Greetings!

The Breakup

Actually, I am looking for a bit of advice. There are 20 different live concert collections on amazon, and I was wondering if anyone out there had favorites or recommendations. I am a casual Phish listener, so I am not that familiar with most of the shows. Except for 22 March 1993, the show that a friend of mine had a tape, asking me to convert it to CD (back then, CDR audio mastering equipment was extremely rare, slow and expensive with blanks over $20 each - but I had access to a 1x burner through work). That show got me interested.

Paul,

Sad news for those of us who have enjoyed the music for 20 + years, but not suprising. I have many thoughts on the issue but thats for another thread. Don't worry, I won't start one. Anyway, Off the top of my head the 12/29/94 set is very good IMO. I think it defined the band as many of us remember and grew up with, fun and care free. I don't remember the dates but the Worcester, MA shows are very good as well. When I have more time I will see what Amazon has and respond.

An offshoot of / digression from this discussion. There was a CD store near me that used to carry a number of rare and strange CDs. Since then, they went mainstream, but they had a lot of Phish bootleg double CD sets of average to poor quality that were churned out by an Italian bootleg company in the 1992-1995 timeframe. Supposedly, there is some kind of loophole in the law there allowing this. Anyway, I consider these to be fair game for sharing, since the artists and label never saw a dime from them. By request only - send me an email if you are interested.

Concert dates (month / day / year): 4/16/92, 5/5/92, 1/15/93, 3/22/93, 8/7/93, 12/31/93, 6/13/94, 6/26/94, 10/31/94, 10/31/95

Thanks for the offer. I may take you up on this. I don't think it would be illegal to sell them in the states since Phish has always allowed tapers in shows. They even have sections just for tapers.

I consider these [bootlegs] to be fair game for sharing, since the artists and label never saw a dime from them.

Since they're average to poor quality, I'd say forget about sharing them (unless they have some historical significance for you). There are a ton of Phish bootlegs out there, many of them extremely good quality, since they've come directly off the soundboard.

Keep in mind that the comment of "average to poor quality" is coming from the maniac with audiobooks ripped at an average of 192kpbs VBR...

Thanks for the link, though. There is one concert in particular that I have been looking for a higher grade recording of - that 22 March 1993 show that got me interested in the first place. The only I have (I was told way back then) was third generation soundboard, but it sounds a bit overcompressed.

How many times have Phish announced that they are going to break up in the last few years? This seems to be a recurring event.

A couple of years ago they announced a "break". They didn't say when they would be back, just that they would play together again. News sites and such blew things out of scope and stated Phish as broken up. This time is the real deal. Here's the official annoucement:

Last Friday night, I got together with Mike, Page and Fish to talk openly about the strong feelings I've been having that Phish has run its course and that we should end it now while it's still on a high note. Once we started talking, it quickly became apparent that the other guys' feelings, while not all the same as mine, were similar in many ways -- most importantly, that we all love and respect Phish and the Phish audience far too much to stand by and allow it to drag on beyond the point of vibrancy and health. We don't want to become caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act. By the end of the meeting, we realized that after almost twenty-one years together we were faced with the opportunity to graciously step away in unison, as a group, united in our friendship and our feelings of gratitude.

So Coventry will be the final Phish show. We are proud and thrilled that it will be in our home state of Vermont. We're also excited for the June and August shows, our last tour together. For the sake of clarity, I should say that this is not like the hiatus, which was our last attempt to revitalize ourselves. We're done. It's been an amazing and incredible journey. We thank you all for the love and support that you've shown us.

-- Trey Anastasio

A couple of years ago they announced a "break"... ...News sites and such blew things out of scope and stated Phish as broken up.

Ah, that makes much more sense.