Thank you!
To be quite honest, I'd not heard of
The White Tape until about a year and a half ago. I had previously believed myself to own Phish's entire studio discography, but was proved wrong by a dear friend of mine. The first time I listened to it, I actually did listen to it on a cassette that had circulated and reached my friend, so that was an interesting experience.
And no, Fishman was already in the band at that point - in fact, the band's named after the guy! Haha. Page McConnell, the keyboard / piano / organ / etc. player is the last one who came along, and he joined the band officially in 1985 - so he's on
The White Tape, too. He's actually the one who convinced the guys to transfer from the University of Vermont to Goddard College - because he got money for recruiting people to the school, and also just really wanted to jam with the other three.
And yes - I feel like I'm going to have to expand on this thread - not necessarily even with the live stuff first. There are a lot of side projects and things that the band did, even one where all four were the backing band to "The Dude Of Life", Steve Pollak on his album. Additionally, I was torn as to whether or not I should include the album
Trampled By Lambs and Pecked by the Doves which was Trey Anastasio and Tom Marshall (who penned many of Phish's lyrics) performing as a duo in early-ish versions of MANY Phish songs.
Plus, some of their solo stuff...and Mike Gordon's albums with Leo Kottke...really seem to be worth mention.
Ah, I don't mind the term jam band enthusiast all that much, really. I do love my jam bands, and don't really see that as an awful thing.
