Editorial: Maybe So And Maybe Not

Part-time WeightStaffer Brian was kind enough to take a moment from his day, wrap up some things to say, and mail it off to our address. He shares his thoughts on the pending (?) Phish reunion and also drops a hint at some upcoming Trey activity in Baltimore. He is a longtime Phishhead and longtime friend:


Nearly four years after their break-up, the four members of Phish may have some unfinished business together. In an interview with Rolling Stone last week, Trey Anastasio didn’t exactly say the band has talked about a reunion, but he did drop some heavy hints. “When Phish broke up, I made some comment about how I’m not gonna go around playing ‘You Enjoy Myself’ for the rest of my life,” Anastasio said with a laugh. “And it’s so funny because Fish and Mike and Page have been talking to each other a lot lately and now — it’s not that I can’t believe that I said that, but its symbolic of how much I lost my mind or how much I lost my bearings or something. Because at this point in time I would give my left nut to play that song five times in a row every day until I die. I certainly thought about that while I was in jail.”

Ok, so maybe just maybe we will see a the Phish reunion tour sooner than later. I am still not holding my breath. Mike Gordon just announced a solo tour with his band that will be making its way throughout the US this summer and Trey, like always, is working on several projects too. Without giving anything away, all of you Trey fans in Baltimore keep your eyes and ears posted for something amazing in the near future. I have been sworn to secrecy on the details, but I can promise you that my source of information is legitimate. Rest assured you will not be disappointed when the details are released...I'll leave it at that.

As far as the Phish reunion tour goes, I tend to cringe a little bit when I think about it. Don't get me wrong, I love the band and anyone that knows me would tell you that I will be first in line to buy tickets if it ever happens. I started seeing Phish in 1996 just as their career began to explode. In fact, the first time I saw the band was with two members of The WeightStaff, oh what a day it was, huh guys? Through the next 8 years I managed to catch them where I could and ended up seeing 45 shows if my foggy memory serves me well.

Here is my concern. When the band broke up, Trey said on the Phish website that "We don't want to become caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act." I'm not worried that Phish will become a nostalgia act because anyone that has followed the band knows that the four guys in that group don't operate this way. What I mean by this is that the band, (especially Trey) is always looking for ways to evolve as musicians. They are always looking for ways to re-invent themselves and expand their playing from a musical perspective. The last thing they want to do is get up on stage and play Punch You in the Eye, AC/DC Bag, and Fluffhead over and over again just to make the crowd feel good about themselves. If they got back together, I wouldn't be surprised if they came out with an entire new repertoire and didn't even play the old stuff. Granted, I'm sure they would throw in a classic song here and there but I guarantee that most of the show would be new material. The problem is, that a lot of phans don't want to see this. They want to show up and hear the great songs that made Phish famous. Unfortunately, as I said before, the band in my opinion, would want to bring out new ideas with new songs and keep evolving. I think it would cause a "great divide" amongst critics and phans of the band. I think this is what may be keeping the band from getting back together. They ended on a high note and don't want to spoil that.

So it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years and we will continue to speculate on this growing story. But I said before, if the band does decide to get back together, you can bet that myself and the guys from The WeightStaff will be right there ready to get our groove on.