Harris – keep heart! You are doing a very difficult job, like Colonel Forbin dragging his shit ass up the mountain. It is not a quick or easy task to get someone into Phish.
I went through the laborious process of “getting into Phish” in late 2008, before their 2009 reunion. Since then, I’ve seen 11 shows and have listened to countless hours of shows from across their history. I say laborious because it takes many hours of listening to shows to finally “get it.” It is…. work, so to speak. But like many good things in life, things that are worth understanding and enjoying sometimes take work. Over time as I listened to shows some songs started to be the ones that I liked, and others maybe not so much. (and that can strangely change over years of listening, which is also a fun aspect). Then I started noticing how some songs were jamemd out for longer or shorter periods of time in different shows.
For me it is all about the live show. I almost completely ignore the studio albums. Bootlegs, either an audience tape, or official, are where it's at for me. When you played the studio version of “Moma Dance” I thought, yeah, that’s a nice groove. But what Scott might do in trying to get into Phish is imagine being at an outdoor amphitheater with thousands of other tuned up kids. Everyone is waiting for the show to start. They’re buzzing with energy and excitement and probably a few chemicals. It’s summer, and hot. Phish comes on to a swelling, thunderous cheer. And then, they kick into “Moma Dance.” Everyone puts reality as they know it on hold for three hours, and gets the fuck down.
That is what Phish is about. The trick is to surrender to the flow… The musical ride that you go on for any given show could be so different. It could be a party funk fest, or a mind-warping foray into blissed-out musical space (“Down with Disease,” Pine Knob 2011, or the 2011 Gorge “Rock and Roll”). You never know what to expect. If you can open yourself up to the possibility, and get to that place, then you can give them a fair chance.
If you can ever get Scott to a live show and pass a joint, that might be the best chance of him getting it. I don’t know about any drug much harder as the attention might be shifted from trying to deal with the drug effects and away from the experience of the show. And even once he gets it, he still might not like it all that much. And that’s cool.
I very much enjoy the show as a fan of both Phish and Comedy Bang Bang.
Cheers, Don
