Why does phish hate the west coast

Or to put it another way: Is Phish the last of its breed? Will there continue to be jam bands? If people start writing new music using the language of improvisation, sure.

Why did you need to tread lightly on that? But can I say one other thing that pops into my mind? I had dinner with a young band. Paak and Kendrick Lamar and people like that are moving forward.

But, God, of all the people to be talking about nostalgia: Trey from the hippie band. Good question. The last show that we played was in Mexico. The two songs connected.

Nostalgia can be valid and good. A lot of the tours that are out now — I mean, I like Queen. I like Adam Lambert. But I have this twinge of, Hey, man, make another album.

I think about all this good music that happened then — Minutemen, Bad Brains — which was a reaction against that baby-boomer thing. Last year there was a new wave of appreciation — nostalgic or not — for Dave Matthews Band. Is the culture primed for a Phish reappraisal? Has it been at all hard to come to terms with the bigness of the business of Phish? Look, people came from the beginning, but the bigness existed outside of my personal sphere. Tricky how?

Success probably triggered feelings of being a fraud. We put on a show: It was pow , wham — energy. Then somewhere for a while I lost that feeling. What was that? Because of a contradiction you were sensing between the quality of the music and scale of the success? Yes, and I took it out on myself. Fish has a nickname for it: the invisible whip. I need to analyze this and make it better. And when the response, in my mind, outweighed what we deserved, that contributed to a lot of turbulence.

How do you feel about things now? I do as much preparation as I can, but once everybody gets in the room, I let go. Is there a dream concept for a Phish concert?

I know there used to be. When we were younger, our dream-concert idea was ridiculous. Part of the idea involved not wanting it to be taped because we wanted everyone to be in the moment. The sound would be perfect. Everyone would have their own private bathroom. Endless supplies of really good coffee. I carry a pillow on tour. I want my pillow, you know? It feels like the stuff of a midlife crisis. It is true: Being in Phish is a bit of an extended adolescence.

When the documentary came out, and when I toured , 9 I was like, What am I lamenting here? Yes, my friend died. Does that warrant this? At 28, we were staying up all night, doing multiple nights in Vegas, having huge parties, and that was great. The first time that I tried to stop that, because it had gotten out of control, people were furious — I took their party away. I had a funny conversation with a prominent guy on our crew.

Other than pot or whatever, I never really saw drugs until probably 13 years into our career. And I did it. I joined in. All of a sudden this stuff was everywhere. The second you did it, it was fair game for us to bring it out into the open. Did drugs ever help the music? Mistakenly, I thought it was making me work harder: Now I can stay up three more hours and do more work!

I can have five bands instead of three! These are the lies you tell yourself. So was it useful? I hate all that stuff. Were you using psychedelics, too? That was fun, yeah. Acid — none of that was a problem. The problem was when hard things came around. Look, I went too far. I got to do everything I wanted to do. I love playing music sober, and I also love people out there having a good time. Does that make sense? You may have been!

I mean, I think so. I think that way. That was the year of the flooding? I guess not. It clearly used to bother you , 12 but you seem to have made peace with that idea — to the point that you took the Jerry Garcia role for those big Fare Thee Well 13 shows a few years back. What changed? The comparison was too easy. At 14, 15, 16, I worshiped at the idol of Peter Gabriel — the first couple of Genesis albums and then his solo albums. He was like a god. Prog rock was our thing. That was when my parents got divorced and I went to boarding school and people there liked the Dead.

So we would go to shows. Bob Weir is such a fucking joke these days anyhow. Phil did him a favor by saying yes to this last tour, in my opinion. For the most part I agree. I would have to say the lyrics is probably number one…I think the lyrics are very important to Deadheads, this used to be what kept me tentative from getting into Phish, but I realized the talent makes up for the lack of deep lyrics that are in Dead songs.

You got to it before I did. People detest things that they think are a ripoff to their favorite band. Phil and Friends, now that is where it is at for me…I have seen him over 30 times since and he blows me away every time…. Why do Oldshool Deadheads hate Phish?? Non-Phish General. Why should they like Phish?

It is completely different music. Funny how many many old school Deadheads dig String Cheese Incident though, huh? Very interesting. The same reasons that phishheads hate the disco biscuits. Completely different music. I am of course speaking in generalities my good sir. Charlie is a Remaster God!!! That one is most definitely a rager.