Sweet ny times article right here:
Phish articlejust took my excitement to the next level!
highlights:
"?We?re trying to create a format to keep playing for a long time,? Mr. Anastasio said backstage. "
"One of them, ?Stash,? breezed from a Latin-jazz-tinged melody to busy cacophony, and the band members grinned wider and wider as it ascended. Afterward the keyboardist Page McConnell exulted, ?That?s the best jam in five years.?"
regarding coventry:
?If there was ever a concert that represented a band smacking into a wall, that was it,? Phish?s drummer, Jon Fishman, said. ?I think that was one of the great train wrecks in live concert history.?
"And they resolved to be the version of Phish they prized most: the intently practiced, well-prepared Phish from the mid-90s. They started their Vermont rehearsals not with their countryish three-chord songs but with their intricate, suitelike songs that verge on progressive rock, like ?Split Open and Melt? and ?Foam.? Although Phish has recorded demo versions of 20 songs for its next album, only one is likely to be heard this weekend: ?Backwards Down the Number Line,? a fond birthday song that asks, ?Do you know why we?re still friends?? "
"Figuring out what to play for its first three reunion concerts became ?one of those exercises in overthought that Phish is known for,? Mr. Anastasio said. Band members went in a circle naming the songs they wanted to play, deducted some, consulted a list of every song Phish ever played, did some trading and eventually arrived at about 80 songs."