Live Phish, Vol. 09

Performer: Phish
Engineer: Phil Fernandez; John Paluska
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Phish: Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon, Page McConnell. Recording information: Townshend Family Park, Townshend, VT (08/26/1989). Illustrator: Jim Pollock. Unknown Contributor Roles: Mike Gordon ; Jonathan Fishman; Page McConnell; Trey Anastasio. Volume 9 is likely to remain the earliest show documented in this series, since Phish formed only a few years earlier. It gives us an educational look at the band's genesis and catches them before they became a national phenomenon. In a park in Southern Vermont, Phish found themselves playing to their largest crowd yet at some 3,000 strong, no doubt teeming with kids from nearby colleges. Vocalist/guitarist Trey Anastasio even suggests that the crowd, "go for a swim�" during the intermission, adding to the down-home feel. We're treated to several numbers previously unrepresented in this series. The Gamehenge narrative, which debuted in 1988, is represented with "Colonel Forbin's Ascent" and continues into "Fly Famous Mockingbird" with Trey using the local topography as a visual aide. Material from JUNTA makes up a large part of the show, with the cryptic "You Enjoy Myself" dissolving into an even more nonsensical a cappella section. "Dinner And A Movie" gets a fairly brief reading, with some new dark vocal harmonies. Cover songs, a foreshadowing of their later full-album covers, include Hendrix's "Bold As Love," Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee," and ZZ Top's "La Grange." A must-have for Phans.

Entertainment Weekly (5/3/02, pp.84-85) - "...A wildly ambitious attempt to sate hungry fans with an abundance of recordings..." - Rating: B+

Of all the jam bands to emerge in the late-1980s and early-'90s, Phish were widely regarded as the inheritors to the Grateful Dead's throne. While the group's jazzy, mercurial sound was more progressive and light-hearted than the Dead's, Phish's massive, adoring following modeled themselves after the vagabond Dead Heads, calling themselves "Phish Heads." After letting off steam through various side projects (Oysterhead, Vida Blue) and sabbaticals, Phish finally called it quits in 2004.

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