I realized yesterday, that I probably haven't listened to Phish in a month. That is, actively listening, thinking about Phish's music. Then I got to thinking… have I listened to Phish this year? Have I distanced myself from the music purposefully? Do I not like Phish anymore? I mean, shit, I don't think I'm gonna go to any shows this summer. And I'm kinda ok with that. So what gives?
Then yesterday, I saw this.
(p.s., that's Drew @tweezer / @drewphish and he's playing that song with Trey in the National Symphony Orchestra next week and I couldn't be more excited for him)
50 seconds. I listened to it on a loop, how many times I couldn't say. Then I went and listened to one magnificent You Enjoy Myself. Then I put on Ol' Dirty Bastard.
But in that loop of 50 seconds and 20 minutes from 1994, I got all the Phish I needed. Kind of a strange feeling. To spend the past few years obsessing about going to shows and hearing something new, it somehow just drifted away. I mean, the core of my love for the band is still there. But somehow that simple rhythm created, spontaneously, by a fan and a tuba sparked an inner realization about the true simplicity of what I need to be satisfied in this experience.
Not hours.
50 seconds.
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a couple of days ago, my wife and i sat in a circle,
with street musicians,
at a piazza in firenze utill four in the morning.
they sang local songs in local tounges,
and we understood perfectly,
each other.
we all sang 'wild world' in this great figure eight
and 'let it be',
let it be.
our souls were shared with a spliff and a song,
that has no words.
this was an experience i'll treasure as long as i live!!
i hadn't really listened to phish in a few weeks and as i strolled home with my honey,
i thought...
...boy man GOD shit i want to hear some PHISH!!!!
san souci, my phriends. and to each his/her own. peace.
Dude can play the tuba, I'll give him that... but this doesn't need to be on the front page.
I'm currently in a Phish wane. I don't know when it will return to waxing. But I know that an ebb and flow is natural, and that's okay. And as we get older, it's to be expected.
> As to the people complaining about this being "front page,"
> it's a blog entry about Phish by a Phish.net staffer. That's legal.
Pretty sure he didn't use the "Open Letter to..." properly.
Start your own forum / blahg / stats resource if you don't care for the admins of this site using this one as they see fit.
Clearly you don't have enough real problems in your lives.
/rant.
But my dog really liked the tuba. He's now convinced that there's some kind of small animal living behind the TV. Or maybe in the speakers.
I thought this blog post was and is great. And I listen to Phish constantly, and have done so for many, many years... though I did take a break post-Coventry in late 2004.
$0.02.
And you are correct about the blog post not being for me, or anyone except the blogger himself, but the problem is he put it on the #1 site for all things Phish, and one of the oldest fan sites on the internet. If you me to expand on that for you, I will, but I trust you understand what I am getting at. Something like this belongs on the blogger's personal blog, not this site. The post has a negative feel to it, and it is not a negative review of a show, but rather a negative blanket statement about his feelings for the band. Yes, I am sure he loves(d) Phish, and everyone appreciates his work as a volunteer admin for this site. But it sounds like Phish has run their course in his life right now, so why post here about it?
All the Mystery Jams
Mockingbird Pin Release
Trey snags Tony Nomination
An old Interview with Gordo
Mothership Art Collective Print Show
News About Hands On A Hardbody
The Ultimate Phish Nerdgasm
Phamily Poker Classic
Interview with Trey on CBS
Tour Announcement Video
...ect.
AND right on top is an Admins post about how he really doesn't like listening to Phish anymore.
How do y'all not get that it does not fit. It's a thread for the forum not some grand insight into Phish.
Thanks admins for all you do, really. I dig this site and the show and song stats are a priceless resource that if it disappeared today I would be crushed, so thank you. That being said the whole too cool for school, jaded vet thing gets old real quick.
In other words this blog post is a bigger buzzkill than Buzz Killington.
Oh, I'm sorry is this not the forum? My bad.
