Phish August 23, 1993 - Portland Oregonian By Phil Smith We've sung the praises of Phish before, hailing the Vermont rock quartet's previous four- to six-hour Portland concerts as virtuosic, goofy, crowd-pleasing rave-ups. When Phish's two concerts here last spring were sold out, however, we should have passed along a warning to those who were sure to go out and buy the band's CDs to hear what they missed: Seldom, if ever, has there been a group that sounded so great in person and so boring in stereo. Maybe it's partly due to the visual richness of a Phish concert -- with members bouncing around on trampolines in midsong, wheedling melodies from a vacuum cleaner, breaking into choreography or just showing their own delight at whipping their audience into a gleeful frenzy. More likely, it's just that some groups' music doesn't come across in recordings, just as some good-looking people don't photograph well. In one sense it's a tragedy, but it also explains why Phish is (thank goodness) constantly on the road. Four fun-loving virtuosos on guitar, keyboards, bass and drums, Phish is often at its best playing lengthy, awe-inspiring jams with a Southern-rock flavor. But at any time the group might take deft side excursions into jazz, bluegrass, reggae, blues, classical, calypso, new age music, falsetto soul or a cappella. And Phish has an amazing ability to toss out key or tempo changes that with other bands would lose at least a few listeners with every turn but in Phish's case pull every single listener deeper into the overall groove. At press time, tickets were still available for Phish's concert at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. So remember: A Phish in the hand (or the concert hall) is worth two, six, eight or a hundred on the stereo. Article © 1993 Portland Oregonian