On the Road Again Night 13 Phish
A Discussion With
thirteen Shows. No Repeats. Trey Anastasio on How Phish Pulled Off the 'Baker's Dozen.'
The veteran Vermont quartet Phish is known for long jams, unexpected encompass songs and clever performance concepts, just over 13 nights at Madison Square Garden chosen the "Baker'southward Dozen," the group achieved a new milestone: Information technology played 237 songs (or 239, depending on your source of Phish-obsessive statistics) with no repeats — without using set lists — over the course of its longest residency yet.
"The whole thing became such a blur," the guitarist and vocaliser Trey Anastasio said on Monday, recovering from the final show on Sunday night, which like the rest of the run blended rigorous compositions and classic stone with absurdism, improvisation and occasional flashes of full earnestness. "I retrieve getting in the car on the fashion home ane dark and somebody said, 'Oh, bully version of 'Possum,' and I didn't fifty-fifty remember playing 'Possum.'"
A long-running in-joke well-nigh mashing up songs by the bands Boston and Foam triggered the concept — the grouping conceptualized each night vaguely around a doughnut du jour; Saturday was Boston Creme — and Mr. Anastasio said that during the residency he was struck by feelings of affection and appreciation for his bandmates of 34 years: the drummer Jon Fishman (too known as Fish), the bassist Mike Gordon and the keyboardist Page McConnell. "When we're upwardly at that place just playing, information technology's something that feels like I know what they're thinking," he said. "It'south crazy, and it'south so intimate."
Staying put at one venue meant "in that location'due south no adjustment period" each dark to external circumstances, Mr. Anastasio said, "so the coaction between the four band members becomes heightened based on the fact that that's the only place changes are made." In a call, he discussed how the band prepped for the shows, why he's partial to covers, and the group's human relationship to the other artist all-time known for a lengthy residency at the Garden: Billy Joel. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
How did you lot programme out near 240 songs without a echo?
I sort of live and breathe Phish 24 hours a solar day and have since I was 18. Months agone, I would get upwards and start sketching [song lists]. Only this is the fundamental part: I try to ever go on it in sort of an improv head space. So that the overriding dominion, is when you cross the line at the peak of the stairs upward to the stage — there's actually physically a line — if I have a paper in my hand, I throw it on the ground. And if I accept stuff in my mind, I let go.
It's like in "The Concluding Samurai" with Tom Cruise, he'southward trying to acquire to do this kind of martial arts fighting and they're all laughing at him, 'cause he'south getting his donkey kicked. And they continue saying, "Likewise many mind, too many mind." So the whole idea when we walk on stage is to not recollect. But martial arts is a discipline, with thousands of hours that go into non thinking. Y'all don't simply walk into a ring and starting time doing judo.
If we're doing a thirteen-night run, I live and breathe information technology for six months, and and then I really get to the signal where when we walk onstage, I completely forget it. I have no idea what the next song is going to exist. So it's like one-half and half. I had sketched out sort of a 13-dark view. But as shortly as Night 1 was over, we changed [our plans].
Only you rehearsed the material?
This is what I mean about the field of study thing. A month before the Bakery's Dozen, I went alone to Fish's firm. I flew up to Maine, and I sat in the room with him and played 15 songs [past the band'southward side projects] that Phish doesn't play, and then that he'd know them on the drums. Eight of those we didn't stop up doing at the Baker'south Dozen. And then a week afterwards, I went to Burlington and got all four ring members together at Folio'southward business firm, and we learned all 15 of those songs. Practiced them, recorded them, forgot them.
We played "Frost" on Night 12 sort of spontaneously. What happened was we played that Boston/Foam affair, and information technology was so funny. We're, like, dying. And so I'm standing in that location and I'm similar, "Well, how do you follow that upwardly?" Just what went through my mind was, "You don't follow it up, allow's exercise something really quiet and really elegant." I kind of leaned over to Folio and was like, "What about 'Frost'?" And he was, similar, "Swell, great." It would be a gross oversimplification to say that nosotros merely walk out at that place.
How did you lot keep track of what y'all played?
I had 2 different people reminding me before we went onstage. Similar, I'd run things past them. And then there'd be a whole pile of songs, and I was pretty sure that we didn't play whatsoever of these and could pick and choose from that group.
At what point did the covers come up in to the equation?
At every bespeak. Significant, some of them really early. Some of them in reaction to things people would say. I of the doughnuts was going to exist lemon and everybody was like, "Oh you're going to play 'The Lemon Vocal,'" and I don't want to play "The Lemon Song," information technology's also obvious. Everybody was expecting some lemon thing — well, let's do Radiohead because it's just more fun. [The band covered "Everything in Its Correct Place," which has a lemon reference in its lyrics.]
Sometimes, I think it could exist seen about Phish [snooty voice] "Oh, they play a lot of covers." Over the years, nosotros've played 280 original songs but we also like to have played a lot of covers. For a while we did a 2nd ring that only played jazz standards, the Johnny B. Fishman Jazz Ensemble. We just played "Jump Monk" and "4" and "Moose the Mooche" and all of those songs considering nosotros felt similar information technology was important as American musicians to be familiar with that style of music. We did the same affair equally a bluegrass band for a while. It wasn't good, merely nosotros feel similar it's part of our heritage.
And i of the things I was thinking during this run was that I was ever a fan of swing bands, of Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. I like that era of music because the musicianship was really high. Simply they chosen themselves dance bands first — all those bands played the pop songs of the day. Charlie Parker and Django Reinhardt and all my favorite musicians played covers and got improve as a effect.
I couldn't assistance notice Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind" playing after the show on the concluding night.
We ever laugh near that; nosotros wonder if people notice what'due south playing on the fashion out. Absolutely no hostility at all. We beloved Billy.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/arts/music/phish-trey-anastasio-bakers-dozen-interview.html
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