I Blog What I Hear

Once every few years, its nice to revisit childhood. To some this may be tossing around the old football, watching an old movie, wearing your old Halloween costume….for me, it’s seeing Phish. My parents moved recently, and while cleaning out the house, I found my many phish ticket stubs from back in the day. It brought be back to a simpler time, in the early days of the internet. All mail order for tickets was done by standard mail! (now i believe its called ‘lottery’) You had to fill out index cards for each show! And recordings of shows were mailed around the country on cassette! UPHILL BOTH WAYS! Man, I feel old.

My interest in the band has certainly decreased over the years, and I’ve tried to examine why. In the high school years, I thought of these 4 musicians as the greatest of their respective instruments. I could analyze musical passages for weeks on end, and I was so incredibly excited for every solo. Maybe its my lack of interest in soloing or disinterest in any song over 6 minutes these days…but something has certainly changed. Phish is like a moment in time, best left alone. They were certainly some good days, but the band is definitely on the down slope of their career. Yes, its true. Once a band takes several, several year breaks, the singer gets arrested, and they come back on tour playing ‘the hits’ that signifies “Late Period” for that band.

The last time I ventured to Madison Square Garden was Wilco and The Flaming Lips on New Years Eve 04-05. We’re not going to talk about that evening, wilco is not meant for an arena. Before that, I believe the only band I had seen there was Phish, numbering somewhere in the mid 7-8’s. So it holds very specific nostalgia for a certain time in the late 90’s. Very few bands I feel are meant for a venue such as this. Led Zeppelin? Sure. The Stones? Probably not. Andrew WK? Of course. Phish?…..Yes. They’ve played in arenas for the last 15 years, they’re used to it. Their sound is more consistent than any band I have heard, each instrument is always audible. Last night was no exception.

The Arena Before The Show

This was the 2nd show of their MSG run, I did not attend the first night, but was deeply offended that they played Peaches En Regalia. Much to my dismay, they did not re-cover all of Exile on Main St ( which was done this past halloween.) They did cover Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie On Reggae Woman” and Talking Heads “Cities” which were both enjoyable, but no real fireworks. Musically, the show was in between- the band was tighter than their disasterous comeback several years ago at MSG, but not as free flowing and on the edge as the 98 Island Tour. It was nice to see some old friends, not have to wait for your parents pick you up, and be at a venue mere blocks from work.

But it got me thinking about the darker side of the Phish World. For a band so associated with all things joyus and hippy-ish, theres a lot of dark shit going around. Maybe it was always this way, but the drug culture seems to be on the rise in the actual venues. Sure, sketchy white rastas would always sell weed or acid, maybe some ecstacy in the parking lots, those are the hippy drugs, thats basically like a normal person shopping at Whole Foods. But at the Fenway Park show last summer, I certainly saw several kids, not more than 20 yrs old, doing coke off of their seats. That really just turned me off to the show experience. Come on dudes, just have a beer or something.

At most phish shows, this will be your view

For someone like Trey Anastasio, I really wonder what life is like these days. A few years ago, he was arrested for a DUI in upstate NY, and Heroin was found in his car. This prompted all sorts of speculation about the last few years of the band, much of it I agree with. The songs were sloppy, the energy seemed to be gone, the fun felt kind of sucked out. As far fetched as it is, I can understand the pressure he felt at the time. First off, he’s basically the millionaire CEO of a very large and far reaching company. Phish may be a party time rock and roll band…but they have employees with health insurance, whose livlihood depends on this band touring. After the financial aspect…the emotional attachment from these hippies is CRAZY. Sure, it won’t be life or death if these kids have to go out and get a real job, or a couple ibankers dont have something to do for a summer road trip…but for the rest of his life there will be speculation about reunions, insane critique of his catalog, and sharp criticism of any show he plays which is less than stellar (see above paragraphs) Its basically- Tour for the rest of your life, or fire an entire company and be disliked by millions of fans all over the world. The same thing happened with Jerry Garcia, and we all know how that ended up.

Heroin seems like some dark shit. It doesnt make you think of rainbows and teddy bears. I think of Motley Crüe passing out on stage. Slash pissing him self and passing out in an elevator doorway, the door opening and closing on his head. The movie Basketball Diaries. Its kind of the antithesis of everything Phish seems to stand for. We’d like to think of the 4 members of phish as the wholesome friend you have, who sometimes smokes some weed, drinks micro brews, but doesn’t really fuck up his life. But this dark side is always there right beneath the surface. While we were enjoying our childhood, relaxing on the lawn and hearing some spaced out jams in the summertime….was Trey all strung out, waiting to shoot up or some shit? I’m puzzled by this. Someone supposedly wrote a book about the band recently, which included discussion on this, but its realease was apparently delayed. If he OD’d how would that affect his legacy? I somehow feel it would end up much darker than the Grateful Dead saga. There was 6-ish people in that band, their style was much more song oriented, much more Americana. If one guy goes…the others could pretty much carry on in a similar style. In a 4 person situation, where there is only 1 of each instrument, no one is really replaceable. If Trey pulled a Garcia, I can’t help but think there would be more bitterness towards the thought.

But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Here are my thoughts in conclusion about their live performance. They’ve been repeating several songs from night to night, which is in my opinion not kosher for this band. If you’re a pop oriented outfit, fine, that’s what people want to hear. You’re a fucking jam band, act like it. Trey looks happier now than in the last few years pre-breakup 1.5. I guess it’s a – you don’t know what you had until its gone – type of thing. His solo career never really caught on, everyone only wanted to hear him play phish songs no matter how many symphonic pieces he wrote, and he’s certainly not a singer/songwriter. This band is carrying quite a legacy, and only now are they playing like it. They’re playing like a band who know’s their reputation has been tarnished. They’re fighting hard to get it back, and I’m not sure how its working out. They’re technically proficient, but the risk taking seems to be gone from the music. Where as in the late 90’s they were not afraid to make a mistake (the risk/reward was far greater) Now they seem to be afraid to make a mistake for fear of looking like they’re out of practice.