Saturday 04/25/2020 by phishnet

IT WAS 30 YEARS AGO TODAY...

[We want to thank Patti C. (.net user @SharingintheGroov) for relaying her tale of discovering Phish 30 years ago today...]

It was a semi-stormy Wednesday afternoon in April 1990, and I was walking across campus on my way back from class at the University of Notre Dame. I could hear some grooving sounds coming from what I assumed was a campus band playing on the quad by the fountain, as often was the case for one reason or another on any given day. But something different was catching my ear and I found my feet moving to the sound, rather than back to the dorm.

I sat down in my favorite patch of grass in front of the band that was playing, among a small handful of other students and I watched. And I listened. I was intrigued, yet thoroughly puzzled (particularly by the bass lines, truth be told). My frame of musical appreciation at this point in my life was Springsteen, U2, Tom Petty... You get the idea. I had no idea who was playing or what was happening, but I was shook.

The storms returned, and the band stopped, and I sat there for a little while just yearning for more, before finally standing up and heading to the dining hall for an early dinner.

In the next edition of the campus paper The Notre Dame Observer, I learned the name of the band, Phish, a New England-based band booked for Spirit Week. This, of course, was pre-internet (at least as far as I knew of it) and pre-label, so it was all left there until later that year, when I met the Student Union member and Phish phan responsible for booking them. Thank you, Rich Pagen -- forever indebted.

And that's when I truly began walking the path of what became a life-changing obsession with the band. Thanks to Rich, I went to my first "real" show at a bar (with a whopping 150 or so in attendance), bought my tee and Junta/Lawn Boy tapes at the merch table, joined the mailing list, found the Phish email digest (in its earliest form, later PhishNet, not even yet Phish.net) and dutifully bought my high-quality dubbing machine and XLIIs to jump on every tape tree I could. I also submitted the soundboard of the Notre Dame show, which was otherwise not yet in rotation amongst the group. My Walkman had bootlegs playing round the clock. I was a "regular" in posting in and reading the digest, obsessed with every kernel of anything Phish, as this group felt "home" to me and instantly displayed the true connecting power of social media long before social media was a thing. I knew there were others out there that "got it," just like I did.

It's funny: At that bar show, I remember standing starstruck about halfway through the night and asking the person standing next to me, "Why doesn't the world know about this band?" His response was, "You're giving the world too much credit."

Thankfully, he was proven quite wrong in just a few short years. I lovingly followed the band from bars to minifests (a la Arrowhead) to clubs to theaters to arenas and stadiums and you know the rest of the beautiful story. Me? I changed my major to pursue music, picked up a bass, joined a band, eventually became a school music teacher to help others find a "home" and their own joy through music -- and, well, it all started with that walk across the campus lawn.

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Comments

, comment by kidrob
kidrob Well that’s an awesome story.
, comment by mcgrupp81
mcgrupp81 Love the story. Earlier today, I was listening to Halloween '90, one of my favorite shows. Oh Kee Pah came on, and I recalled the Brooklyn show in 2004 where I heard it. There was a guy there telling me that hearing those opening notes took him back to those days when he would see Phish play in front of a few hundred people in a college basement. I envied the opportunity he had and applaud you for getting it early. Funny enough, I was listening to 11/19/97 after that, which was played in Champaign, IL. My wife saw the venue on the car display and reminded me that she was living in Champaign when that show was played. Unfortunately for her, she didn't attend the show, nor the one they played at her college in 93. I missed a bunch of glorious Phish shows under my nose in the 90s. You snooze you lose.
, comment by HuckZ
HuckZ I loved reading this, reminds me of how I found Max Creek. You might enjoy Phish's foray into Virtual Reality here:

Thanks for posting this!

https://youtu.be/a0PAHW48NaM
, comment by anaheim
anaheim I bet Fish, Mike, and Trey entered the "Air Band Contest"...
, comment by EyesAlight
EyesAlight In honor of you and your story I'm going to find that Notre Dame show and give it a spin!
, comment by SharingintheGroov
SharingintheGroov @kidrob said:
Well that’s an awesome story.
Thank you! I am grateful for the impact Phish had on forging my life's path. :)
, comment by SharingintheGroov
SharingintheGroov @mcgrupp81 said:
Love the story. Earlier today, I was listening to Halloween '90, one of my favorite shows. Oh Kee Pah came on, and I recalled the Brooklyn show in 2004 where I heard it. There was a guy there telling me that hearing those opening notes took him back to those days when he would see Phish play in front of a few hundred people in a college basement. I envied the opportunity he had and applaud you for getting it early. Funny enough, I was listening to 11/19/97 after that, which was played in Champaign, IL. My wife saw the venue on the car display and reminded me that she was living in Champaign when that show was played. Unfortunately for her, she didn't attend the show, nor the one they played at her college in 93. I missed a bunch of glorious Phish shows under my nose in the 90s. You snooze you lose.
Thanks for sharing - I feel lucky and blessed to have discovered them this way. But don't kick yourselves too hard for not catching at the time; outside of this unusual way, you almost had to have someone directly introduce you back then. (And goodness knows we all did a lot of that, to everyone we knew) :)
, comment by SharingintheGroov
SharingintheGroov @Alaskanmoma said:
I bet Fish, Mike, and Trey entered the "Air Band Contest"...
Hahaha not sure about that - but I do recall Rich later saying they spent some time playing video games in the Student Union Building Arcade that day :)
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