An all-star quartet of players from Kung Fu, Twiddle, Pink Talking Fish, and ulu have come together to launch a new Phish tribute project, Reprise Band, that celebrates the Phish from Vermont with faithful recreations of legendary shows.
Comprised of Adrian Tramontano (Twiddle, Mihali, Kung Fu) on drums and vacuum, Chris DeAngelis (Kung Fu, The Machine) on bass, Cal Kehoe (Pink Talking Fish) on guitar, and Scott Chasolen (The Machine, ulu) on keyboards, Reprise Band played its first official shows earlier this month at Nectar’s in Burlington, VT—a room that served as a home base for Phish during the group’s transition from a Vermont college band to a national sensation. The two-night stand saw the band recreate a pair of early shows: the aptly chosen 3/13/89 from Nectar’s and the iconic 7/16/94 from Sugarbush, VT, both of which were selected by Phish lyricist Tom Marshall, who played a critical role in the group’s formation.
“Basically it just kind of evolved this way naturally. We played a couple of private shows for [Tom Marshall and the Helping Friendly Podcast] just twice before, not exactly with this full lineup,” Tramontano told Live For Live Music. An early version of the band featuring Dogs In A Pile keyboardist Jeremy Kaplan played shows in Philadelphia and NYC, but those setlists consisted of assorted Phish covers and a tribute to Fall ’97, rather than recreations of full Phish shows.
“We did this one Phish pre-show in New York at the Bitter End, and Tom Marshall lost his mind at how good it was. He got really emotional during one of the jams, and that’s when this whole thing kind of launched. He really got behind us, and so [he and Cal] picked the shows to cover.”
Choosing the shows to cover was the easy part. Next, the band had to not only learn all of the songs, but map out the trajectories of all the jams and teases in an effort to faithfully honor the original shows, while making it feel fresh and spontaneous. To do this, they had to embrace the contradiction of mimicking improvisation and figure out how to remain authentic while doing it.
“These shows are special because of the things that happened in the moment for them. And even mistakes, like vocal mistakes and songs that are just too fast beyond control or too slow, or the risk that Fishman took or Mike took where he made a mistake and it all just domino effects into this new thing. That’s part of what you’re trying to recreate is mistakes, stuff like that, and risks.”
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Preparation for the gigs was a painstaking process. “We rehearsed our ass off,” Tramontano laughed. “We did two eight-hour rehearsals, and it was definitely hard. I know a shitload of Phish songs already, but there was a few hard ones I needed to really buckle down and do.”
Tramontano said he was dreading learning songs like “David Bowie” that have intricate time changes, especially because he does not read music, but the veteran drummer knew just whom to call for help.
“I had to get a couple pointers from a couple of people. So I actually texted [Phish drummer] Jon Fishman, ‘How do you count this?’ because I can’t really write it down,” he said.
Surprisingly, the drummer who created the parts was less helpful in learning them than Tramontano expected. “Some of it was really interesting to hear and learn. He told me, ‘Yeah, it’s a bunch of threes and fives and threes.’ I’m like, ‘That helped, but not really.’ So I actually asked another friend of mine, Zach, and he broke it down for me real quick and then I got it.”
Tramontano did not ask Fishman for pointers on playing the vacuum, but the accomplished multi-instrumentalist, who also shredded on guitar during an instrument-swapping cover of “Freebird”, eventually got the hang of it through trial and error. “I couldn’t even get a sound out of it the first time someone finally let me borrow one. I got it the day of rehearsal and I just kept picking it up every hour or whatever, farting around with it and I got better every time and started to understand how you get sound out of it. It’s definitely weird sucking your face. It’s sucking all the spit out your mouth so it’s kind of gross too, actually.”
Following the band’s official debut at Nectar’s earlier this month, a buzz quickly spread about the new project, resulting in a surge of ticket sales for the band’s second show. “The first night went really well musically and people were definitely sizing us up. But the word spread really fast and the presale started to really jump early Saturday morning where it was close to sold out in advance,” Tramontano said.
Due to the members’ commitments to various other projects, Reprise Band appearances are likely to be few and far between for the foreseeable future, but Tramontano said the band plans to announce new shows next week and was willing to give L4LM the inside scoop. Among the yet-unannounced performances are shows at the intimate Milkboy in Philadelphia on June 13th (which will likely sell out) and The Colony in Woodstock, NY on June 14th.
After that, it remains to be seen how far they will take the project. “Honestly, this is something that wasn’t even planned, but it kind of worked the way we did it and we’re just going to stick to what feels fun and right,” Tramontano said. “I think we’re going to go to Dick’s or somewhere to buy some trampolines. I don’t know. Maybe not. I mean, am I going to have to wear a mumu? I wasn’t really planning on it, honestly.”
In addition to Reprise Band, Tramontano and DeAngelis have upcoming Kung Fu tour dates, which have themselves become rare as Adrian continues to tour with Mihali Savoulidis‘ solo project during Twiddle’s ongoing hiatus and guitarist Tim Palmieri tours with Lotus. For more info and to purchase tickets, visit Kung Fu’s website.
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The post Introducing Reprise Band: A Phish Experience Ft. Members Of Kung Fu, Pink Talking Fish, More [Interview/Videos] appeared first on L4LM.
