Phish Honors Jerry Garcia With ‘Terrapin Station’ Cover In 1998

There’s no denying the huge influence Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead had on Phish. The Dead were one of many huge influences on the Vermonters’ music, but read 90% of articles on Phish from 1993 – 1997 and you’ll get the feeling they were the only influence.

Phish were so driven to blaze their own path they did their best to do anything that would stoke the Dead comparison fire. The band was suspiciously missing from a group of opening acts on the final Grateful Dead tour that included Phish contemporaries Dave Matthews Band, Rusted Root and The Black Crowes. On a beautiful night in Virginia Beach 19 years ago today Phish put the “Dead thing” behind them by performing a spot-on rendition of “Terrapin Station.”

Longtime Phish tour manager and a huge Deadhead himself Brad Sands recognized the gravity of the moment, “They basically played Jerry’s anthem. It was a recognition moment, and from that point on, the Dead thing was put behind them.” Sands went on to tell Phish biographer Parke Puterbaugh, “They could embrace it as opposed to run away from it. They could finally start to say ‘Jerry was a huge influence. He was great.’ All that stuff.”

Less than a year after Phish performed “Terrapin,” Trey and Page would perform a monumental three-night stand with GD bassist Phil Lesh at The Warfield in San Francisco. Phil would sit-in with Phish the following fall and ever since both bands have fully accepted each other. The Phish/Dead connection continues to pay dividends to this day as last fall Bob Weir sat-in with Phish for a wonderful set in Nashville, while a few months earlier Page and Fish performed as members of Phil Lesh & Friends at the 2016 Lockn’ Festival.

It all started with a perfectly played “Terrapin Station” 19 years ago today:

[Originally Published: August 9, 2016]