Phish Reunite For First Time In Four Years To Play Wedding

Phish reunited on Saturday night to play the wedding of their former road manager Brad Sands. The impromptu performance marked the first time the band played together onstage since they called it quits in 2004. Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Page McConnell and Jon Fishman performed their own "Suzy Greenberg," "Julius," and "Waste." In another star cameo, Police drummer (and former Anastasio bandmate in Oysterhead) Stewart Copeland sat in with the wedding band.

The wedding performance is already fueling rumors about the band's inevitable reunion, especially after Anastasio's comments to Rolling Stone saying "I would give my left nut to play [Phish's "You Enjoy Myself"] five times in a row every day until I die." Plus, Mike Gordon told RS that the band has been getting dinner together and even held a meeting with Billy Breathes producer Steve Lillywhite. And then there was that near-reunion at Rothbury. There is precedent for the Phans hope that the wedding will equal the band getting back together: Fourteen months after the band announced they were taking an "extended time-out" in 2000, the band reunited to play another friend's wedding, and ultimately returned to touring in 2002. Check out footage from the wedding above, with the sharply-dressed band — it's still weird seeing Fishman not wearing a dress — performing Hoist's "Julius."

Related Stories:
• Trey Anastasio Hints at Phish Reunion
• Phish Reunion? Mike Gordon Is "Optimistic," Says Band Met With Lillywhite
• Phish Nearly Reunite at Rothbury for Beatles Cover

• 
  MUSIC The Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments
• 
  MOVIES & TV 'Game of Thrones': The Show Vs. the Books
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Facebook IPO vs. Shareholders
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive: Garbage Rip Through 'I Think I'm Paranoid'

Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter