2001. They have also released a DVD of a performance in Las Vegas from September 30, 2000.
Their fame grew with each successive release and, instead of succumbing to the pressures of huge stadium concerts, the band began organizing massive festivals such as the Clifford Ball (1996 in music), Great Went (1997 in music), Lemonwheel (1998 in music), Oswego (1999 in music), a 3 day millennium concert at the Big Cypress Seminole reservation at the end of 1999 (1999 in music), and the "It" festival at Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine. Phish toured throughout the summer and fall of 2000, and began a hiatus at the end of the tour (The first break longer than a few months for 17 years). The band members then began embarking on side projects: Trey fronting his own band, Page forming the trio Vida Blue with Russell Batiste and Oteil Burbridge, Fish performing with Pork Tornado, and Mike working on films such as Outside Out and The Deep End.
Phish ended the self-imposed hiatus with a sold-out New Year's eve (12/31/02) show at Madison Square Garden in New York City followed by a 3 show run in Hampton, VA. They have completed a Winter and Summer Tour for 2003, a 20th anniversery tour (Nov. 28-Dec. 2), and have planned a four day New Year's Run in Miami.
Despite the great successes by the band, the group seldom found themselves regularly on the radio or MTV, with the great culture surrounding the band's performances more often receiving news before the actual music was. The band in fact only had one non-album b-side on all of their officially-released singles, an outtake from Billy Breathes entitled "Strange Design" from overseas copies of their song "Free".
Ben and Jerry named a flavour of ice cream after them, "Phish Food." It has chocolate ice cream with gooey marshmallows and fudge fish. It is Ben and Jerry's third highest selling flavor as of 2000. All profits go towards the cleaning of Lake Champlain. Other music groups have had flavors named after them as well, with the Grateful Dead being the first ("Cherry Garcia") and Dave Matthews Band being among the more recent ("One Sweet Whirled").
Phish fans are often associated in the public eye with a revival of some elements of hippie culture, especially marijuana use. The free and artistic community which often accompanies them has as its roots the followers of the Grateful Dead. While the band knew and emulated the group they are quick to point out they are technically different from them.
Like the Grateful Dead, Phish (along with an increasing number of bands these days) are more relaxed in regards to people making a copy of their live performances. Though a soundboard copy of Phish's shows are shortly pressed and sold on the band's website, fans are also permitted to tape any performance they so desire, with the understanding that no profits from the recording are to be made. They may freely give or trade them with other fans, however, and many do.
On May 25, 2004 Phish Frontman Trey Anastasio announced via the Official Phish website (http://www.phish.com) that the Summer 2004 Tour will be their final tour, and that the 2004 album Undermind will also be their final album. Trey stated ".. We don't want to become caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act." This ends Phish's twenty-one year run. Their final show will be in the band's "home state" of Vermont.
Article licensed under the GNU FDL. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Phish"