Phish, "Rift" (Elektra, 1993)

It had been a long decade, but the '80s had been over for a couple of years.

By late 1992, I had been summarily dismissing anything "new" in the way of music for quite a while. Too much exposure to Katrina & the Waves and A Flock of Seagulls had jaded me beyond all repair.

Then a colleague, whose taste in tunes I respect (he's a Pink Floyd fan), brought one of his brother's "new" discs to the office so I could have a listen. The brother and his buddy, college students at the time, had seen the band and were mightly impressed.

I listened to the disc, was impressed myself, and asked, "What's the name of this band again?"

"Phish. With a 'Ph.'"

So I purchased that particular album, "A Picture of Nectar" (this was long before CD burners existed), and gave it a closer listen. Wow, those guys could play! And no programmed synthesizers or percussion loops. Just honest-to-goodness jamming, the kind I'd thought the '80s had obliterated.

A couple of months later, I happened to be in a record store and noticed a new offering in the "Phish" section, a disc sporting an intriguingly blue cover. An inquiry revealed that Elektra Records had delivered the new album, called "Rift," that very day. So I bought one.

Phish, of course, went on to become the superstar representative of the jamband scene before apparently breaking up for good a few years back. Their approach to playing - not the music itself, though - often drew comparisons to the Grateful Dead. And as with the Dead, pundits liked to say that Phish's studio recordings never quite measured up to their live performances.

Amid the Phish canon, "Rift" generally is not held in very high regard. There are reasons. Tom Marshall's lyrics, which usually hover between obtuse and nonsensical, tend to lose many a casual listener. And sometimes it's tough to take a band seriously when they're singing (bassist Mike Gordon's words this time): "I'd like to cut your head off so I can weigh it/Whaddya say?/Five pounds, six pounds, seven pounds."

But Phish always seemed to be about having fun, and even though the quartet - Gordon, guitarist Trey Anastasio, keyboardist Paige McConnell and drummer Jon Fishman - was a collection of immensely talented musicians, they never took themselves all that seriously. How else to explain jumping on trampolines, playing vacuum cleaner solos and singing "Freebird" as four-part a cappella, as they did in their pre-superstardom shows? (Like the one in July '93 at the I.C. Light Amphitheater. Tremendous show!)

"Rift" contains some very intricate and memorable compositions: the title track, "It's Ice," "My Friend, My Friend" and "Mound" are some of the highlights. Gloss over "Fast Enough for You," which may have been an attempt at making the band radio-friendly (it never was), and you'll find an album that doesn't quite hang together as a concept piece, as it was apparently intended, but makes for a good listen nonetheless.