Go Phish! September 28, 1995 - San Diego Union Tribune by James Herbert Perhaps the man had been listening to too much Phish -- specifically the lyric Seen the city, seen the zoo / traffic light won't let me through -- when he stepped off the curb and set off a riot. So it was the last time Phish played San Diego -- not a riot, precisely; more of a misunderstanding, featuring one petulant jaywalker, a few dozen police officers and 100 or so disapproving youths. That evening last December is immortalized on Phish's latest album, "A Live One," but not because of the ruckus outside the Spreckels Theater, which had nothing to do with the band. Instead, it's because the song "You Enjoy Myself" -- recorded inside the theater -- is featured on the live double album. As that tune's genial title hints, the members of Phish, who perform tonight at Embarcadero Marina Park South, are not a riot-inciting bunch of guys. Oh, they'll pull the odd stunt. But what rock band hasn't entered a theater suspended overhead on a giant, wired-for-sound hot dog, or romped on trampolines in midsong? What band doesn't study and perform barbershop harmonies, or play the Beatles' "White Album" in its 32-song entirety, or venture into arena parking lots to play bluegrass tunes when the mood strikes? What . . . what is with these guys? "My feeling is that you can pick something up from anybody," says Phish guitarist-songwriter Trey Anastasio, musing on Phish's sound and sensibility from his Vermont home. "You put on a Janet Jackson album right now . . . or Debbie Gibson, or something. There's SOMETHING to be learned!" Dead ahead Gibsonian influences aside, it's not possible to talk about Phish without eventually mentioning the Grateful Dead. And now that that's out of the way . . . In truth, even Anastasio agrees with the oft-cited parallels between the Dead and Phish. Both boast nomadic bands of faithful followers (the Deadheads and the "Phish Heads") both perform loose, rootsy music; both are capable of playing jams that last longer than some bands' careers. "We're certainly influenced by the Dead -- and a lot of other bands," agrees Anastasio, though he's not convinced there will be a flood of cross-over fans, now that the Dead is in limbo. "You can't just replace one band with another," he says. "I suppose there are going to be people who enjoy the lifestyle, the hanging around in the parking lot, and who just kind of need a place to meet their friends." In Phish's beginnings, the venues it played were lucky to have lavatories, much less parking lots. These were the cramped beer joints of Burlington, Vt., a college town with a teeming club scene. In 1984, Phish was the upstart act, scrapping for gigs behind local favorites with names like The Throbulators. Copy cats Anastasio had met bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jon Fishman in Burlington; when keyboardist Page McConnell joined in '85, Phish was set to become a phenomenon. Such is the band's following that, after years of East Coast touring, a groundswell of word-of-mouth support and the breakthrough success of 1994's "Hoist" album, Phish has spawned at least two tribute bands: Phin and Stash. Anastasio feels far from threatened. "I think it's great," he says. "They're younger people. It's a compliment." Then, laughing: "It's a good place to start, I suppose." Part of the credit for the band's rise has to go to Phish.Net, an astounding fan presence on the Internet (go to http://archive.phish.net/phish/ on the Web). Here, Phish is a religion. The site is replete with words of the prophets (there's an in-depth debate on what the sole lyric is to "You Enjoy Myself," the consensus being: "What's your fee to drive to Firenze?") and devotional objects (T-shirts and bumper stickers are offered for sale, and tapes for trade). If the Dead's music is a gumbo of styles, Phish's is a veritable paella, melding jazz, a cappella, blues, folk, reggae and the kind of expansive prog-rock pioneered by Yes and Zappa. That's leavened with the occasional trampoline spree and like antics -- the Phish schtick, as it were. Improvisation is Phish's very essence, made possible through mind-bending rehearsal regimens with names like "Including Your Own Hey" -- a kind of demented variation of "Row Row Row Your Boat" -- and making possible such feats as "Tweezer," a live-album cut that runs to 30 minutes. That's Phish's idea of a good time. In fact, Phish itself is Phish's idea of a good time. And that, says Anastasio, is what keeps the band together and its music fresh in the face of the problems -- grueling tours, growing crowds -- that he acknowledges constitute the baggage of success. "To be perfectly honest," he says -- maybe dreaming of the next show, maybe just still wondering about that fee to Firenze -- "it's never ceased to be fun." DATEBOOK Phish 6:30 tonight; Embarcadero Marina Park South, Eighth Avenue and Harbor Drive, downtown; $18.50 to $20; 220-TIXS.