15 years ago today (5/25/04), following a rather unimpressive by Phish standards 3 night Vegas April ’04 run, Phish via a letter (below) from Trey Anastasio announced that they will be breaking up. Their last shows would end up being the volatile and disappointing finale in Coventry, Vermont that summer. Of course Phish came back in 2009 as this “breakup” thus lasted 8/15/04 to 3/6/09, 1664 days, just more than twice as long as their previous hiatus from October 2000 to late 2002. Check out Phish on the ’04 summer tour following the announcement performing “99 Problems” and “Big Pimpin'” with Jay-Z at KeySpan Park in Brooklyn, NY on 6/18/04.
AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM TREY
Last Friday night, I got together with Mike, Page and Fish to talk openly about the strong feelings I’ve been having that Phish has run its course and that we should end it now while it’s still on a high note. Once we started talking, it quickly became apparent that the other guys’ feelings, while not all the same as mine, were similar in many ways — most importantly, that we all love and respect Phish and the Phish audience far too much to stand by and allow it to drag on beyond the point of vibrancy and health. We don’t want to become caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act. By the end of the meeting, we realized that after almost twenty-one years together we were faced with the opportunity to graciously step away in unison, as a group, united in our friendship and our feelings of gratitude.
So Coventry will be the final Phish show. We are proud and thrilled that it will be in our home state of Vermont. We’re also excited for the June and August shows, our last tour together. For the sake of clarity, I should say that this is not like the hiatus, which was our last attempt to revitalize ourselves. We’re done. It’s been an amazing and incredible journey. We thank you all for the love and support that you’ve shown us.
— Trey Anastasio
