By Matt Hoffman (tonapdivine)

Reprise, the Phish tribute who to date has played just four shows, is most easily understood as doing with the music and spirit of Phish, what Dark Star Orchestra has been doing for decades with those of The Grateful Dead: they perform shows drawing on past Phish setlists and do so largely as Phish did, warts and all, though to hear them tell it, the “mistakes” are where the magic often happens. For the fans of standardized tests (we can smell our own), think of it this way: Dark Star Orchestra:Grateful Dead::Reprise:Phish. For the math nerds (h/t jfcnj!), ((DSO/GD) * Phish) + ∈

On June 13, 2024, I asked Tom Marshall to describe the band, who to that point had played only two public shows just four months prior at Nectar’s. (They’ve since doubled their show count, playing their third and fourth shows, respectively, at Milkboy Philly, where I spoke with Tom, and Colony Woodstock). He gave a one-word response: un-fucking-believable. Some might say it’s his job to say this, and they wouldn’t be wrong: he manages the band with RJ Bee, his co-founder in Osiris Media, the musical storytelling platform that since 2018 has published over 50 podcasts, many of them Phish-related. Others might suggest the influence of cognitive bias, as Marshall has known and collaborated with the band members for years and has played a variety of critical roles in the band’s formation and rapid evolution.

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