Phinal Phish
BACK TO THE BARS
Yesterday, Jerry Greenberg e-mailed an interview to me. Reading to the end, I found it was hype for a new outfit he’s on the board of, once a promotion man, always a promotion man, but before I got there I read this, in response to a query whether video killed the radio star:
"Bud (Prager) said to me as MTV progressed that he felt MTV hurt the record business. His whole philosophy and, I have to agree with him, was that we broke bands by them going out and getting a fanbase – a real fanbase. AC/DC started out in a little club called Max’s Kansas City then they worked their way up to the Fillmore then the Forum and then the stadiums. They built a fanbase, but so many of these artists just became these video stars and you could see them on video. The only way you could see AC/DC, before videos, was to wait until they went on tour. Bud felt that in the long run it hurt the artist and hurt their career and then it also created a lot of what we call ‘The One Shot" video artist – who were really acts that people got because of the video but when they really had to go out and do it there was no substance."
They say you can never go back to the past, then again, history always repeats.
The main mantra, by the mainstream media, is that we’re fucked. People don’t pay for music, you can’t get your band heard and you just can’t make any money. But is it simpler than that? Is it just that all these "starving artists" don’t have a fanbase, haven’t EARNED a fanbase?
In an era where idiots with tans can be famous and the most watched TV show trots out barely talented singers who want money and notoriety, wannabes complain they too can’t get on the gravy train. They don’t want to enter at the back of the hall, they want to get right on stage, as if they deserved it. It’s not like the "Idol" contestants never sang before, the MACHINE made them famous, Simon Cowell and then the writers and producers of the songs…without them, they’re nothing, they’re two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. Whereas a real musical act is positively three-dimensional, and grows both creatively and in fanbase over a long period of time. Hell, Arcade Fire’s debut was six years ago. Most Idols are finished soon after they’ve been minted. Ruben Studdard? Clay Aitken? LEE DEWYZE?
But the reason this doom and gloom story gets so much play is because of the press. Yup, the press is in the same situation as the acts of yore, garnering less attention as reporters and publishers fight to keep up their lifestyles, bitching all the while. Whereas the whole world is being redeveloped as I write this, oftentimes with no notoriety whatsoever. Some acts will go mainstream, others will continue to function in niches, very profitable niches, like Phish.
THE POWER OF TWITTER
My tweet: "In Gunnison, CO eating lunch at Sugah’s Cafe on Main St. Food looks great. Starving. Waiter from Atlanta. Here for school and skiing."
The food was fantastic. Especially Felice’s Muffaletta.Â
We hit it right this time, as we descended into a paragon of quality in the middle of nowhere. You know what entranced me? The cleanliness, the look! You think it makes no difference at music venues? Sure, we’d go to a hole in the wall for the best sandwich ever, but how many sandwiches deserve this devotion, how many acts can sell out irrelevant of the venue?
And upon retreating from the bathroom, who was sitting at our table, but DON STRASBURG!
I was taken aback, I couldn’t speak, how did this coincidence occur?
TWITTER!
Cruising down the highway, Don decided to check his feed. And a half hour behind us, he found out we were at Sugah’s and decided to stop by.
The world has become so small.
Anyway, Strasburg is a bizarre combination of cartoon character and full-on reality. How could someone so smart and educated be plopped down in such a seamy business? By going to the show! He had an epiphany at a Phish show in Burlington, Vermont over twenty years ago, he was at the gig and said I WANT TO DO THIS! And that’s what he’s done, he’s got no desire to be a manager, he just wants to put on a party.
And Don’s paid his dues. He returned to Colorado College after that summer and implored the concert committee to bring Phish out for a show. TRIUMPH! Then Don took over the concert committee, where he couldn’t manage to blow the twenty grand they gave him, his shows being so successful, so after a full concert slate, he threw a big party. Then Don got some rich friends to pony up for the Fox Theater in Boulder and slowly built it into the town’s premier venue, learning concert promotion on the fly, along the way.
I’d say no one wants to pay their dues anymore, but the real story is those who pay their dues survive, like Don.
Don and AEG have taken over an arena in Broomfield, they kicked the sports teams out, they turned it into a music venue, that’s gonna be general admission unless it’s an old folks show, you see Don wants to throw a PARTY!
And how much does it cost to gain admission?
You can’t charge over fifty bucks in Denver, unless it’s GaGa, the market won’t support it. $42.50 for Ween on Halloween? Sounds about right.
Yes, Don’s promoting all those acts that get no mainstream press but can sell six or seven thousand tickets. Ask the average person who John Butler is and they’re clueless. But Don did great business with the Australian. Sure, Don and Chuck and their cronies do the big shows, gigs at Red Rocks, this weekend’s Mile High Music Festival, but Don’s bread and butter is these midlevel acts. What’s the cliche? The little girls understand? People know, they go. It’s only when you’re trying to shove "famous" talent down people’s throats at exorbitant prices that you get into financial trouble.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
After breaking up with Strasburg, we got back on the highway to Monarch Pass. WHEW! You ascend amongst the greenery, trees that haven’t been infested by the infamous bark beetle, and then you crest and there are PYRAMIDS! Yes, you’re just shy of 12,000 feet and on the other side of the Continental Divide are these giant peaks with grey elephant skin thrusting to the sky. Humbles you, and thrills you.
We eventually took the back road through Leadville and by the 10th Mountain Division’s HQ. History is fascinating. To think troops trained here and went to Aspen on the weekend to party and ski back in the forties! Being in the cold mountain air thinking about what once was is INVIGORATING!
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH II
Or should I say "I".
