05/25/2026
We've Got It Simple
Twenty-two years ago today, on May 25th, 2004, Trey Anastasio issued a statement that flattened fans everywhere.
While the breakup may have felt abrupt, it was not all that surprising for those familiar with the band. The Phish “machine” had grown too big and too hectic to remain manageable, drug dependency had become a debilitating issue for Trey, and as the subsequent mental and physical fatigue set in, the band’s playing began to decline. In a 2012 Rolling Stone interview, Anastasio looked back on the mounting issues within the band at that time, explaining “Page pulled me aside and said, ‘For 20 years, I’ve had 100 percent faith that you would lead us onstage, and it’s always made me feel good. For the first time, I’m not sure I feel that anymore.’”
As drummer Jon Fishman stated in the same retrospective Rolling Stone piece, “Trey came to the band in ‘04, totally out of his mind, saying, ‘The only way I can describe this is, if I don’t get out of Phish now, I’ll die.’ When your good friend says this to you, you go, ‘It should have never come to this. Absolutely, go home. Nobody should die over this.’”
True to Trey’s words, the band approached Coventry, its August ’04 Vermont festival, with a feeling of finality. Echoing the devastated feelings of all the fans in attendance, the entire event was cast in a depressing shadow. Unrelenting rain decimated the concert fields and access roads, turning the entire grounds into a mud bath. Traffic backed up for miles leading in, prompting Mike Gordon to get on the radio and tell incoming fans to turn around and go home. Many left their cars and hiked in so as not to miss the last Phish shows ever, but what they got was a shell of the band’s former self.
The band’s Coventry version of “Glide,” most notably, saw Trey unable to keep his composure musically. The emotional weight of “Wading in the Velvet Sea” proved to be too much for Page, who broke into tears, unable to finish the song’s refrain. Instead, he turned his mic out to the audience to sing it for him. Just like that, the festival was done—Phish was done—and the band had departed with a whimper rather than a roar, leaving fans feeling empty and unfinished.
Five years later, however, on October 1st, 2008, after sufficient time had passed for everyone to get healthy and mend fences, the band once again shocked its fan base with a short but oh-so-sweet announcement: Phish returns to the stage for three concerts at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia on March 6, 7 and 8, 2009.
Today, that breakup is a distant memory—and we’re glad, glad, glad that the magic remains alive.
