My first Phish show
When I was 16, I went to my first Phish show. I was a sophomore in high school and my big brother Dave was a senior. He had been into this band Phish for a couple years now, had gone to a show in Buffalo, and had just gotten two tickets for a show in Cleveland, one for him and one for me. At the time, I don't really recall feeling that excited about it as I didn't know any of Phish's music and was mainly into classic rock stuff like Led Zeppelin and The Who. I had just started to play the electric guitar though, so I had definitely gotten the music bug and was basically obsessed with playing the guitar (which is a whole other story). What I had heard about this band Phish, either through friends of mine or my brother, is that they were different. Something about trampolines and songs with funny lyrics, a guy who wears a dress and plays the vacuum cleaner, and "awesome, long extended musical jams", comes to mind. And the quote usually was "You've got to see them to understand it." I thought, "Okay, if you say so."
Another fun part of the story is that it was like a brothers trip thing. I was driving for the trip in my 1987 Subaru (hatchback!) that had been passed down from my brother, and originally from my mom. And it was going to be the Rowe brothers and two other guys who were also brothers that were friends of Dave. Now, for this story I can't really say the names of these brothers because one of them is now a cop and there are some things in this story that might be held against him, and are kind of funny too, so I'll just refer to them as "the other brothers".
So, thursday night comes and as soon as school lets out, the four of us jump into the Subaru and head to Cleveland, OH for the Phish show, which is about a 2.5 hour ride from Jamestown, NY, my hometown. Fairly uneventful ride actually. I think maybe there was some beer drinking but not much. I was driving, still pretty young and wide-eyed, and would be totally sober the entire night. When we got to Cleveland things definitely got more interesting. In the parking lot I was starting to see little groups of people all hovering around in circles by their cars, some were playing music out of them, and some even had grills. I'm like "cool, this is like camping, this will be fun." Also, in the line of cars to get inside I see that most of these cars all have similar looking stickers on them, most of them with Phish's name on them in the shape of a fish in a rainbow color, black background. I'm thinking, "Cool, this is like a club you join, where everyone gets a sticker. And man, these people must really like this Phish band." We meander in the parking lot for about 45 minutes and go inside.
Once we're inside I start to lose myself in what I'm seeing. I just remember feeling like there were a million people everywhere and all so excited to be there. And many were dressed in patchwork, corduroy pants with t-shirts, also sporting Phish's logo. But, some were more like rocker dudes (this was Cleveland), and some nerdy looking guys (ok, Dave and I probably fell into that category), and jocks, and frat guys, and cute, wide-eyed girls with dreadlocks in their hair with pretty jewelry that looked like it was made of thick rope and organic gems they polished themselves. And there was surely a scent in the air. Didn't really know what it was, but I suspected ;)
Lights go down, and 4 guys calmly walk on to the stage and put on their instruments. No talk, immediate music... like a conversation they were just having somewhere... or that the audience was having beforehand... or like the random thoughts going through my brain on this whole trip... or like a story with characters about to be introduced... or like an orchestra warming up and falling into place... I was speechless and dumbfounded. There wasn't any point in trying to make sense of it basically. It was beyond that. I had never heard anything like this before and if I tried figuring out what it was, I would surely miss it. And these are thoughts I couldn't even have. I was wrapped up in the moment and excited to see where it was going next, all at the same time. I remember feeling the bond between the band and the audience being so strong. There was no difference really, those guys happened to be on stage, but they were just a part of the scene, one of the people who were just happy to be there with everyone else on this random thursday night in Cleveland. And the crowd knew everything they did... when to clap, when to sing along, when to scream, when to be quiet and drift awhile, when to flail their arms and spin, what cool song titles to yell up to the stage. And also what not to know... like where the jams would go, how long they might last (No one cared about that actually), what would be played next, where the person next to you drove in from, what kind of financial bracket mom and dad fell into, what was happening in the world outside those walls, and most importantly, no one was trying to control anything. The guitar player had the most inviting, warm, cheerful smile too. Like it came from a smiling spirit traveling here from somewhere else through him. There were the trampolines, and vacuum cleaner solos, and things I had heard about, but weren't even close to the point of it all, just side-shows for fun, which made it nice thinking back on it. It might have been sensory overload without a few humorous distractions here and there. They were more like palette cleansers really. The concert flew by in what seemed to be 15 minutes but in reality was 4 hours. And I was changed forever.
Funny, thinking back on it now, I don't remember seeing Dave much, or "the other brothers", only feeling that they were surely close by, enjoying this as I was and looking after me, being one of the youngest in the crowd for sure. We seemed to be standing right next to each other as we filed into line after the show ended. We slowly made our way to the Subaru, hung out for a bit and watched people, then got into the car to head back to Jamestown, as we did still have school the next day. But, we were missing an "other brother". The younger one (who is now a cop:). He did finally make it back and we left. So, I'm driving, just kind of reflecting and enjoying what I had just experienced, when I hear something. Someone's sick and throwing up. I turn around and the younger "other brother" is throwing up out the window while I'm driving. I pull over on the highway and let him out to finish but it's mostly over by then. We drive the rest of the way, drop them off, and sleep.
The next day I get out of school at 3 o'clock, and walk out to my car in the student parking lot. A couple of kids are standing there pointing at the subaru with there hands over their mouths kind of giggling. I walk over to the passenger's side of the car and there are long, 3 foot swirls of light brownish puke all over my car covering about 75 percent of that side of the vehicle. And it had been sun baked all day while I was in school. I went home and washed it off with a garden hose while Patches our family dog watched. The end.