The day before, we took the gondola up and went hiking, first on the Coonskin Loop and then up See Forever, and I do mean UP! My heart was beating, I was sucking oxygen, and at every turn was a vista that was so incredible, it didn’t seem real.
And after journeying back to the hotel and showering, we got in line for the gondola into town. Riding with the Phishheads was phascinating. They’d come so far. For the music. They donated to Phish’s charity, the WaterWheel Foundation, they were here for the fun. Remember when concerts were fun?
And threading our way through the hanging CDs and vinyl into the venue, we eventually found our way backstage to where we connected with Craig Ferguson, who produces the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. He couldn’t stop testifying about Mumford & Sons. I get more e-mail about this act than almost any other, but they elude the mainstream. There’s your new paradigm right there.
And Tuesday, the show was much hotter. Having worked out the kinks, gotten used to the small stage and the dry sound, Phish poured it out, anybody would have been converted.
Sure, there were covers, the James Gang’s "Walk Away", the classic closer, "Shine A Light", but it was the originals that penetrated, like "Limb By Limb", "Free" and "You Enjoy Myself".
That’s why you go to multiple shows. When you go see the act du jour, with dancing and production and the music on hard drive, one gig is the same as the next. Go to hear a real act, and the set list varies every night, the performers are inspired by the audience, they’re not going through the motions, they’re on a journey of personal discovery, they want to be fulfilled!
If getting paid comes first, you’re fucked.
Hell, Phish could have played a larger venue, but Telluride was so COOL! They wanted to do it!
And believe me, I’ve never been to a better outdoor venue. The music doesn’t supersede the environment, it intertwines and complements it. Frequently, a show is an assault. Whereas Phish’s performance on Tuesday night was a communion, with nature, with the beating human heart.
The absolute highlight was "You Enjoy Myself". With the syncopated jumping on mini-tramps, the endless a cappella ending with the blistering light show… I’ve been around, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this.
The glow sticks were flying…Â It was like we were all on a spaceship together, levitating.
MIKE GORDON
For the uninitiated he’s the bass player.
It was so funny talking to him. He’d been walking through town on Monday and felt the audience was PUMPED! That maybe they spent all their energy, the gig was not as transcendent as it could have been on Monday night.
Oh, don’t get your knickers in a twist, it was great, but it’s fascinating speaking with the performer, getting his insight. Which is what we did back at the Peaks until after two Monday night.
I love talking to the acts, the real acts, the musicians. They’re not about money, they’re about CREATIVITY!
And the conversation was too personal to delineate here, but the reason I’m writing about it at all is the eureka moment, when Mike decided he wanted to play music, in a different city, every night, for a living.
It happened on a winter night in Plainfield, Vermont, performing to two people at Goddard College. The band gelled. He had an experience, the most powerful in his life.
Just like Strasburg had a few years later, hearing the band in Burlington.
That’s what drives us, the moment of insight when our future unfolds before us, even though we weren’t looking. Mine came in freshman English at Middlebury, when I called the professor and asked him if I could write creatively instead of doing the assigned analysis. I got an "A", even though the prep school kids said I’d flunk, even though almost no one else ever got that vaunted grade at Middlebury. I took a chance, hung it out there with all my effort and skill and succeeded. That’s the key to making it. Not giving people what they want, but following your own path, doing the unexpected.
LIVEPHISH.COM
Every night there’s an engineer who mixes the thirty odd tracks for instant download when the show is over. I’m listening now. Amazingly, the songs sound even better, I can hear the drums, in the venue, the sound wasn’t quite as balanced. These MP3s are more than a souvenir, more than a t-shirt, the performance lives and breathes. Who’d want Britney Spears’ live show, where half the time she doesn’t even sing?
THE POWER OF TWITTER, PART TWO
The wi-fi at the Peaks was incredible, almost as fast as it is at home. Which is a far cry from the Lodge At Vail, where it’s glacially slow and frequently burdened with latency. So I tweeted the problem to Rob Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts:
and when we returned to Vail last night there was a letter and a phone call from the tech team, telling me to get in touch, they’d try and resolve my problem.
Speed’s increased, but the latency’s gotten worse. I’ve got to give them a ring. But that’s not the point.
I felt I had access. That’s what the Internet and modern communication allow. A direct connection from me to you. The old wave thinks this is accomplished by dunning, by batting people over the head to pay attention. But the modern world is more like love, it’s something you feel, that you follow, that grows. We haven’t got time for everything, but we’ve got unlimited time for what we’re interested in.
If you’re hiding behind a wall, you’re doing it wrong, you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution, you’re no different from those Wall Street bankers, raping and pillaging behind closed doors, killing the country so they can live private jet lifestyles.
And hell, who doesn’t like to be treated like a king?
But the real thrill comes from being part of the morass, part of the great throng of humanity. You don’t want to be above everybody else. Get plastic surgery and diet down to nothing so everybody treats you like a freak and you’re unhappy, or just be yourself, like the members of Phish, and partake in the endless riches.
There was no Live Nation Fast Lane separating winners from losers in Telluride, we were all in it together. In service to the music. Conversation flowed freely, there were no fights, yes, music can save the world, because when done right, it’s more than sound, it’s a culture, it’s something to dedicate yourself to and believe in.
The Phishheads are having the last laugh. Sure, the band is profiting, but without their fans, they’re nothing. Fandom is not created via a music video, via one song on the radio, it’s something that develops, over time, you follow the music to a fulfilled state that you never want to end. You don’t go to the show to get a notch in your belt, but because it makes you feel so alive.
I’ve never felt so alive as I did in Telluride.
