The first time you heard/saw Phish.

Phish General
#1

Do you guys know where you were and what you were doing the first time you even heard a Phish tune?

I totally remember.
It was June of ‘95. I was getting pumped to see the Dead at Giants Stadium in Jersey.
I was at a friend of a friend’s house. This chick I met was a huge Phish head. I was die hard Dead to the end.
She asked if I ever heard of Phish. At the time all I knew about them was what everyone who didn’t know them would say, “They are a Grateful Dead rip-off.”
We took this car ride somewhere and I had the Dead in the tape deck, she asked if we could put on some Phish. I said sure, totally prepared to hate it.
2001 came on. I don’t know what show she put in or anything about it, BUT I WAS BLOWN AWAY.
I was like, that’s the 2001 song, right?
It was amazing something classical totally jivin’ out. That organ, the drums…then Trey with the wails!!!
I was hooked.
The chick told me that they were going to be at Waterloo Village (NJ) in a couple of weeks and their were still tickets available (Remember those days?). I went and my life was changed. Their was something I never felt with the Dead that I felt at the Phish show. It was new, it was nothing like the Dead, it was fun, like childlike fun. I was giddy.
The week prior I was singing with the Dead cheering from my seat, now I am in a field surround by people singing about Prince Caspian and listening to Trey tell a tale about a boy and his cat and his dog.
It was amazing.

#2

I may as well come out and say that I’m a new generation Phish-head, and never saw them live, though I could have. I’m 21 so it’s not like I couldn’t have…I live in Ohio so I could have see some great shows in the area post hiatus. Anyway…
The first time I saw or heard of them was in 2000 sometime. It was on VH1 where they played bits of the Roseland Ballroom Show (5/23/00). I think the song that hooked me during it was First Tube. I believe I got ‘Slip, Stitch, and Pass’ from the library to see if it was on there (they didn’t tell you the song titles, so I had to find it through guesswork). Luckily I got ‘Farmhouse’ next and heard it. I didn’t really GET IT–the entire Phish thing–until senior year of high school. This incredibly bright intellectual kid who could rip on guitar was in my physics class. He was mostly into classic rock and any band or musician (jazz or otherwise) who could play. The one day we were working on a project (had to build a catapult…how’s that for weird Phish moment?) and he was playing Live Phish 10. A little while after that I bought Live Phish 6 and from there…well I’m sitting here with the second edition of the Phish companion in front of me, if that’s any indication. ;D

#3

The first time I heard them was '91 or’92 a friend of mine made a tape with some stuff from
Junta and lawnboy on it and(she filled in with some Dylan and some Dead and others)and
I just could not believe what I was hearing.April 22or24 '94 was the first time I saw them.
Here in my hometown and then I was hooked.

#4

not sure what year…97,98. My aunt put Billy Breathes on in her beat up BMW beamer she affectionately calls “G. Love” we were riding through the mountains of north carolina on our way to…brevard i think. the image of Prince caspian and those blue ridge mountains has been in my head ever since

#5

walnut creek 1996 in raleigh

craziest runaway jim i’ve ever heard

#6

I never saw phish live. the closest i came was that keyspan park show in the movie theater. I guess i was around six or something when i heard heavy things on a cd my dad had. I thought it was a pretty good song. I was raised ont he grateful dead and it wasnt until around last year that my sister got into phish and reintrosuced them to me as a big jam band. Once she started listening to phish i started to get into them. So i guess the first time i actually knew what i was listening to was last year

#7

I remember when I was in 5th grade my sister came home from college and her boyfriend had A Live One on tape in his car. He was playing it and I thought “What the hell is this crap?” After a while it kind of grew on me. Then one day at the mall about two or three years later I purchaseda Lawnboy on instinct and somebody soon after burned me a copy of Junta. About ten years later and thousands of hours of Phish listened to, I can still toss in Lawnboy or A Live One and find something new that I love.

#8

What intrigued me the most about Phish was the spelling of the name and the way you just knew there was something different in the air about the boyz…Great woods to see gamehenge and @ the end of the show all that I remember is this guy talked like a normal guy through all of the show to all his phans …and like it was a big living room …and wow the fireworks at the end of the show were great …standing a foot away as this guy shot off rockets next to my foot …what a night wheeeeeew :sunglasses:

#9

I first heard Phish the day Lawn Boy came out and I first saw Phish on Halloween ATL '96…I was changed forever.

#10

i first heard them the summer of 95

i was a senior in high school and a friend of mine who was home for teh summer after his freshman year was playing a tape and i dont remember what song but it was just really crazy and trippy

i remember thinking what kinda shit they got you on in college to be listening to this junk haha

#11

It’s funny because I remember it like it was yesterday. It was June ‘95 and was chillin’ with my older cousin. I was only 12 years old and he put on “Rift” which he borrowed from his friend and he played it in his car and I was completely blown away. It was like nothing I had ever heard before and I immediately set out to consume as much Phish as possible. My cousin mentioned how their live stuff was so much better and I just began tape trading and discovering more and more about the band. I also had just started taking guitar lessons and Trey became my inspiration and role model.

