The Lizards Perform a Phish Tribute!

The River Street Jazz Cafe has tribute concerts all the time, and we’ve talked about what makes them so great before too. Hearing music you haven’t heard live in a long time is an experience we love hosting here. Sometimes, the reason you can’t hear your favorite bands play isn’t that they aren’t performing anymore, but because you can’t get to their concerts. To know that you technically could do something, but life is getting in the way, is a feeling our tribute concerts try to alleviate. That’s another reason why we have The Lizards coming to perform a Phish tribute concert on Saturday, April 23rd!

Who Is Phish?

There are a lot of bands out there making awesome music, and every fan, whether they’re local or international, should get the chance to see them play live. Our tribute concerts are the next best thing so fans new and old can hear bands like Phish live.

Phish, for future fans who don’t know, is an American rock band. It was formed in Burlington, Vermont, back in 1983 and still goes on tours to this day, but not around the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area.

The band is known for its musical improvisation, which has led to its original music consisting of a blend of genres. This includes funk, reggae, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, folk, country, jazz, blues, bluegrass, electronic music, and pop. There’s no one type of Phish song, so when you’re a fan of Phish, you’re listening to a little bit of every type of rock. There are not many music performers who have this kind of variety, so they’ve garnered a dedicated fanbase.

The Members of Phish

The band members haven’t changed too much from the original four. There is Trey Anastasio on guitar, who is also a creative force when it comes to writing the songs Phish plays. Mike Gordon is the bass player, Jon Fishman is the drummer, and Page McConnell is on the keyboards. They all do vocals, with Anastasio being the lead vocalist for many of their songs.

Who are The Lizards?

The Lizards aren’t just a tribute band; they’re a tribute band dedicated specifically to recreating the sound and performance of Phish. They formed in 2013 and play at shows and festivals, doing their best to recreate what a live Phish performance sounds like.

In their pursuit to recreate the sound and performance of Phish, they do ever-changing setlists, synchronized dancing, and tour with their own lighting rig and director. Every part of the shot is a part of the performance.

The Lizards were formed by Benjamin Weigensberg on the drums, Joel Visentin on the keyboard, Mike Meusel on bass, and Rich Grossman on guitar.

The Song That Gave The Lizards Their Name

With Phish, Trey Anastasio wanted to write songs that feel like stories as you listen to them. He specifically wanted them to feel like epic tales and would write and rewrite poems and jokes until he understood how they worked. That’s how he eventually wrote “McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters,” and “Wilson, Can You Still Have Fun?”

But it was during his senior study at college that he built a song using all four of the core elements for an epic tale: story, characters, ideas, and situations. This song was “The Lizards,” and the rest was history.

Come See The Lizards Perform Their Phish Tribute!

The River Street Jazz Cafe has another tribute concert to bring music familiar and not to our local area. On Saturday, April 23rd, the doors will open at 8:00 PM for a performance that will begin at 9:00! Get your tickets now to see the Phish performance you’ve been waiting for! You must be 21 years or older to attend.