Phish slept here August 7, 2004 - Burlington Free Press By Brent Hallenbeck The long road to the last show started 20 years ago in Burlington Their footprints are everywhere: the campus up the hill, the bars downtown, an old milk-bottling plant on the lower end of Church Street. Before they became Phish the mega-stars, the four band members were Phish the Burlington college-rock band, playing dorm parties and nightclubs in front of often sparse crowds, just as countless bands had done before them and continue to do now. That was almost 20 years and almost 1,500 shows ago. Now, Phish is the biggest musical export Vermont has ever seen. Vermont will have one last chance to see just how huge Phish has become next weekend, when the jam-rockers play their final shows in front of 70,000 fans who will gather from across the country and across the world on farm fields near the Newport State Airport in Coventry. Can't make it to Coventry? You can still see Phish, or at least some of the obvious and not-so-obvious sites where Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Page McConnell and Jon Fishman hung out, honed their loosey-goosey improvisational sound and laid the foundation for a band that would become one of the most popular touring acts of its era. It's a tour you can take on foot throughout Burlington, and briefly just across the river in Winooski, if you don't mind a hefty walk that includes a few steep hills. Sniff the gravy fries at Nectar's, sip a drink at the place that used to be Finbar's and you might feel like you're back there in 1985, hearing a ragtag band that was only a two-hour drive but a long, long road away from Coventry. Harris-Millis Complex, University of Vermont -- The cafeteria in the UVM dormitory was the site of the first show by the band that would become Phish, in late 1983. The band was known as Blackwood Convention at the time, and included guitarist Jeff Holdsworth instead of keyboard player Page McConnell. Slade Hall, Redstone Campus, University of Vermont -- The band's second show as Phish happened in the basement of this dormitory in November 1984. The band played several more shows there from 1985 through 1988. Wilks/Davis/Wing dormitories, University of Vermont -- The band's first show with keyboard player Page McConnell took place May 3, 1985, at an end-of-the-school-year barbecue outside this complex on UVM's Redstone Campus. 69 Grant St. -- The band's first show under the name Phish, in October 1984, took place in a garage at this residence in the Old North End. Nectar's, 188 Main St. -- This was the first club Phish played in, on Dec. 1, 1984. The down-home lounge and eatery became the band's home literally and figuratively; Phish played dozens of shows there by the time the band outgrew Nectar's in 1989. It's where guitarist Trey Anastasio met his wife-to-be, Sue Statesir. Hunt's, 101 Main St. -- This club, Burlington's most prominent nightspot at the time, hosted about a dozen Phish shows from 1985 through 1987. The building most recently housed Sh-Na-Na's, which was destroyed by fire this year. The Front, 85 Main St. -- This club was the scene of one of the band's most famous early shows in April 1989. Phish won a battle of the bands after drummer Jon Fishman descended from the rafters -- naked -- for a vacuum-cleaner solo. Alas, the vacuum cleaner was not plugged in. Skirack now occupies the site. Finbar's, 167 Main St. -- This bar, at the corner of Main and Church streets where Manhattan Pizza is now located, hosted a handful of Phish shows in 1985 and 1986, before the band began its regular gigs up the street at Nectar's. Hood plant, corner of King and Church streets -- Now an office complex including a textile maker, a marketing company and a meditation center, this building housed a Hood milk-bottling plant when members of Phish lived a few doors down in 1985. The smiling face of the Hood milkman on the tanks behind the plant helped inspire one of the band's best-known tunes, "Harry Hood." Sneakers Bistro and Cafe, 36 Main St., Winooski -- Members of the band frequented this eatery in the mid-1980s when the Sneakers Jazz Band played there every Tuesday night. Trey Anastasio credits the Sneakers band as a big influence on Phish's career. Sources: The Phish Companion, The Phish Book, www.phish.com Article Copyright © 2004 Burlington Free Press