Published on Apr 2, 1998
I still remember the first package I received from Elektra
Records when I was in college press in 1991 – I think my
representative’s name was Nick Kurasz. He was kind enough to send
me a box full of new goodies from the label, including a disc from
a group I had never heard of named Phish.
That was seven years ago. I don’t know what ever happened to
Nick, but from that one disc –
A Picture Of Nectar – I developed a love for a little band
from Vermont and their eclectic style of rock, folk and free-form
jazz. Trey Anastasio and crew had won me over – and I still love
this album to this day.
From the opening spastic drum fills by Jon Fishman, you know
you’re in for a treat as “Llama” kicks in. Mike Gordon puts his
bass through a non-stop workout throughout the whole album, while
Page McConnell knows just how and when to work in the keyboards.
Fishman quickly establishes himself as one of rock’s elite
drummers, and Anastasio – well, I could fill several Web pages
praising Anastasio to the heavens. His guitar playing reminds me of
Jerry Garcia’s, only much cleaner.
But if you think that Phish is simply a high-energy rock band
based on “Llama,” then you’re in for one hell of a roller-coaster
ride throughout
A Picture Of Nectar. The very next track, “Eliza,” is a
jazzy instrumental ballad that, if you don’t know Phish, will throw
you for a loop.
Anastasio and crew show they have mastery over various styles of
music on
A Picture Of Nectar, from groove rock (“Cavern”, “Tweezer”)
to country hoe-down (“Poor Heart” – a song that drives my country
music-hating wife nuts) to acoustic work (“Faht”), even to a
rock-samba mixture (“The Landlady”)! It seems that no matter what
they touch, Phish can do no wrong on this disc.
Well, almost. “Glide” drags a little at times, though not enough
to kill the track, while the free-form portion near the end of
“Tweezer” confuses me. I honestly don’t know how they were able to
go off in those directions and return in perfect tempo, without
missing so much as a hi-hat beat. “Tweezer Reprise” stretches
things a little bit, but not terribly.
Some people might be turned off at the length of some of these
tracks, but fact is most of them just breeze through before you
even recognize how much time has passed. The only exception,
ironically, is “Tweezer,” a song which easily could have had a
minute or two lopped off.
Still,
A Picture Of Nectar is as good an introduction as one could
receive to Phish as I can imagine. The album hasn’t lost a step in
seven years, and remains a high water mark for the band (along with
Billy Breathes). Pick this one up, and shake hands with
Phish.