Phish's Flow Into the Big Pop Pond April 30, 1993 - The Record (NJ) By Steve Morse PHISH performs 7:30 p.m. Monday at the State Theater, 15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick. Tickets, $ 18.50 (advance) and $ 20 (day of show), may be purchased at the box office; Crossroads Tickets, Route 4 east, Paramus; and TicketMaster outlets or by calling TicketMaster Charge, 507-8900 or 1-(212) 307-7171. For more information, call 1-(908) 246-7469. Forget about Phish ever getting too cocky. They may be brash, but they remember their roots. The neo-hippie jam band did not come from highly trendy scenes in New York or Los Angeles, but from the quaint college town of Burlington, Vt. There they honed their tight ensemble sound, a darting blend of rock, jazz, and bluegrass, by playing in local bars. "It was so easy to get a gig in Burlington," says Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio. "It's not a place where hundreds of bands vie for a half-hour slot. It got to the point where we'd play five nights a week. We'd have a total, anything-goes attitude. We'd do musicals and weird things and even build things out of the microphone stand. And we'd get people up onstage. That's where we developed our spontaneity-is-it philosophy." Today, Phish is spontaneous in a much bigger pond. They've toured with Santana. They've toured with the Spin Doctors, Blues Traveler, and Widespread Panic in the so-called HORDE tour (which stands for Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere). But it all started in Burlington. "There are more bars per capita in Burlington, about 52 or whatever than just about anywhere else," Anastasio says in a recent phone interview. "We also started when the drinking age was 18. That was back in 1983-84. "It all grew slowly. I remember we first grew into New Hampshire, then made the big step to Boston." "We don't sell that many records, but we sell a pretty huge number of concert tickets," says Anastasio. Phish's appeal comes from their wacky stage presence: A New Year's Eve show this year found drummer Jon Fishman wearing a frock and blowing into a vacuum cleaner hose at one point. The group also loves free-flowing jams, which explains the comparisons to the Grateful Dead. "For a rock act, the Dead have a couple of incredible things about them that other bands don't have," says Anastasio. "One is their level of improvisation... But the other is organizational. The Dead are very family-oriented and have health insurance for all their crew, and profit-sharing. That's a definite influence on us from the Dead's scene. They also put their crew's children through school, so you end up with people who are a lot happier working for you." Phish has been together 10 years, with no end in sight. Three members went to Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt., a liberal arts enclave that laid the groundwork for the band's inventive jam-session style, ranging from barbershop harmonies to atonal fugues. "We get along so well. We take a day off and there's always a sense of excitement when we come back," Anastasio says of Phish mates Fishman, Page McConnell, and Mike Gordon. "Even when we do a sound check before a show, our sound guy will yell at us to stop, but we'll keep jamming." Phish takes pride in its grooves. "That's what was great about touring with Santana last year," says Anastasio. "For learning about grooves, there's no better band. And I got to sit onstage and trade off with Carlos Santana. It was like a dream. I've been listening to Santana since I was 8 years old. My dad had their records." While known for offbeat, fantasy lyrics, Phish has a new album, "Rift," which is more serious in tone. Part of it examines the breakup of a relationship. "The album has a heavier side, a different flavor," says Anastasio, who handles most of the lyrics. "It's not like Nectar,' which was more fantasy. You just write what you write at a given time." The new disc, produced by R&B great Barry Beckett (whose credits include Aretha Franklin), also found Phish recording several takes of most songs, rather than their usual single take. "Our philosophy had always been to just go in and do it. A lot of songs on our first three albums were just one take," says Anastasio. "But on this new one, Barry would come to us after our first take and maybe say nothing except, Guys, can you do it again?' Or: Can you put more soul into it?' And when you realize he's produced for Aretha Franklin, then you listen hard. We learned quickly that there's always room for improvement."