If you have some free time tonight, head over to Hidden Track and check out Dave Onigman's list of the ten noteworthy changes in Phish -- the community and the scene -- since the 2000 release of Bittersweet Motel.
Much has changed.
$22 a ticket? Unbelievable. Now, $22 will buy you only a domestic beer and a soggy hot dog at the venue.
And, today, the band is completely sober -- a fact Seth Schiesel eloquently noted in his review of Super Ball IX for The New York Times.
Thankfully, for its members and its fans, Phish has reduced the torrent of drug abuse that derailed it in 2004 to a gentle, invisible mist.
The Grateful Dead comparisons no longer phase the band as much, though it's amazing that such remarks ever did.
Attendance has dropped markedly. Just 40,000 traveled to Super Ball IX compared to the 70,000 at Great Went. This comes as no surprise, of course, given the economy and the rise in ticket prices.
Who knows what could change in the next 13 years.
Maybe the Occupy Wall Street movement will succeed, abolishing student loans and overpriced tickets. Maybe the band will tour the Middle East or return to Asia. Maybe the jam scene will somehow find its way into mainstream media.
Then again, nothing could change. And that wouldn't be such a bad thing.
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