“Sugar Shack” by Phish
From the 2009 album Joy

I was first introduced to Phish back in the summer of 1992. I had just graduated from high school, and my best friend and I took a day trip up to Northfield, Minnesota to hang out with some guys who were a year older than us. My friend had been the drummer in a band with them the year before, and now one was a student at St. Olaf and the other at Carleton.

This was a time of extreme prejudice for me personally against any music recorded after 1980. So I was blown away when the guys popped in a bootleg cassette from a recent Phish show. There are bands playing music like this? Now? Later that day when we returned to our hometown I stopped by Musicland (remember those?) and picked up a copy of the latest Phish album at the time, A Picture of Nectar. I played the hell out of that CD that summer, and over the next few years I became a loyal Phishhead… minus the cannabis and the driving around the country in a beat-up Vanagon selling homemade burritos to scrape together the cash for a concert ticket.

But over time, the luster wore off for me. Maybe it was the fact that their later albums… well… sucked. The last good Phish album, as far as I’m concerned, was Farmhouse, and even that was an anomaly among their later works.

And yet, I still can’t resist buying the latest Phish album whenever one comes out. I stumbled upon their latest album today at Target, not even aware they had a new one out (and only barely aware that they had reunited).

So far I haven’t listened to all of it, and what I’ve heard has not impressed me much. It’s probably their best since Farmhouse, but that is weak praise indeed. But among the first few tracks, “Sugar Shack” seems to be the standout, and so I’m featuring it here for your… enjoyment?

By the way… yes, eventually there is video.