Euripides on war April 9, 2003 - The Keystone (PA) By Domenick P. Moore It was late August of 2002 when the word came down. People began booking hotels, making flight arrangements, and sending out mail orders immediately to have the opportunity to see the premier jam band live in concert. That’s correct. After two years of an indefinite hiatus, Phish is back. The foursome from Vermont has been at the live music game since approximately 1982. Guitarist Trey Anastasio met Jon Fishman (drummer), Mike Gordon (bass), and Page McConnell (keyboards) at the University of Vermont and Phish was born. The early shows were played at various dorms, bars, and households in the Burlington, VT area. Many of these early shows were in a bar called “Nectar’s,” which was later immortalized on the album, A Picture of Nectar. The band has long since graduated from college and on to stadium concerts respectively. This year, Nectar’s is being sold, ending a tradition as long standing as Phish’s career. But, when one aspect of Phish disappears, inevitably another emerges... this time, it was Phish returning. In October of 2000, Phish announced an "indefinite hiatus." The band felt that they needed a break. They wanted to improve their family lives, work on side projects and take a vacation from the road. When Phish left, no one was sure if they would ever return... including Phish themselves. McConnell was eager to tend to his newborn, while Anastasio, Gordon and Fishman wasted no time getting started on their own projects. Anastasio formed a tight-knit group of jazz musicians, not so humbly named The Trey Anastasio Band. Gordon directed his debut film, "Outside Out," and Fishman returned to his side project, Pork Tornado and sat in on drums with The Jazz Mandolin Project, for a tour. Anastasio’s solo band allowed him to explore jazz composition. Anastasio then collaborated with Les Claypool, formerly of Primus, currently of Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, and Stewart Copeland, formerly of the Police, to form a band called Oysterhead. Around this time, Gordon directed his second film, a documentary on Government Mule. Government Mule had recently lost their bass player, Allen Woody, and was recording a new album with a laundry lineup of guest bass players. All of the guest bass players were asked to do the album in tribute to Woody. When Gordon was asked, he not only agreed to play on the album, but to direct a documentary about these recording sessions. The video is entitled, "Rising Low." Shortly after this project began, Gordon returned to music by releasing an album with guitarist Leo Kottke. A tour followed, and then McConnell put together a side project featuring Oteil Burbridge of The Allman Bros., called Vida Blue. As Phish’s side projects were wrapping up, the news cycled down through the ranks. Phish would be reforming, and their first show back would be a New Year’s Eve bash at Madison Square Garden, followed by three shows at the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia. As word traveled faster than Chevy Chase sledding in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” people around the country scurried to send in their mail order request tickets. Most of these people were turned down for tickets so that there would be enough tickets to sell on Ticketmaster. On the day that Ticketmaster released tickets for the New Year’s Eve show, anxious consumers were greeted by unfriendly messages denying their attempts to procure tickets. February could not come soon enough for the Phish junkie in me. I was thoroughly disappointed that I missed the New Year’s and Hampton shows. So, when I saw that Philadelphia’s First Union Spectrum was on the list of stops, I wanted very badly to get tickets. I got the tickets, but I was still a bit skeptical whether it was worth all of the work to track them down (i.e. waiting in the cold for tickets at 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday). I decided that I was going to view the show very critically. I have seen some great live music in my life, and I was afraid that I might enjoy the show simply because I missed Phish. I did not want to go in and see a mediocre show, yet come out raving like a lunatic about "how sick" it was. So I went in with the attitude of, "you better floor me, or I’m going to be disappointed." Well, you will hear no complaints from me. I feel that during the hiatus, Phish matured and mastered a game that they started over 20 years ago. I had a wonderful time at the Spectrum, in fact so wonderful that I drove to Nassau Coliseum on Long Island on Friday night to see them again. I was even more dumbfounded after seeing this show. Phish has become "too good for their own good." Maybe they are "too good for my own good." Either way, Phish is back. They are still changing the set lists every night, playing the classics, and being good ole’ Phish; but they’re better at it. Copyright © 2003 The Keystone (PA)