The Phish Fanbase – Containment, Diversity And Stereotypes

Freshman year college student, standing in the middle of shakedown street for the first time turns to vendor:  ”I found this strange looking rock when I went camping last night and I was wondering if you knew the name of it.”

Doctor, trying to make conversation while talking about the blood work of a patient that is wearing a Phish hooded sweatshirt:  ”Are you a fan of Phish?  Have you used any drugs in the last year?”

Small child of a Phish fan, climbing up into their uncle’s lap:  ”Dad told me that you are a Fluffhead, so I want to show you my Thomas trains.”

Paranoid and uneducated parent to college student: “You want to take a semester off and travel around with a band and see the country?  Are you sure this will look good on your resume?  What in the name of hell are you thinking?”

45 year old and long time fan of Phish turns to a long time tour buddy:  ”This band has jumped the shark…Why am I even here?  I better get my “Camel Walk” tonight or I am done and this time I mean it!”

Nitrous seller, trying to make small talk to prove to his buyers that he is there for the music:  ”Are you going to be at Alpine Creek or Deer Valley?  Keep an eye out for me all tour.  I’ll even be set up at Honda Field in Chicago”

Gross misconceptions about the Phish fanbase are all over popular American culture.  The colossal hallucination stems from the fact that there are many different kinds of personalities and lifestyles that represent this diverse fan base.  Moreover, we need context.  However, a person doesn’t have to look too hard to find generalizations and stereotypes when talking to people that have never really explored the community or the culture that surrounds the band.  This disorientation derives itself from commonplace stereotypes that existed long before Phish even played their first notes together on a stage and continues to develop in complexity as we move through a completely different phase of modern life in America.  There are many different types of Phish fans who go to shows and participate in the rituals of this community for all sorts of contrary reasons.  Each of these reasons can be grossly generalized to some extent and we all know that the people who have never stepped foot on a parking lot when Phish comes to town play a large part in shaping the overall stereotypes that the fan base is confronted with once the show is over and we get back into the dominant paradigm of judgment and speculation.

Some Phish fans are engaged in a spiritual relationship with crystals and the bridge that can be created through nature and the unbridled release of energy that can happen during that momentary juncture during a concert, but only so that this may better prepare them for their enlightened future in their life that is not so momentary or fleeting.  Some kind of fans come to shows because it is a backdrop to another party.  Some people don’t even really come for the music.  Some people will lay you out if you talk over one of their favorite parts.  There are also some people who are not so easily contained into a generalization.  This is the diversity of the Phish culture and much of it is to be embraced and eulogized.

Some Phish fans hyper analyze what the band is doing each night to the point of it not being fun anymore.  Some Phish fans will only have true fun if they are hyper analyzing the band.  Some Phish fans will talk about the good old days as if there are not any good days left.  Some Phish fans will be there for the first time or two and will be showing the exact duplicated exuberance that I felt when it was my first time or two.  It’s 2012 and so much time has passed.  How can this be possible?  How can the same kind of excitement for Phish from a new fan in 2012 be the exact same kind of excitement that I had for Phish in the mid 1990′s?  The answer is One.

Some are interested in as many loopy conversations they can get in as possible with people because these sacred and revered exchanges can reveal something about the core of the diversity of the  Phish fan experience.  The word diversity is the central theme to this everlasting spoof.  This word  is the key to understanding what The Philler is all about:  it is the study of Phish and the fanbase, from before the sparkling emergence of the band and their iconic status as living musical anomalies and myth up to this present moment as I type these words, and of any other type of building component both within or without the actual community that helps explain the fan base and why they continue to exist,operate and thrive outside the normal rules and regulations of our dominant societal paradigm.

Bassist Mike “Cactus” Gordon Phish Pin – Fred Hosman

Every Phish fan has a specialty, whether it be their ability to rattle off stats like you are watching ESPN, make some sort of unique artistic piece as an ascending supplement to the concert, organize friends to make it all happen, disrupt a show, educate new fans about the nuances of Gamehendge and why it matters, hand off the cannabis cone to the stranger (now new friend) at exactly the right “aha” moment, or to just being able to drive perfectly at three in the morning no matter what kind of stumbling blocks may have presented themselves.  In any given town, somewhere in the deeply rooted pulse of America, some Phish fan may be asking their reluctant younger sister if they have checked out that one crazy cover from Jon Fishman, while another one is sitting in their vegetable garden peering into the future of their crop as Trey explains the recipe for time in their ear buds, and another may be feeding their newborn while wondering if this precious life will enjoy going to shows and bonding with dad or if they will completely go in the opposite direction and not be into music in the same way.  The possibilities are endless when it comes to the fan experience.  The phases of our life come and go and shape our future and how we approach shows.  Our priorities exist one day and then are annihilated the next as future experiences shape the things that we consider important.  We were jocks, spunions,freaks, geeks, stoners and  wizards all in the time that it took for a “Reba” jam to end.  We were much more…

