Dear Diary: I attended Phish's Tiny Desk performance

A few weeks back

A friend who works at NPR Music, who we’ll call Harry, gave me a call a few weeks back to say Phish had signed up to do a Tiny Desk concert in a few weeks and he could bring two guest -- would I like to come?

I say hell yea, and begin figuring out how I’d go from the family's July 4 beach trip down to Washington, D.C., on a Tuesday. 

Tuesday, July 8

630am

Had a bad dream and woke up early in a DC hotel. It was one of those dreams within a dream where you wake up, check the clock, and realize you’re late. I then actually woke up, checked the clock, and realized it was way too early for a hotel morning. Grabbed a coffee, did some work, then got a call from Harry checking in on his drive down with a buddy, and we talked through the plan.

He said Phish was headed over to NPR shortly and he’d meet me there at 11am. The recording was scheduled for 1p but the band were likely to rehearse first, and we should try and catch it. Yes. Harry said they didn’t know the setlist yet, but a staffer had seen them loading in some trampolines. Sooooo we know we’re getting a YEM. 

I decide to head over to NPR to see if I can catch the band rolling in, but stepping outside the hotel realize it’s really, really hot, so I rent one of the cool scooters DC has lying around and zip off for a fun little ride. I get to NPR about 5 minutes later and do a couple laps around the building. No signs of anything phishy. Harry is still 20 minutes out so I drop in the bar next door and grab a breakfast IPA, some coffee, and an avocado toast to go.

Harry arrives, we meet in the lobby and catch an elevator upstairs. As soon as the doors open you can hear the distinct sounds of someone banging away on Page’s Rhodes. We turned a corner and there it was -- the Tiny Desk, with all four members’ technicians testing each rig. Quickly realized we were in a very small group of insiders. I’m the only dork in Phish gear, donut shirt, donut glasses, and recent MSG run hat. 

Harry introduced us to the exec producer, who then said we should find a spot while they get set up, maybe over there (a corner), and kindly stay out of the way. Great! Me and Harry’s friend (who programs a great music festival later in the summer) catch up while they do their thing and we all await the band’s arrival. I try to eat the avocado toast but was way too worked up, and that is a very messy thing to take out and eat in someone else’s office by hand, especially when you’re trying to like you belong.

1145am

I meander up to what we might call “the rail” which is really just a bookshelf. I snag a spot there next to the main camera woman/producer and a rope that lacked authority, preparing for what’s about to happen.

12pm

Band walks in. No fanfare. Just like that, very casual. Pretty clear it’s a soundcheck vibe and they’re settling in. Said hello to each as they walk in, and they say hello back, like we’re all people who are supposed to be there. Already feels surreal.

Each of them kinda slowly start noodling, having some fun with one another while they get in tune/adjust to the tiny stage, and Trey/Mike start teasing each other with All Things Considered/Reconsidered licks. Trey’s giggling. Page starts to get in on it too. Pretty soon Trey hit the first notes to Sigma Oasis and off they go. It is, no exaggeration, like 5-7 techs doing their thing and then me, Harry’s friend, and maybe five other people who aren’t working and are clearly lucky fans like us. 

A few All Things Considered/Reconsidered teases in Sigma, which Trey and Mike loved, then straight into Evolve. More of that, band adjusting their sound levels, etc etc etc and then bam -- YEM. Amazing. Band played through the full YEM, with vocal jam, and then they finish. Trey laughs and grabs two very tiny trampolines he brought -- like, the size of an Oreo cookie -- and tells the producer he wants to make a joke with them. So he starts showing them off, puts little booties on his fingers that he also brought, and starts jumping up and down on the tiny trampoline with his hands giggling. Mike puts his trampoline in his mouth.

Everyone thought that was it, but then no -- Trey has another idea. 

What if, instead of wrapping, he grabs this (a percussive instrument on the desk) and leads the band out in a parade through the audience, like, outside? Just like they did at Radio City/Beacon?! He’s excited, but NPR staff aren’t so sure. They try to talk him down, but meanwhile, he’s climbing up the Tiny Desk wall to grab a megaphone and tries turning it on. “I’ll use this!” Let’s maybe not use that, one staffer says, still trying to talk him out of this idea. They’re set up to record at the tiny desk, not around the office and into the street. He then lays it on hard, says they've done this a lot, at Radio City, all sorts of places, and the fans love it, it's a party, it's all very Brazilian, etc., we should do it! More talking and I guess they agree to do the little parade through the audience and to their green room around the corner. Great! Trey says ok, let’s try it again, from the top. YEM! They play another full YEM, get to the vocal jam, and then test their parade idea.

They walk right by me, vocal jam parading, again. I act normal. Great, seems like it’ll work. OK, band wraps, and they head back to the waiting area while the camera techs all gather to talk about how the hell they’re going to shoot this thing. I’ve now seen two YEMs and it’s not much past noon. I glance over at the lucky husband and see he’s also processing. 

Mike then pops back out to ask someone in his crew if he should wear the knitted sweater he brought. It was really hot and he was worried he’d be too hot. They both agreed not to wear the sweater. Mike then brought out another woman he was with, and asked her what she thought about the sweater. She agreed with the consensus — no sweater. It’s too hot. They then spent a few minutes talking about which buttons to button, and if he should roll up the sleeves and then use the button/strap to secure them there, or let them hang? Tough call! It was one of those professional fishing shirts, and looked tactical. Fish runs back out and grabs the mumu left behind the drums. I try and snap a photo of the stage. 

