History Trivia / Phish

** Likewise, the Great Went festival hasn't been given an official release, even though it was filmed for both a pay-per-view broadcast and Todd Phillips' ''Bittersweet Motel'' documentary. The only high quality, professionally shot video footage that can be found on Youtube is the festival's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JHtUdRRq1E famous version]] of "Bathtub Gin" from the second day, and it cuts out midway through the jam [[note]]There is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiDu-rNZrI another video]] of that "Gin" circulating on Youtube, but even though it includes the full performance of the song, the official video feed cuts out at the same point as the first video, and is replaced by a fan video.[[/note]].

** Likewise, the Great Went festival hasn't been given an official release, even though it was filmed for both a pay-per-view broadcast and Todd Phillips' ''Bittersweet Motel'' documentary. The only high quality, professionally shot video footage that can be found on Youtube is the festival's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JHtUdRRq1E famous version]] of "Bathtub Gin" from the second day, and it cuts out midway through the jam.

** Likewise, the Great Went festival hasn't been given an official release, even though it was filmed for both a pay-per-view broadcast and Todd Phillips' ''Bittersweet Motel'' documentary. The only high quality, professionally shot video footage that can be found on Youtube is the festival's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JHtUdRRq1E famous version]] of "Bathtub Gin" from the second day.

** The fan-base has identified [[http://phish.net/faq/jamming-types the two main types]] of jamming the band does as "Type I" and "Type II". Type I jamming is based off variations of the song they are performing, while Type II jamming creates a whole new melody, chord progression and structure. Many jammed out songs will have both types, with a performance of a song leading to a Type I jam in the middle or at the end, which then evolves into a Type II. If this happened in the middle of a song, it's up to the band whether they decide to complete it, or leave it unfinished when they segue into the next number. The band's famous "Bathtub Gin" from the Great Went, for instance, never completes the final bars of the song and goes straight from a Type II jam into the song "Uncle Pen". The similarly beloved version of "Gin" at Riverport just under a year later (7/29/1998), by contrast, sticks to the piece's harmony throughout the entirety of its 21-minute runtime.

** The 1999-2000 Big Cypress festival, considered by many fans and the band themselves to be Phish's crowning achievement, has never been given an official release on CD, DVD or streaming. What's more, an official soundboard recording is not known to circulate. Both concerts, however, circulate as high quality fan audio recordings. A five hour portion of the New Year's Eve show's monster eight hour-long second set is also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP3KobkFn-A available on Youtube]], but cuts out after "Free".

* FollowTheLeader: Subverted. They are influenced by Music/TheGratefulDead, but they have other prominent influences as well. For instance, Phish are significantly influenced by jazz fusion, funk and alternative rock, none of which were really part of the Grateful Dead's sound. Phish's contemporaries, Widespread Panic and The Dave Matthews Band, were similarly slapped with the "New Dead" moniker, and all three bands saw a boost in popularity after Jerry Garcia died and the Grateful Dead split.

* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: The band's Baker's Dozen concerts of 2017 - 13 straight shows at Madison Square Garden with loose "doughnut" themes each night and not a single song repeated over the course of the whole run - was actually conceived by the band much earlier. In 2007, [=McConnell=] [[https://relix.com/articles/detail/the-salvation-of-page-mcconnell-relix-revisited/ told]] ''Relix Magazine'' that the band had considered the concept before they broke up in 2004.

* ThePeteBest: Guitarist Jeff Holdsworth, a co-founder of the band, left it in 1986 following a religious conversion, and well before they established their live reputation. Two songs he wrote for the band, "Camel Walk" and "Possum", are still played by them to this day.
** Holdsworth was in the band for three years, but percussionist Marc Daubert was an official member for only a few months in 1984. He was in the band so early in their career and for such a brief time that he and [=McConnell=] were never in the band at the same time. Like Holdsworth, Daubert's lasting legacy with Phish is a song, "The Curtain", which he co-wrote with Anastasio and is very well loved by the fanbase.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Partially because of the uniqueness of each Phish concert, the band allows and actively encourages fans to tape the band's concerts, so long as the resultant recording is not sold for profit. Non-monetary trades of recordings/copies of recordings was often the way that most physical tapes circulated before the internet. Nowadays, the highest quality recording of every concert with circulating fan tapes are available through a meticulous, maintained spreadsheet that circulates around the community.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Partially because of the uniqueness of each Phish concert, the band allows and actively encourages fans to tape the band's concerts, so long as the resultant recording is not sold for profit (non-monetary trades of recordings/copies of recordings is often the way that most physical tapes circulate.)

