Grilled Cheese and the Bass

If you didn't pick it up already, my husband and I love Phish. If I was saying that out loud to you, you would think "you love fish?" But no, Phish is not fish. It is a band - the greatest band - that is talented, plays many genres, lets people give away their music for free, has over 200 original songs (and has played hundreds more covers), and is very silly. [If you wonder why we go to so many concerts, let me help you understand. I have been to 16 shows and have only heard TWENTY percent of all the songs Phish has ever played. Talk about some serious set list variation. PS don't ask me how I know that unless you want to know how serious Phish phans are.] Let me give you the example of my favorite song, Harry Hood. Ever heard of Hood dairy corporation? They make milk. They used to have a commercial with the mascot, Harry, standing in the fridge with the milk. So the lyrics to Phish's song go "Harry, Harry, where do you go when the lights go out?" Hilarious. Or another favorite song, Tube. "An asteroid crashed and nothing burned...it made me wonder - do tigers sleep in lily patches? do rhinos run from thunder?" Some lyrics are more or less meaningful than those, but I love them all. So "N" in terms of Myers-Briggs.

People that attend the concerts are also quite silly. They dress up in costumes, wear pun shirts with corporate logos replaced by song lyrics (ex. IBM --> YEM), have cool tapestries, think of creative ways to make song requests (throwing a beach ball on stage with the song they want written on it), blow bubbles, throw glow sticks (and wear them), and have tongue-twister lyrics to 200 songs memorized. Phish people (or phans), as Whit and I have noted, enjoy the simple things in life. Which brings me to next point, grilled cheese. Phish phans are very very bad at resisting a delicious grilled cheese made from some guy in the parking lot with a gas grill after the show. Which brings me to my next point, selling such grilled cheese. After standing in many a line after a show this summer only to buy the most delicious grilled cheese for one dollar or two, we decided we will sell grilled cheese. And we realize this will slide us up in a notch in Phish phan-atic, and we are ready for that step. Because the toasted delectableness will help us go to many more shows than we could otherwise afford, just like all the other grilled cheese craftsmen.

Before I ramble on any further, here are some pictures of the shows we attended this summer:

Holmdel, NJ
Camden, NJ
Right across from PhiladelphiaYou can see the skyline from the lawn :)
Sweet lightsSweet husbandColumbia, MD

Oh yeah, so maybe now you are wondering why I mentioned the bass in the title. Every band member for Phish is extremely talented. The music is amazing. A song is much like a novel. There is an introduction. You make a connection (the melody). Then there is suspense. Something changes from what you already know (the melody) and becomes dark (dissonance). You want resolution. It pulls you in, makes you sit on the edge of your seat (or jump in the air waiting for the climax). Then it is resolved (the climax). The tension is breached and you are again satisfied. If you are unfamiliar with this musical scenario, you are probably listening to too much pop. Pop is fine, but rarely ventures out of the major keys. Every once in awhile you'll get a nice interlude with a bridge, but if you want something that pulls you in you need a band that will take a risk and go away from the 1-4-5-4 boring pattern (worship music).

ANYWAYS that was all fairly irrelevant (sorry! if you really want relevance, then take that to mean that Phish makes me and Whit dance. and we don't dance). When I listen to the band on a CD I typically listen to the guitarist, for obvious reasons. In concert, the pianist and bassist are turned up more so I can hear them better and I tend to notice what they are doing more. I have come to realize that what makes me dance the most, what I appreciate the most in the building of the climax, and is just overall the funkiest is the bass. So Whit has convinced me I need to learn the bass. Phish's bassist, Mike Gordon, plays some pretty down and dirty funk beats. And I must learn them. Cause I want the funk...it's all about the funk.