Phish reel them in April 6, 1994 - The Gazette (Montreal) by Brendan Kelly Cops fail to ruin Metropolis party Phish at Metropolis last night. One show only. The common take on Phish is that these Burlington, Vt., boys are the '90s answer to the Grateful Dead and there's certainly something to the hypothesis. These young guys have very long hair, specialize in long, free- form jam-like songs, and they also happen to have legions of fans who follow them around from town to town. Metropolis was packed to the rafters last night with 2,000 Phish-heads, many of whom hailed from various points south of the border, including a sizable contingent from their home state of Vermont. These mostly college-age fans may wear tie-dye T-shirts, but they're not crazy about comparisons to Woostock-era icons like the Dead. Dave Krane, who drove all the way from the suburbs of Chicago to catch last night's gig, looked puzzled when the Grateful Dead were mentioned. Krane, a philosophy major, insisted that there's no great social phenomenon here. It's just that Phish are an amazing live band. His friend Joe Perona was taping the show, which was only fitting since Phish encourage fan-taping. There was a nice, positive hippie-like vibe in the hall - in spite of the best efforts of Montreal's finest to put a damper on the Phish party. The police swooped down on the club and forced Metropolis to check every fan's ID, which delayed the show by an hour and caused a couple of hundred kids to miss the opening songs of the set. But no squares were going to ruin this party. The flannel was flying and the Converse All-Stars were a-tapping from the moment Trey Anastasio plugged in his guitar and led his three colleagues into the first tune, which was - appropriately enough - a 10-minute jam. As the reefer clouds floated to the top of this huge disco palace, these alterna/retro rockers kicked new life into '60s progressive rock with an inspired slice of improv that borrowed elements from bluegrass, jazz fusion, Southern boogie and hard rock. Pretty well every song featured lengthy solos by Anastasio on riffy lead guitar or Page McConnell on keyboards, and the whole messy brew served as a refreshing change-of-pace from the typically hyper-choreographed '90s rock show. The over-heated crowd had been transformed into one huge, gyrating mass of long-haired square-dancers by the time Phish kicked into an epic take on Rift 60 minutes into the show, and there was easily more energetic dance action than any gig this side of the hardcore scene. Generation-X stereotypes to the contrary, clearly these Phish- heads are no slackers, and their enthusiasm helped make the evening a whole lot more interesting than your usual rock outing, even if the crowd dynamic tended to be more riveting than anything happening on stage.