^that segue kicked my ass too…
That is the exact reason why I’m not really a big Dead or Widespread fan. They don’t ( nor will they ever) have that mysterious “X factor” that made you feel a part of a family. Phish ( the band and the scenec) were a world unto themselves. No one will ever come close to that again.
Phish is the eptiome of bittersweet for me. The greatest thing(s) about the band are the absolute worst things for me as I never had the opportunity to see Phish live. I can chalk that up to being a rat bastid and not expanding my musical horizons at a younger age…
I think there is a deep-seated need as humans to feel part of the tribe. We are social animals and as such need to feel a connection to a group of people… and then within that group we ultimately need to feel loved. That is the beginning of opening our hearts. People say “Whats the meaning of life?” I say it lies in opening our hearts… further and further… and just a little more… I wonder what it would be like to have a full and completely open heart?
In anycase phish is a good examle of feeling connected… they brought people together and the more you learned about them the more you could relate to the community. The more you could relate to the community the more you felt loved. What is better than being and feeling loved?
Anyway thats my hippie outlook on the whole thing… I always went to shows looking for those genuine people that I could just give/receive a hug to and know. I found many of them and just look here we are again on this board. I can say I felt the scene changed quite a bit after the Dead stopped playing and was discouraged… oh well all I had to do was poke around and I’m sur I couldv’e found good peeps… but there was a lot of negative. In any case this kept me from seeing them much in the late 90s… oh well I don’t regret it, I travelled down different paths and roads and found some a little more stable.
Hmmmm but somehow here I am still as much in love with the music as the first time I heard Junta in 89’… Well I can’t say I was in love the first time I heard that album but it definetly spoke to me like no other music. Took me another 4 years to see them tho and never really gave myself over to tour… I did move to the northten mtns of NH where I currently reside and phish is definetly what inspired my move… along with a blond hippy chick who is long gone:P… but ironically not far. I don’t know I wanted to live in the spirit of phish, make it my life, become phish!!! Whoa deep man… I felt more connected walking on the “hallowed ground of VT” than anything else… and if none of you heard of the former “Bread and Puppet Circus” from Grover VT well its seems stuff like that is essentially the heart and souls of phish and places like Goddard.
I’m really not trying to be cool here just putting out my connection and vibe is all… this has been my experience. Yuo certainly never had to see the band to feel a connection and embody their spirt so daon’t feel so bad if you never did. All the recordings are there… and you probably own more then I do… (however I hope to get some copies from some of yall someday:):):))
I also thought it was neat to run into people that saw/knew the band back in the late 80s… in the beginning. Most of the phishheads you meet in the mountains of new england were there in the beginning and have some great stories to tell. I’m originally from philly and moved in late 94… I can remember sometime around 91/92 there were these whispers of phish trickling down out of VT… how stellar they were, how devoted their fans were… well as we all know it wasn’t long before the secret was out and now here we are still riding the wave of the cultural phenomenon that is phish.
On hindsight it is easy to see how “phish” got too big for those 4 guys… they are really just laid back VT types wishing to groove. Hmmmm will they ever get their groove back… I wonder. I have not seen 70vp… is the groove there??? Seems Mike grooves well with Leo… love 66 steps. Anyway quite a morning rant by the goldpheeeeeesh… Thoughts anyone… morning coffee yet? That darn war in Iraq? Mozzarella sticks? Those damn consevatives?? Those socialist liberals? I can’t stop… peace:)
^ Great insight.
It’s very similar to movies/stories like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars etc… that aim to create a new universe without a definitive end or beginning versus a story with a concrete linear form… as deep as you want to get into there’s always new things to learn…
It also appeals to the comic book collector/sports afficianado sensibility… there is always something rare or exiting to find and something new to experience that could eventually become that rare thing…
You can completely open your heart, but only for the briefest of moments, then the bad vibes of the world hit you and your heart closes again. But, for that tiny moment…
^ yes I know what you mean… I guess the work is in trying to keep it open for longer and longer periods of time… in spite of the bad things that can happen.
I LOVE LotR, HP and SW. Currently readind HP #6… I’m a little behind the curve but I knida like to draw out the pleasure of such things rollseyes
^goldphish, you are in company with me and icculus for your love of LOTR. my favorite book ever, nothing will replace it.
Once a buddy and I were talking about phish and the grateful dead and the differences. I remember saying how much I always liked the dead and their jams and the people that showed up at the shows, but I said… “but they made anything you could build a religion around”… all the guys in the room stopped and looked at me and agreed… the whole gamehenge thing just takes it all to the next level… I think phisheads are just nuts about it… addicted… religious kooks you name it
lotr will always be my favorite books of all time. i was a bit dissapointed in the movies, but what does hollywood not destroy? i got into LOTR when i was like 6 and my dad read me the hobbit. i have the 50th anniversary edition of all three lotr books and the hobbit. it’s in a gold colored book case thing. it rules.
^cool. i have got some really nice versions of the LOTR books. i think it might be the 50th annoversary too. not sure. anyway i got hooked on lotr in 7th grade when we read all three for english with my teacher. IAMGINE THAT CLASS! it was the best class ive ever had and likely will never have a better one. imagine discussing those books every day. plus my class is like a fraternity. the year we read them all was the year the fellowship came out in theaters. so we saw it as a class that year. then we saw two towers next year. then return next year. last year we saw star wars, and this year well probably see chronicles of narnia. the teacher is the coolest man ive ever met and we talk all the time. becaue of that class everyone in it will forever have a special bond becaue of what we experienced in 7th grade.
p.s. 250 th post!
Very well put goldphish…the sense of community is one of the things I love and miss most about them. I would hope if it happens that a reunion would be a rediscovery of all of these feelings of warmth and solidarity for all involved.
Truth be told…being an Oh Kee Pa member has helped to keep that flame alive for me as well as made me listen to more of them than I thought I would a year and a half after Coventry.
It comes to prove that what makes Phish so more amazing than the music would be by itself are the little things. The poeple, the lot, the “mythos”, all the things that no other band has combined with the music. I think David Bowie was the only one who really came close with the mystery factor, especially becuase he was Ziggy Stardust around the time the Ziggy and the Spiders album.
So,…are you feelin’ the warmth?
I wish Jeff (goldphish) would come back. I loved reading his posts.
Me too, where did he go???
JEFF!!!
I love this thread. Must reread to understand LOTR analogy though.
yeah me too, he could really crack me up sometimes. i wonder what he’s up to now?
Methinks he is busy doing scholarly things. I believe he said he was going into the medical field. That sounds like a lot of work, so he’s probably been busy. Nevertheless, he should come back home to the OKP!