Phish The Palace March 22, 1993 - The Hollywood Reporter By Steve Chagollan Something's fishy in the alternative music scene. Schools of Phish-heads seem to be growing in ever-increasing numbers. It is a phenomenon disproportionate to the growth of the band they so ardently follow; for Phish is no more interesting today than it was in 1990, the year of its breakthrough "Lawnboy" LP. If the Grateful Dead coasted on automatic pilot through the 1980s with no shrinkage in their legions of followers, Phish can look forward to the same built-in audience base. The two bands' disciples look strikingly similar: lots of tie-dye, bare feet and trance-like dancing, but with an age difference of about 20 years. To its credit, Phish exhibits more versatility than the Dead in its music, an amalgam of blues, acidhouse, art rock and fusion laced with Zappa-esque smarm. Its members -- guitarist Trey Anastasio, keyboardist Page McConnell, bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jon Fishman -- certainly have the chops to pull off all this eclecticism. But their more-clever-than-thou antics almost always get in the way: grandiloquent, nonsensical lyrics; nerdy dance steps; trampoline bouncing, etc. Live, Phish's compositions usually deconstruct into lengthy space jams, which seem just fine to the undulating throng. Their performance Wednesday night amounted to little more than experiments in shifting tempos and richly textural riffs, with Anastasio's intermittently inspired solos providing most of the filler. If McConnell's piano is usually lost in the mix, his Hammond organ injects much-needed soul into the proceedings, while Fishman -- a drummer to be reckoned with -- provides the spark. These guys can definitely play, now if they'd just get serious . . .