Musician/Comedian Fred Armisen Shares Kind Message For Phish

Former Saturday Night Live cast member, current Portlandia star and leader of Late Night With Seth Meyers house band The 8G Band spent the weekend in Denver attending Riot Fest. At the same time, Phish played before three capacity crowds at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park at nearby Commerce City. Armisen was traveling home when he ran into a Phish fan who asked Fred for his take on the Vermont jam act.

Fred Armisen had kind words for Phish, telling Lacy Boughn, “Hi, I heard you say really nice things about Portlandia that means a lot to me thanks. I love you guys and I don’t know if you remember but you guys did Remain In Light in full and that was the greatest, the greatest greatest thing. I love [that] you guys are touring all the time, it’s awesome.” Armisen was referring to Phish’s October 31, 1996 show at The Omni in Atlanta, where as he said, the foursome played each and every track off Talking Heads’ iconic 1980 album. Watch Fred talk about Phish followed by the quartet covering Talking Heads in Atlanta:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4jskN8jGHs

[Pro-Shot Video: Phish performs Born Under Punches as part of Remain In Light set]

Phish’s lone appearance on Saturday Night Live came during Armisen’s debut season on the show in December of 2002. He’s also surrounded by Phish fans on the set of Portlandia as his co-star Carrie Brownstein famously spent two weeks deep diving into the music of the band for NPR in 2009 and came out of the experience a fan. Then there’s Portlandia production designer Tyler Robinson who moved from California to Portland in 1998 thanks in part to the Vermont quartet. “I was hitching to see a Phish concert in the Gorge, and I had a friend here. I stopped to visit him, and I fell in love with the city,” Robinson told The Oregonian.

Fred did share the stage with Phish two times. Both instances took place during the quartet’s December 14, 2002 visit to SNL. Armisen made a cameo with Phish as part of a “Jarrett’s Room” sketch and later was on screen with the band at the traditional farewell portion of the episode.