I'm truly unsurprised about Phish's recent decision or I should say Trey's recent decision to call it quits for Phish. The magic ended long long ago. Sure there were some fun shows after 12-29-94, but that night was kinda the end for me. I clearly remember standing in the front row watching the look of 'what the fuck are u doing' on the faces of Mike, Fish and Page towards Trey during the 30 minute David Bowie. It was almost like Trey just decided, "you know what? I'm going to play the longest David Bowie of all time." It wasn't the result of a total creative input by the whole band - it was just completely deliberate and forced by Trey and STUPID. It was then that I recognized what an ego maniac Trey is. I had seen probably 50 shows up until that point including some truly unbelievable ones - Gamehenge at Great Woods comes to mind - Halloween 94, but after that night, I never had the same appreciation for them as a band. I've seen a good 30 or so since and had some great times, but they never seemed to be a 'band' anymore. Even if you watch say Bittersweet motel, you can really see Trey's ridiculous ego. I'll probably catch some flack for this but I don't care. The reason why Phish is disbanding is because Trey lacks the selflessness to be in a 'band'. He needs to have full creative control, which is too bad because Page, Mike and Fish are the complete opposite.
interesting perspective i too was at that show though not close enough to read expressions on band members faces ive seen phish about 125 times and i have seen similar behavior with trey(alpha male) if youve ever seen bittersweet motel you might have noticed treys attitude all over the place in that dvd...not to dog him hes one of the greatest musicians ever...i tend not to focus on the short comings of a person, but i think its time to put phish away...i had a really great time
