Phish Hooks

A colorful tribe of swirling dancers, blissed out hippies and plain ol’ rock fans--generally not the type of tourists the city of Ventura is lusting after--will nonetheless descend upon the one-fifth-mile oval that is the Ventura Raceway on Wednesday evening for probably the best show of the year, by Phish.

The best thing out of Vermont since Ben & Jerry, Phish is a four-piece rock band that can and does play just about everything, and never the same way twice. Phish is four virtuoso musicians who combine rock, jazz, pop, folk, bluegrass and blues in strange and interesting ways. Every song sounds as if it could be by a different band. They can do everything except spell.

Phish has been around for 13 years and has built a loyal following through constant touring, a massive fan club and an Internet connection--https://www.phish.com--the Phish Net. Even if MTV and radio don’t get it, the Phish Heads do. Big time. Phish is the most popular cult band in the world, and their ranks are growing daily. The Grateful Dead may be gone, but the Deadheads are alive and well, many of them now Phish Heads.

Their seventh and most recent album, the one you’re not hearing much of on the radio, is “Billy Breathes.” Phish is Trey Anastasio on guitar, Page McConnell on keyboards, Jon Fishman on drums and Mike Gordon on bass. Everyone sings, and very well, too. McConnell discussed Phish news during a recent phone interview.

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How’s the new one doing?

It’s good as far as I know. We’re not a band that makes platinum records, but each one has done a little better. It’s a fairly constant sort of thing, plus we’ve got a bit of a catalog now.

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Vermont has given us Ethan Allen & the Green Mountain Boys, both Vermont Brigades during the Civil War, Ben & Jerry and now Phish. How do you guys fit into the Vermont cosmology?

Vermont doesn’t have a lot of people--there’s more cows than people--and we’re happy to be somewhere behind the bovines in numbers. It’s really cold, and as beautiful as it is, Vermont still doesn’t get overrun with people, so there’s a certain isolation. People just don’t happen through Burlington.

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So does Vermont rock?

As far as I know, we’re the only band to come out of Vermont. There’s a very healthy music scene, not big but healthy. There’s a good jazz scene and a good bluegrass scene and, of course, a slew of rock bands.

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Tell me about the Phish Net.

Actually, it was started by people other than us, at the University of Virginia, I think. Now, it’s something we have our hand in a bit more. It was started by the fans, for the fans, and it’s about the fans, and also about us. They’ll talk about anything. They try to read things into the lyrics and discuss rumors about the band. Personally, I don’t have a computer, so I don’t sign on. I’m not sure how many people are on the Phish Net, but I know that our newsletter [Phish News] goes out to between 100,000 and 200,000 people six times a year.

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How did Deadheads become Phish Heads?

I dunno. I guess they like the music.

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You don’t care if people tape your shows?

That’s fine with us, but we’re not huge fans of those expensive bootleg CDs that they sell for 50 or 60 bucks. We don’t mind people taping and trading tapes, but it doesn’t cost much to make a CD, so I think those bootlegs are a rip-off. Someone is making a boatload of money. It’s an interesting phenomenon, and we’re looking into it.

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What’s the story on your Halloween shows?

We’ve done a different one every year. Three years ago, we did the Beatles’ “White Album” in New York. Then we did the Who’s “Quadrophenia” in Chicago, then we did “Remain in the Light” by the Talking Heads last year in Atlanta. We like to do a different album in a different place every time. Maybe this year, it’ll be in L.A. but we haven’t decided which album. Hey, I just started another rumor.

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There are usually no openers with Phish.

Nope. We like to play. We do two sets, plus an encore. I think after that, people’s ears get tired. We like to play for a long time, and I think people want to hear who they came to see. We tour for a few months three or four times a year, maybe about 150 dates.

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What does Phish music sound like?

I think it’s just energetic rock ‘n’ roll.

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Phish was a hit before they got signed, right?

We had a following without a label. We were touring all the way to the West Coast, and we had three records. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to get signed, but this way we got a better deal when we did sign.

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So basically you did the work for the record company?

I tell them that every day.

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Has Phish music changed over the years?

It’s changing drastically even as we speak. We’ve got a whole slew of brand-new songs--about 15 new songs that we play live. We just spent three weeks practicing and we went back and reexamined our old songs. Some of them we won’t be playing quite as often. We’re finding new ways of jamming. There’s a spiritual element to our improvisation, and a high energy intensity to it. We’re serious about our music. It’s totally fresher now for me.

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Anything Phish hasn’t done but wants to do?

We want to go around the world and play in different exotic places like maybe Sri Lanka and places where we heard there are Phish fans.

BE THERE

Phish at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, 10 W. Harbor Blvd. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. $25. (805) 648-3376.