A LETTER TO THE PHISH COMMUNITY FROM USER KEVINFORBIN
[This letter is written by user @KevinForbin Kevin Herschman. It does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of any of the many volunteers who help with site content or help manage Phish.net. -Ed.]
Dear Phish Fans,
As we celebrate yet another incredible high point in our favorite band’s career, I feel so grateful to be part of this phenomenon that’s been going strong since the ’80s!
One of the most remarkable things about Phish is that they’re still writing and adding masterpieces to the repertoire. If you see Trey as the creative engine, then his ongoing drive to compose and share new material with us is an incredible gift—one I worry sometimes gets taken for granted.
When Trey brings a new song to the table, the least we can do is give it a real chance. You don’t have to love every single one, but showing openness and respect matters to them and should therefore matter to us!
Remember: part of what makes this whole experience magical is the feedback loop between the band and us. Imagine how discouraging it must be for them to look out and see fans streaming toward the exits during something like "Drift While You’re Sleeping". Also, please remember that if they're playing it, its because they want to, and that should be reason enough for us to pay attention and care!
I ask you to make room in your heart—and your concert experience—for the new songs. Some of the band’s most inventive jamming has come from the newer catalog. Please join me in helping them feel our enthusiasm and affirmation that we want them to keep growing, changing, and creating.
Thanks for listening, and for choosing to lean into the new material with love and respect.
—Kevin
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You're correct that some of the new, not good songs (looking at SYSF) have produced incredible jams, which is why I'm not going anywhere when those tunes get played. Some haven't though, and you've singled out one (DWYS) that really hasn't gone anywhere since its debut.
Personally, I wouldn't head for the restrooms during, say, the debut of a new song. It's a new tune, of course I want to hear it!
However, I think it's okay for people to not be thrilled about seeing A Life Beyond The Dream for their 8th time. I think that's actually a perfectly reasonable time for a bathroom or concessions break.
With peace and love, Drift While You're Sleeping has not, to date, produced any "inventive jamming".
I share op’s call to openness
but I wonder if op still wants to shelve all the classic Gamehendge songs as he called for after NYE 23?
At one point in my life in a similar but different way I performed for crowds. Albeit nothing even remotely close to a phish show size wise. If you want to be in a performing art, you better have kinda thick skin. And if you aren't open to feedback from your own fans, even negative feedback, then you will never really evolve much as an artist.
"People often react a little strongly and crazily when they hear us play something new," says Trey. "Every time we've put out a new Phish album-literally every time-a certain contingent of fans has felt that the band they know and love is coming to an end. It's never true." He chuckles at a memory of being heckled by fans at The Front in 1989 after debuting "Reba."
No artist and no art is sacrosanct; all humans everywhere reserve the right and ability to criticize any art they feel like criticizing
If I don't like a song I'm not going to hold my tongue. Honesty is the best policy. No one should pretend to like every Phish song simply because they're a Phish fan. It's ludicrous to expect EVERY fan to like EVERY song. Come on.
The worst thing you can give to an artist is an uncritical audience. The artist gets lazy and stops making vital art if there's no audience there to give feedback
Just let people like what they like and dislike what they dislike; if I don't like ALBTD, I'm not gonna blow smoke up the band's ass and pretend it's a brilliant song lest I hurt someone's feelings in the process. These musicians are not little timid children who will stop making finger paintings if there are mean adults around; these are mature, responsible, smart adults who know damn well that not every song they create is gonna be spun from fuckin' gold. They're self-aware, they know songs like Jennifer Dances weren't beloved by fans and can understand why with some hindsight
No one needs to hold Trey's hand and reassure him that his songs are good. He's not that fragile. If you don't like a song, you should not be policed from saying so by other fans
Why is this on the front page of this site right now? Is this message THAT important? "Don't be big meany poopyheads you guys" seems like it could be relegated to a thread in the forum, it's not so earth-shattering that it belongs at the very front of the site
trey_YOU_PAID_US.jpg
When I first became a Phishhead, we were allowed to have our own opinions about Phish's music, and I believe that helped make Phish better over the years. The modern insistence that we must LIKE EVERY SINGLE THING THEY DO or else we're not real fans, is a most bizarre fantasy. It's not just with Phish, it's music fandom in general. No pleas from uberfluffers will ever make Drift While You're Sleeping into a good song. This attitude is what makes any miniscule criticism of any aspect of a show get downvoted into oblivion and makes people not want to express opinions on this site any more. Stop trying to police fans' opinions and enjoy the show regardless of what people around you are doing. I never saw a tear slide down Trey's face during Petrichor. (Nor TTE, for that matter, which is a good song!)
What happened to Mystery Jam Monday? I miss that.
Also I knew Kevin's take would not be well-received by many if not most routine visitors to this website, and the more controversial the opinion expressed in a blog post, the more views and comments it gets (this is always true), which is healthy for the site. A lot of people also do not visit the dot net forum (but only check out setlists and jamcharts etc.) and a lot of forum users (so I'm told) don't even pay attention to the home page or blog unless directed to it. So I figured why not spice up the blog with an obviously controversial "Letter" from user KevinForbin.
You're welcome,
charlie
Peeps that hate on huge swaths of material make me chuckle, I just write it off to bad taste.
I consider GOTF as a whole to be Trey’s masterpiece, go to the bathroom if you want during ‘Drift While You’re Sleeping’ or ‘A Life Beyond the Dream’, but if you start heckling or booing etc. shame on you.
Trey is every bit the geyser of compositional creativity now as he has always been. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any mechanism in place to help him determine which new songs are good and which aren't. My opinion is that in the last ten years, the majority aren't, and in the last four years, they all aren't. Writing good songs is a thing that young people do well. Very, very few people write great songs after the age of forty. Tell me the last good Bruce Springsteen song? The very best - Tom Petty, Sting, Brian Wilson, whatever (you may not like these guys but you can't deny that they are immensely successful songwriters, so for the sake of argument, you agree they write good songs) - all lose it around 40. I think Paul McCartney and Paul Simon both wrote pretty good songs in their 50s and 60s, but they are definitely exceptions to the rule. It's something about a young brain. There's a natural arc to the strengths and abilities that human brains have. Younger people have better reaction times and are more creative. Producing a great song is a mysterious thing but it's definitely something young people do better. Trey has lost it too; this gives me no pleasure to say, because I've been a devoted fan of his music for my whole life. But it's true. He can't write great songs anymore.
Even so, while he may not be aware of the fact that his new originals aren't any good, he would be shocked and dismayed to learn that some fans were encouraging others to ignore their taste and pretend that they are.
Phish can mean many different things to us throughout our lives, and they will probably go through many more changes and eras before it's all over. But I think that anyone claiming they are still producing good new songs is lying to themselves.
People can piss whenever they want
This is like someone saying that free expression is important, that we need to be open to people being able to act as they wish and that we should not be judgmental scolds toward people with unusual preferences, and then saying, "For example, the Zodiac killer."