The first time I heard Phish was in 1996 after I purchased A Live One at a CD store in Miami while on a family vacation. I was in sixth grade and a friend recommended listening to the band because his cool older brother was into them. I took the double CD back to our house with a pool and I turned Tweezer on. I didn’t get it. A few years later a number of my friends in high school began devouring Phish. I started listening to them again. I thought I got it but I didn’t really get it until I was in my friend’s parents’ minivan sophomore year and 4/4/98’s Ghost started colonizing my brain cells. I walked out of that van a different person.
Phish became the soundtrack of my life from age 15 on. Nearly every memorable event, good and bad, can be remembered through the sound of what Phish show I had playing in the vicinity. Phish breaking up in 2004 was good for me. I needed an excuse to separate from the desire to chase them and their music for a while. I got lots of important things straightened out in my life. However, when they came back again in 2009, I was excited. Starting Online Phish Tour in 2010 was one of the outlets for this excitement. It started as a Blogger site and soon moved to a more customized Wordpress site (thanks to Chris!). Online Phish Tour was fun for years. We had a number of different writers and even some correspondence with members of Phish’s back office. Eventually the site fell by the wayside and I let the site fall into disrepair. I moved what I could to Substack to salvage something. I kept wanting to find motivation to write about Phish but with all that was going on with work and the children filling my home, I had other priorities to focus on. Also, it was hard for me to get terribly excited about Phish in their current state. Sure, I loved seeing them still but I just didn’t have the phire in my belly anymore it seemed.
I never had much interest in any other “jam” band. I’ve listened to them all and, when I was younger, even tried get into others. Nothing was on the level of Phish and nothing could keep my interest. Phish was the only horse in town. I was never a, for lack of a better term, ‘hippy’ (other than maybe for a couple of misguided years), so only the music mattered to me, not just being around the ‘scene’. Nothing had the lightening-in-the-bottle that Phish did. As I went through my 20s and into my 30s I never even tried to care about any other improvisational band. I was skeptical of any other jam band. In fact, I was (and still am) embarrassed by the jam band label. As far as I am concerned, Phish is a rock band, not a jam band.
I was so far out of the ‘scene’, I actually hadn’t heard about Goose until 2022 while enjoying lot festivities before a Phish show at Alpine Valley. Trey had recently played with the band at Radio City and my cousin’s fiancée and other cousin were talking about them. Brian and Aaron said I just had to check them out, especially the show with Trey. I responded with something like, “yeah but can they really play?”
“YES” they responded.
“Okay”, I said, “I’ll give them a try”. Then I didn’t give them a try. I forgot about them and went on with my life. It wasn’t until I started seeing Trey Anastasio Band & Goose promo videos on YouTube that I thought of Goose again. I ended up watching a few of the shows and thought the band sounded pretty cool. I still wasn’t really sold. I think I found Billy Strings more impressive at the time honestly. But then, thanks to my cousin, I listened to the Capitol Theatre shows from 2023 just days after they were played. Alright, I thought, this ain’t too bad. I heard Rick snap during the guitar solo in Sneakers in My Fridge II and thought to myself how I haven’t heard someone play guitar like that since, well, Trey…years ago. I putzed around listening to some shows from that tour but when the Salt Shed shows hit, that’s when I realized Goose had some legs. Nearly every song from the Salt Shed shows is great but it was during the Hungersite I had my 4/4/98 Ghost moment. Peter’s explosive solo followed by Rick’s machine gunning all while riding the tidal wave being sustained by the rest of the band and then flowing into a long outro of dark-ether jamming make it all click.
Tales of mental tangle engulfed my thinking, I started comparing Goose to Phish over everything. This isn’t healthy. It’s an error I see my other Phish friends making when discerning if they like Goose or not. I caution anyone reading who is in a similar conundrum to let go of the comparisons. Goose is not Phish. Phish is not Goose. I get it, it’s hard to break out of thinking things like, “well, Phish wouldn’t have done that”, or “Phish would have segued there”, or “Phish was way more silly”. That all might be true but Goose is not Phish. Goose is here right now and Goose is good, really good. It’s hard not to make these comparisions because they are clearly diciples of Phish. Goose would not exist as they do now if it were not for Phish. Phish pioneered nearly everything Goose is doing. Many of the reasons I like Goose’s music are the reasons I also like Phish’s: mainly the wild rock improvisation and the tension/release playing.
I’m so excited about Goose’s playing right now, especially since teaming up with Cotter, that I decided to do what I do best and start a website reviewing the music. I am blown away that even with all the stuff I have going on with my life right now I am finding the time to write. Ideally, I’d write for both OPT and OGT, maybe with the help of other contributors, but right now I am looking forward to chronicling the ascent of this band in their [what I assume to be] prime.
Goose still has a lot to prove. Do they have staying power? Do they have the creativity? Can they keep their shit together as they get famous? Can they write new songs to add to their setlists? I’m not letting them off the hook with any of this, but I’m exited to see what comes. To me, there are only two improvisational greats: The Grateful Dead and Phish. Time will tell if a third will be one day added.
In the meantime, please follow OGT on X and subscribe to the Substack below. Let’s enjoy the ride together.