Phish fans are known to be masters at sleuthing when it comes to what the band has planned in the near future, but in the band’s current state of fandom in 3.0 land, even sleuthing their way through the band’s recent history seems relevant and something that could light up Phantasy Tour for a few hours.
15 years ago today, we saw some frightful news posted on Phish.com — and the post was actually never “updated” to reflect the band’s return in 2009. Sure, they posted that Hampton video, but they never just took this old post down.
In case you never saw this originally and haven’t cried enough about this band over the years, here is the letter re-printed below.
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
Been an interesting 10 years since they returned, hasn’t it?!
