This is a fan film and that’s not a knock: concert films are fan films by definition. One would no more attend a movie about a band they’re not into than they would the live show of a band they’re not into. That said—if the quintessential jam band Phish (Trey Anastasio on guitar, John Fishman on drums, Mike Gordon on bass and Page McConnell on keyboards) is on your playlist, you won’t be disappointed by Phish 3D. “The band is tight,” according to the Phish-Heads who attended the midnight show at the single Los Angeles theater where the film opened. To further fans’ already high expectations, the film (captured over 3 days at a music festival in Indio, CA) is shot in 3D, thus smoking pot before the show might be redundant since the film will already be inside your head—man. At $15.75 a 3D ticket it will also be inside your wallet. A case of the munchies in this context could easily cost several hundred dollars. Still, given the cost of tickets to an “actual” Phish concert ($40.00 and up), this might be seen as a bargain for true jam band loving concert goers who really dig the up-close-and-personal experience.

To build the Phish experience two evening sets and one acoustic set where shot and culled together into what, one assumes, were the best takes and performances. There is no doubt that 3D puts the band in your face in ways that not even back stage passes could. The cameras (of which we counted at least eight), range from the ultra-wide to the macro. If one ever wanted to bite an Anastasio fret board flourish, watching his fingers in 3D might be considered a personal lesson. The set list includes standards “Maze,” “Tweezer,” “Mike’s Song” and stuff from the 2009 album Joy. The songs are all overly long and rife with self-indulgent displays of the most exquisite musical talents Vermont and really good weed ever turned out. Still, you gotta be into it, 3D alone won’t fill the spacey voids created by 5 minute guitar solos.

On what might be considered the downside for fans of the band, Phish 3D is a concert film and nothing else. Layers of insight into what makes the band tick are not to be found. This is no Fearless Freaks (a great doc about The Flaming Lips from 2005) or Some Kind of Monster (Metallica’s self-reflecting documentary), there’s nothing about the band break-up or Anastasio’s drug use and rehab. This film is about the music, and at 135 minutes there’s plenty of it. The 3D visuals and indoor plumbing make it just about the only way to attend this music festival and come away feeling really groovy.

Distributor: Cinedigm
Director/Producers: Lawrence Jordan and Eli Tishberg
Cast: Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, Page McConnell and Mike Gordon
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 135 min
Release date: April 30, 2010