::heads to forum to chat with all the n00bs that still like listening to Phish::
/rant
You'll know when you haven't listened for a couple of months (or a few) that you're ready to come back to phish when your jaw drops at a jam or you find yourself genuinely enjoying hearing NICU for the 40,000th time. Then it's like rediscovering them all over again. That's just how it's been for me, but I wonder at the poster's undercurrent of anxiety and willingness to project dark forebodings about his relationship with phish. It's really not that big of a deal, and frankly kind of surprising that this hasn't happened before, as Dirksen points out.
One thing I will say is that for whatever reason I was on a non-jamband kick in 2010 and the shows leading up to Alpine (DwD-> WTU) I was really, really not into. Jadedvet mode, arms crossed, superior, generally an asshole. There were some fun moments I missed out on and didn't really appreciate the turning point in the band's development that DWD represented. Instead of enjoying WTU, when I realized what it was I immediately shut off the enjoyment of the moment simply because I realized it wasn't an "original" jam.
I don't know if it's related but I can't help but think that being in such a different musical place then probably didn't help. So while you can't really force it, give it a shot for a couple of weeks before the shows and see if you don't change your mind about hitting multiple shows. There's never been one I've seen that hasn't at least been worth the travel and money.
I'm currently in a lull with Phish. I just finished reading the Parke Puterbaugh biography on the band which drove me back to the catalog for a few days. Otherwise, I've been digging deep into other bands (the new Dawes & Vampire Weekend albums are phenomenal) and rediscovering stuff I haven't listened to in a while (after seeing Ben Harper a couple of weeks ago at the Beacon, I blew the dust off the Innocent Criminals and the Relentless 7). I'm seeing Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers this Thursday and have been listening to his old and new stuff too.
Summer tour is still in the future but when those tickets arrive, I'll be firing them up. From time to time, I've read posts on this site about those who listen to Phish constantly without really considering other music. Very short-sighted. Plus, as others have said, coming back to the boys after a short hiatus has me giggling and dancing like a school girl. It's not quite rediscovering them, but it sounds new and fresh and I marvel at their awesomeness after I let things cool down.
Go read it again, I'll give you time to try and decipher the actual point I was making. There's a massive number of people here on this jaded-fan witchhunt, I'm sorry that anything short of "OMG, my face melted" doesn't tease your intellect.
To everyone else who had a problem with where this was posted... @mrjones @theemporerjoker @runlikeacantelope
I am a blogger here. This is my (shared) blog. I don't need another venue.
I thought I would share an emotion and a moment that I had related to Phish. Blog posts go to the front page automatically, whether they are good or not..
This is absolutely NOT, jaded vet malaise. I have not listened to much Phish lately, fact. I might not go to any shows this summer, fact.
I am totally over Phish, pure fiction. That wasn't my point. I was trying to express the purity of what I heard and how it immediately connected with the core of how I love Phish. The fact that I haven't listened to Phish lately has nothing to do with my love of the band. The point was that it never leaves you.
But one thing I do want to make clear, again, since I've said this before: the PhishNet blog is run by volunteer fans, for fans. We are fans like you. We are vets like you. We sometimes don't listen to Phish. We sometimes post negatively about Phish, even in harsh terms, and do so on this blog. Phish fans love Phish in diverse ways, and I wouldn't want it any other way. If you check out this blog only to read "positive" viewpoints of Phish, prepare to be disappointed, especially by my blog posts. (So skip those!)
In my opinion someone who expects only positive views about Phish on this blog is akin to a Fox News watcher who expects only positive reviews of the Republican Party on Fox. It is silly to expect that, even if views expressed about Phish on this blog are largely "positive" about Phish, and views expressed on Fox News are largely positive about the Republican Party. It ain't all Hood, my friend, and thank f'ing God. I might be able to handle a single show where Phish plays nothing but Hood. But consecutive shows? Seriously, though, if you don't like what you read in the blog, then write something better and submit it to me for possible publishing.
WE ARE JUST FANS LIKE YOU, BUT ALSO DIFFERENT.
You post, we comment-- so the wheel spins round.
(I honestly didn't realize the Front Page of phish.net is a blog, and am kinda disappointed. I thought there was some degree of censorship over what got to the Front Page. Back to PT for me!)
