This article was originally titled “Please God Help Me I Cannot Stop Listening to Phish”, and then I realized I had a bunch of unrelated thoughts to tie together. What follows is my best attempt to do just that.
In the past month, I’ve never felt better. I also have become the one thing I hated: a fan of the band Phish. This is not fun for me or enjoyable; it is more akin to a compulsion.
When I went to see King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard at Red Rocks in Colorado, the people I hated the most were Jam Band fans. They were the ones stinking up the line talking about “ooh yeah, that live version is so good” or “were you at that show? it was so rad” or “I hope we get a ____ bust-out tonight!”. They had seemingly infinite money to follow around a band on multiple US-spanning tours that I was glad to be seeing just one time. They sold random stuff in the parking lots to try and fund their habits, both drug-related and band-related. They sucked. I wanted nothing more than to be the opposite of whatever they were.
I was in the student radio station. I liked music with clear emotions. I hated “jamming”. I hated the idea of following a band around. I hated being outside in these outdoor venues. I hated spending hundreds of dollars just to see a band. I hated three-hour sets with long ambient interludes. I hated the culture around these bands. I hated patchouli. I liked being niche. I liked liking things that other people didn’t like. I was also miserable.
I won’t therapize this too much. I don’t really concern myself with stuff like that anymore, and besides, it doesn’t make for good KAMP content. I started Prozac about two months ago and it’s definitely made a big difference in my well-being (does it piss anybody else off that the only way to indicate what medication you’re taking is by calling it by the brand name? Why should I keep giving clout and name recognition to a big pharma company that makes/made millions off of exclusive rights over a drug? But alas, if I say I’m on fluoxetine, that’s too clinical and nobody knows what I’m talking about. Oh well.) So instead of going in depth on my personal feelings as of late, I’m going to start talking about why I like the band and giving some recommendations. Why do I like Phish now?
- They like doing bits. I like doing bits. They like playing songs in specific orders in specific locations, or tailoring setlists based around what fans want, or riding out to the stage on a big hot dog. I like when bands seem to enjoy their audience and genuinely seem appreciative of their fanbase, even when it’s a fanbase as annoying as Phish’s. One idea I kicked around last year when writing an article was on if bands should play their hits or not.
- A small digression on if bands should play their hits: Yes, they should. And I held this belief before I changed some of my ideas on art and creation, I’ve had this opinion since I saw Car Seat Headrest in 2022 and they played almost entirely from their new album. That sucked. I traveled to Chicago as a 17 year old (no easy feat), just for them to skip out on a lot of great songs in the name of “artistic pursuit”. That’s fine. If you’re a fan of those artists, you are entitled to your opinion. It just means I’m not going to buy tickets to see these bands next time. All of my favorite moments at concerts are bands playing their biggest hits. Does this make me a bad person? I don’t know. Maybe.
- Hey, speaking of that, they vary their setlists! I really like the process of listening to different setlists and finding out what the best one is! Does it suck when a band plays a setlist that you literally know nothing from just because they ? Yes, sort of. But I’ve found a lot of really great music through not knowing any songs and going “Hey! I liked that song!”. Also they definitely play the hits. I haven’t found a single live album or performance where I didn’t know at least one song.
- It’s music that makes me happy and feel good, and that’s a dying form. I’ve been really into riding my bike since the semester started, partly out of my hatred for parking on campus and wishing I could go to different places and not have to worry about parking. It’s good for my physical and mental health (getting exercise is good for you, who knew?). I’ve also been wearing my helmet, much to the chagrin of my friends who think that it’s a total look destroyer. I feel safer with it on though, so whatever. Anyways, the other day I was listening to a great jam from like 1998 (It was the 1998 Hampton Weekapaug Groove, for those interested) while riding my bike and I decided to just keep riding until the jam was over. I ended up riding my bike for an extra 5 miles just because the jam was so awesome. I used to think stuff like that was so corny, intentionally making these “hype moments” just so that I could talk about them later. I guess I just hated being corny. Or doing anything that felt corny or overwrought or insisted upon. But I was missing out on feeling happy because I was so obsessed with what other people thought, or what I thought about other people thinking or what other people thought about me thinking about what other people thought. I think you get my point. I ended up enjoying this personal, quiet, moment on my bike quite a lot, so who really cares in the end? I guess I don’t know.
I guess that’s the end of my digression on Phish! If you want to listen to the band there’s a million people who like them more than me who will recommend stuff to you. I will say the albums/songs that got me into the band were in order: Suzy Greenberg, their album from 1995 A Live One, Free, Sample in a Jar, Split Open and Melt and their cover of Talking Heads’ Crosseyed and Painless. God, I’m such a nerd now. Anyways, thanks for listening to this.
And now, on a slightly unrelated note, my review of the new Cameron Winter album: Live at Carnegie Hall
This is fantastic. I cleaned the house the other day while listening and was blown away by how excellent this sounds. It’s the first album I’ve really been taken aback by all year. I knew the unreleased stuff was good based on YouTube recordings, but wow, hearing it in a professionally recorded setting just shows how amazing these songs are. I think a lot could be made of his lyrical/vocal influences (Rufus Wainwright, Leonard Cohen, probably Bob Dylan, Nina Simone) but I think something a lot of people are underplaying is how ORIGINAL this material is. I can’t hear any overt lyrical references to other artists (besides those in Nina + Field of Cops) like a lot of contemporary singer-songwriters can sort of fall into. (Will Toledo is guilty of this. To the fifth degree.) To be completely honest, it has sort of restored my faith in me being able to personally connect to music. I was worried that my recent obsession with Phish was making me stupid and uninterested in the harder/sadder emotions of art that used to draw me in. I remember what it felt like to listen to these songs originally on Heavy Metal, how emotional they made me. I still get a little bit of that on this, but it’s a happier emotion now. Like looking at a painting you don’t quite get but still feeling the emotions, rather than feeling “represented” or “found” in a painting and dedicating your life to finding the artist and tracking them down and saying “your painting is so beautiful! keep making beautiful paintings that speak to me on a personal level that nobody else understands!”. I don’t know if that makes sense. I especially like the reinterpretations of those songs, they sound nothing like the studio counterparts (especially The Rolling Stones, Nina + Field of Cops, Take It With You). The sparse piano compositions allow these lyrics to completely breathe, solely at the pace that Cameron wants to take them at. A lot has been written about this record, and a lot will continue to be written. This isn’t intended to be a particularly profound review. If you want something profound, I would just recommend listening to the record. Okay, that’s it. Thanks!