CONCERT REVIEW: REPRISE AT SOUNDCHECK STUDIOS

Joanna Gleason
May 14
2 min read

On May 8, 2025, Soundcheck Studios in Pembroke, MA, welcomed Reprise, a band that formed to reprise the Phish experience. The group is composed of an all-star New England musician. Cal Kehoe, longtime front man for Pink Talking Fish, led the project on guitar; Adrian Tramontano (Twiddle, Kung Fu and The Breakfast) mastered the drums; Scott Chasolen chairman's the boards for the project. Scott shares years of experience as a founding member of Ulu and keyboardist of The Machine, a Pink Floyd tribute. Multi-instrumentalist and composer Chris DeAngelis (The Machine, Kung Fu and the Breakfast) completed the group on bass.

A Phish tribute band, Reprise is the best Phish cover band I’ve ever seen during my long career as a photojournalist and a fan of live rock music. The emotion, the passion, the melody…everything was mixed to offer to the audience a taste of Phish, the American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. Phish is known for their musical improvisation and jams during their concert performances and for their devoted fan following. At Soundcheck Studios Reprise exactly did the same.

Phish’s music blends elements of a wide variety of genres including funk, reggae, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, folk, country, jazz, blues, bluegrass, electronic music and pop. As Phish, Reprise is part of a movement of improvisational rock groups inspired by the format of the Grateful Dead’s live performances and usually known as “jam bands” that gained considerable popularity as touring concert acts in the 1990s.

In Pembroke, Reprise was terrific. Their blend of rock, funk, country, bluegrass, electronic and pop elements created an atmosphere of exultation from the beginning to the end. The audience was singing, dancing, jumping. The all-star quarter of players from Kung Fu, Twiddle, Pink Talking Fish, and ulu have come together to launch this new Phish tribute project, Reprise Band, that celebrates the Phish from Vermont with faithful recreations of legendary shows. As people in the entire room that night at Soundcheck Studios, I was entirely part of it.