Time together ticket for Trey August 10, 2004 - Burlington Free Press By Sally Pollak COLCHESTER -- Last Saturday evening, Trey Anastasio ate a plate of cafeteria-style pasta and meatballs, as he squeezed into a long table of young Vermont musicians. "Aren't you proud of our little state when you're in that room?" he asked. "The orchestra gets better every year." The room he was talking about is the performance space of the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Before supper, the VYO had been rehearsing Anastasio's piece, "Guyute," for a performance next month at Carnegie Hall. "You sound great," he told the young players. "Really wonderful. You are going to be the pride of New York City." This Saturday evening, a little corner of the little state will be the site of Phish's very big final concert: After 21 years together, the band that Anastasio led on guitar and vocals will break up. The last shows are Saturday and Sunday in Coventry. Seventy thousand people have tickets. It's possible that thousands of ticketless fans will show up, despite the band's request that they stay away. "It's emotional," Anastasio said. "Very emotional." As Anastasio focused on a future project, he said his primary thought about Phish was this: He couldn't wait to get on an airplane the next day to fly south with his three band mates to a show that was held Monday night in Hampton, Va. Phish has three more scheduled concerts this week before the Coventry finale. "They're my best friends, that's the thing," Anastasio said of drummer Jon Fishman, bassist Mike Gordon and keyboard player Page McConnell. "I just want to get together with the three of them and hang out. That's as far as I can take it." Phish, over two decades, took it from dorm parties at the University of Vermont and gigs at Nectar's, to stadium shows and summer festivals that attract tens of thousands of fans. They have perhaps the most devoted following in rock music. The amount of time the players in Phish have spent together is more than a person would've spent with a spouse, had they married their freshman year in college, Anastasio said. "They're still my favorite people to spend time with," he said. "That's the really incredible thing. "It's not a question of what went wrong. It's a question of what went right. This is a validation of what went right: That we could let it go." If letting go as friends while "playing our asses off," in Fishman's words, is proof of what went right, the seeds of solidarity were planted more than two decades ago. "We all got lucky," Anastasio said. "We met the right people." Anastasio, the band's leader on and off the stage, initiated the conversation about splitting up. "You grow up, and change happens," he explained. "We did manage to keep it exciting right up to the end," Anastasio said. "And it didn't roll into mediocrity." He expects the excitement to last until the final note of the final set of Sunday's show. Just thinking about it thrills him. "This week is going to be so incredible," Anastasio said. "I'm already thinking about songs I get to sing one last time. It's Monday that I'm worried about." Article Copyright © 2004 Burlington Free Press