Crabby or floundering? March 25, 1992 - Badger Herald (U Washington) by John Balcom Catch Phish tonight at Barrymore Keyboardist Page McConnell shares his thoughts on past and future Tonight the Vermont-based Phish is going to rock the Barrymore to the top. Phish keyboardist Page McConnel gave _The Herald_ a scoop on what's been happenning with the band. "We've just finished a west coast tour and are very excited with how well everything is going," said McConnell. Recently, Phish signed a record contract with Elektra Records who promptly released the band's third album, _A Picture of Nectar_. McConnell reflected on the specifics of the new contract. "Basically, it's a six record deal, where Elektra guarantees to release and promote two of them. We are very happy with Elektra Records because they spend a lot of time working with us and listening to what we want to do." If you've never had the pleasure of listening to Phish, their tracks consist of many diverse music styles. On their most recent release, the foursome play everything from straight rock to cool jazz, to rockabilly country, to things that seem to defy musical convention. Their live shows are always a blast as the group does everything from barber shop to "bouncing around the room" on mini-trampolines. When asked what Madisonites could expect at the show, McConnell hinted that, "We've been working on a lot of new material for our next album that we're going to start to record around August or September. We are very excited about our new material and are showcasing it on this tour." When asked about this new material, he added, "A lot of our new material continues to have many different styles of music. If you listen to _A Picture of Nectar_ many styles of music are represented, yet each style seems to stay true to its form. For example, the jazz songs sound like jazz, as the country songs sound countryish. In our new stuff, we may have a song that blends these styles together as opposed to keeping the entire tune in one form. I feel that as a band we are getting better at what we want to do and are progressing steadily." Besides the recently released _A Picture of Nectar_, the band has two previous albums, _Lawnboy_ and _Junta_. These albums are being re-released by Elektra and should be out within a few months. While talking to McConnell about the band's previous releases, he related some history of Phish's earlier days. All four members of Phish attended the University of Vermont at Burlington \wrong!|. McConnell, guitarist Trey Anastasio and drummer Jon Fishman all earned undergraduate degrees in music, while bassist Mike Gordon graduated college with a degree in film. It was in college that founding members Anastasio, Gordon, Fishman and another unnamed guitarist formed Phish. The band played for about a year before McConnell joined the group. The band remained a five piece for around another year, before paring down to the four seen today. McConnell commented that during those years, "We always focused our music on originality and wrote our own compositions. That was always there from the get-go. We played more cover tunes back then because we didn't have enough material to complete a set, whereas now we play one or two cover tunes during an entire show." Again, if you haven't listened to Phish before, the diversity of their music makes it hard to label. Asked where he would place Phish in today's scene, McConnell said, "I think its really hard to define and place us in any one certain category. If a listener of our music is a jazz buff, he'd say that we are a jazz/rock band, and if the listener is a country western fan, he'd say that we're a country/rock band, etc. So I guess what I'd call our music is progressive rock because we are always striving and progressing to some new dimension in our songs." As the talk with McConnell was drawing to a close, I asked him what critics have been writing about their latest release. "It has been varied," said McConnell. "I've read both good reviews and bad reviews. I remember the first review I read appeared in the _Boston Phoenix_. This was the very first review I had seen since the album was released, and the reviewer said he thought it was the worst record he had ever heard before. That kind of made me feel a little nervous. But since then I've seen both good and bad things said about the band." Tonight is your chance to go out and see this first-rate band for yourself and see how they'll attempt to sing, play, and bounce you into a Phish devotee. If anyone is tired of the typical local concert scene and is looking for some real entertainment, don't miss this show. At the very least they hope to prove that critic wrong. Tickets are $15 at the door and plenty of seats are still available for the 7:30 p.m. show. Call the Barrymore at 241-08633 for more information.