PHISH: 3/18/97 Flynn Theatre, Burlington, VT essay by Phish Archivist Kevin Shapiro (4/6/07)
The
Flynn Theatre is a historic venue set on Main Street
in Burlington, Vermont. It is an Art Deco theater in design
and decor, built by J.J. Flynn and his associates and opened
in 1930 for live performance and cinema. After a brief time
as a movie theater only, the Flynn was re-configured for
performing arts in 1974. A locally run, non-profit organization
of community leaders purchased it from private hands and
set about restoring the theater between 1985 and 1999 creating
a world-class performing arts center in the hub of Vermont's
cultural
capital. While rock concerts are rarely a part of that
mission, Phish performed at the Flynn a number of times
through the years – in 1992, 1994 and finally in 1997
in conjunction with the launch of Phish Food.
When Ben and Jerry's approached Phish to license the band
name for an ice cream flavor in 1996, the band's initial
response was "no, thank you" respecting a pact
they made early on not to license their name to anyone but
a record label. At the same time, the band members were
talking about how to consolidate and focus their corporate
giving which, until then, had been as impromptu as their
live setlists. All the suggestions shared a focus on children's
and environmental causes in the State of Vermont. As talks
continued, they learned that Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
(at that time still directly at the helm of their creation)
had a similar charitable vision. They were willing to collaborate
directly with the band to develop a flavor that would help
bring the band's charitable efforts to a new level.
After a summer that included Ben and Jerry's historic guest
vocal slot with the band at The Clifford Ball, the visionary
confectioners found common ground with the visionary band. They eventually agreed to
create a flavor, with the final development being Fish's
suggestion to make the marshmallow more correctly "marshmallow-y",
unlike other rocky road type flavors of the past that had
wispy, not-very-marshmallow-y ingredients. Ben and Jerry's
Research and Development arm managed to bring that about
and Phish
Food was born earning frozen food awards and spin-offs
that included Phish
Sticks - a Phish Food chocolate covered ice-cream bar).
The flavor became popular and the rest is history, with
Phish Food consistently a top seller in pints and scoops
sold worldwide. Ben and Jerry's has even created a special
edition variation (with added chocolate cows) Phish
Food 10th Anniversary Surf n' Turf Edition to celebrate
this milestone. As Ben said during his introduction at The
Flynn Theatre in 1997, the work between the band and Ben
and Jerry was one of mutual respect and "a real spiritual
connection" between them.
It was eventually agreed that the only appropriate way
to kick off the release of the ice cream flavor and awareness
of both companies' environmental efforts was to do what
the band did best and play a live show. A special one-off
U.S. theater show was booked for March 18th, 1997 at the
Flynn. Tickets were placed on-sale on February 20th with
procedures to ensure this special show would be attended
only by the fans who bought the tickets, rather than scalpers
who at that time routinely re-sold tickets to fans at top
dollar against the band's wishes in spite of creative anti-scalping
measures like mail order ticketing.
The band was already running their direct mail-order ticketing
operation, Phish Tickets By Mail, through the Flynn Theatre
Box Office where Shelly Culbertson (founder of PTBM) worked
with Celia Asbell (who ran the Flynn Box Office) to fulfill
orders from the faithful. This was done with surgical precision
based on when the orders were received so the band could
deliver the specially decorated tickets to fans in time
for them to make a second attempt to buy elsewhere if their
orders couldn't be filled due to too high demand. This was
a challenge in a small town with very high ticket demand
and fans who can be so dedicated to procuring tickets to
see their band that they are sometimes difficult to placate.
It was decided that tickets for the Phish
Food launch would be sold in pairs, first-come-first- serve
only and that the purchasers, who bought their tickets in
person at the Flynn, would have to be the attendees. To
accomplish this, the on-sale was top secret until it was
announced on local rock radio station and longtime Phish
supporters WIZN
FM the day of the on-sale at 8am. Purchasers were given
vouchers that required them to return in person on March
18th for the show, produce their identification and enter
with one person accompanying them if they bought a pair
of tickets. This made it so even if a scalper heard the
announcement and made it into the line in time to get a
pair, the scalper him or herself would have to actually
attend the show with whomever they sold to – an unlikely
scenario which as far as we know never happened. Tickets
sold out nearly instantly with local
news coverage of fans buying tickets, Ben and Jerry's
employees handing out free samples of Phish Food and announcing
the Vermont partners' joint purpose of cleaning up Lake
Champlain . Phish fans were especially excited about this
small, one-off show in a year when every other U.S. gig
was in a venue ten to fifty times the size of the Flynn.
