------------------------------

From: STAFFORD@hycad5.dnet.hac.com
Subject: PHISH = PHUN! 4-15-92

Widespread Panic and PHISH at the Variety Arts Theater in Los Angeles
4/15/92. Missed all of Widespread except their last number, so, no
comment.
        I have never heard or seen Phish before last night. If it weren't
for  posts on rec.music.gdead, would have never enjoyed this musical
group. Thanks to all you PhishHeads out there.  I give you a big chinese
bow.
        Phish started playing at 9pm consisting of a keyboard player,
lead  and bass guitars and drums. Clear mylar with pastel paint on it was
hung behind the group and colored lights were shown on & thru for effect.
They took a short break and finished their 2nd set around 11:40
        The only way I can describe the music is rock-jazz and a little 
bit of free-form-fiddlefaddle.  There were a few tunes that had some
country, some  with latin beats, most tunes had a few long instrumental
jams.  Songs I noted were named (I think):
Falling in the Well Maybe So, Maybe No The theme song from National Public
Radio's "All Things Considered Bag it, Tag it (sell it to the butcher at
the store Cracklin' Rose (a Neil Diamond tune)
Sweet Adeline (a capella - vocals only) Encore: Rocky Top

A rather large hairy drummer dressed in a black and orange moo-moo came
from behind the drum kit with a pre 1970 Electrolux canister vacuum
cleaner. He put the hose end up to the mic and made some strange sounds
with it and his mouth.  Another interesting moment was when the lead
guitarist played drums while the moo-moo clad drummer played the cymbals
and sang lead vocals on Cracklin' Rose.  Both guitar players engaged in
some antics involving tiny trampolines and bending knees and turning round
& round (PHISHersize?). Also, the bass player had big hair in the first
set.
        In general, this was the most entertaining original group I have 
seen in a very long time.  Their musicianship is pretty darned good 2,
IMHO. 
        PHISH = PHUN!                 Catch them live if you can.
                                      Jack  Stafford@hycad5.dnet.hac.com
Now back to your regularly scheduled program. . . .

------------------------------

From: ALJONES@pitzer.claremont.edu
Subject: Variety Arts Theater  4-15-92

        It was quite a show I must say!! The boy's first time in 
Southern California. The theater was actually very nice for downtown
LA, but the management was a REAL drag. They did NOT let the tapers tape!!
There was no taping  at all except for what Paul and/or JP were doing.
The manager apparently thought that these tapers were going to be selling
these tapes and he was afraid that he wasn't going to be making the money.
It didn't seem to even phase the guys at the soundboard, even after the 
tapers tried to get them to talk to the manager (oh well???). 
        
        Panic came out first and played a beautiful set. They did a great
soundcheck of "She caught the Katy" They weren't letting people in to the
theater part yet from the lobby but being the audio enthusiasts that we
are we managed to get down in there with no disturbance to anyone. 
Panic opened with J.J. Cale's "Travellin' Light" Then a little later in the
set they did a great "Driving Song" -> "Weight of the World" -> ? ->
(into) "Driving Song" at which point they closed with "Makes Sense to Me"
        Then Phish came (and so did we)!!!! The set list goes as follows:

* YEM - Mikes bass solo had "Groove is in the Heart" jam, then 
        Trey jumped in and changed it to "Funky Town"

**YEM - Vocals jam was amazing, they must have gone in and out of 
        at least four different songs, all in perfect harmony. It
        almost sounded rehearsed (yes, thats how good it was!)!!!!!

*** Fish man comes up right before he's about to sing "Cracklin' Rose
        and says, "All right now, we've got a choice. Its either 
        Neil Diamond ... or .. Syd Barrett. ... NEIL IT IS!!

**** Right before My Sweet One, Trey announced that "This next one is 
        by the third greatest song writer of all time..." At which 
        point Fish raised his hands in glory then slammed into "MSO"

        The first set, honestly, kinda lagged (ie. one of my favs. Foam
Guelah) Otherwise everything from Stash on was jammin'. THEN, I don't
what they did back stage but when they came out for the second set, you
could just feel it! The Chalkdust was soarin' and I was groovin' right
below  where all the Electra reps were. And thery were all smiles :-)
Then the YEM was mind blowing! See out here inthe west not a lot of people
know about bouncin when they're on the tramps. But that soon ended. Every-
one was bouncin' during Page's organ solo 9which was needless to say, 
amazing. Trey solo was so colorful and bright. He was using every trick
in his book (cuz as you know he re-wrote the book on guitar soloing :-)!
I don't think I could say anything more (in the way of words) I guess you
could just tell by them smiles and glassy eyed looks every one had after
the show. It is too bad that noone gotta a tape of this, except JP.

        Well I'm off to Santa Babs in an hour. Hope to see all of you at
the Warfield and the rest.
        Enjoy ..

        (No longer) Sufferin' from Petrified Phish Disease,

                                Alex

aljones@ptnext.claremont.edu

P.S. If you are anywhere NEAR northern California on Saturday, highly 
        recomend that you make the trip to Stanford. Don't worry about
        all the stuff. Just stay LP (that's Low Profile).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: AFOSTER@cmcvx1.claremont.edu
Subject: L.A. show reviewed in L.A. Times  4-15-92

Here's a reveiw of Phish's 4/15 show in Los Angeles from today's Calendar
section:
        A prediction:  By 2000, every college town worth its salt will
        have its very own Grateful Dead surrogate, a latter-day hippie
        band complete with its own group of fans that follows it around
        from gig to gig.  A number of such bands are already in place,
        including Burlington, Vt.'s Phish, which played at the Variety on
        Wednesday, jamming out the kicks for a boisterous bunch of
        tie-dye-clad kids who weren't even born during the Haight-Ashbury
        heyday.