#12

I got my first taste in the winter of '93 when a friend gave me a copy of Junta fror Christmas. I couldn’t get a grip on what I was listening to. It wasn’t like anything I had heard before. Some of it sounded like circus muscic to me (probably esther), but I couldn’t get YEM or Bowie out of my head. My first show was the summer of '94. The night after they played Gamhenge at Great Woods (June ? 1994) Dohhh! All I can say about that night is “sensory overload” I felt like I had entered a parallel universe that I had been completely oblivious to earlier (I was also only 15). My 2nd show was the 12/29/94 “Bowie show” in Providence. Not to be corny, but this show changed my life. The rest is history.

#13

Heard PHISH on a local Alaskan radio station during the release of ‘ROUNDROOM’. Bought LIVE PHISH #6. Being a guitar player, I had never heard playing like that especially on ‘Possum’. I’ve lived a sheltered musical life until now and am discovering the wonderful world of JAM BANDS and PHISH

#14

The first time I heard Phish was when an old buddy of mine brought back a copy of some shows from college in North Carolina (Warren Wilson). This was around 1990. I saw my first shows in 1993 in Oregon and was blown away. I saw hundreds of shows from then until 2000 hiatus. I never saw another show after the hiatus…

I have some 2002-2004 shows on discs but, after the Hiatus…I just couldn’t muster any interest in my favourite band anymore. I felt I had seen the best they had to offer already! A Gamehenge with narrative, many Henrietta vacuum jams, Marley barking at the front row countless times, hundreds of David Bowie’s, YEM’s, the Big Cypress all-night jam, The Great Went…

I can’t wait to see Trey’s 70 Volt Parade this Summer though! Hopefully, the tour dates will be up soon…

#15

I first heard Phish the summer after I graduated from high school ('95). My cousin had a tape with some songs from Junta on it. I bought Junta soon after that. I liked it, but I didn’t “get” it yet. The following summer I went to the show at Alpine Valley. I didn’t know any of the songs (except for the few covers), and I wasn’t into it at all. I tried again the following summer at Alpine and again that fall at The University of Illinois. I still wasn’t “getting” it. ('97…I know…I was crazy…I look at the setlists now and wonder how I was sitting right there and completely missing everything.) So I decided that I didn’t need to go to anymore shows. I kept buying the studio albums, and I listened to them once in awhile. Around the time of the hiatus I started listening to Phish all the time. I read about them in books and on the internet. Finally, I “got” it, but there were no shows to go to. When they came back I saw both shows at Alpine that summer. I went to both shows at Alpine again the next summer for the last tour, and I saw the first show and the last show of the tour at a movie theater. Nothing lasts forever, and we still have tons of recorded music to listen to. I like the Trey Band too. I saw them at Austin City Limits Fest last year (right after the end of Phish.) They kicked so much ass. I was right up front waiting for the show to start, and people around me were saying that they never had a chance to see Phish live. I just smiled and knew that I was lucky to have been there for the full experience.

#16

I walked into my first show with virgin ears! April 18 1993 Michigan Theater. Rift! My life has never been the same.

#17

The first time Phish ever graced my ears was on, what we like to call, mine and my husband “First Date”. We spent all night long driving aimlessly from the city to the country and back again just talking and getting to really know one another( falling in love, really).

If you asked me to tell you the best moments of my life, I could tell you them all and they all tie into Phish( even my son’s nickname is Bug). That’s why, whenever I hear them, I go back to that feeling of being young and alive and so happy.

As cheesy as this sounds, they really are/were the soundtrack to my transformation from a teenager to and adult; complete with a husband, a baby,a dog, a house and a full, happy life.

And I owe that all to Phish … imagine that!

#18

^ Your son’s nickname is BUG? Fvcking brilliant! ;D

#19

I was probably 12 or 3 the first time I heard Phish. My brother had picture of nectar and I was intrigued by the cd cover artwork. I it on and skipped for some reason to Poor Heart…I hated it. A couple years later I went and saw them at SPAC in '95 on a whim. Since then you all know the story.

#20

"I’m 38.
I saw 57 Phish shows.
My last Phish show was CYPRESS.

I was on Phish-hiatus for all of their Post Hiatus and have never regreted it…"

"I saw my first shows in 1993 in Oregon and was blown away. (I saw hundreds of shows from then until 2000 hiatus). I never saw another show after the hiatus…

I have some 2002-2004 shows on discs but, after the Hiatus…I just couldn’t muster any interest in my favourite band anymore. I felt I had seen the best they had to offer already! A Gamehenge with narrative, many Henrietta vacuum jams, Marley barking at the front row countless times, (hundreds of David Bowie’s), YEM’s, the Big Cypress all-night jam, The Great Went…"

Why does this not make sense?