12:45

Things are beginning to feel energetic. More people are gathering in, the first row or two are starting to get tight (we were straight out from Trey & Mike, which was closer to the entrance). Harry comes and gets us and brings us Page side, which was way emptier, and told us to hold down the front row and give the camera person there a bit of a wall. So we got our rail spots.

I’m next to Jason Colton and ask him if we can post photos on social media or anything after the recording. He says no. 

1pm

Doors open, and about 100 very excited NPR staffers (I assume) and friends roll in, filling out the semi-circle making it about 10 people deep. A NPR employee/security guy gives a pep talk, saying please no video, and one or two photos OK but please don’t post it on social media or anything until next week. 

We’re all waiting there antsy just like a Phish show, and finally bam -- here comes the band! Fish in the mumu. Gordon no sweater. A band I’ve seen dozens of times with thousands of people now just a few feet away.

Trey gives a quick hello and then the band launches into Sigma Oasis.

Sound is tight. Quiet, patient, almost muted. Trey wasn’t mic’d to the public so that was interesting, but it was all so close you could hear fine. Page later told me it was really hard for him to hear Trey at all, especially because he was facing away, which makes sense. Great Sigma Oasis, which I rarely would say but man this whole thing is great. Next: Evolve, just like they practiced. Same as before, all pretty tight. I was super nervous for Trey flubbing the lyrics on both of these songs, but he did fine. Later saw they had them all printed out on the desk in front of him. I’d later snag Page’s copy of Evolve from a pile. 

Crowd really getting into it now, some dancing, lots of smiles, and then bam -- YEM! We mostly knew this was coming -- those of us there for soundcheck had seen it twice now but also they had two medium sized trampolines behind them in front of Fish, and their presence leaked out on Twitter. So off we went. Solid YEM, Trey nailing all it all then bam -- it's trampoline time! They jump on and the crowd gives a cheer to approve. They looked extra tiny, and the space was super cramped, but Trey and Mike still found a way to do the coordinated moves.

Mike jumped off a half step early so they didn’t stick the landing, but all good again, Trey stuck it. Vocal jam > parade (this time through much more people), and Trey’s high-fiving people on his way through the crowd. Naturally I go for the high five as he passed by but so did 5 other people, so it was a bit of a mess! I went for it and connected on two fingers lol, count it. Band parades off into the green room, and the camera people are thinking that’s a wrap. 

But not if we have a say. The crowd is loud. Loud like we always are pulling them back out for an encore. Eventually, it becomes clear we aren’t going to stop, and sure enough, here comes the band with huge grins on their faces. Camera crew looked a little scrambled but got back into places, ready to go. The security guard from earlier says something like, “we’re wrapped -- this is for you guys!” Trey says hello/thank you again, and they launch into Sample for the encore. Interesting choice, but we’ll def take it in this situation, and the crowd sang it loud. Thought that was surely it as it wrapped, but Trey wasn’t done. Chalk Dust! A really fun one, lots more signing, crowd dancing now, super fun.

That ends, they leave, it’s over. Big round of applause and the crowd -- everyone with yellow wristbands -- is escorted out. I don’t have a yellow wristband so we hang out as the producers tell Phish management that the next thing is for them to come back out for photos and other promo things. Figured it was best to hang back since I was a guest, so I went to do that but passed a copy of Evolve lyrics that were taped to Page’s keys, now lying in a pile looking destined for the trash, so I snagged those.

Then the band returns — Gordon now wearing the sweater — for a round of photos to be used on social media. I told him, “Nice sweater!” He said thanks.

Anyways, you’ve seen this one:

I snapped a photo of the photo:

So I’m hanging back, then sweet Page walks up to us there in the back and says, “Hi. I’m Page.” I was, “Hi Page, I’m Brian.”

We talked for a few moments about the sound, how much they all love playing tiny rooms, like it’s a practice session, but also how he had the challenge of hearing Trey today. He had no monitor, and Trey was facing the other direction.

I said something dumb about how they’re doing Fallon in two nights, and he said yep they’re doing Fallon in two nights, and we talked about the festival. He said it was hot in DC, and could be hot in Deleware too. He kinda grimaced and said how he hopes it won’t be too hot, but mostly knowing it would be. Then someone walked up and asked if he and Page could take a photo, and Page very gracefully said yes, “you’re not the first one!” So then I figured it was OK to ask, so I did, and he said something like, “Of course, you’re here, you’ve got the shirt.” I said true.

We were both very sweaty. 

I then hung out some more just looking around, listening, watching Trey sign things like the tiny trampoline, Fishman talk it up with everyone like an old friend, hugging the one kid there, a few friendly fans, a producer.

I find what could be Mike’s pick on the ground, see other picks from past performances on the shelf, so put it up there and tell the audio engineer that it could be Mike’s, in case they track these things.

He said they don’t.  

We linger a bit longer. I join a chat with the band’s PR guy, who said he also reps Goose. I tell him I wrote about Goose for CNN, and he said ah yes, that period of time was big for them. Said he’s hoping to get Goose on Tiny Desk next spring for their next album. More of me lurking around the people talking about this stuff, and then eventually those guys have to leave too -- but not before giving Harry a copy of Evolve. 

We spent much of the drive home listening to new album in its entirety, eating Chick-Fil-A, and processing what we’d just seen.

Watch Phish’s Tiny Desk Concert right here: