It’s that time of year again… In three short days, Phish will return to New York’s Madison Square Garden for their annual four-night New Year’s run. Each year, we like to celebrate the season in the days leading up to Phish at MSG with the 12 Days of Phishmas, a daily series that gives you your Phish fix and helps stoke your excitement in the days leading up to the run. In 2016, we took you back to 12 historic Phish performances at The Garden. In 2017, with the Baker’s Dozen barely out of sight in the rearview, we relived the magic and mystery of the band’s historic residency.
For years, we’ve been earmarking some of our favorite Phish interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and other cool content that we haven’t found the right occasion to share with you…until now. For 2018, we’ve made you a very special Phishmas Advent calendar to help spice up your countdown to showtime. As we approach the start of the run on the 28th, we’ll open up one panel a day and reveal a fun surprise inside—a little something sweet and Phishy once a day until the Garden party begins. No peeking! By the time we’re finished with the calendar, it will finally be time for the gift we’ve all been waiting for: Four nights of Phish on their home court at the World’s Most Famous Arena.
3 Days Til Phish: Phish’s IT Festival Documentary Captures The Incredible Start Of A New Era (2004)
On the tenth day of Phishmas… PBS airs a special documentary chronicling Phish’s two-day IT festival on August 2nd and 3rd, 2003, and it’s arguably the best Phish documentary ever. IT marked the beginning of Phish pushing through to a new era after taking some off time to find themselves following their mind-blowing Millennium-opening performance at 1999’s Big Cypress festival. IT was Phish’s first festival in the ‘2.0’ era—and the band’s 6th festival overall—marking their triumphant return to Loring Air Force Base (the site of The Great Went and The LemonWheel). Phish made one thing crystal clear at IT festival: “Our intent is all for your delight.”
Intertwined with pro-shot video of select songs from the festival, IT shines a light on Phish creating a foreign world in the late-2003 summertime in Maine. Mike Gordon reflects on his experience, stating that IT festival was very dreamy, with so many different scenes and interesting people off in this faraway place. In IT’s essence, Phish’s 2003 festival enabled a different reality to come to life. The farther and farther the band strayed away from the center of civilization, the better the outcome of the music—as we saw with the “Tower Jam”, a 2:30 a.m. improv set at the top of an air traffic control tower complete with dangling aerialists and a customized light show.
Related: Relive The Epic “Chalkdust Torture” From Phish’s IT Festival [Pro-Shot]
Trey Anastasio even takes a moment to address spirituality, emphasizing that whether you believe in a God, or a higher power, there is undoubtedly a larger divine power that exists around us. Trey remarks that, as humans, we are so insignificant in the grand scheme of the world around us that there must be something out there of greater magnitude and size. Phish learned through the IT festival that the true beauty entangled in music is its power as a language to speak directly to the divine.
Enjoy this amazing PBS documentary below—and for all you Jews out there “celebrating” Christmas today, grab your Chinese food, skip the box office, and watch this movie instead.
Phish – PBS IT Festival Documentary
[Video: PhishGuy20]
We’ll be back tomorrow to open the eleventh panel on our Phishmas 2018 Advent calendar. What other Phishmas surprises are in store? You’ll just have to wait and see…
In the meantime, you can go back through the previous Phishmas surprises:
On the first day of Phishmas… The Big Daddy Show
On the second day of Phishmas… David Byrne Interviews Phish
On the third day of Phishmas… Trey Anastasio Talks Fare The Well At The New Yorker Festival
On the fourth day of Phishmas… A Look Inside The Hoist Sessions From Cactus Films
On the fifth day of Phishmas… Mike Gordon Fascinates A Muscle Shoals Legend
On the sixth day of Phishmas… Page McConnell Chats in the Streets of London
On the seventh day of Phishmas… The Peanuts Conjure Cartoon Phish for “YEM” Dance Party
On the eighth day of Phishmas… Trey & Mike Chat with MTV on H.O.R.D.E. Tour (Swig Beer, Cross Legs)
On the ninth day of Phishmas… How Chris Kuroda & Phish’s Lighting Team Map out a Song
On the tenth day of Phishmas… Phish Does IT
The post 12 Days Of Phishmas 2018: The IT Festival Doc Captures The Essence Of Post-Hiatus Phish [Watch] appeared first on L4LM.
