-Sigh- There Goes My Punk Cred.
Y’all are gonna hate me for it, but I will not deny my Phish years. My friends from Portsmouth used to see them at the Living Room in Providence (the original one with the bubble window) in the late 1980s, when they were at the same level as godawful Max Creek. My mom never let me go because they always seemed to play on a school night.
When I finally saw them in 1992, they had gone from clubs to small theatres, like the Trocadero here in Philly, or the Bowery Ballroom in New York, maybe a bit larger. Those were good shows, and if you do suck it up and watch the video, you see that the band is in no way fucked up or pointless like the Dead. Phish owes a lot more of their sound to Zappa anyway. I’ve only got a few tapes left, hoarding the first few shows I saw. I don’t dig them out that often, but I keep them anyway.
Anyway, by 1996 I was out. The scene had gone from something manageable and fun to a bunch of spolied rich kids in hippy clothes. The shows got bigger and more expensive, and the scene just kinda wasn’t fun anymore. I have no idea what anything after that year sounds like.
This performance of Divided Sky from 1994 is pretty good (so far: I’m only about 5 minutes into a 16 minute video). It’s when the band was still intimate, even in large venues. I wasn’t at this show, but I’m sure a bunch of people I knew from new Haven were there.
4 Responses to “-Sigh- There Goes My Punk Cred.”
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August 18th, 2006 at 4:53 am
I don’t hate you. I have a similar history with Phish. Except for the Vermont bit, of course. I started going to see them in about 92 or 93 when they’d come to the Philadelphia area. I think the first time I saw them at the Keswick up in Glenside, though it may have been 23 East. I burned out on the scene at right about the same time as well. They put on a decent arena show, but the crowd was beyond fucking annoying and in the end it was all just a nasty reminder of how good and funny and full of inside jokes their shows used to be. The last straw for me was getting kicked out of a show at the Spectrum in 99 or so. The whole Dead comparison thing was totally baffling. The only thing they had in common with the Dead was the annoying crowd. Beyond that, nothing. To start out with, they could actually play and put on an entertaining performance.
August 18th, 2006 at 6:23 am
“in the end it was all just a nasty reminder of how good and funny and full of inside jokes their shows used to be.” and “The whole Dead comparison thing was totally baffling. The only thing they had in common with the Dead was the annoying crowd.”
exactly. that’s exactly why I dropped out.
it used to be so fun.
August 18th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
Dude, losing yer punk cred is SO PUNK ROCK!!
I don’t know why the Dead comparison is so baffling. It seems super-obvious, but it bears mentioning that what they did have in common with the Dead were extended jams, that kinda rock-improv approach that’s so much more widespread (d’oh!!) today. Merging songs together, “teasing” one in the middle of another, marathon shows, etc. They also shared the phenomenon of the intense-scrutiny fans who were tapers, archivists, studied their whole mythology, etc. Then there’s the never-play-the-same-set thing… The Trey/Tom Marshall writing team that recalls Garcia/Hunter… The sorta cottage-industry aspect of their organizations… The fact that they never had any chart successes and emphasized live performance… etc. You get the gist.
Now in terms of the roots of their music and inspirations, that’s another story. Totally different. And the fact that Phish quit while they were at least somehow ahead, instead of hanging onto the same old tired shit until one of them actually fucking died.
I’ve always had the theory that one major element of both band’s successes is the simple fact that if you have longer songs, and play longer shows, you have MORE PRODUCT. More to sell, more to discuss, more to love or hate, more phenomenon. Maybe that accounts for people kinda losing themselves in Phish/Dead, listening to nothing else, living for tour, etc. It’s significantly harder to do that with bands that have 2-3 minute songs and play 45-minute shows.
August 18th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Neil writes “that what they did have in common with the Dead were extended jams”
Woudln’t you say that thopse jams had more in common with Zappa’s extended pieces, which seemd to hav direction, than the dead’s frequently pointless meandering?
Also, i’d argue that just being in a songwriting team doesn’t necessarily recall Garcia/Hunter, anymore than it recalled Elton Jon/Bernie Taupin.
just some thoughts. I can’t believe I’m discussing Phish.