The McGill Tribune, January 26 - February 1.1993
P ag e 13
Entertainm ent P h ish cohesive despite im pending R ift BY ERIC STEIN What was the last concert you saw where the drummer played a vacuum cleaner, the band bounced on trampolines while playing, and every one in the audience fell to the floor simultaneously for no apparent rea son? Chances are the band you were seeing was Phish. And chances are you were blown away by their per formance. In December, Phish made its first Montreal appearance since 1989, playing at Le Spectrum. The show provided many Montrealers with their first glimpse of the eclectic stylings of this quartet. Drawing on a wide range of influences, Phish blends classic rock, jazz, blues, funk, country, latin, psychadelia and many other musical styles into a streamlined, modem hy brid sound. The hallmark of the band’s sound is Trey Anastasio’s unique gui tar playing. However, keyboardist P ag e M c C o n n ell, b a s sist M ike Gordon, and drummer Jon Fishman all play equally important roles in shaping the music. Despite its ten-year histoiy, the Vermont-based band has only recently
entered the realm of mainstream suc cess. It signed a major record deal with Elektra Records in mid-1991, has released a highly successful al bum, and has toured extensively throughout North America and Eu rope with such rock luminaries as Santana. They continue to sell out three- and four-thousand seat theatres and on New Year’s Eve played to a sell-out crowd of over 7,000 in Bos ton. With their fourth album, Rift, due out in February, it seems that Phish is on the way up. In an exclusive interview prior to their December 13 concert, Gordon explained the new album is the best yet. Gordon believes Rift is differ ent from earlier releases in a few nota ble ways. 1992’s Picture O f Nectar was an especially diverse album with thejazz instrumental “Magilla”, coun try flavoured “Poor H eart”, latintinged “Landlady”, and the rip-roar ing, straight ahead sound of “Tweezer” and “Chalkdust Torture”. Said Gordon of Rift::”ll ’s more integrated. The different styles are mixed together within each song rather than between each song, like on ‘N ec tar’. I think it’s a little bit mellower in
general and I think the songwriting shows some more maturity. It’s also the first album that has an outside producer— Barry Beckett.”. Beckett is known for his work with Dire Straits, Bob Dylan, Etta James, Hank Williams Jr. and Bob Seger. To acquire a full understanding of Phish one must experience one of their shows. The band often rewrites a tune whilethey jam. The instrumental sections of songs like “Harry Hood”, “Reba”, and “David Bowie” become monumental musical journeys that transcend the standard “four-minute pop song.” Gordon terms such musi cal exploration “environment simula tion.” “I ’m really into different states of consciousness and I ’ve never taken any powerful drugs or anything, so I d o n ’t re a lly k now about hallucinogenics. An example I like to use is sometimes, when the music is flowing and the groove is just right, I get this uplifting feeling, sort of like the feeling of flying. And I ’ve real ized that it isn’t just like the feeling of flying but it is the feeling of flying because it’s really just your own per sonal sensory perceptions that create
the feeling,” explained Gordon. Metaphysics aside, there is an other important aspect to consider about the Phish experience. The band has heightened the visual aspect with a state-of-the-art light show and syn copated dance steps. F ish m an ’s vacuum cleaner playing also adds an ■element of levity to each show. “It’s all just in the effort of making it fun for the band and the audience in different w ays” said Gordon. During the “Big Ball Jam” au dience participation is brought to a new level as three large beach balls are thrown into the audience and bat ted around. While Fishman provides a beat, each member of the band fol lows a different ball, playing a note each time it is batted. In this way, the audience becomes part of the musical process, virtually controlling the band. Phish also has a series of musi cal signals that they use to communi cate with the audience and each other. Originated by Gordon, this “secret language” is an ambitious and crea tive concept that takes two form s. The first is a series of signals that the audience knows and responds to in a certain way. These signals command
the audience to do things such as turn around or fall to the floor. It is quite remarkable to see a theatre of 3,000 people drop to the floor in the middle of a song for no apparent reason. Since much of their audience is made up of ‘Dead Heads’, a common misconception is that Phish is a Grate ful Dead-type band. Many people make this comparison without really understanding its connotations. “The other guys in the band are pretty sick of it,” said Gordon. “But I can see that there are reasons for it which make sense. W e jam a lot and the set lists change from night to night so a lot of people travel around with us seeing a whole string of shows.” So with more and more people discovering Phish, and their concerts selling out faster than they can an nounce them, what are the next steps for the band? They are currently considering a project involving their “Gamehenge” saga (a multi-part song suite) perhaps as a concept album or even on Virtual Reality. In the meantime, they are kicking off a North American tour with the release of Rift, which should bring them to the Montreal area in April or May.