Another person may be crafting a piece of custom jewelry or molding a new pin that they think will sell like hot cakes in the ever present lot economy, while still another may be doing yoga while having the most transcendental experience as “Curtain With” chimes on through their body.  Another person might just be stressing out about a basketball score.

facebook.com/PhunkaphernailiaCreationz

Another person might be totally overloaded on substances and unable to manage why they are at the show in the first place while delivering the most incoherent lecture about “noobs” or “custies” as they then vomit on your new kicks and proceed to black out right in the way of vehicular traffic.  Another, camera ready and poised, is photographing the entire spectacle and it will soon go viral on all the Internet Phish sites within 24 hours of it being uploaded.  Another, with that shady look in their eye, is stalking their next victim or is plotting the next opportunist moment that will fulfill their predatory nature and cause the disruption that ruins your currently good trip.  Another fan is speculating on venues because he or she needs to plan out their next epic vacation and very good excuse to see the country under the backdrop of the Phish experience. Another person is just the girlfriend or boyfriend that came along because their partner would not stop talking about a show and how it must be experienced first hand to be believed.  Another person is master of the water bottle slinging and has figured out a mathematical equation to maximizing profits once the show is let out.  This person never stays for the encore and will confidently defend this maneuver. Another is getting their pamphlets printed out that explains their non profit organization that will be distributed at the next local jamband show.  I could write out examples over and over again on this blog.  Different specialties, but all fans of the same band from Vermont on some basic level.  What do these individuals have in common?  What do we share?

Each and every individual – in their own stable or unstable way – is searching for One – consciously or subconsciously  - internally and externally – struggling or totally on the phucking ball.  The chase is on…

facebook.com/PhunkaphernailiaCreationz

It is complicated and never a simple task to define the Phish fan base in a short conversation, blog entry or biting catch phrase.  In fact, it is a bit of a disservice.  Unable to be conveniently confined to false stereotypes, devotees resolve themselves over and over again within the knowledge that they make up a multitude of diverse styles, philosophies, life ways and opinions on how one should act at a show and in their larger lives away from the bustling escapade found in the lot and on the road.  The negative judgments and stereotypes that come from within the fan base are extremely apparent as well and are cause for real concern when trying to constitute a unified force within the common love and excitement that many share on an equally important level for Phish.  Again, we are all here for different reasons but the truth that brings us all together is the same legitimacy that should help destroy these very stereotypes from within the community and throughout the dominant paradigm that exists away from this culture.  Almost impossible to fragment into negative snippets of catch phrases, Phish culture and the growing diversity within it are the things that will be most frequently relied upon in this blog because it is the core of what allows Phish to do what they do each and every night and it envelopes that which has allowed the music to gain notoriety through the unorthodox method in which it has been obtained.   This collective behavior is that which unifies us as a powerful force.  It is collective. We are concentrated.  We are an assembly.  We are diverse.  We are dysfunctional.  We are functional.   We must stand united. Our collective behavior can be harnessed to make the next peak even greater than it was during The Gorge “Rock N Roll” when you convinced yourself that it could not get any better.  The Philler is concerned with the idea of the group dynamic and how this unique landscape of individuals can share even further between each other.

One explanation why diversity and culture can not be easily explained with buzz words or propaganda is the fact that what constitutes prominence in one element of Phish culture may not have the same prominence in another element within the fan base and throughout the larger world that helps shape pop culture mentality.

