In the Beginning August 31, 1993 - Guitar Player by Mike Mettler Blues Traveler, Phish, Widespread Panic & Col. Bruce Hampton haven't merely risen from the Dead In the beginning, there was jam-all-night-until-they-pull-the-plug rock, and it was good. The late '70s and early '80s brought disco and corporate rock, and, some would say, it wasn't so good. In the late '80s and early '90s, a smattering of hungry young bands quickly gained reputations as exciting live acts unafraid to play way past last call, and it is good again. * The culmination of this live revival came in '92, when a bunch of so-called neo-hippie bands--the Spin Doctors, Blues Traveler, Phish, Widespread Panic, and Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit among them--gathered forces for the successful summer tour dubbed H.O.R.D.E. (Horizons Of Rock Developing Everywhere). This summer H.O.R.D.E. will be on the road again (and again and again). And although the frenzy surrounding the Lollapalooza extravaganza casts a long shadow, H.O.R.D.E. culture has also hit the big time. The Spin Doctors have snagged multi-platinum honors for Pocket Full Of Kryptonite, and Phish and Blues Traveler debuted their respective new albums in the upper half of Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart. * The common thread binding the H.O.R.D.E. is that, in the grand tradition of road hogs like the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers, all of these bands love to be onstage for lo-o-o-o-ng sets. They're uninterested in faithful note-for-note reproduction of a three-minute single; a few don't even play songs less than five minutes long, and some have thing or two about lengthy sets and improvisation. "There's nothing wrong with following somebody's direction conceptually," Warren says. "If you do long jams or change your set every night, it doesn't mean you're copying them; it just means you're taking a good lead. Besides, music is meant to be played live and without any restrictions." While it's easy to label these as "neoretro hippie rock," they've all just released albums that solidify their individual identities and signal a clear transition from formula rock back to free-form rock, '90s-style. Hippie, hippie, hooray. Phish: Rift raff "Rock and roll is about blasting energy," declares Phish's Trey Anastasio. "It's basically a volume thing. But there's also an unexplored world of harmony out there just waiting to explode. At some point, the attitude arose that if you know too much about theory or the history of music, then you're not playing rock and roll." Phish, that jam-happy band of spontaneous, trampoline-bouncing, beach-ball-bopping, vacuum-cleaner-playing merrymakers from Vermont, may know too much, but they can definitely rock and roll. Just take a whiff of Rift, the quartet's latest Elektra release, a 67-minute textbook on how to unwind and have a good old free-formin' time. Rift is Phish's first record with an outside producer: Barry Beckett, who's worked with Aretha Franklin and Etta James. "He's our soul gauge," beams Anastasio. "He has an incredible ear for groove and for soul." Beckett's influence is immediately evident in the raw emotionality of "Fast Enough For You." "Barry told us while we were in the studio, 'This might come on the radio after an Eric Clapton song,' and we replied, 'Ohhhh,'" Anastasio recalls. "I mean, the first tiem I heard 'Tears In Heaven,' it just blew me away. And we had never touched on that kind of direct emotion on our other albums, so I think 'Fast Enough' threw a lot of people for a loop." Indeed, with guest Gordon Stone adding poignant pedal steel, the slow-tempo, countrified song breaks new ground for Phish. Of the song's pining outro solo, Anastasio says: "That Clapton thing was still in my mind, especially his fadeout on 'Let It Grow,' which kind of spins backwards into the void of emptiness. Considering the nakedness of the song, I wanted ours to drift off like it did." By contrast, the jazzy "All Things Reconsidered," which riffs off the All Things Considered theme by running through a taut, 12-key tension-and-release workshop, showcases Phish's compositional prowess. "It's a perfect example of theme and variation," Anastasio explains. "The art of songwriting is coming up with catchy ideas, and the art of composition is taking those catchy ideas and developing them without bringing in new material. It's a really good exercise because it teaches you how to improvise on an established theme. For us it's good discipline, since we can lock together like a jigsaw puzzle to reach the same point musically two minutes later--a place we never could have gotten to if we were just playing spontaneously. This has opened up whole new paths for us to communicate through when we do play spontaneous things." Anastasio's pride and joy remains a pair of small, hollowbody semi-acoustics built by Paul Languedoc and outfitted with a pair of humbuckers in each. An inlay of Trey's dog Marley ("as in Rita, not Bob--it's a she") as a puppy appears on the headstock of the main guitar; his backup updates the inlay to accent Marley as an adult dog. "It's everything I need," notes Anastasio, who declines to experiment with other axes. "All I can say is, if Paul ever builds any more--and the requests are pouring in--I get first dibs on 'em. I'll probably buy them all anyway!" Trey's other gear is unchanged from the last tour: a Mesa Mark III pumps a 2x12 cab, while a volume pedal, a Boss compressor, and a pair of Ibanez Tube Screamers fill out his effects roster. Phish will spend most of this summer headlining outdoor dates--a brand new gig for these 10-year road veterans. "We tour so much that we never really feel like we tour to support an album," he clarifies. "We play because we like to play. Our feeling is that if we're just out there promoting an album, then we're not doing our job." Hampton succinctly sums up the primal H.O.R.D.E. experience: "Music is music, period. Last year was very positive, and I expect this year's H.O.R.D.E. will be too. Eight hours of music for about 10 bucks--you can't beat that." Praise the H.O.R.D.E.