Today marks Phish bassist Mike Gordon’s 57th birthday. Michael Eliot Gordon was born on June 3, 1965 in Sudbury, Massachusetts.
After answering a flyer posted by guitarist Trey Anastasio seeking a bass player, Gordon would go on to form Phish with Anastasio, drummer Jon Fishman and guitarist Jeff Holdsworth in 1983 while the four musicians attended the University of Vermont. Holdsworth would depart and Phish keyboardist Page McConnell joined in 1985, cementing the legendary Vermont Quartet.
In the early days of Phish, Mike filled the roles of de facto band manager and public relations agent while providing the sticky mortar to drummer Jon Fishman’s foundational brick house beats. As such, Gordon played a big part in the band’s cohesiveness both onstage and off, bolstering the familial ties that helped Phish form their own culture and expand their family to thousands over the decades.
One thing most families come together over are birthdays. So in celebration of Mike “Cactus” Gordon’s birthday today, JamBase takes a ride “Backwards Down The Number Line” to take a look at shows on the birthdays of all four members of Phish for this edition of Full Show Friday. Phish plays again on Mike’s birthday tonight at Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana. Watch via LivePhish.com livestream or listen through SiriusXM’s Phish Radio.
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Trey Anastasio – September 30, 2000
The list begins on September 30, 2000: Trey Anastasio’s 36th birthday. On that date, Phish capped off a two-night run at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. The concert was captured for posterity as Phish’s first full concert DVD, Live in Vegas. The show got underway with the instrument swapping song “Walfredo” — Anastasio recently told the story of “Walfredo” at a gig in Vail, Colorado.
Along with “Walfredo,” the show contained two more bust outs. “Esther” was performed for the first time since August 9, 1998 and its absence was apparent as the birthday boy had some trouble with the final lyrics leading him to proclaim “She died. Dead.” The band also dusted off The Beatles’ magnum opus “A Day In The Life.” Coming at the end of the 1.0 era, “Fly Famous Mockingbird” included narration about the band’s imminent hiatus. The audience would also sing “Happy Birthday To You” to Trey as the band returned for the second set.
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Jon Fishman – February 19, 1993
On February 19, 1993, Phish performed in Atlanta on Jon Fishman’s birthday. While the eventful show featured a number of highlights including guitarist Jimmy Herring joining the band during the latter half of the second set, the birthday festivities got underway in the intro to “David Bowie” when Trey referenced Fish’s birthday.
“Bowie” would give way to the Phish debut of Led Zeppelin drummer Jon Bonham’s signature drum solo song “Moby Dick,” which saw Fish soloing on both drums and vacuum. “Happy Birthday” teases would continue until finally, McConnell played the tune during a song from another of Fish’s heroes, Syd Barrett’s “Love You,” which featured Fishman on guitar and the Electrolux.
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Mike Gordon – June 3, 2011
Eleven years ago today, Phish performed at Pine Knob Music Theatre — now DTE Energy Music Theatre — in Clarkson, Michigan. Trey wished Mike a happy birthday during “NICU” and proceeded to tease “Happy Birthday To You” in “NICU.” The second set opening “Down With Disease,” a song Gordo ushers in with his effect-laden slap bass, saw “Happy Birthday” teases before and during a top-shelf version of the classic which also contained elements of John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.”
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Page McConnell – May 17, 1992 (Possum)
A concert landed on Page McConnell’s birthday, May 17, in 1992 at Union College in Schenectady, New York. The tease happy show saw a second set “Possum” containing “Simpsons, All Fall Down, Random Note, and Aw Fuck! signals, as well as teases of Rocky Mountain Way, L.A. Woman, China Grove, It’s Ice, and Divided Sky,” as per Phish.net (This show is available in its entirety on LivePhish.com but listen to the “Possum” above).
A song after “Possum,” the audience sang “Happy Birthday” to Page during a number that has long spotlighted the keyboardists, “The Squirming Coil.” Page himself added elements of “Happy Birthday” and more into “Love You,” which also saw Fish announcing birthdays in the band and introducing the crew.
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