Run like an Antelope

The timing was perfect for the tribute band Strange Design to begin their first East Coast tour. Their inspiration, the classic jam-band Phish, announced their return to the stage only one week prior to the first night of Strange Design’s tour, which began last Wednesday night at Rocktown Bar and Grill.
The newly formed tribute band is currently traveling up and down the East Coast making stops in Burlington, Vermont to Delray Beach, Florida, and will hit major cities including Boston and New York City along the way.
After Phish announced their twenty years of touring had reached an end at a concert in Northern Vermont back in 2004, the musical landscape looked bleak for Phish-heads looking to relive their favorite performances. Like the Grateful Dead before them, Phish was well-known for taking seven minute album cuts and transforming them into twenty minute long jams, unique to each and every live performance. However, Phish concerts also captured something different from the Dead or any band prior or preceding them, which Strange Design seeks to recreate.
“The goal is to get the fans involved creatively,” said band members and loyal Phish fans, Aaron Levy, Ben Markowitz and brothers Adam and Matt Chase.
“There hasn’t been a band since that can compare with the live performances of Phish,” said drummer Adam Chase. “There was Zappa and The Talking Heads, but there hasn’t been another that delivers such a unique and fun show.”
The band formed and is based out of Charleston, South Carolina, though members attended schools much further north including Princeton, Towson and the University of Maryland and studied subjects ranging from Architecture to Russian History.
“The Russian History comes in handy sometimes,” joked bassist Ben Markowitz, who majored in music at Princeton. Markowitz went on to work in the business side of the music industry as a Booking Agent in New York City following school. “It was a smaller agency out of Manhattan and was a good transitional job that gave me a solid understanding of the business and so many connections, but I would much rather play.”
Each of the members has been in several bands prior to the creation of Strange Design, some of which played in Harrisonburg previously. In addition to the tribute band, all the members are currently involved in another original project, Emotive, a soul-rock group featuring lead vocalist Elise Testone.
However, the members seem to agree that though Strange Design is based upon the music of another band, it serves as a “great exercise” for their musicianship.
“Most people don’t realize how specific many of the long jams are in many of the songs,” explained Markowitz. “It’s a challenge to play some of the really hard, really long instrumentals and we transcribe and learn them all by ear.”
This intricate attention to detail and delivery of the live performance are other factors, which set Strange Design apart from other bands.
“Cover bands can play whatever they want,” said Adam Chase. “But with a tribute band, we really do the whole show with the deeper cuts and overall performance. We focus on recreating the entire experience.”
In Wednesday’s particular performance, this included a set list from a Phish show performed August 1, 1999 at the Fuji Rock Festival in Naeba, Niigata, Japan and even incorporated trampolines during the encore.
“Phish would really bring the audience into their shows,” said Markowitz. “They used to do something called the Big Ball Jam where they would throw big different-colored balls into the crowd, each of which represented a different instrument and depending on how high the crowd hit them, that would determine what the instrument did.”
Though Wednesday’s show did not involve hitting beach balls, it was not simply a matter of choice. Each show Strange Design performs is done exactly how the Phish concert was carried out and shows are determined by fan requests submitted on the website, www.thestrangedesign.com.
“It used to take a lot longer to learn a show, because every single one is different,” said keyboardist Aaron Levy. “But by this point we can really just listen to the recording of the show on the car ride between and learn most of it.”
The band decides how songs will be performed by listening carefully to their recordings, taking notes, discussing what they hear and they eventually come to a consensus over how the song will be performed after listening to as many versions as possible.
“One of my favorite show memories was from one in Greensboro where we recreated a show where Trey does a monologue in “Run Like An Antelope” about going to a grocery store and getting a cantaloupe,” said Markowitz. “When we did it in our show, part of it says to hold the cantaloupe over your head and the whole audience was out there holding imaginary cantaloupes up in the air.”
In addition to the many props and effects the band uses to recreate the atmosphere of their favorite shows, Strange Design also uses a complex lighting system to enhance the experience run by a friend and nearly 5th member of the band, James Brown.
Though Brown studied geology and is currently studying geographic information systems through an online graduate program offered by Penn State, he is also an accomplished light engineer and Phish fan, attending a total of 144 Phish shows.
“After 144 shows, I’ve seen many good and many bad,” said Brown. “But Strange Design definitely have it down. Matt is a genius on guitar and they practice non-stop. They are the closest you can come to Phish.”
That is, the closest you can come to Phish until they return to Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA March 6-8. However, due to the extreme demand for tickets that will not be on sale until Saturday, October 18, Phish fans can rely on Strange Design for their fix.
“Phish always delivered a good show,” said Adam Chase. “We were too young for the Dead and there was no sense in pop that was always the same. Phish was always different, with an eclectic range of styles and excellent musicianship. They were a major influence on us and we are just paying them homage.”
If Strange Design is simply paying Phish homage, Trey, Mike, Jon and Page should be flattered as the show Wednesday was arguably one of the best performances hosted at Rocktown to date. Next time Strange Design graces Harrisonburg with their presence, Phish-heads and anyone who can appreciate talent, incredible musicianship and an exciting, interactive stage show, should flock.

For more: www.thestrangedesign.com
www.myspace.com/thestrangedesign