Fresh Phish, New Album, Same Fanatical Following
October 20, 1996 - The Hartford Courant
By Pamela Mitchell
Phish fans give new meaning to the word devotion.
To them, traveling states away to catch a show, sometimes ticketless, is no big deal. Their most beloved mail is Doniac Schvice (the Phish newsletter) and (802) 860-1111 (the Phish hot line) is No. 1 on their speed dial. Spending hours on-line trying to track down favorite bootlegs is not unheard of; some fans even create their own Phish home pages on the World Wide Web to further the cause. Phish Heads are young, crunchy souls who find happiness listening to their
favorite band do what they do best -- jam. Connecticut's Phish following is
extra happy this week. The band's long-awaited studio CD, "Billy Breathes,"
hit stores last week and on Wednesday, they perform a sold-out show at the
Civic Center. Total E tracked down a few local fans, of varying degrees, to
find out why so many like to go phishin'.
But first a little phistory
The quirky quartet from Vermont started out as a cover band back in the
early '80s, settling into their present lineup -- guitarist Trey Anastasio,
keyboardist Page McConnell, bassist Mike Gordon and drummer Jon Fishman -- in
1985. Everyone sings. Harmonic vocals mix with jazz, bluegrass and rock
instrumentals in an endless jam. They have seven CDs to date.
The phans
Lauren Purple started listening to Phish about four years ago because
"their music is, seriously, really unique and fun to listen to. They do a lot
of instrumentals." Purple, a senior at Conard High School in West Hartford,
considers herself a fan. She chats on-line with other Phish Heads and trades
tapes with friends, but admits she's missing out on the total Phish experience
because she has never seen them live. "I was supposed to go to four concerts
so far," Lauren says. "One kid sold my ticket for a show in Vermont because
a friend told him my parents would never let me go. So after hours of
convincing them to let me, I found out my ticket was gone."
Lauren also missed getting tickets to Wedneday's concert because she
couldn't get her hands on a credit card in time. When she finally did call,
with plastic in hand, the show was sold out.
Lucky for Lauren, she can hear all about the show from herticket-holding
friend Michael Pelletier, 19. This will be his sixth Phish concert. Pelletier,
a UConn sophomore, has seen them as close to home as Great Woods in Mansfield,
Mass., and as far away as this summer's Clifford Ball festival at Plattsburgh
Air Force base in Plattsburgh, N.Y. Pelletier missed out on the first round of
tickets sold at the Hartford Civic Center. Last week, he found out through an
e-mail from Phish management that seats set aside for handicapped concertgoers
had not been sold out and that those seats were going on sale to the general
public. He quickly got on the phone and scored great seats for himself and
friend Rich Bouvier.
"Phish concerts are the best," Pelletier says. "The people that attend
the shows are a lot nicer than at other shows. There's no moshing, none of
that. Everybody is in a more peaceful kind of appreciative state."
If you didn't get tickets to Wednesday's show, make it up to yourself by
hearing Phish tonight, from 10:30 to midnight, on Modern Rock Live, a national
live call-in show you can hear locally on WMRQ-FM (104.1). --To talk to the
band, call (800) 223-ROCK.
If that's still not enough, do what Purple's classmate and fellow fan Ted
Swigert, 16, is doing Wednesday night. He also missed out on getting tickets,
but is heading to Hartford anyway.
"I'm planing on going no matter what," Swigert says. "I have some
friends that have tickets and the atmosphere surrounding the concert is really
cool. They have a large following that goes from city to city. Everyone just
hangs out before the show."
article © 1996 The Hartford Courant Company
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