* PromotedFanboy: All four members of Phish love Music/TheGratefulDead, and the surviving members of the Dead have occasionally collaborated with the band. The highest profile instance was Trey replacing the late Jerry Garcia for the Dead's Fare Thee Well reunion concerts in 2015. Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann have all made guest appearances at Phish concerts, joining the band for a few numbers.

* PromotedFanboy: All four members of Phish love Music/TheGratefulDead, and the surviving members of the Dead have occasionally collaborated with the band. The highest profile one was Trey replacing the late Jerry Garcia for the Dead's Fare Thee Well reunion concerts in 2015. Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann have all made guest appearences at Phish concerts, joining the band for a few numbers.

* CreatorsOddball: ''The Siket Disc'', the band's only instrumental album, consisting of improvisational studio jams from the ''Story of the Ghost'' sessions. The album was initially released only through the band's online store in 1999 and received a very limited retail release the next year, meaning that casual fans may not be as aware of its existence. Only one of the album's songs, "What's the Use?", has been regularly played by Phish in concert.

** The band itself have several, and one of the biggest was comedian Harris Wittels. Best known as a writer on ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' and as part of the ''[[Podcast/ComedyDeathRayRadio Comedy Bang Bang]]'' crew, Wittels had been a devoted fan of the band since high school, and saw over 300 shows in his lifetime. The best known extension of his fandom was his ''Podcast/AnalyzePhish'' podcast in which he attempted to get ''Comedy Bang Bang'' host Scott Aukerman to like, or at least appreciate, the band. Wittels died in 2015, [[{{Retirony}} a few days before]] the final episode of ''Parks and Recreation'' aired. Phish themselves paid tribute to Wittels that July 29: Mike Gordon wore [[https://relix.com/blogs/detail/mike_gordon_honored_harris_wittels_in_austin_with_a_great_shirt/ a shirt]] with Wittels' name in the band's logo, and the group opened that show with a jammed out version of "Tube", Wittels' favorite song (which he often joked about never getting jammed whenever he saw them play it).

** In 2009, the band released a list of ''dozens'' of albums they were considering covering in their entirety for Halloween that year at Festival 8. All the albums were listed on their website, and were eliminated one by one by having an "axe" put through their cover until only one, ''Exile on Main Street'' by Music/TheRollingStones, was left. Fans wonder what the band could have done with some of [[https://glidemagazine.com/143000/phish-festival-8-house-of-albums-revealed/ the more out-there choices]], like ''Oracular Spectacular'' by Music/{{MGMT}} (one of the very last albums to be eliminated and a favorite of Trey's).

** In 2009, the band released a list of ''dozens'' of albums they were considering covering in their entirety for Halloween that year at Festival 8. All the albums were listed on their website, and were eliminated one by one by having an "axe" put through their cover until one, ''Exile on Main Street'' by Music/TheRollingStones was left. Fans wonder what the band could have done with some of [[https://glidemagazine.com/143000/phish-festival-8-house-of-albums-revealed/ the more out-there choices]], like ''Oracular Spectacular'' by Music/{{MGMT}} (one of the very last albums to be eliminated and a favorite of Trey's).

** "Julius" and "Character Zero" are rare excursions into BluesRock for Phish. "Chalk Dust Torture", one of the band's most beloved tunes, has a prominent AlternativeRock feel. "Big Black Furry Creature from Mars" typically has a warped HardcorePunk sound.
** "Makisupa Policeman", the very first original Phish composition, is also their only major reggae song. "Ya Mar", one of the band's most played cover songs, is a calypso tune. However a good version of either of these songs could dictate the vibe of the next string of songs the band will play, resulting in whole reggae or calypso-vibed sets.

** "Julius" and "Character Zero" are rare excursions into BluesRock for Phish. "Chalk Dust Torture", one of the band's most beloved tunes, has a prominent AlternativeRock feel.

** "Julius" from ''Hoist'' is a very rare excursion into BluesRock for Phish.

* BlackSheepHit: "Heavy Things". It's poppier than most of their other songs and has an unusually-for-the-band standard song structure. The song was their biggest hit ever on the adult alternative chart and was even a minor hit on adult Top 40 radio. Although the band has been playing the song for nearly 20 years, it's never really lended itself to being expanded upon live the way that their other big radio hit, "Down with Disease", has.

* BlackSheepHit: "Heavy Things". It's poppier than most of their other songs and was even a minor hit on adult Top 40 radio. The song also hasn't lended itself to being expanded upon live the way that their other big radio hit, "Down with Disease", has.