I Am hydrogen Pin – Noah Phence

For example, if a young tour head, molded in the rigorous ideals of their christian conservative father, were to drop acid for the first time in their life and then proceed to take their clothes off and run wildly into every girl within distance until they were detained, this would be considered funny by some but repulsive by other on lookers.  The guy would be quickly categorized into the mentally ill spectrum and a path would be created for that person.  However, if a young tour head, molded in the rigorous ideals of their christian conservative father, dropped the exact same acid for the first time in their life and proceeded to just sit on the ground for hours, fully clothed, silently smiling, this would be considered more suitable for the surrounding group.  The infinite details that shape how we act and how we present ourselves cannot be categorized  and genralized with the most popular phrase of the day in psychology or just by poorly categorizing someone by negatively calling them a “wook” or a “custie” or any other term that is used to divide the culture and create a rift between the thing that ties all of us together. This thing we call the chase and the quest for One is extremely real.

Any real attempt to explain what the Phish fan base consists of must also understand context.  The customs, objects, language, hand gestures, rites of passage, chemical inductions, ideas, mannerisms, and anything else that society pins as a stereotype must be explained within context or else it is just ignorance speaking on behalf of more ignorance.

A lot of people think that the word society and culture are interchangeable.  However, there are some vast differences.  A society is essentially a group of individuals whose members live in the same place and whose lives and livelihoods are interdependent.  The members of any one society do not need to be alike.  The Phish society only comes together at intermittent times throughout the year to establish a presence and an economy that is set up, maintained and then broken down to only be re-established in another location.  This society reaches the climax when Phish is touring but the culture maintains itself even when the concerts have ended.  The loyal members of this structured society do not all come from the same traditions and do not all share the same priorities.

As a member of the Phish fan base or as someone that is just trying to learn more about the community, what makes you similar to other members of your society?  Do you see yourself as different or unique in some way from other members that you know or have heard about?  The real players in the Phish community will embrace your differences and ability to walk your own path without fear of judgment.  The real players in the Phish community will not make you feel alienated because you have a wacky or esoteric thought coming out of your mouth that cannot be easily misrepresented by an emoticon or abbreviation.  Phish is and will always be a wacky and esoteric thought.  You are welcome here and if we don’t all understand this by now then we are in store for even more divisions through the years.  The real players in the Phish community will not fragment your thoughts into partiality.  You should be embraced and celebrated within the walls of Phish nation.  This is the assemblage of the continuing quest for One.

It is a lot easier to find this acceptance at a Phish show than in some other societies.  However, the Phish community is not the only place where this happens.  The trick really is to surrender to the flow. People need to let loose because of the trying depression that this country has found itself in over the past few years.  We are living in uncertain times and everyone needs an outlet.  Older members of this community should embrace the new members.  New members should embrace the old and stay mindful of their surroundings and environment.  We should all be working on our intuition together so that a strengthening occurs within the bridge of generations.  We are all in this together…However, I am strictly a shower guy.

Just a little blurb here about the pin that I have produced.  Here is an image of it if you have not already caught a peek of it.  Twenty percent of the proceeds from this pin are going directly to The Mockingbird Foundation.  Our goal is to make a donation on the third Friday of May in the amount of $240.00.  We have currently collected $108.00 dollars for this cause and need your help to reach our goal.  Thank you to everyone that has participated so far with this project.  The pin is only $12.00 and shipping and handling is free of charge courtesy of The Philler.  You can click on the shop button at the top right hand side of this blog or you can just click here to make the purchase.  The funds raised from the sale of these pins go to Mockingbird and the rest is used to fund The Philler.

Here is the current list of donors

Thank you current donors to The Mockingbird Foundation and The Philler Production Fund. Your contribution will go a long way to help both projects.

Frederick Hosman – $12.00
Anthony Gatto – $12.00
Thomas Housel – $12.00
Daniel Knight – $12.00
Michael Jiminez – $12.00
Steve Wochnick – $12.00
Daniel Mullen – $12.00
Garret Schenck – $12.00
Max Rosen – $12.00

108 dollars raised so far. We are almost half way there and it has only been two weeks since we began the sale. Thanks guys!

Again, thank you for all the kind words and tell your friends if you like what you see.  Take care of each other!

The Primary Themes & Some Useful Terms

Before we move any further with The Sloping Companion it is important to note that I created this forum because I have never found a place entirely comfortable for me to share my ideas about Phish, other music, art and my invention without receiving ridicule and general mockery from those that have fragmented what I was trying to get across on the Internet.  Some of my friends that are into Phish have also felt as if some of the message boards have not provided the proper environment for us to flourish as fans of this band.  Some available forums are extremely helpful like Mr. Miner’s Phish Thoughts and Phish.net.  However, most of the message boards that have to do with Phish are extremely unpolished and vulgar.  I will admit that I have been sucked in a time or two.  Then, I left it all behind and it has proven to be extremely beneficial.  I have met some of the most passionate people in this community through branching out away from the sad state that is the Phish message board culture. It’s been a good thing and I am glad to say that I have adapted with the technology.

