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Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
No bootlegs. I'll check out the new Allmans. They still put on one of the best shows I've seen. 19 minutes of Jessica - phenomenal.
I don't know what it is about Phish fans. My good friend (different friend) dresses uber-conservatively (maybe b/c he IS very conservative), but he loves Phish. He won't go back to a show though. He was wearing a golf shirt and shorts and two people told him he didn't belong there b/c of the way he was dressed. No real hippie would try to make their "club" so exclusive. It's almost like they've become just the narrowminded people they never wanted to be.
I've always said: Rebelling for the sake of rebellion is no better than conforming. Either way your basing your decisions on other's ideals...Although I'm a hypocrite b/c I love to say "fuck you" to society just for the hell of it...
"Shit. The Doobie Brother's broke up?"
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Coltrane,
First, I just noticed the Webster Papadopolis tag-line - that's fucking killer. You're a twisted cat.
Phish fans are the way they are because only doctors' kids from the burbs can afford to follow a band around these days. Back when folks followed the dead, it was a more varied mix of fan, ranging from dangerous bikers all the way to rich white guys with cigars in limos. That was a wild scene - a microcosm of America where everybody seemed to fit in. Hell, who pays attention to what shirt the guy next to you is wearing when you have a head full of acid? If a guy came up to me in a pantless tuxedo at a Daed show I would not have been surprised. That was a scene that can't replicated.
Phish is second rate attempt to recreate the romanec of the Dead's scene. It fails for exactly the reason you cited - the kids are into the look, not the tunes. I think that's because Phish's music appeals to a less mature audience than the Dead'd did. The Dead did classics in the vein of Woodie Guthrie and Leadbelly and infused them with complex arrangements which could approach Coltrane or Miles Davis-esque. The music was also universal - the lyrics were simple folk stories. Phish fills its music with inside jokes and references to childish literature which only Phish fans would recognize. They also strip the blues "dirt" from their music - Phish never sings a drak tale. The closest they get is apocalyptic ballads that sound like science fiction or Lord of The Rings type drivel. Their immature themes create an audience of kids who want to get high and feel safe and protected. They don't have the biker element or the "needle people" you saw at Stones or Dead shows. They have a bunch of college freshman smoking cheap weed and shrooming and pretending their in the circus. Its all very plasticky and contrived, and that's a shame. I miss the circus that was the Grateful Dead. Where else could you split a joint with a biker, some "spinning chick" and an accountant and feel totally at ease. That sort of mind blending doesn't go on at Phish shows and there are too many "Colorado by way of Connecticut" types at Widespread shows. That's a shame. Dead shows were one of the few places where a cynic like me would say "Fuck, at the core, we're all the same - everybody's just looking for a good time."
S(There never will be a replacement for what the Grateful Dead were or the crowd they created)D
PS: Oh, we're agreed. As much as I'm now part of the system, I like to say "fuck you" to society whenever I get the chance. It ain't rebellion - its just annoyance at the red tape. Everything organized seems to be bureaucratic, and my motto in life has always been "faster." I have a Holden Caulfield complex toward bureaucracy.
