One of the best years, if not the best, of Phish tour was the highly lauded 1997 stomp across Europe and the U.S. But that year featured some big changes in Phish's rotation of big jamming vehicles. Songs like Tweezer and David Bowie saw less play in favor of new tunes and the emerging maturity of the bands sound opened the door for a much wider range of exploration than they had previously possessed.
I was only 14 in 1997 but my brother & sister were/are phans so I was subjected to constant chatter and argument pertaining to the musical exploits of a band call Phish.
I remember 1997 so clearly precisely because the music being born that year was so enthralling, different and completely fucking unexpected that it seemed to be causing some sort of rift in this community that my siblings were such avid lovers of and participants in. My brother is 15 years older than me and a head from back in the early 90's, my sister came to the Phish around 94'. In 97' my brothers argument was that Phish was selling out there sound and turning to "repetitive, safety net songs that were compostionally unchallenging". He enjoyed much about 97' but felt that Phish was playing it safe. My sister felt the opposite way completely and embraced the "new sound".
Once Phish went on hiatus #1 my brother went back to his 97' and beyond tapes and re-listened to the past few years of music that he loved, but had such deeply mixed opions of. He discovered the nuances of the music and the mental unity that Phish was peaking on, in a way that had somehow evaded him in not so distant past. He talked about it with me and came to the conclusion that after touring with the band through so many of the early years and becoming used to a certain set list flow, song selection and jamming style that the not so subtle shift in 1997 had made him bias and probably even worried about the future of his cherished community.
He would tell me that lots of phans at the time had gone through the same thing and that indeed most things in the Phish scene had changed, music and the people element.
We can see now, in 2012, much the same sort of change and the same sort of attitude seems to have invaded the scene once again. The 2nd best thing about being a Phish fan after the music is the nerdiness of phans to debate, argue, collect stats, etc....It's an exhilarating exercise in communal participation, debate, memory & more all with a single minded pursuit: Phish.
97'-00' was a time of genius music and some pretty hardcore debates and divisions. We can see clearly now that most of the music in those first 2 years was amazing and that it was the disintegration of the "scene" and the music in those last 2 years that really took a toll on so many fans.
In 97'-98' it was more of a "change is scary" sorta scenario that caused some upset among longtime fans. But now we're in the midst of an underlying negativity that seems to be rearing it's head with increasing consistency at the start of any post show review, recap or conversation.
Listening back now to 09'-10' I hear a band that is retooling their sound, coming back off a longgggg hiatus and trying to find a new musical niche that they can achieve relevance in and refrain from becoming the dreaded "same old shit" rehash that so many other bands in their later years have become.
We fans were so damn excited to have our boys back in those first 2 years that I think we overpraised alot of the music Phish was putting out. There are a lot of really great jams and moments from those 2 years that Phish should always be proud of, but when I compare the best jams from those years with the best jams of the past 2 years, 09'-10' really begin to show more flaws than they did the 1st time around. I hear a much more complete band now, a band that is in sync in a way that I don't think they've been since 97'-98'. Perspective is a funny thing.
But there was far less negativity and divisiveness in those first 2 years of 3.0 than there are now. The music has grown and gotten better but it doesn't seem to be happening fast enough for the expectations of alot of phans and the vibes seem to be getting more harsh by the show.
Almost everything I read these days about Phish (and I've been guilty of this too) is laced with unfair qualifications and expectations that they couldn't match in most years of their storied career. Shows are dissected to the point that one feels some people care nothing about the good times, and are only around to act out a cold and calculating form of criticism.
Reviews are filled with comparisons of jams now to jams back in the day and that in and of itself is what we do best, what we love. The music of 3.0 appears to be doomed before it's played in a sense. The lack of 20-min jamming being the biggest bone of contention amongst phans is a ultimately a thorn in our side because it negates the fact that all of Phish's music is a constantly evolving set of songs that by its' very nature defies meaningful comparison. Improvisation becomes immediately limited when we confuse subjectivity for objectivity. It becomes stifled to us and subjected to the biases that our minds create when we forget that there is no such as right or wrong or good and bad when it comes to a subjective experience.
At my oldest sons first Phish show he thought the Tweezer he heard (ATL 2, 11') was the best Phish jam ever performed. Even though I told him he was dead wrong he didn't change his mind. To him it was the best Tweezer ever and really, how can anyone say otherwise? How can we actually qualify subjective opinion? I've heard dozens of jams that are under 20-min in the 3.0 era that totally slay some of their 20-min counterparts in 1.0 & 2.0.
Right now, in 2012, Phish is putting together some of their finest 1st sets EVER. Their are 1st sets peppered with deep jams, bustouts, set cohesion and nuanced playing the likes of which are rare in the annals of Phishtory. You will find no shortage of 1st sets in 1.0 that aside from maybe 1 deep jam and some kick ass high energy playing contain loads of inconsistency and rote renditions of classic Phish songs. But these sort of comparisons don't seem to make their way into the minds of many phans these days. Everything appears to be focused on the ways in which Phish is not performing at certain levels they had before, namely song length, instead of the ways in which they are out performing their former selves.
This inherent comparative cynicism has found a way to infect even a show as perfect as BGCA3. You don't have to look too hard to find people who make mention of imperfection in that show, their opinions based on what song they would have played in favor of whatever choice Phish made and so on. There are only a small majority of Phish shows that are note for note, pound for pound, perfect. Some of their most beloved gigs are deeply flawed in some areas, whether it be song selection, flubs or something else. But think back, or read back if you must, on some of the "best" years for Phish and you wont' find the kind of base dissatisfaction or immediate qualification that is ever present these days.
The band is being judged by such harsh and demanding standards by some fans on a such a consistent basis that it really seems like there is an inherent lack of enjoyment going on for some people in the listening process of Phish and its seriously detracting from the absolute majesty that we all seem to agree to be hearing.
How you listen and critique Phish is obviously an individual choice that each phan makes for hisself, I'm only trying to point out (in the lest self contradicting) way possible that things are different now amongst us nerds and nerdettes in terms of how we are approaching the wonder that is the Phish from Vermont. We used to accentuate the positive and take the negative as the price that it is and now the opposite rules in abundance.
@Dog_Faced_Boy: This rant was not spurred by your recap of the show. It had just been spinning around in my mind, making an inarticulate mess of things and I had to spill it out into the inarticulate form it now takes, lest I went crazy.
Love the Tweezer & Stash from this show, hope they save my dream Drowned -> Waves combo for ATL this weekend but no matter what happens at the show there will beauty, raging Phishy beauty.