love it

Last week Carrie Brownstein "journeyed down the path to Phish conversion" by indulging in all things Phish.  She purchased the band's albums.  Viewed YouTube clips of the band's fantasto-magical performances.  She even hung out with some Portland-area Phish fans.

Her journey caused me to unearth my Phish collection, and surprisingly, I've been missing Phish.  Aside from conjuring deeply rooted memories within me – the people, the chemicals, the shows, the chemicals – the songs, especially the live cuts, remind me of the band's incredible musicianship and their unique penchant for weaving funk-induced mystic atmospherics.  Unlike other jam bands, Phish can unwind for 20 consecutive minutes and keep me entranced the entire time.  Hell, just listening to Mike Gordon pull otherworldly rhythms out of his bass is enough to keep me listening.

As Brownstein wrote, Phish does indeed occupy a unique space in music.  And when a band wraps itself around a seminal time in your life (for me, my late teens and early 20s), its music becomes something much more than sound spilling from a speaker – it becomes a shifting photograph of which colors bleed to blend with sound, molding that which is the essence of this life – memory.

xx

(The band is coming to Chicago on August 11… I'd love to go.)