Other forums dwell on an overpowering message and philosophy that is so obviously far removed from the actual interests of fans; still others seemed to be just about making women feel uncomfortable by any means necessary.  Most importantly, these negative forums rarely ever have the music of the band at the forefront.  We all know the ratios and we all know how some of the guys out there can use it to their twisted momentary advantage in order to further perpetuate their pathology.  I was looking to build a team that was concise and set with a promising and well maintained intention of positive encouragement as we move through this life together.  I’ve begun to build that team and it has been extremely rewarding on a number of levels.  You know who you are and I thank you for reaching out with me. I wanted to begin a blog and website that was clearly written; that was as comprehensive as any other forum that existed on the Internet, covering my thoughts and emotions about Phish and the ideas that have sprung up through me because of a direct attention to the music that has been and continues to be created by Trey, Mike, Page & Jon.  I wanted this place to be an environment that would introduce new concepts commonly shortchanged in currently available Internet forums (such as the deep emotional and spiritual connection that can be had by travelling with the band on the search of One, being a musician and a fan, and other related topics as a person goes on a spiritual pursuit through the backdrop of music) and that this would then create a stronger base within the culture in terms of connecting the dots in a way that made everyone comfortable with each other at shows and in the larger arena of life.  We’ll see what happens. Reputation and rumors about me swirl in and out each day.  I certainly have my work cut out for myself.

I am writing The Sloping Companion to address what I believe are important issues for myself and for a section of fans that may not have the time or energy to dedicate to a collected work.  I have been, and continue to be, guided by the compass of multiple relations and premises: that fans of this music do possess a genuine interest in their own experience with Phish and how this may translate into their larger lives, and that the act of comparing and contrasting their experience will result in a deeper and more meaningful appreciation of it and the other cultures that surround us on a daily basis.  The Sloping Companion focuses on aspects of all of the things that tie this into an acquisition of One.  We will find similarities with other cultures that we may think are totally far removed from our own.  It is this intention that I believe will cultivate the readers’ awareness of, and tolerance for, the diversity that exists within the Phish community and within the all encompassing environment that exists as we leave the parking lot and enter into the larger arena of everyday life.  Again, this is not for everyone and many will disregard these words.  However, this is about One and everyone has in them the potential for the acquisition of it.

The Sloping Companion is structured around a multitude of themes.  There are four distinctive themes that I regard as fundamentally important and these elements will be brought up constantly as I blog and add content to my portal.  Some of these terms actually have scientific names and I will try my best to explain these components as I write about them on this site.

The Fanbase & Cultural Relativism - Most concepts of how we view ourselves and how the outside paradigm views us promotes the sometimes devalued notion that some magical dividing line separates what we call “Wooks” and the rest of the fanbase.  I am embarrassed to use the term “Wook” but it is meant as a clarification and not how I personally view these individuals.  The term has taken on such a loose definition that it certainly does not mean what it used to mean when it was first coined and then was led to proliferate in Phish fan culture years ago.  The Sloping Companion rejects what most people consider the formal distinction between “us” and “them,” and following from this militantly unified stance, I will try to consistently act as an advocate in terms of what I believe to be the most important lesson I have learned as a fan of improvisational music.  This lesson is the search and acquisition of One.

One of the main themes of my collected work on the Internet involves an attempt to better understand cultural relativism and I will spend various blog entries explaining these concepts.  I have created characters with specific traits in order to foster any number of responses from people as a research tool over the years.  This practice dates back all the way to 1994 when I first began to write on a usenet group called rec.music.phish.  I have cultivated various characters and this process has led me to assemble a wealth of data about fan culture and the micro community of Internet Phish fan culture.  Much of this has been done to collect information about  the culture of Phish and how it relates to cultural relativism.  This is essentially the desire and willingness to evaluate a culture or a subset of a culture in terms of its own set of values rather than those of another (dominant or otherwise) culture. Throughout The Sloping Companion, I will try my best to illustrate how this is significantly different from the counter ideal of ethnocentrism when dealing with the parking lot, the show and beyond the three hour production that many of us pine over each and every year.