Definitely respect and love this site though.
Additionally, there is a tremendous amount of combative comments towards "the admins." By my count, we're pretty low touch around here, but I suppose our history of being "pompous prick" label is pretty tough to shake.
And since at least a few people must be wondering why the Phish-hating, pompous, boring admin quit tour...
My wife and I will be taking my sons to Disney World for the first time when tour starts. I found takers for my tickets and decided that the time with my family was more valuable than another show. Not that it's really pertinent to anyone, just figured everyone needed some answers.
Sorry to jump down your throat man, I get fired up with no filter as well.
Also,sorry you cant make any shows this summer but Disney World with your wife & kids frankly sounds more badass.
p.s. your Avatar does not help your argument
Same ol' same ol'. Can't post anything other than slobbering, sycophantic praise of the band without drawing the wrath of the "true Phans" who think that if you don't lap up latest paint-by-numbers version of "Free" then you're a hater who doesn't deserve to listen to the band, let alone see them in concert.
Thank you to the people who decided to comment on @ericwyman's post and engage in a discussion about it.
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Its disheartening to see such a backlash to simply sharing this experience. It would be one thing to comment on or disagree with the sentiment in a rational way, but to automatically infer that one is jaded and negative because they are in a phase where they are not listening to a ton of phish is really closed-minded.
I guess by definition we have a community that includes some of the most obsessed fans out there. By contrast, one of the things that I always found attractive about the phish community is the open-mindedness of most fans - the ability and willingness to go outside a comfort zone, in terms of both music, culture, ideas, lifestyle.
But, oddly, the cross-sections of fans that spend a ton of time on message boards seems to contain its own little subset of people that are really locked into their own mindset, unwilling to entertain the perspective of others, always needing to prove their knowledge or correctness. (Generally about something that is inherently subjective, nonetheless.) Bunch of weird birds, and not necessarily that fun to interact with. How do you really respond to someone that wants to tell you that the way you partake in recreation is wrong? Either flame or ignore. There's no constructive, interesting way to engage with someone like that.
Even worse, virtually inexplicable to me, is the meta-discussion questioning whether this is an appropriate topic of discussion. As a blog post. On a phish website. "Admin attention whoring?" That is about as ignorant, inaccurate, and unnecessarily mean-spirited comment as I've seen on this site. "Why is this on the front page?" Um, well, because its a blog, about phish, and one of the functions of the site is to post thoughts about phish. We'd use it more, but for the fact that more often than not, people would rather discuss things like whether the blogger is an attention whore as opposed to the thoughts presented. Or reveal their own insecurity and defensiveness by attacking and insulting anyone who experiences phish differently than they do.
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Personally, I haven't listened to hardly any 3.0 since January. Mainly because I want this tour to sound fresh when it hits my earholes in a month. But I'm also not able to hit many shows at all - maybe one or two. And I'm also ok with it. I'd rather go to more, but there are other obligations and responsibilities. C'est la vie. Am I a shitty fan because I am not pitching a fit or blowing off my family? (...which I may or may not have done repeatedly over the years...) Am I sucking the energy an life out of the community due to my lack of obsession? That's what some of you make it sound like. And I'm sorry you feel that way, but moreover I pity your inability to acknowledge an experience different than your own.
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Thank you to those of you that are able to comment on and discuss the ideas in the original post.
to each their own.
I wish I got to see them back in the day. But I am glad that I'm not a jaded vet and still consider myself a noob.
see ya'll reaaaal soon!
Sounds to me like someone hit the proverbial nerve, eh?
My two cents.....Back in the late 70's an old Head sat me down on his couch and told me to shut up and listen as he popped a cassette of a '72 soundboard into his player. He sat back, toked up, passed me the pipe and told me "Tours comin' in a month. Time to get your ears ready." I learned that day that this music requires emotional and mental preparation and concentration. You can't "listen" to Phish casually, and that's why we have to shut it down once in a while. It's normal. I didn't think the blog was negative at all......but thoughtful.