Nice Article in the Miami Herald
marcman
Go Phish! The wildly popular jam band closes out 2009 with four Miami
shows
BY MICHAEL HAMERSLY
Special to The Miami Herald
There's nothing quite like a Phish show.
Imagine a band that can jam and improvise like the Grateful Dead on
stage, channel the ironic absurdity of Frank Zappa on record and
perform just about anything rock music has to offer. (In concert,
Phish has faithfully reproduced -- note for note, song for song --
full versions of classics including The Beatles' White Album, Pink
Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, The Who's Quadrophenia and the Rolling
Stones' Exile on Main Street.)
Their rare combination of skill, relentless touring and Dead-like
community prompted Rolling Stone magazine to crown Phish ``the most
important band of the '90s.''
Even diehard ``Phans'' don't know what to expect from any given show,
as Phish constantly changes its set list. In its four concerts at
downtown Miami's AmericanAirlines Arena Monday through Thursday, the
band won't repeat a single song -- not even tracks from its aptly
titled new album Joy.
The Miami shows culminate in Phish's first New Year's Eve concert
since 2003, which was also at the AAA. The band, which reunited
earlier this year after a four-year hiatus, performed at Big Cypress
to ring in 2000, so South Florida obviously holds a special attraction
for the veteran Vermont musicians.
``We all love to go down there after Christmas -- it's warm,
beautiful, and it's just a nice place to play New Year's,'' says Trey
Anastasio, principal songwriter, frontman and guitarist, on the phone
from snowy Manhattan. ``And it's a particularly good venue for us --
we just like the room.''
Phish-heads can also thank Eric Woolworth, who started out as general
manager of the arena and is now the Miami Heat's president of business
operations.
``He's an old friend of mine,'' says Anastasio. ``He was on my hockey
team, and we were very good friends in high school. So when he started
working down there, we would chat about the idea of Phish playing.''
The band had called it quits in 2004. Nearly 20 years of almost
nonstop working and touring had taken a toll, especially on Anastasio,
who describes his drug and alcohol problems as ``well-documented.''
``We just hit the wall on a lot of levels,'' says Anastasio. ``It was
just rolling along with no end -- the whole thing had gotten to be a
bit like a freight train that was out of control.
``And stopping was the best thing we could have done. . . . Everybody
went home and reconnected with what's important, which is family and
health. And when the time was right, we got back on the road.''
The band also returned to the studio to create Joy, released in
September, which sounds looser, more relaxed and more like a live
concert than any of Phish's 11 previous studio albums. Anastasio
credits the break.
``We're having so much fun,'' he says. ``And the most fun may be that
everybody this summer had their kids on the road. Fish [drummer Jon
Fishman] has these three tiny kids now -- people got busy in the
family way over the break -- and [bassist] Mike [Gordon] has an 18-
month-old. And my kids came out on the road, they're 12 and 14, and
[keyboardist] Page [McConnell] is about to have another baby. . . .
``It's gonna be like that in Miami, too. I think a lot of the kids
will be down there. It's really incredible, considering we started
when we were all 18 years old when we were all in college. It's a
miracle. I feel like I'm still the same age, even though my kids are
almost the age now as I was when I started.''
Anastasio, 45, is more aware now of maintaining the delicate balance
of career and family.
``Things feel a lot different at this point,'' he says. ``I look at
musicians I admire that have had long careers, and I try to learn from
them. I look at Bruce Springsteen, whom we got to play with this year
at Bonnaroo. . . . I think he sees it like he's been blessed with two
families: his biological family and the family of his band and his
fans. And that to me is a really good model.''
Anastasio says he has a new appreciation of pop.
``Since last year, I've been falling in love with music again, and I
think it's because my daughters are 12 and 14 now, and they love all
the new pop bands because they're at that age,'' he says. ``And it's
so exciting for me, like this honor to see the world through their
eyes.''
Phish's four-year hiatus didn't cause Anastasio to shut down
musically. To him, songwriting is ``a sort of a meditation.''
``I get up in the morning and I write. I do it all the time,'' he
says. ``The greatest thing that's happened to me over the past two
years is the invention of the iPhone. There's an app you can get
called FourTrack. It's a multitrack studio on your phone. Writing on
this thing is unbelievable. Everywhere I go, 24 hours a day, I have
this functioning multitrack studio with drum machines, and you sing
right into it. That's all you need.''
Anastasio can hold his own with world-class musicians (``I played with
the Philharmonic last year at Carnegie Hall, a full night, so I've
written lots of classical things and jazz charts and horn charts'').
But he appreciates what artists like Lionel Richie, Phil Collins and
even Hanson have accomplished.
``I get into this argument a lot with my jazzy friends,'' he says. ``I
theorize that writing a pop hit that resonates is the hardest thing in
music. And if you don't believe me, do it. Anybody can do a 15-minute-
long jazz exploration -- not well, only a few people can do it
well . . . But millions of people try to write [Hanson's pop hit]
MMMBop. And you know what? Those guys are going to spend the rest of
their lives wondering why they can't write another MMMBop . . .
``So many pop songs are an inch from being great, but they're never
really, really great. To me, it's the most fascinating thing ever,
when I see something resonate.''
Maybe, he says, that's why Phish does so much improvising.
``You'll be playing and something mysterious and magical happens every
once in a while, and it feels like it's not coming from us, like
you're just standing there watching it. And I think that's what the
whole Phish concert experience is about. Lightning strikes all of a
sudden, out of the blue -- Boom! And you're there to witness it.''
Vaughn
Wonderful. The closing quote is rather similar to his somewhat famous
quotes from the past, but more coherent and better stated. Much like
their 3.0 musical sound, Trey's language use reflects his clarity and
cognitive presence. Who's to say that being able to think, act, and
play in a straight line isn't as groovy and virtuous as the meandering
free thoughts of improvisation and jam? I like the combination of old
and new best.
The statement this quote reminds me of is, which I always liked, but
thought could have been stated better:
"The way I look at it," says Anastasio, "the music exists in the
universe, and if you're lucky enough, or strong enough, to get your
ego out of the way, the music comes through you. The audience that we
have is open to that, and they understand that conversational transfer
of energy. If you had an audience screaming for the hit song, it's
never going to happen. You got to have people who are there for that
spontaneous moment where you rise above normal limits.
"The best shows, you really are not in control. I've been reading a
lot of interviews of great musicians - Marvin Gaye, Art Farmer, Sun Ra
- and they all agree on this philosophy. Even if you're a pop
songwriter, the greatest songs that they wrote, it wasn't hard.
"It was just this moment when they woke up, and the sun was shining,
and this song just poured out of them."