Show Review

For twenty one years, Phish continually challenged our ears with their complex compositions and unpredictable musicianship. For their final shows - the multi-day "Coventry" festival in Coventry, Vermont - Phish challenged their fans to the physical extremes. Of course for others, the final shows put some fans through emotional extremes as well, as a chapter in not only the band’s lives, but thousands of fan’s touring legacies came to a close.

With a soggy Thursday and Friday opening for the camping grounds, traffic crawled until a major backup resulted on Interstate 91 and subsequent back roads, so severe it forced the band to deny car access as of Saturday morning. Ironically, the band announced at Thursday night’s show in Camden, NJ asking people not to show up till Saturday due to the steady rain. If any music fans can display a game face, it’s certainly Phish fans, as cars were abandoned on road sides and fans walked upwards of twenty and thirty miles with their bare essentials.

As a result of the consequences, 65,000 fans made their way inside Newport State Airport to concert grounds buried in deep, gooey mud, that certainly affected the dancing steps of the groove friendly audience. Others, exhausted from their ordeal just reaching the concert gates were not as enthusiastic in the standard roars upon the band reaching the stage, as the typically loud crowd saved their energy for the long haul.

From the start, the theme for the weekend was clearly "emotion." Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Page McConnell and Jon Fishman broke out many of their renowned compositions featuring complicated sections that require precise timing and chops. The result was missed chords, flubbed lyrics, and sloppy renditions, but they more than made up for it in other ways. Always the band with superhuman qualities, who can force you to believe they were from another planet – Phish displayed their emotional vulnerabilities as every lyric held an extra pull of being "the last time."

The first of these began with the quintessential Phish tune, "You Enjoy Myself," as the lyrics of "Boy Man God Shit" were screamed with abandon. Then, midway through the song, as tour manager Brad Sands went to retrieve their mini trampolines, he was stopped by Anastasio, who instead handed them out to the audience. They were passed back through the massive crowd, touched like the "Stanley Cup" before symbolizing closure of this iconic tune and a goodbye. Although Phish didn’t need the tramps anymore, it appears unlikely now that they will appear in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next to the New Years Hot Dog.

The odd highlight of a rather so-so second set was actually a speech from the talkative Anastasio, prior to the band’s jump into "David Bowie." The Phish leader gave a little background history about himself in the mid 80’s when he lived close to Coventry in West Charleston. It was here living in a cabin with no electricity and his dog Marley, that he composed many of the most revered songs in the Phish catalog. Songs that he hoped to be "unique and forward thinking" but danceable, as he hummed the opening chords to "David Bowie." "At that point it was just a theory," he added, "we didn’t have any fans or anything."

Amidst all the narrative excitement, it was the third set that found the band really letting loose. Following some Anastasio botched segments in the instrumental "Stash," he led the band into a dark jam that explored many different musical colors before segueing perfectly into "Free." He then proceeded to give another brief speech, this time in reference to getting off on being able to view the audience, particularly females, enjoying their "sexy" grooves. Further proving the band isn’t sharp as old, missing cues on their most complex song "Guyute," Phish made up for the slips with a raging cover of The Who’s "Drowned." This ultimately led into the most experimental jamming of the weekend, before careening into the ballad "Friday." It was this jamming, around the 1am mark, where Phish excels, reaching no holds barred proportions as in their 1999/2000 Big Cypress midnight to sunrise set.

Another theme of the evening was the affection that Anastasio showed towards Gordon, often playing extremely close, looking directly at his rhythm partner’s motions, and playing off his bass lines as if there would really never be another stage moment shared between the two. From 18 year olds as freshman at University of Vermont to middle aged men fronting one of the biggest rock acts in history, these two opposite personalities, displayed brotherly respect and care for one another. When Anastasio got on the large rocks in front of the stage during "Harry Hood," Gordon hastily joined him in the spotlight, although his shy side might have considered otherwise during any other routine tour stop.

Prior to the second day’s show, there was a feeling of bittersweet emotion in the air. The last show ever, came to resemble a day many die-hard fans hoped they’d never see. But here it was, and there was only one direction to go at this point – through the mud and to be hosed by Phish one last time.

"In 21 years, I just told Page, I’ve never, ever been nervous going on stage before a Phish concert, ever, ever, ever. Tonight, I’m a little nervous," said Anastasio after playing "Weekapaug Groove." It was this frankness that exemplified the evening, torn full of emotions, containing a bit of an elegy quality. Other highlights of the set included a funky "Wolfman’s Brother," in which Anastasio and Gordon invited their mothers to the stage to participate in the butt whipping "sexy dance" as McConnell and Fishman laid the foundation, soon to be joined by Phish’s manager John Paluska. At the conclusion of the song, Anastasio let the crowd in on a secret, that just as the walrus was Paul, "The Wolfman’s Brother" was Fishman.

Following an impressive "Down With Disease" to open the second set, which found Anastasio playing guitar with glowsticks in an extended jam, the band finally couldn’t hold their emotions inside. During the sensitive ballad, "Waiting In The Velvet Sea," McConnell could barely sing his lines, tearfully pushing the microphone away before letting Anastasio take over. But perhaps the most endearing moment in Phish history would follow a sloppy version of "Glide," where it was Anastasio’s time to let his heart speak.

"It’s emotional, so we’re having some emotional ups and downs here. I’m sure you are, too" he began. When the band got started, "we had so many ideas, we were going to do this thing and that thing and break down that rule." In tears, he continued, "When I think back on it now I think of how little I knew about music and about friendship. To always have these three people there with you…ahh, excuse me," he said before crying and passing on his "deep, deep love and appreciation for what you’ve given us" to the crowd.

Gordon spoke next saying, "It’s been a wild ride. I’m just the luckiest person in the world to be able to do it with these guys, and thank you from the bottom of my heart."

In true offbeat Jon Fishman fashion, the drummer thanked the fans who left their cars behind to walk miles upon miles into Coventry. "All the people that walked in here, it’s the greatest compliment that we could have," he said.

Following these teary moments, Anastasio quipped, "it’s now time to blow off some fucking steam" as the band dove into an epic version of "Split Open Melt" with a jam that did just that and corked itself open into a brilliant jam, before touching home in the song’s refrain. A spacey yet funky "Ghost" followed suit, ending the set on a emotionally high note.

The last set in Phish history culminated with a few of the old and the new. Following a thrilling "Piper," the band paid homage to some of the unsung heroes on the Phish team. Monitor engineer Mark "Bruno" Bradley was graced with a simple yet humorous song in his honor as was tour accountant Richard "Dickie Scotland" Glasgow. The band followed with a final "Wilson" as the crowd responded as loud as they had all weekend during the opening chant, until a transcendental version of "Slave To The Traffic Light" closed the final set.

Upon Anastasio's hints of the prior day, that there was a song written in the mid 80’s in nearby West Charleston that would appear in the final evening’s performance, many fans believed the rare yet complicated number "Fluffhead," unplayed after a long hiatus, would reign as the grand finale. To much of everyone’s surprise the band closed their history fittingly with "The Curtain With," a song that sang, "As he saw his life run away from him, thousands ran along, chanting words from a song, 'Please me have no regrets.'"

Following the number the band boarded their tour buses parked directly behind the stage. Minutes later the four vehicles drove up and over the hill onto Airport Road in full view of the 65,000 fans. As the stage grew silent, everything that was perhaps the most unique musical sensation in our time, culminated fittingly, as the fans walked back to their tents upon the conlusion of a signficant era in music history.