Phish takes the stage at a sold-out Corestates Spectrum
December 30, 1996 - Trenton Times
by John Nalbone

PHILADELPHIA - Had Trey Anastasio hung around Princeton a few more years, the coffee houses that have sprung up like weeds in and around Palmer Square would have been an ideal forum for him to weave his musical craft.
Now, Anastasio and the four-man band he founded in 1983 after posting fliers in the hallways as a student at the University of Vermont, sell out arenas and are considered by some to be the official house band for Generation-X and the "new" counter-culture.
The new Phish album, "Billy Breathes" is steamrolling toward gold status, the same sitinction enjoyed by the band's two previous efforts, last year's "A Live One" and 1994's "Hoist."
Anastasio, 31, spent some of his formidable years as a student at Princeton High before enrolling at Taft and then at UVM. He returned to the area last weekend with two completely sold-out shows at the Corestates Spectrum.
Phish kicked off Sunday's show with the hillbilly rocker "Poor Heart," before Anastasio made a sharp hairpin turn into the jazz realm with Duke Ellington's "Caravan."
The first of three songs from "Billy Breathes" in the first set, "Taste" gave way to the funkadelic "Guelah Papyrus" and there was no turning back from there.
"Trainsong" and "Free" - the first single from the new release - preceded a well-received "Squirming Coil" before Anastasio's southern rock juices flowed during "La Grange" to close the nine-song set.
After a 30-minute break gave the twirling dance-fiends in the hallways a needed respite, "David Bowie" exploded from the stage to begin set-two. The Beatles' "A Day in the Life", with McConnell (keyboards) on lead vocals followed.
The unquestionable highlight of SundayŐs Spectrum performance began five songs into the second set when the instrumental jam "You Enjoy Myself" just about blew the roof off the "old " building. During what was thought to be the closing stages of the song, each band member suddenly switched instruments (without missing a beat) to continue the outrageous jam. Anastasio, who started on lead guitar, hopped on Fishman's drum kit. Gordon, originally on bass, grabbed Trey's guitar. Fishman slid behind the piano and McConnell went for Gordon's bass and so on. The aptly titled "Rotation Jam" continued in front of a delirious crowd of over 20,000 for 15 minutes before roaring back into "You Enjoy Myself."
Stunning the audience with yet another song in the now 90-minute-plus set, Phish debuted a brief rendition of the recent Oasis hit "Champagne Supernova" sandwiched inside a rare "Harpua" closer. Anastasio's longtime friend, fellow Phish songwriter and Princeton resident, Tom Marshall, lead [sic] the way on vocals.
After making the awkward, but triumphant, journey from country, to jazz, to searing rock-and-roll, to folk, to delta blues and then back to rock, Phish ended the evening as it began more than three hours earlier with a country-fied version of "Rocky Top" for an encore to bid the masses goodnight.
Welcome back, Trey.

Š 1996 Trenton Times, Inc