So in the days of the 90's, my teenage years, I was a huge tape collecting, show going, hippie dancing, band mythology loving, Phish fan. I had cassette tapes with jackets that I designed, tapes totaling in the hundreds, some of tremendously shitty quality, some off the mixing board and sounding amazingly clear. I spent ages and ages hunting online for this stuff, and it was really my first foray into the internet, and into band obsession. Time passed and I became, as many have, pretty disillusioned with the whole hippie ethos in music, jam bands, Phish's new music was getting blander and blander, shows were getting preppier/yuppier and dirtier. Anyway, I haven't even listend to Phish in more years than I can remember. Today I downloaded the whole weekend of shows that are available for free on livephish.com just to hear them again, and listen to whether the rumors about how much tighter and more energized they've gotten were true. Well it definitely is true that they've gotten a lot tighter. The energy still remains a bit less driven and giddy than in the past, but it brought me so much back to how much I loved this band and why they are so unique and wonderful. I know I'll be doing my best to go see them if they make it out west anytime soon.