BY NIKA BAREKET B ack in S eptem ber, Scott McCord joined McGill ’s best known live band, Whetherman Groove Tube. In a recent interview with the mem bers of the band, McCord, along with, A.J. Pen, Jamie Shields, Rob Stephens and Dan Kurtz, we talked about that and oh, so much more. Tribune: Who wants to ex plain the name of the band? Rob: The second part is Old English spelling of “To be”. The sec ond part is from “the whether doth man groove”. I can’t remember the rest o f it. We were throwing around some Shakespeare. Dan: There’s a funny coinci dence because Groove Tube is also a play from the 60s. Jamie: It was also made into a movie with Chevy Chase. Tribune: How is your tape sell ing? Scott: Moderately. W e’re in a bit of a dilemma because it features our old singer— Tribune: Andrew Peters. Can you tell m e something about him? A .J.: G ood guy and good singer. W e had our parting of the ways. He used to write the lyrics and we would write the music. But that's changed drastically in the last five months. It’s a lot more of a group effort now. Tribune: So who writes the lyrics now? Dan: E verybody. U sually someone comes in with a germ of an idea, and then from there we work on it. It usually ends up sounding like something quite different than what we started off with. Tribune: W hat do you write about? Dan: Personal experiences.
Not so much “I did this one day”, but «notions. W e have a number of tunes that just sort o f tell people— not order people to do things, but ask them to look at themselves m ore or less. Get involved. Rob: We have some fun songs too. Dan: Before Scott joined, and Andrew was writing the lyrics we were all concentrating much more on the musical side of things. The lyric writing is a new thing for the instru mentalists, and I think it’s having an effect on our music as a whole. W e’re now much more conscious of the whole synthesis of lyrics and music. Before, our stuff was really busy mu sically. The songs are more homog enous now. Tribune: Do you ever argue about a final song? A.J.: Only because we care so much about a song. I ’m not arguing with Rob because “Rob’s a jerk”. Rob: It wouldn’t be that good if I would say “I think it should end this way”. It’s good that we all have such strong opinions, because then w e’ll argue it out until we come to a compromise, or leave it for another day when we can give it a fresh start. It makes for a much m ore creative— A.J.: Vibrant. Rob: —yeah, vibrant process. W e trust our crowd a lot too. We know that if the crowd really likes something, then w e’re doing some thing right. Tribune: Name some of the bands that influence your music. A.J. : I listen to a lot of stuff that the other guys listen to, but the main difference is that I listen to a lot of Genesis and Devo. Jamie: I like to listen to a lot of funk. We all expose each other to different music. Like Rob, he listens
to Bad Brains, Fugazi and things like Funkadelic. I ’d never even heard o f them before I got in volved with this band. I like early Kiss. Tribune: I t h as to be asked— what do you think of the Seattle “scene”? Rob: Seattle I like. I like Pearl Jam a lot. I guess just becauseof the singer (Eddie Vedder), who our manager just got drunk with the other day,butdidn’tknow who he was. Tribune: What do you think of Soundgardcn? Rob: I like them a lot. I think I actually saw them in Seattle on a business trip with my dad many years ago. Chris Cornell is really cool. Tribune: Tell me about it! A .J.: H e’s got a voice that puts Geddy Lee (of Rush fame) to shame. Tribune Do you like Geddy Lee? A .J.: No, but h e’s got a real high voice, (to Rob)What do you think of the Seattle fashion scene? Rob:(w earing flannel and a choker) Well, I personally hate it. Tribune: I can see that. Dan: I ’ve gone into my anal classical jazz phase. No, I listen to less of their alternative stuff, and I like my Tower of Power. Hmm...it’s hard to say. I took the histoiy of jazz course. Scott: I don’t want to try to bullshit anything. My listening ca pacity has expanded over the last few years because I ’ve seen bands like the Phantoms and the Bourbons (Taber nacle Choir). They brought every body’s awareness back to where they were coming from. It’s cool to see a band that does their own thing with nothing sampled. It’s based on pure talent. Just recently I ’ve spent a lot of
E rie B o eh m
Get Into the Groove Tube
F o u l in fa ir W ea th er a ie a G r e a v e T ube time listening to blues and soul sing ers. The Isaac Brothers are one of my favorites. Tribune: W hat is your audi ence mostly like? A.J.: Deadheads and Thrash ers. Tribune: W hat would your ideal audience be like? Jamie: Anyone who likes us. All our fans are really great Tribune: So you don’t feel se lective o f your audience? A.J.: No. We appreciate the people who come o u t W hat’s inter esting about the Deadheads, well not Deadheads, but for lack o f a better term, is that they tape our shows and play it for their friends. Dan: You get ten people who for three hours are at the front o f the stage, which is the best feeling. Sta tion 10 is actually the best because they’re about ten inches from you. Rob: W e’ve started a mailing list which shows how diehard some people are. Tribune: Do you have any groupies? .AJ: We prefer to call them “friends”.
Tribune: How often are you on the road? Dan: W e’ve got two weeks off now. February could turn out to be an insane month. Between February and the first of March we could have as many as Fifteen gigs. With the excep tion of one, all are on the road. Tribune: That’s a lot. How do you manage with school? All: School? Dan: Well, if you do what I do, and take English— Tribune: I do. Dan: W e’re all in such a mindset that we’re active all the time. I play bass every day. You get into a mindset where you have to acknowl edge how much work you have to do. You have to force yourself. Tribune: I ’m tap in g over “Erotica” for the interview, by the way. All: a bunch o f cheers and clap ping. Whetherman Groove Tube are playing at G ert's on Tues. Ja n . 26. Tickets are $5 a t the door or at Sadie’s. Their tape is available at Phantasma goria.