10 Years Ago Today, Phish Reunited After Four Years to Play Their Tour Manager’s Wedding

Matt Inman on September 6, 2018
10 Years Ago Today, Phish Reunited After Four Years to Play Their Tour Manager’s Wedding

Fish or Chicken? Phish, please.

 

Exactly 10 years ago today on September 6, 2008, Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Mike Gordon and Jon Fishman donned some dapper suits and formed one of the most unlikely wedding bands ever, marking the first public Phish performance since the band’s (second) hiatus began following their Coventry festival in August 2004.

The performance was at tour manager Brad Sands’ wedding in New York and featured a three-song set of “Suzy Greenberg,” “Julius” and “Waste,” plus a rare sighting of Anastasio playing a Telecaster guitar. As a news bit in the November 2008 issue of Relix noted (along with the above photo), the appearance also “added tremendous fuel to rumors that the band will reunite for a proper tour in the spring of next year.”

Those rumors, of course, did come to fruition, when Phish returned to the stage in a big way with three nights at Virginia’s Hampton Coliseum in early March 2009.

Below, watch a clip of the “Julius” from that night, via photographer Jeff Kravitz (shoutout to the guest who requested “Hava Nagila” as the band figured out what they’d play next).