Long before there was even the word "jamband" for bands to distance themselves from, The Grateful Dead played. As those who saw them know, there was more to seeing a Dead show than just the music. Sure the music was the centerpiece – as many people were forcibly reminded after Jerry’s death – but that isn’t the only thing that was there. There was a culture present. There was an assumption that people would help out complete strangers; more frequently than not that would actually happen. When I first started seeing them, the feeling of being accepted was a large part of the attraction. As great as the music was – and it was indeed great – there was also a feeling that there was something going on beyond just that, a gathering of like minded souls who spent the rest of their time hiding that side of themselves from the world. It was powerful.
Fast forward to 2005. While there are many wonderful people seeing the shows, outside of SCI and some of the festivals, there is active antagonism towards the idea of shows being about more that music. Instead of thinking of the crowd as a whole, many people now join "teams." The stigma on scalping tickets faded in post-hiatus Phish and the poster scene actively encourages financial speculation. This is not to say that things were perfect back then – the Grateful Dead sure handed out a lot of flyers talking about problems – or that they’re horrible now, but I did prefer the kinder lot, the one where at least lip service was paid to the idea of acceptance and eccentricity was encouraged, not an excuse to take pictures to post on mocking websites. How did we get from there to here? I don’t think it was just one issue. It was a long process that has many factors.
- Scene telephone *
- Vocabulary shift*
- Avarice and Greed *
- On line cd ‘trading’ *
- The coarsening of society *
- Can a scene be recreated? *
David Steinberg got his Masters Degree in mathematics from New Mexico State University in 1994. He first discovered the power of live music at the Capitol Centre in 1988 and never has been the same. His Phish stats website is at www.ihoz.com/PhishStats.html
He is the stats section editor for
The Phish Companion and is on the board of directors for the Netspace Foundation. You can read more of his thoughts at http://www.livejournal.com/users/thezzyzx.
