Island Tour Inspiration
I can trace the inspiration for Phantasy Tour to a couple key events and interactions leading up to its launch in September 1999. One such event was a rec.music.phish / Phunky Bitches meet-up that took place 20 years ago today on April 5, 1998 at the Trinity Brewhouse in Providence, RI. This was the day of the final show of Phish’s 4-show Island Tour , named as such for the fact that the shows took place on Long Island and in Rhode Island. My wife and I were living in Harrisburg, PA at the time and had made the trip up to Rhode Island on Saturday for the first of two shows at the Providence Civic Center . On Sunday we arrived at the Trinity Brewhouse a couple hours before the show and weren’t really sure we’d know anyone there. We were pleased to spot a familiar face in the crowd; our Harrisburg friend and Benjy’s Digest curator, Benjy Eisen. Twenty years later, there isn’t much about that pre-show gathering that I can recall, but I will always remember that Benjy handed me a pen