Meanwhile, the band had released their latest studio album
Billy
Breathes in fall 1996 and toured Europe twice in
less than a year to support it – once in summer opening
for Santana with a few festival and headline dates and again
as a headliner in 1997. On the second leg of that tour in
Hamburg, they recorded the live album Slip
Stitch and Pass. They also toured the United States
twice in 1996 playing sold-out amphitheatres and arenas.
Their last theater shows were special events even in 1995
when they happened, with a benefit for Voters For Choice
at Lowell, MA in May
and a three-night stand at Atlanta's Fox Theatre in November.
Before that, it had been years since the band had played
small venues. Their last show at the Flynn was nearly three
years earlier in 1994 where they kicked off a tour supported
by a horn section with a special gig (even then they were
playing mostly college gymnasiums and arenas) at their hometown
theater on April
4, 1994. That show was a benefit to help raise money
to restore the building, so it was fitting that they returned
in 1997 to christen the newly restored room.
On show day, March 18th, Ben and Jerry took the stage first
that night to introduce the flavor and the band. Their introduction
was remastered and provided for free download at livephish.com. The band opened their first hometown
show since 1995
with their first ever rendition of Neil Young's Cinnamon
Girl followed by a non-stop combination of NICU > Sample
in a Jar > Punch You in the Eye. Punch had a specially
developed introductory section with lots of work by Page
on his Fender Rhodes. Two more covers followed before they
dove into Harry Hood, which was drawn masterfully into a
more-amazing-than-usual jam section now re-mastered for
free download at livephish.com. Without
stopping, longtime local collaborators Dave "The Truth"
Grippo and James Harvey joined the band to add horns to
a no-holds-barred Cars Trucks Buses with extended solos
by everyone. Cars Trucks Buses was also remastered and is
provided for free download. Two more
songs with horns followed – the always-raucous Suzy
Greenberg and Character Zero, during which Trey wished Ben
a happy birthday as they ended the song and the set.
The band kicked off set two with over a half hour of continuous
music with Taste > Drowned > Prince Caspian > David
Bowie. Bowie blew up as expected and a short pause ensued
while local blues singer Tammy
Fletcher got up to join the band in an impromptu guest
appearance for two of her songs, I Told You So and Love
You Like a Man. After apologizing to her date for abandoning
him to sing, she proceeded to blow the Flynn up with her
big booming vocals, stage presence and Phish acting briefly
as the best backing band in the business as they learned
her songs onstage. I Told You So was especially powerful
and was remastered for free download at livephish.com
. The second set continued with Waste > Chalk Dust Torture
and finally a dynamically soaring Slave to the Traffic Light
to seal the deal. As they ended Slave Trey said "thank
you very much for coming tonight to our ice cream bash"
and proceeded to thank Ben and Jerry and everyone present
for helping out Lake Champlain. For the encore, the band
returned with Hello My Baby acapella before closing the night out with Funky B*tch, during which Grippo and
Harvey re-joined to lend horns to the classic
adopted by Phish from Chicago bluesman Son
Seals.
As a one-off hometown theater show full of debuts and special
guests, this show was an instant classic. The efficiently
circulated FM broadcast that was blasted "live"
during the show at local bars helped grow the legend for
the past decade. Mastering engineer Fred Kevorkian brought
out the very best in the soundboard reference tracks now
at livephish.com. Soon after this show, Phish gave a name
to their environmental efforts when they decided to funnel
100% of their royalties from the license of Phish Food into
their non-profit organization called The
Waterwheel Foundation. Waterwheel's primary mission
is to fund efforts to clean up the Lake Champlain watershed
from years of pollution from industrial, agricultural and
urban runoff. Waterwheel also developed a touring leg that
partnered with local charities wherever Phish played to
support local communities where the shows happened and collect
donations from fans to raise money and awareness for the
local partners and the foundation. The Waterwheel Foundation's
mission continues to this day.
Enjoy!
--ks