Phish’s success is often credited to non-unique factors like variable setlists and letting fans record live performances. Sure, those helped. But what really sets the band apart are dozens of smaller elements – including a “secret language” of musical “signals” – that generate band-audience interaction beyond what any other act has achieved. Five have been “taught” to the audience during a show, of which the first four were introduced on 3/6/92:

D’oh!: when a 10-note sequence from the opening of the Simpsons theme song is played, scream “D’oh!” like Homer;

All Fall Down: after a sequence of four descending notes, everyone falls (or at least crouches) to the floor, as the music collapses in a downward spiral, until Fishman’s high-hat;

Random Note: after a ten-note sequence you’d recognize as circus music (from Julius Fučík’s Entrance of the Gladiators, the two measures immediately after the opening 12 seconds), the response is to sing "ahhhhh" at any pitch, tone, volume, etc.;

Turn Around: after "to everything, turn turn turn" is played softly, everyone turns to face the rear of the venue and cheers as if that’s where the band was; and

Aw, Fuck!: (aka “Fingerscrape”) after a long scraping noise from Trey (introduced 3/13/92, and used e.g. 4/21/92 in “Possum”), scream "Awww, Fuck!" and hold up your middle finger like you chopped it off.

For each, Trey has explained them, demonstrated the signal once or twice, and then on occasion had the audience practice, thus teaching them that part of the “language.”

Trey typically indicates that a secret language signal is coming by playing a high-pitched, three-beat trill, followed by the signal. According to the first two lessons, the cue and signal(s) could come from Trey, Page, or Mike. In practice, virtually all of the signals have been by Trey. They have most often been used during “David Bowie,” “Possum,” “Run Like an Antelope,” “Esther,” and “Wilson.”

The instructions have been given only ten times, from 3/6/92 to 3/16/93, with the most complete set on 5/14/92. Signals began occurring without instructions almost immediately, such as 3/14/92 (only 8 days after their introduction), though that sometimes didn’t work: After trying an All Fall Down signal at the start of 3/13/92’s “Possum”, Trey realized he needed to give a second lesson. Fans on Phish.net (in its mailing list infancy) had already discussed the previous instances; but in the days before MP3s, it would take weeks and months for analog cassettes to circulate the instructions. Even with smaller crowds, venues, and fan base, the secret language left out many die-hard fans from the start.

On the back of fears that newcomers might be alienated, the cues themselves dropped dramatically in frequency. But the band’s secret language existed prior to the five signals fans know, and no doubt continues, through several dozen unexplained intra-band signals that facilitate improvisation, song pace, song changes, and more, and from which the audience signals were created as an extension. (Rather than the high-trill cue used for audience signals, the cue for internal signals was the 10-note opening of the Vapors’ “Turning Japanese”, sometimes labelled Charlie Chan. Though used frequently prior to 1992, this internal cue was not used between 3/6/92 and the 6/14/00 “Fee”.)

Of the band’s internal signals, some are obvious, and referred to as signals in our setlist show notes, including:

Got Swing: after a tease of the title line from “It’s Don’t Mean a Thing if you Ain’t Got that Swing”, everyone swings like they’re holding a bat, creating a one-beat pause (e.g. 3/6/92);

Random Laugh: following six fast notes in rising 1/2 steps, the band bursts into loud, fake laughter (aka the “Random Laughter” signal; e.g., in “Possum” on 4/16/92);

Get Back: after the ten-note “Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner” line from the Beatles’ “Get Back”, the band returns from a jam to the previous song, or to the first in a series;

Chaos: a four-second riff that we haven’t yet identified, triggers wild rapid play from all four band members (e.g. 5/2/92);

Me and My Arrow: after the title phrase from "Me and My Shadow", everyone in the band points to the tall guy or asshole, as the case may be; see 5/3/92 or 5/7/92. The signal can be followed by sub-signals: a hi note to indicate a tall person, the same note for a normal person, a low note for a short person, and a tritone to give someone “the finger”. 

Nine more internal signals are listed in Richard Gehr’s The Phish Book (1998), though we’re not able to confirm or provide examples of these:

Tritone down: ½ speed, speed up (2x speed f/tritone up);

½ step down: go down ½, up whole, down ½;

Weep, weep, weep: Waltz C♯ to G;

I let a song: go to specified new song;

Sound of Silence: silence (dont play on "1"), fake "blap";

Will the Circle [Be Unbroken]: do cycle of fourths (at rate of signal);

Up Up [and] Away, hi note: start at top go down (arrhythmic if hi note is vibrato);

Up Up [and] Away, lo note: start at bottom go up;

Raising ½ steps / lo note: ha, ha, ha, blap;

A tease from Popeye may, according to that list, have indicated a shift to “ambient b#” at some point, though the band simply stopped instantly right after it on, for example, 9/13/90 (listen to Possum at 3:40).

For 12-31-92 (broadcast and rebroadcast on Boston's WBCN), the band attempted something even more dramatic: instructing the entire audience, via a flyer distributed upon entrance, with the following intro and additional signals:

Some of those were used that night - during “Harpua”, “Col. Forbin’s Ascent”, and “I Didn't Know” - but none have re-appeared since.

A few attempts have been made by audience members to mimic this conducting of en masse goofiness, including Darius' signals flyers.

And Phish isn’t the only one to use signals, even these specific ones. For example, at the end of The Roots’ 5/16/99 set at the Mayo Island Music Festival, each member of the band did solos. The bassist’ solo included the Simpsons signals, and the whole band responded, “Doh!”

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