Lush is a great word to describe them.

I love how, in the course of even a single song, aside from different musical themes and sections, you can hear wildly different guitar and bass tones/styles, along with organ/piano/clavinet/synth. The exploration of different sounds is tremendous.

In the United States, they have a huge amount of negative press (often for extremely superficial reasons, many of which are just flat out false), so it's hard to get people to give them a legitimate chance because most people have made up their minds that they will not like them.

Sometimes, I want to tell myself that maybe they aren't for everyone, but at the same time, I can't understand how a person who loves music (and appreciates many different styles and genres), can't appreciate a band like Phish. They are just regular guys who fucking love music, making music for other people who love music.

It's frustrating.

Im sure it is , as i mentioned previously, there's a lot more to commercial and critical appreciation than just music unfortunately...so its best to just shut your eyes to the outside world and if it helps, even feel good about yourself to be one of the people who are lucky enough to get the music....

You may find this interesting regarding non-mainstream popularity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Cypres ... h_festival)

Some critics call them a "jam band", which - although its a good term to describe other bands, often in other genres, that do similar things as Phish - isn't a genre term and doesn't describe what they sound like. I like what Allmusic calls them: they're an alternative rock band with jazz fusion and psychedelia influences.

Also, some critics claim their studio albums are worthless - "you have to see them live", but that's also incorrect. I love "A Picture of Nectar" and "Farmhouse".

They do get their share of bad reviews and press, but there's an awful lot of good press about them too.

You know what, this is really fucking great.

Awesome Dreww.

I posted that so long ago, I forgot about it. It only took 5 months for someone to respond.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0CLM0HliNA[/youtube]

that Big Cypress festival read was ace, especially the part where the crowd chanted cheesecake in vain

both those tracks above were really great , dude's a tremendously talented guitarist .....I liked that cover song on TH more though, wonderfully done .....

Trey's a very unique sounding guitarist too. When I first heard Oysterhead, I had no clue who the lineup was, the vocals hadn't kicked in yet, and the bass playing didn't scream "Les Claypool" in the first 30 seconds, but that guitar playing sure sounded familiar to me...

Indeed that whole band was filled with ridiculously unique and talented instrumentalists. I would love to see them release another album one day.

Trey plays probably my favorite guitar ever, a custom made one called the Languedoc (named after their original soundman, who built it for him).

During leg 2 of last year's summer tour, he busted out a new Languedoc, this time with an inlaid graphic of an Ocelot (Ocelot is a track from their latest album, Joy). It's a pretty fucking sweet guitar. It is dubbed the Ocedoc by phans.

The Languedoc

The Ocedoc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Languedoc

dude looks like Richard Branson there

that guitar is indeed very very sweet ....

Hmm, I think you're right. He definitely doesn't look like Richard Branson normally, but with that "guitar face" he kind of does.

I can't believe I failed to mention this earlier, but very strong rumours have been swirling for quite some about about a four day Phish Festival at Watkins Glen International in Upstate New York over the Fourth of July weekend this summer.

Per usual, Phish will be the only band performing during the festival. If it even begins to approach the experence I had at the Halloween festival in Indio, CA in 2009, it will be in-fucking-credible. 60,000+ will be expected to attend. The official announcement won't be until probably some time in March (after Trey's solo tour ends).

Phish Festivals in the past:

The Clifford Ball, Plattsburgh, NY, August 16-17, 1996: 70,000 people attended

The Great Went, Limestone, ME, August 16-17, 1997: 75,000

Lemonwheel, Limestone, ME, August 15-16, 1998: 60,000

Camp Oswego, Oswego, NY, July 17-18, 1999: 65,000

Big Cypress, Big Cypress Indian Reservation, FL, December 30-31, 1999: 85,000

IT, Limestone, ME, August 2-3, 2003: 60,000

Coventry, Coventry, VT, August 14-15, 2004: 65,000 attended (110,000 tickets sold, but fewer showed up due to catastrophic weather conditions, many people had to hike as far as 30 miles from abandoned cars to reach the festival grounds)

Festival 8, Indio, CA, October 30-November 1, 2009: 40,000 (lower numbers due to the vast majority of the fanbase being from the Northeast and it being prime school/work periods)

Festival 9 (?), Watkins Glen, NY, June 30-July 3 (?), 2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watkins_Glen_International

Nothing like a new Radiohead release to kill any hope of people checking this thread out.

edit: haha, and immediately afterwards, the Radiohead thread was bumped twice over this