Phish calling it quits after Summer tour.

[C Dubya 04 0]

>From: PHISH UPDATE <[email protected]>

>Reply-To: PHISH UPDATE <[email protected]>

>To: [email protected]

>Subject: AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM TREY

>Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 15:21:27 -0400

>

>====================================================

> P H I S H U P D A T E

> ** MAY 25, 2004 **

> http://www.phish.com

>====================================================

>

>

>Last Friday night, I got together with Mike, Page and Fish to talk

>openly about the strong feelings I've been having that Phish has run

>its course and that we should end it now while it's still on a high

>note. Once we started talking, it quickly became apparent that the

>other guys' feelings, while not all the same as mine, were similar in

>many ways -- most importantly, that 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. We don't want to become

>caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act. By the end of

>the meeting, we realized that after almost twenty-one years together we

>were faced with the opportunity to graciously step away in unison, as a

>group, united in our friendship and our feelings of gratitude.

>

>So Coventry will be the final Phish show. We are proud and thrilled

>that it will be in our home state of Vermont. We're also excited for

>the June and August shows, our last tour together. 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. It's been an amazing

>and incredible journey. We thank you all for the love and support that

>you've shown us.

>

>

>-- Trey Anastasio

 

 

 

This has me quite bummed at work today. Been going to shows for 12 years now and always really enjoyed. Got a ticket to one of the last shows, but I don't think I have time to get up to Coventry.

[Guest Wildbomb 4:20]

Thank God for Great Woods Season Passes. Unfuckingbelievable.

[Mole 0]

Yeah, that is a big let down.

 

This means I HAVE to get tickets for atleast one of the summer shows. I was just planing on going to Coventary, but that's it. So there goes half of my bank account.

[nl5xsk1 0]

I have tickets to Great Woods, so I'll be going to those shows, but I'm unsure if I'll bother going to VT for the festival now. Part of me wants to, to see their last shows and all, but a bigger part of me wants to save the money and not have to deal with the whole scene now.

 

And it cracks me up that it's basically Trey quitting the band. Paige, Jon & Mike should tour without him. They won't do as well, but will still get a pretty good turnout and make more money that Vida Blue, or Pork Tornado, or any of their other side projects.

[haVoc 0]

I think it's a bunch of shit. Just admit you're sick of doing it. None of that "going out on a high note" crap.

 

Be one thing if your career hit the skids and you had to start playing the small clubs and other small venues. If you have that many fans who want to continue to come see you play and enjoy themselves then you should continue on and play for the people who made you who you are. Don't feed your fans a bunch of bullshit.

 

I wasn't much of a fan, but I thought it was bullshit when Garth Brooks did the same thing. "I achieved all my goals and dreams so I'm retiring." Fuck you. Just admit "I'm sick of this, but thanks for all the money you put in my pockets."

[C Dubya 04 0]

I couldn't disagree more. If you're going to just be going through the motions and taking peoples money, but not putting your heart into the music, then you should absolutely walk away. It sucks when bands still tour and charge 80 bucks a ticket when they're a shell of their former selves.

[Guest Fire and Knives]

We don't want to become

>caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act.

...little late, there.

 

K.

[JangoFett4Hire 0]

I went to the show last night at Great Woods. What a fun, fun concert. I didn't even indulge in any extra-curriculars and still had the most fun at any show I've

ever been to. My first (and probably last) Phish show.

[nl5xsk1 0]

I went to both Tuesday night's & last night's shows. It's kind of surreal to think that a band that I've seen live over 60 times and have been seeing for the last 11 years won't be around to see anymore. I know most people on TSM hate Phish, so I won't get too deep about the shows themselves, but I will post a few random thoughts after the last two nights ...

 

- Whoever put the additional seating at Great Woods should be shot. You can't put seats on a lawn and then tell people that they have 'pavilian' seats. You put a dress on a pig, it's still a pig. Those are lawn seats, they just happen to have actual seats on top of the lawn.

 

- Pharmaceuticals killed the Phish scene. I remember back when it was a good time, with good people, and the hardest drugs you saw were hallucigens. Now, it's all these kids looking for "shards" and "molly" and "glass", who push into people and act like the fucking assholes that they are. (**although I do like the visual of someone that's obviously trying wicked hard to look 'dirty' or spent, yet is walking around talking on their cell phones. If you can afford a cell phone & the monthly bills, you can afford to clean your clothes.)

 

- I don't know how people managed to smell that bad only a few days into tour. I can understand stinking after a week or 2 of not showering, but it's day TWO and THREE of the tour. You've had plenty of time to get the stench off of you since the last part of summer tour ended.

 

- The band themselves seemed to be having fun again, which is cool because the last few years they looked really bored with it all. Once they stopped having fun, the entire scene kind of fizzled out.

 

- Set-list wise, it was two of the worst shows I've ever seen ... yet, in the grand scheme of things I'm glad I went. I've been going to shows since spring of 1993, so it was good to see them one last time.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Shards and Molly are just straight MDMA. Not too "hard," really. They might mean glass as the same thing, although that's street talk for meth, but I don't see a Phish show being a tweaker haven.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Gasp.

[nl5xsk1 0]

Shards and Molly are just straight MDMA. Not too "hard," really. They might mean glass as the same thing, although that's street talk for meth, but I don't see a Phish show being a tweaker haven.

AoO, that's the problem ... Phish shows became a tweaker scene.

 

It's like the last few years - maybe since the late 90s - the scene became intertwined with the raver scene, both in 'fashion' and in partying. Gone are the days when it was simply just smoking up or dosing, replaced with pharmaceuticals and what-not.

 

I personally don't find MDMA or meth or any of those things too offensive (I've done enough drugs that it'd be hypocritical for me to condemn others) but I don't like what it did to the scene. I used to enjoy being at a Phish show, by the end it was more reminiscent of either my skinhead or raver days than anything 'kind'.

[JangoFett4Hire 0]

Northern- where were you seated for the shows?

Was that your first time seeing the "lawn seats"?

I actually sat in them for The Cure... 50 bucks for a

"lawn seat".

 

and what's a tweaker and MDMA?

[nl5xsk1 0]

Jango, I was in section 12, which is center stage in the first section of lawn seats, both nights. I ended up not sticking around my seat the first night, and instead stayed in the aisle between the real pavilian and the lawn seats. Wednesday, though, I stayed in the general vicinity of my seat. Where were you?

 

MDMA == ecstacy. Tweaker == someone that's on meth or speed.