Val's First Phishin' Trip

I went to my first Phish concert this summer. \nKnowing very little about the band and wearing closed-toed shoes, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I came away with a genuine respect for the band, if not the full-blown obsession that seemed to drive many of those in attendance.\n Phish, after all, is not so much a band as it is a phenomenon. They might play a four-hour show and include just one song from their latest album. \nTheir stage presence is minimal. Nobody dances around stage as the band stays in place all night. Lead singer/guitarist Trey Anastasio is hardly the dynamic, charismatic frontman that Eddie Vedder, Thom Yorke or Billy Corgan are. There was no inane, how-ya-doin'-everybody dialogue between songs. Nobody mentioned the name of the city to get a cheap "woo hoo." \nMeanwhile, the music is more of a stew mixed with equal parts than a jazzy showcase for one in the band to go wild.\nFrom the opening notes of "Punch You in the Eye," to the closing notes of their cover of The Edgar Winter Group's "Frankenstein," a song the band has covered for so long it can probably claim ownership rights, the band stayed locked in the groove. Like them or not, I couldn't help but be impressed by their ability to stay focused for so long. After all, this was a tremendously long show with a 30-minute intermission interrupting two 90-minutes sets, and they followed that up with a two-song encore. \nWhile the music keeps people coming, Phish isn't so much a band as it is an experience. People sit outside the facility in their pickup trucks, minivans and station wagons hawking their wares. One can get anything from a hemp necklace to a grilled cheese sandwich to a T-shirt to an obscure Jamaican beer. (Let me add that after tasting it, I understand why it is so obscure.) Dogs roamed the grounds, their next bowl of Alpo seemingly dependent on whether their master can sell that veggie burrito.\nFor these people, it's all about the next show. For tomorrow, for Charlotte, for Atlanta, for Raleigh, for Maine. When the last song was over, I hadn't felt like the show had ended. Rather, it had stopped. There would be new adventures undertaken next time.\nThe fans, all extremely friendly and happy to be there, showed me the list from the previous night, and to my amazement, they had repeated not one song. And the next night, they probably wouldn't repeat one song from this concert. I understood why people don't go for one concert but for a week's worth instead. That next show might be The One, a show where Phish reaches some transcendental peak that neither it nor anybody else will ever be able to reach again.\nMeanwhile, I also went to the Vulgar Boatmen show/CD release party at the Vertigo this summer. An obscure pop-rock outfit thought to be defunct prior to putting out an anthology record, the Boatmen sizzled with its striking little guitar figures and true rock and roll heart. Holding a crowd that had about 29,950 fewer people than the 30,000 that were at the Phish show, the Boatmen were either too weird or too uncommercial to ever be a big deal. Even locally, they never seemingly caught on. It wasn't like they made music for the frat house crowd anyway.\nThe band, led by frontman Dale Lawrence, played because they like to play. Because that's what they do. Trey Anastasio may have been born to perform on a stage in front of tens of thousands and Dale Lawrence may have been born to play on a stage in front of 50 people, but the ability to be mesmerized equally by both in their settings is the universal equalizer.\nPhish had more of an aura; the Vulgar Boatmen had a bunch of beer-guzzling collegians and post-collegians looking for some fun on a Friday night. They both allowed me to experience something I hadn't before.\nIf you're reading this right now, you might be new to college and new to this magazine. If so, I can guarantee you your experiences will increase not so much by quality or even quantity but by breadth.\nYou are going to see, hear and experience things you never have before. Remember, though, that those who have in college much longer also realize there are many new experiences to be had.\nWe're all waiting for the next show.