Phish | Sphere at The Venetian Resort

Phish in Concert

Probably no other band around today is more about the live experience than Phish. As the undisputed kings of the jam-band movement that began in the '80s and exploded in the '90s with bands like Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler, and The Spin Doctors, they defined a style that was song-based but also about improvisation and the magic of the moment. When they brought their creative collision of rock, jazz, funk, folk, and country influences to a quickly expanding grassroots fan base in the '80s, a movement was born -- one in which the music was constantly developing before the audience's eyes and ears. Trey Anastasio's guitar, Page McConnell's keyboards, Mike Gordon's bass, and Jon Fishman's drums engage in a four-part conversation that's constantly evolving. Whether the band is playing tunes off classic Phish releases like 'Billy Breathes' and 'The Story of the Ghost,' or performing one of their famous Halloween shows where they cover another artist's album in its entirety, like The Who's 'Quadrophenia' or Talking Heads' 'Remain in Light,' Phish is always in flux. While headlining festivals like Bonnaroo, or hosting their own, like The Clifford Ball and Magnaball, or keeping an event all to themselves, the band maintains an unbreakable connection with their huge, hardcore audience of Phish Heads.

Phish Background

Phish got its start at The University of Vermont in 1983, when guitarists Trey Anastasio and Jeff Holdsworth, bass man Mike Gordon, and drummer Jon Fishman started jamming informally. But by the mid '80s, when Holdsworth had departed and keyboardist Page McConnell arrived to solidify the band's lineup, the band was truly beginning to define its sound -- a mix of Grateful Dead-inspired psychedelic jamming, jazzy fluidity, and funk-savvy grooves. Phish released its first, self-titled album in 1986, but like the Dead, they were always more about the live experience than the recording studio. And by the end of the '80s they were hitting the road hard, building up a hefty, dedicated audience and pretty much creating the jam-band circuit in the process. Their songwriting shone on albums like 'A Picture of Nectar,' 'Billy Breathes,' and 'The Story of a Ghost,' while their concerts became a nexus for thousands of hardy Phish Heads. You can't keep Phish out of water for long, and these days they continue to take their idiosyncratic but infectious sound to the people, creating new generations of Phish fans along the way.

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Host or Publisher GREG BROOKS