Holism - Despite the long standing and poor fragmentation from other parties of my methods and practices on the Internet, my goal in 2012 remains with the intention of what can be considered a holistic practice.  I credit this research and training in this field to One.  When we are trained in the discipline of One, we still are affected by the things that happen outside of this pursuit.  This is our gauge.  It is my pursuit to acknowledge and revere the powerful reality of holism as it continues into 2012 and into my soul as this most coveted truth.  It is also my intention to convey the idea that the myriad aspects of any fan based culture are more closely related than some people might believe, even as the different but interconnected parts of our body work both independently and as a unified force to keep propelling us forward as we live as third dimensional beings on this planet.  I promote holism because the synchronicity has convinced me to do this thing and in this way.  It is this accelerated practice of synchronicity within our community that helps develop a deeper meaning to this thing that we clutch at different intervals but with a common and developing passion.  I will attempt to continue this practice in my marriage, as a father and as a storyteller for Phish nation.

Women & The Sloping Companion - A major theme of The Sloping Companion is that the way we live, the beliefs that encapsulate and protect, and the sometimes fragile/sometimes very strong institutions by which these convictions are brought into play at shows and in the larger culture that exists belong not to one gender but to all genders.  The unrealistic and antiquated stance that Phish is something better understood by males is embarrassing on many levels.  This is not one hundred percent true for every male into Phish but the numbers do not lie and if I have obtained anything after these years of research then it is a pile of numbers.  It is the goal of The Sloping Companion to continue to replace the male dominated and predatory philosophy on the Phish Internet culture with one that emphasizes the mutually complimentary influences of both male, female and trans-gendered fans.  It is up to us as a unified force to fashion such a foundation within the communal structures that we inhabit.   This isn’t really an issue of feminism in the popular and aggressive sense of the word.  It’s an issue of civility.  Female Phish fans are important and they are needed more and more each and every year to balance this imbalance out for the better of our community.

Civility & The Theoretical Side – The Value – My characters lacked refinement and civility in the first half of my experience as a person observing and changing with a musical group in my own way.  These characters would throw out racial slurs and push all the right buttons knowing almost exactly how the outcome would play itself out.  The whole thing was a big ass test.  It was all about the reaction.  I was testing boundaries, myself, other people and anything that would get in the way of my drawn out posts.  I was looking for One but did not really understand this truth at the time.  The frequency of how much I applied my research to this overall observation was small at the time and has since grown into something that I continue to try to understand within my own balance.  The importance of civility must ring true even though we all have failed in this respect.

There are times when a civil conversation can challenge the people invested in all of this stuff.  However, both parties have to be civil in order for there to be a civil conversation.  Challenges will be regarded as attacks by certain parties.  However, when both parties are civil and open to each other then the attack all of a sudden changes the agreed upon definition of the word.  In fact, it becomes a completely different word that was previously called something negative.  This is my challenge as an individual with high functioning autism.  Moreover, something may sound like an insult when it is questioned on this blog.  I feel the need to tell my side in a network that rarely ever speaks on my behalf.  Therefore, I have built this forum with my series of opinions and my philosophy on my own personal observations of what I have witnessed.  My goal is to remain civil with anyone that would like to interact with me on this blog and larger project www.theslopingcompanion.com.

I will talk about structure, function, culture, materialism, economics, psychology, subsistence, and a host of other topics that I think tell the complete story of my general philosophy.  I will also talk about music in how I understand it.  I will try to remain civil but will challenge things and will emotionally speak on these concepts in an attempt to better understand why they exist and how they can be made to move forward as a unified force.  This blog is not for everyone.  I am writing this initial post because I would like to set the tone of what is about to be written in the coming months in my own way and without interference from a moderator that might have a personal issue within themselves that manifests itself in my being banned from any such forum.  I have made many mistakes in my life and hope to tell the complete story from my own perspective as this blog continues.  I have also learned many things from these mistakes.

I have learned to be civil with those who choose to return the courtesy.  My intention is to offer a service that will collect a group of like minded thinkers that exist in an equally promoted environment.  Also, I want to see the best band in America.  I want to see Phish.  These are the primary themes that I hope to cover on this blog.  I envision that the list of themes will also grow with time.  Thank you for your time. Listen.  Read.  Rage.