Darien Lake: Phish August 09, 1993 - Buffalo News By Robbie Ann McPherson "Phish at Darien Lake? Do you mean 'fish in Darien Lake?' " My query was answered by several people, who all said the same thing: "No, Phish is a Grateful Dead-type quartet with a cult following." Oh. Considering I would rather listen to a jackhammer than the Grateful Dead, I dreaded the Phish experience Saturday night in the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center. But lucky for me, Phish's only similarity with the Grateful Dead seemed to be the fashion statement made by most of the concert-goers: hippy-chic mixed with grunge. Guitarist and singer Trey Anastasio stood front and center, doodling out a rich tapestry of improvisational jazz with talented keyboardist Mike Gordon to his right, playing a baby grand piano -- not the usual electronic keyboard. The band played several songs in seamless, long stretches of free-form jazzy solos and sudden duets, with the tie-dye clad fans in a frenzy at each new melody. Phish fans, known to follow the band around as the Deadheads trail after their cash-cow heroes, are a strange lot; many of them puff away on cigarettes while talking loudly about environmental pollution and waving Greenpeace literature. The pseudo-politics reached a head when I saw a fan down front waving a cardboard sign that said, in large block letters, "Free Soap." Did I miss something? Was there a soap-hostage crisis somewhere? Or was the boy making his offering to the crowd, perhaps a polite hint to the grungier Phish-heads? When the teen-ager turned around for a moment, I understood: the true message was written on the other side of the card: "Happy Birthday Jim. We're here to celebrate." Anastasio acknowledged Phish-fan Jim's birthday and reminded everyone to donate a dollar to the Greenpeace booth set up by the front gate. Politics and tie-dye aside, Phish actually was more of an interesting, creative jazz band than anything else. It borrowed sounds from the likes of Spyro Gyra and Vince Guaraldi, then threw in funky rhythm-and-blues sounds from '70s soul groups like Booker T and the MGs. Darien Lake was a perfect venue for Phish's strange fusion music -- gazing upward at the star-filled sky and listening to the weird, psychedelic sounds mixed with different jazz influences was like being at a planetarium. The group played an hour set peppered with Anastasio's weird soliloquies, then took a 25-minute intermission while Phish-heads dutifully crowded the Greenpeace booth, puffing away on cigarettes. Phish opened the second set with the "Theme From 2001: A Space Odyssey" and lifted the psychedelia to new heights with smoke machines and strobe lights. Throughout the evening, the Phish-heads kept two things constant: their smoking habit and being engaged in odd little dances with themselves -- imagine Snoopy and the Peanuts gang bobbing to Vince Guaraldi's groovy "Linus and Lucy." Despite belligerent feelings for the Grateful Dead, I could relate to the charm in following Phish, even upstream. Article © 1993 Buffalo News