For the first time in six years I have tickets for a Phish concert! While I hoped for years that the day would come again I could spend a cool summer night on the lawn at Deer Creek Amphitheater, I was also cautious as to what a Phish reunion might bring. The years surrounding the Hiatus in 2000 and their New Years return in 2003, witnessed increasingly sloppy efforts by front man Trey Anastasio. While Phish has produced some of the most mind-bendingly intricate compositions in rock music over the past 15 years, perhaps rivaled only by Frank Zappa in complexity, Trey in particular was just off. He was forgetting lyrics, botching solos, blowing changes even restarting songs that quickly fell apart.

While any aging rock group can be excused for moments of being human just like anyone else, these are professional musicians who have been honing their craft together for almost two decades. Life, family, practice schedules, and side projects were surely taking a toll on all of the musicians, but Trey in particular seemed to be affected the most. At times the rest of the band looked confused, even embarrassed at what was happening in front of them. Fortunately for Phish, the band decided to call it quits before the wheels could come completely off. Unfortunately for Trey, his decline had only just begun the downward spiral.

The statement that one of the members of Phish was on drugs would likely bring one of a number of sarcastic remarks. Saying that one of the members was arrested for a driving on a suspended license, possession of hashish, and a fist full of prescription painkillers wouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone then.  It did, however, start to paint a picture for the curious fan base who had long speculated that Trey was into some deeper sort of trouble. They could see it taking shape on stage, even though he kept up a relentless performance and recording schedule with a number of side projects. What he wasn’t producing in quality he was producing in quantity.

An article in the (evil) Huffington Post quotes Trey;

“My life had become a catastrophe. I had no idea how to turn it around. My band had broken up. I had almost lost my family. My whole life had devolved into a disaster,” he says. “I believe that the police officer who stopped me at three a.m. that morning saved my life.”

Trey would end up pleading guilty to felony charges of possession to avoid jail time and spent 14 months in the Washington County, NY drug court system undergoing rehab, random drug testing and performing community service.

He spent 14 months in the drug court system, he says, scrubbing toilets and cleaning fairgrounds. “I’ve been sober for two-and-a-half years,” he says to applause. “My children are happy. In August, my wife and I will celebrate our fifteenth wedding anniversary. My band is back together with a sold-out tour. And in September I’ll play a solo concert at Carnegie Hall with the New York
Philharmonic.”

He made these comments at a celebration on capitol hill for the 20th anniversary of the drug court system which claims a much more successful rate of rehabilitation for non-violent drug offenders.

“I can tell you that behind bars there was rampant drug use,” he says. “What’s more, the people I met there spent their time blaming judges and lawyers for their circumstances. Not in drug court. In drug court, full responsibility rest with you and you alone.”

I was concerned that a Phish reunion would be another post-Hiatus amusement, a half hearted attempt to reconnect with the fan base and stoke a long dormant fire. But after I learned about what Trey has been up to personally since that arrest and the course of events and passion that the band has reunited with, my cautious optimism started to grow. The rest of the band, which kept busy during the break with their own side projects, never really wanted the break … Trey was driving it, perhaps for the wrong reasons, even if it was the right time.

The rumors have now turned into tour dates, which have turned into a new album, which have turned into lawn tickets to Deer Creek on 6-19-2009, almost 15 years since my first show in October of 1994. The reviews and recordings of their first string of shows back as a band in Hampton, VA were encouraging and debuted a new lighting rig, whose operator is affectionately known as the 5th member of the band due to the impact it has on the performance. The first few days of summer tour, which started 5-31-2009 at Fenway Park in Boston, and the unexpected release of a track from their new album on iTunes, have added pure gasoline to the fire. They have made a statement to the fans that they are back, better than ever and ready to blow our musical minds for years to come.