This remnant will be replaced soon. The FAQ is back, with a new design! What is "Phish vs. the Dead"? There were some circa 1998/1999 gigs pitting a Dead cover band and a Phish cover band against each other for the audience's favor, billed via online ticket services and show listings as "Phish vs. the Grateful Dead". "Most people have the problem of being compared with other bands - our band's had it, we've gotten pegged with the Dead thing and all this kind of stuff. ... I could understand it eight years ago when we were playing a couple of Dead songs. We had six or seven Dead songs in our repertoire at one point, like our first year, in a college band, playing for parties. We were always aimed at playing original tunes, those always had the priority; but in the beginning we hardly had any. So when you're starting out you play other people's tunes. We played like a hundred other bands' tunes, too; for some odd reason, just because six of a hundred songs we knew were Grateful Dead songs, and of those two of them were covers on their part anyway... you know? Why didn't they call us a Stevie Wonder band? Well, I can tell you why they didn't call us a Stevie Wonder band. Or a Talking Heads band? They were kind of popular at the time, we played a couple of their tunes." -- John Fishman, interviwed by Shelly Culbertson circa 1992 This page last updated January 24, 2007. All contents © 1992-2007 Ellis Godard. All rights reserved.