S
And Anastasio is the only member with concrete musical plans: He is composing and arranging music for the Vermont Youth Orchestra, and performed with them at the Troy (N.Y.) Savings Bank Music Hall and the Flynn Theatre in Burlington earlier this month. “Trey is actually melding a couple of pieces into one bigger, orchestral piece,” said Paluska. “He’s doing all the orchestral arrangements, which is a huge challenge for him, and he’s very excited about it.” Gordon is finalizing details to release
“Purple Rain.” The quartet at its improvisational peak.
12/28/92 The band gets an early nod in the mainstream press when People names A Picture of Nectar one of the year’s 10 worst albums.
11/22/92 Phish sign to Elektra, home of The Doors, AC/DC, and Better than Ezra.
a DVD of his film, “Outside Out,” an experimental work about a high school student whose strict father wants him to go to military school rather than be a musician. The student is played by the eccentric Bruce Hampton, bandleader of the Aquarium Rescue Unit. None of the Phish members was available to talk (“they’re in hibernation,” Paluska said) and it’s not known what Fishman and McConnell will do with their time off. But Phish fans need not worry in the meantime. The band mem-
T
L
I
G
H
T
Republished with permission of Boston Globe ©2000; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
12/1/84
Decked out in tuxedos, Phish pop the cork with a New Year’s Eve gig at Boston’s World Trade Center, thereby establishing a tradition. New Year’s shows would grow increasingly extravagant, integrating overthe-top props like scuba gear and a giant hot dog.
The band braves its first professional show at Burlington’s Main Street club Nectar’s. The set—still widely circulated on tape—is heavy on Grateful Dead covers, but does include longtime Phish fave “Fluffhead.”
Goddard College student and Love Goat keyboardist Page McConnell sits in with Phish at a UVM barbecue. He soon leaves Love Goat. (Wouldn’t you?)
O
bers are still getting along well, so this is far from a permanent move. “I don’t want people to think that the band has broken up, and then a year from now they come back and everyone is like, ‘Oh, we thought you guys broke up.’ That’s not it at all,” says Paluska. “The band is just doing this to spend time with their families and recharge their batteries.”
12/31/89
5/3/85
P
10/30/83 University of Vermont freshmen Anastasio, Fishman, and Gordon play their first gig, a ROTC party. The set includes Big Chill-style chestnuts like “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and
“Proud Mary.” The band is eventually shut down to make way for a spinning of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” © 2000 Entertainment Weekly Inc. Reprinted by permission. Sources: The Phish Book, by Richard Gehr & Phish; The Pharmer’s Almanac, by Andy Bernstein, Lockhart Steele, Larry Chasnoff & Brian Celentano; Phish.com and Phish.net
Taft Bulletin
23