It was time for Phish to cut bait May 27, 2004 - Syracuse Post Standard By Mark Bialczak Leonard Fishman says his drummer son Jon was happy on the phone despite his news: Phish, the jam band the Jamesville-DeWitt graduate has performed with since 1983, will break up for good. "They had decided on Friday, and I talked to him on Saturday," Leonard Fishman said from his home in Skaneateles on Wednesday morning. Phish vocalist-guitarist-songwriter Trey Anastasio announced the breakup to the public on the band's Web site on Tuesday. "It didn't surprise me much because they stopped before," Fishman said, referring to Phish's two-year hiatus, from 2000 to 2002. "Jon's very excited about the new recording coming out and the tour." The band's new disc, "Undermind," will be released June 15. A tour starts two days later in Brooklyn and winds up Aug. 14 and 15 with a festival in Coventry, Vt., now the home state of all four Phish members. Jon Fishman is on the road now, playing drums on tour with The Jazz Mandolin Project. "He has some commitments with Jazz Mandolin that he made before," Leonard said. "Jon has a lot of interests, but he'll always have the music. Jon says all four of them see it as an opportunity to look in many directions. I don't think any of them have any specific plans." When Phish was starting out, one of the clubs they played was the Orange Grove on Westcott Street (now Planet 505). Fishman's mother, Mimi Fishman, would play the vacuum cleaner in time to the band's music onstage. That was a tradition she continued as she became known as "Mama Phish" across the country. Mimi Fishman died after a long illness in January 2001 at the age of 64. Musicians and music fans still regularly contribute to The Mimi Fishman Foundation, which funds research for glaucoma, an eye disease that plagued Fishman for many years. Leonard Fishman says Phish fans locally and nationally still talk to him about Mimi. "Tons of people. There are tons of Phish fans here," he said. Phish drew 26,000 fans to a 1998 summer concert at Vernon Downs. That was at the peak of Phish's popularity as the most popular live concert jam-rock band in the country. "They're doing this on a positive note," Leonard says of the breakup. "Leaving on top, leaving as close friends. The inspiration wasn't there, and they didn't want to play just for the money." Leonard says he will attend several of the final shows, including the two closest to Syracuse, June 19 and 20 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the final festival. "I'm going to the festival up in Vermont, which will be amazing," Leonard says. "Jon says, 'We're going to play our hearts out on this tour.' " Article Copyright © 2004 Syracuse Post Standard