Members of Phish decide it's time to cut bait May 26, 2004 - Boston Globe By Renee Graham Phish is phinished. Trey Anastasio, lead singer and guitarist for the popular Vermont-based jam band whose shows draw tens of thousands of fans apiece, announced yesterday on the band's official website that Phish has "run its course" and has decided to end its 21-year run "while it's still on a high note." Phish's final shows will be Aug. 14-15 in Coventry, Vt. "We all love and respect Phish and the Phish audience far too much to stand by and allow it to drag on beyond the point of vibrancy and health," Anastasio wrote. "We don't want to become caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act." A band spokesman in Vermont confirmed the announcement's veracity but declined to comment further. The decision was made by Anastasio, drummer Jon Fishman, bassist Mike Gordon, and keyboardist Page McConnell at a meeting on Friday. The band is scheduled to play Aug. 10-11 at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield. Phish has long been viewed as the heir to the jam-band throne first established by the Grateful Dead. With Jerry Garcia's death in 1995, Phish inherited the mantle, as well as many of the fans who traveled from state to state and show to show each summer. To many, the band seemed rejuvenated after ending a two-year hiatus with a New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden in 2002. But in his message, Anastasio wrote, "For the sake of clarity, I should say that this is not like the hiatus, which was our last attempt to revitalize ourselves. We're done." The band's final studio album, "Undermind," is due out June 15. Dean Budnick, editor of the online site jambands.com, said that while the breakup is a surprise, there were clues. "Phish's music is about energy, but it's also about precision," Budnick says. "And they haven't been as precise over the past year. . . . Trey has been a little distracted and unfocused. I can understand why he might want to move on." So can Roxi Old-Chappa, a Somerville pastry chef and devoted "Phish-head." "As much as I'm a fan and I love going to their shows, I think it's not necessarily a bad move," said Old-Chappa, who has seen Phish in concert about 40 times. Lenny Bloch is program director for JamON, the nation's only 24-hour jam-band radio station, available on Sirius satellite radio. Since the station's inception a year ago, it has devoted at least an hour a day to recordings of live Phish performances. "It's sad," Bloch says. "But it's not the end of them as musicians, and I have no doubt they'll probably jam together again at some point." Article Copyright © 2004 Boston Globe