As featured in Snowboard Mag 11.2: The Transcendent Issue
Photos by Shem Roose

Anyone who traveled to the mountains with me during the ‘90s remembers dealing with my constant car stereo hijackings to play recording after recording of live Phish shows. A few close friends and I were a minority in snowboarding. While most riders were just too enamored with the hip-hop world to give Phish a listen, I would explain, “It’s the live show, that’s where it’s at.” Twenty-plus years later and not much has changed: My stoke for the band hasn’t waned, except now my studio mates at work have to listen to them. And I’m happy to say, that the state of affairs in Phish nation is amazing right now. Riding a buzz of solid reviews on their 12th studio album, Fuego, Phish is in the midst of a tour that has been pure fire, inspiring even the most jaded of Jedis.

Phish is now 31-years-old, and I am unapologetic to say we have followed along for close to 25 of those years, collectively seeing half of their 1,700 plus shows to date. Miles and miles in cars and nights on friends’ couches … all of that for three and a half hours of wild magic that happens every time they hit the stage. More than the music, the conversation between band and crowd is an exchange of some of the most powerful energy I’ve ever experienced. Set lists are ever-changing, jokes made upon jokes from a previous night; the music is a constant evolving organism where every song and every jam relates to the show, tour and career as a whole. For those who have been fans all along, Phish’s self-sustaining community and musical lexicon only get better with time.

In a way, it must be strange to be a band so under-appreciated by pop culture and so extremely appreciated by its own culture. But we like it that way and I think Phish does too.

With my friends either turning, or already turned 40 this past year, it seemed appropriate to get as many of us together for a reunion at Phish, and what better place than the first three-night stand of the summer tour at SPAC, a hometown venue for many of us. Everything came together smoothly; Shem Roose drove down from Vermont, Sean O’Brien flew in from Chicago and Geoff Reader and I drove over from Maine together. It all unfolded like it always does, sneaking into VIP parking each night and scoring tickets together down in front. By the end of the weekend we had a crew of 20 old friends making up a whole row in a sea of people.

The shows were euphoric. The band — Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon and Page McConnell — fearlessly mixed in new songs, jammed freely, and nailed all the complex passages while exploring their jams to the fullest. In the past fans seemed reluctant to accept new songs, but Fuego has been different. People were excited to hear them play the new. The title track, “Fuego”, is a rocker and they placed it perfectly in the beginning of the second set on the second night, taking it far away to another place. There was solid rocking each night, and lights … lots and lots of illumination. Chris Kuroda is a magician with light and for every way Phish can twist and bend a melody, and he can torture colors into a 100 kaleidoscopes.