if yr husband was a “true Phish fan” he would’ve made it to a Halloween show. or worked some extra hours to buy the ticket(s).

if u didn’t check for the hologram when buying the tickets you were not thinking str8. why not bring the other pair to compare?

this, minus the emoticon, is a great one—>
Jenn “I live to experience a good surprise ;p If you pick me it would be a great way for me to waste my time with Phish and friends.”

unfortunately its 10 days late!

c’mon phish fans Get It Together

thanks for holding the contest. I know it’s hard to squeeze tickets out sometimes, because I couldn’t even get passes to review the festival. This is more like a wake/celebration for me and I will get inside, one way or another, because I’m scrappy like that. As someone who clearly doesn’t seem to be a fan of the group but wanted to give “fans” an opportunity to attend the festival, I’m sure you thought hard about who you picked and chose accordingly. As someone who feels that they do understand this scene a bit, however, I would like to try and clarify some things about possible misconceptions.

People are pretty much the same in any cliche self-categorized gathering. I love PHISH and the Grateful Dead but I feel that pretty much every other jam band is contrived or, at the least, extremely derivative. I’d rather listen to MILES, Meat Puppets, DUNGEN, Talking Heads, Serge Gainbourg, Pavement, Squarepusher, etc. If you haven’t had the opportunity to truly investigate something with an open and multi-perspective view, it’s likely that the only perception that one may derive from it would be the corny associations relayed by those outside of it. A soluble, processed and easily packaged idea. The commercial. A stereotype. Unfortunately, many of those that want to be a “part” of the “scene” enter into it as these stereotypes and perpetuate them. Basically, what I’m saying is that, to a soccer mom, the kid in the PIXIES shirt at the show is a fan of the music. But to the fans at the show, the 15 year old kid wearing the band’s shirt and holding the poster at the show is just confused. He may “get it” someday but, by then, his approach and understanding will be completely different. Or he’ll just move on to something else, like Everclear or some other terrible lesser band, and prove that there was never any sincerity, just a blind and misguided search for community.

I say these things because, if a “HIPPIE” won, that’s great, but the Grateful Dead didn’t even like that term and rejected it. It’s not reality. It’s a title created by a judgemental media. If you embrace it, good luck. The kid in the Tye Dye is probably a spectator and they also have a closet full Rock Shirts and Sports team jerseys, depending on the event that they are attending. There is another entry on here that I really and truly hope won, because it seemed like it came from a genuine person with a sincere understanding and hope to enjoy an experience and not just to show up and act like a clown in some patchwork pants and push ideas of spiritual elitism onto others without any real knowledge of self.

Sure, I’m disappointed, but that’s not really the point. No one wants to see a younger sibling, who imitates them and follows them around, get the present that they wanted for Christmas, instead. Some people wear safety pins to keep their clothes together and others take it as a punk rock movement. Whatever. No matter how I or anyone looks at it, nobody really “deserves” to attend a concert or experience anything more than anyone else, period. If you won please, just actually “experience” it. I just wish that people would start trying to affect their environments more than they allow it to affect them. Create something, stand out. Then maybe, PHISH and their music wouldn’t get such a shitty rap and become a guilty pleasure for some, while it’s a badge of honor for others. Both concepts are ridiculous.

Sorry, I just felt compelled to say something, partially due to most of the entries and the phrase, “groovy and all love-your-neighbor-dude”. The lots get grimy, people get robbed, and I’ve seen heads get stomped (not my favorite aspects, of course). I’m just not into the “PHISHtianity”, as I will begin to refer to it as. There are “Christian” people out there who actually believe in the concepts and have internalized their principals and exhibit them. Then there are those who preach and preach and show up at church so that they are seen and scream so that they are heard. The shows should be amazing and I will know an endless number of solid individuals there who are great people beyond a song that they like, and I hope to experience everything and hang out with them. I just don’t believe that, just because you really enjoy eating cheese, you can expect to go to a cheese convention and have a deep personal connection with everybody there, based on your have similar food tastes.

Obviously, some people love categorization, welcome, and embrace it. MOST, people do. Subscribing to something like that helps smooth out the search for an identity. I just wanted to speak up as one of the people that don’t identify with those ideas.

I am sure you all are tenacious enough to get in! Good luck and have fun!