1985 Shows

3/4/85
5/3/85
10/17/85
10/30/85
11/19/85
11/23/85
Green Dolphin St. Demo

1985 was an important year, as the band we know and love today came together. The band - Jon, Mike, Trey, and Jeff began playing Happy Hour at Doolin’s in Burlington every Thursday during the spring. Page McConnell was a music student at Goddard College, a liberal arts school in Plainfield, Vermont when he invited Phish to play at “Springfest” (of which he was the organizer) on 4/21/85. After the show he announced he wanted to leave his band Love Goat - no really, it was named Love Goat - to play with Phish. Page sat in with Phish in what is widely considered his first show, on May 3, 1985 (see link above to listen). Fish and Trey liked Page, but still thought it was a two-guitar band, with no need for keyboards. From the Phish Biography:

• McConnell: “I joined the band under protest.”
• Fishman: “There was this brief period where we didn’t really know who we were gonna get in the band. It was like, ‘This doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in the band.’”
• McConnell: “that lasted like a week and a half.”
• Fishman: “It was kind of awkward. Then it was like, ‘Who are we kidding? But it’s worked out pretty good. I’m glad we didn’t fire him. I think down the road it wouldn’t have worked out nearly as well not having a keyboardist.”
• McConnell [dryly]: “Thanks, Jon!”

Ultimately, Trey and Fish would leave the country, spending the summer in Europe, while Mike brought Page up to speed on the Phish catalog to date. Meanwhile, the traveling duo wrote YEM and Hood abroad, while also experiencing a wide range of culture and music across western Europe. Harry Hood was written after Trey nearly drowned after swimming out to a raft on acid with German friends off a Greek beach, just as a storm rolled in.

Upon returning, Phish rolled on the rest of the year with five members. Soundman and guitar designer, Paul Languedoc, also entered in 1985, as he began designing guitars, but first delivering Mike a bass in Fall of 1985. On 11/23/85, Mike had a transcendent experience during which he was meant to be a musician, and over winter break Trey recorded the vocal intro to YEM and what would become Demand (on Hoist).

1985 would be Holdsworth’s last year in Phish, and Page’s introduction into the band would cement not only a lineup, but a lasting bond between four men that has lasted some 26 years. Undoubtedly JEMP is Phish, and anything else simply isn’t.

Phish 1983 Shows

Phish played on 12/2 and 12/3/1983, though the second show in a UVM dorm room was not recorded, and only Scarlet -> Fire exists from the infamous Cafeteria show.

Downloads:

Harris/Millis Cafeteria, University of Vermont 12/2/1983

Trey’s Basement, Princeton, NJ 12/25/1983

Bivuoac Jaun Demo 12/xx/1983