        Though it's been embraced by young Deadheads, Phish (whose fans,
        of course, are known as Phishheads) proved to be more noteworthy
        for its differences from the Dead than its similarities.  This
        quartet has chops, imagination and a lot of humor that give its
        wittily surreal songs and intricate jams an idiosyncratic character
        that only occasionally resembles the Dead's more free-form journeys.

        Can you imagine the Dead engaging in the silly, deadpan choreography
        of Phish singer-guitarist Trey Anastasio and bassist Mike Gordon?
        Would one of the Dead's drummers ever come out front to sing Neil
        Diamond's "Cracklin' Rosie," as did Phish's Jon Fishman, or would
        the Dead ever encore with a perfect barbershop-quartet "Sweet
        Adeline" and a hyper-driven "Rocky Top"?

        It's hard to say how this tomfoolery would go down with the old-
        timers, but Wednesday it was abundantly clear that Phish has struck
        a chord with Deadheads:  The Next Generation.

Well, there it is.  A pretty accurate description of Phish's general style,
but it's difficult to see whether or not the article praises or criticizes
Phish overall.  It's just good to see the band get space in a major
metropolitan newspaper, especially on their first SoCal tour.

                                        -Andrew

------------------------------

From: s4610160@titan.ucc.umass.edu (dicA deaH)
Subject: Re: L.A. show reviewed in L.A. Times  4-15-92


In article <1992Apr18.210628.27051@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU> AFOSTER@cmcvx1.claremont.edu writes:
>Here's a [abbreviated] reveiw of Phish's 4/15 show in Los Angeles from 
>today's Calendar
>section:
>       A prediction:  By 2000, every college town worth its salt will
>       have its very own Grateful Dead surrogate, a latter-day hippie
>       band complete with its own group of fans that follows it around
>       from gig to gig.  A number of such bands are already in place,
>       including Burlington, Vt.'s Phish, which played at the Variety on
>       Wednesday, jamming out the kicks for a boisterous bunch of
>       tie-dye-clad kids who weren't even born during the Haight-Ashbury
>       heyday.
>
>       Though it's been embraced by young Deadheads, Phish (whose fans,
>       of course, are known as Phishheads) proved to be more noteworthy
...
>       timers, but Wednesday it was abundantly clear that Phish has struck
>       a chord with Deadheads:  The Next Generation.
>
>Well, there it is.  A pretty accurate description of Phish's general style,
>but it's difficult to see whether or not the article praises or criticizes
>Phish overall.  It's just good to see the band get space in a major
>metropolitan newspaper, especially on their first SoCal tour.
>
>                                       -Andrew
The article is derogatory to the band and its fans.  And they don't call
themselves Phishheads.  The author is a moron.
L.A. is gross (sorry if you have to live there) and the LA Times is pretty
gross, too.  
Do we want more Phish fans?  Venues get bigger, scene gets uglier.  But, 
more people (could) get "turned on".  Who knows...    
===============================================================================
"Better heresy of doctrine,             Scott.Kaufman@STPEC.umass.edu 
 than heresy of heart."                            or
        John Whittier                   s4610160@titan.ucc.umass.edu
        Mary Garvin, Stanza 22                 (413) 253-4245

----------------

From: twent@wam.umd.edu (Anthony J. Went)
Subject: Re: L.A. show reviewed in L.A. Times
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1992 15:31:29 GMT

dicA deaH writes:
>Andrew Foster writes:
>>
>>Well, there it is.  A pretty accurate description of Phish's general style,
>>but it's difficult to see whether or not the article praises or criticizes
>>Phish overall.  It's just good to see the band get space in a major
>>metropolitan newspaper, especially on their first SoCal tour.
>>
>>                                      -Andrew
>The article is derogatory to the band and its fans.  And they don't call
>themselves Phishheads.  The author is a moron.
>Do we want more Phish fans?  Venues get bigger, scene gets uglier.  But, 
>more people (could) get "turned on".  Who knows...    

1.  I agree that the article in the Times painted Phish in the wrong light, and
    I didn't especially like it.  It did note some cool things about Phish, but
    made the wrong conclusion...

2.  Phish phans _have_ been known to call themselves Phishheads, but I don't
    think there is a standard word for them yet.  I do remember "aPhishionado"
    being suggested as a deliberate move away from "Phishhead" here on the
    net... someone noted that the imagery was cool, but the connotations were
    bad...

3.  Not the "no more fans" argument again!  That's kind of selfish to want to
    enjoy an incredible band yourself and not want anyone else to.  Sure, we'd
    rather see them in a club than in the Meadowlands, but you can't hope that
    people don't get turned on to them...

Just some thoughts...
        tony

-- 
Tony Went (twent@wam.umd.edu)                           
University of Merryland
     "I'd like to hear my options so I can weigh them, what do you say?
      Five pounds, six pounds, seven pounds..."
                                        - Phish

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