Exactly what is Phish?

So many people don't understand how I can be so upset about a band breaking up. What people don't understand is that Phish is not just a band. Phish is a community. Or better yet, a Family. For the past 10 years I have spend 1 or 2 months a year on Phish tour. Meeting new friends & hang out with old friends. Getting away from my everyday routine to gain perspective on the direction my life is heading. Listening to Phish live took me places. Sometimes I was completely focused on the music other times my mind would wonder. I would think about all kinds of things and discover so much about myself. It was tripping but not having to take drugs to do it.

The scene that surrounded Phish was a family. You had some people you disliked & others who were your best friends. But like a family you loved them all. This was my place in the world. The place where things made sense.

I am now 31. I own my house and am very much in love with a girl (who I meant at a Phish show) yet I cried for hours yesterday over the break up of a band. Why, because my whole community where I felt safest is about to disappear.

Yesterday someone posted on one of the Phish message boards that they totally feel like that sense in Forest Gump when he finally decides to stop running:

Forrest stops running. The group stops behind him. Forrest
stands and looks as the group waits expectantly. Forrest
turns and look.

YOUNG MAN
Quiet. Quiet, he's gonna say
something.

FORREST
I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go
home now.

Forrest walks toward the group. The group parts for Forrest
as he walks down the middle of the road.

YOUNG MAN
Now what are we supposed to do?

That is exactly like how I feel. Phish was a meaning & a purpose. And what people don't understand is that that meaning was not the band or even the music, it was the community around it. It was the people who were tied together because of this band.

"A Phish fan is someone who can honestly say their life was touched by the music--that is a truly enduring legacy. I always say, if you can create one friendship between two people you have done something great---Phish created millions." -Scott Bernstein