I love The Breakfast and there\'s a lot of great folks who I\'ve met at shows, but reading through these posts has been painful, and I\'m glad oldnewbie lashed out. Not because I\'m angry at the moe. bashing (though I think moe. is a great band), but just because a lot of people are looking at this through their Breakfast blinders, which is appropriate since it\'s a Breakfast forum.
But, let\'s put things into perspective folks. It\'s ridiculous to compare The Breakfast through their first 6 years to Phish through the same timeframe. Phish got their start in the 80s. There was no jamband scene at that time. Sure, there was the Dead, but they had been around for almost twenty years at that point. And, while they jam, they weren\'t looked at as a jamband the way we think of it today. Phish was just a freak occurrence of an amazingly creative, saavy and talented group of musicians. In my opinion, their success created a domino effect that led to the jamband scene that we know today. Today, jambands are a dime a dozen.
Jambands are everywhere. And, many of these bands, whom I don\'t personally like as much as The Breakfast, have much larger fanbases. It baffles me that bands like the Disco Biscuits and Umphree\'s McGee are so much bigger than The Breakfast, but they are. The fact is we are so enamored with The Breakfast because not only are they great musicians, but a lot of us consider them our band. They are from our hometown or our state, we have been seeing them since they first got together (shit - I saw Tim play when he was in Mokijam), we hang out with them, they\'re accessible, they\'re really fucking cool. It\'s a unique situation that we get to go see Tim, the nasty lead guitar player of our favorite band, play live solo shows right down the road and we\'re making the setlists for him. I don\'t think Trey was playing solo shows to the same 10-15 guys/girls three nights a week 6 years into Phish\'s existence. And, while there are 900 people signed up on this message board, there are not 900 people posting. Many of you folks are obsessed TB fans, and that\'s okay, but you have to realize that most people do not feel the same. They think they\'re good and maybe even great, but perhaps only a handful of people would ever "go on tour" with TB. And, I imagine it would only be those of you who are personal friends with the band.
I\'m a bit older, so I\'m not going to shows like I used to. If I were 5 years younger, I would see more Breakfast shows, but I wouldn\'t dedicate my life to them. When I used to go to Phish shows, I used to feel like it was much more than a live show. It was an experience. You don\'t get that feeling with many bands. I feel that way about Widespread Panic. And, I used to feel that way about some moe. and SCI shows that I went to. While I thoroughly enjoy The Breakfast shows, and find them completely fullfilling, I don\'t feel like it\'s an experience. I feel like it\'s a live show. Some of you post reviews of shows that I went to, including Timmy solo shows, and I feel like I must have missed something because I didn\'t come away feeling like it was an Earth shattering experience like the reviewer did. I\'m not downplaying how great they are, but my point is that there are a handful of people who think The Breakfast are the greatest thing since sliced toast, and those are the same people who are posting day after day, show after show. Sure, there are some others, like myself, who post from time to time, but for the most part it\'s the same people. 50 completely dedicated Breakfast fans are not going to turn this band into the next Phish folks. And, for one to say that they feel okay about the state of things because Phish was still touring mainly in the NE after 6 years is laughable.
Just enjoy the music. While people have a right to do it, I used to hate it when people would criticize Phish because of this or that. They didn\'t like the setlist, they didn\'t feel like this sequeway or that segueway was appropriate. Bittersweet Motel was too focused on Trey. I hate it when they play Farmhouse. Blah blah blah. If Phish wants to play Farmhouse, then god dammit, I want to listen to it. We want The Breakfast to be this great band playing big venues, drawing a large crowd, but we are also upset because their management isn\'t personally coming out and shaking our hands and asking us what we want. It\'s a bit silly.
In every state and every region, there\'s probably a jamband who has a following like The Breakfast who has fans like us. It\'s tough to make it big. I\'m baffled that The Breakfast isn\'t playing Bonnaroo yet. I think to myself, if people could just see them, how could they not like them. But, I don\'t know what little bands are out there. There are probably tons of bands just like The Breakfast trying to make it. We have to remember that these guys are trying to make a living, they didn\'t form the band to please each of us indivdiually. I\'m sure that Tim, Adrian, Ron, and Jordan have a say in what direction the management is taking the band. If Gencs is thinking of all these questions, then I\'m sure Tim has already thought of them. There\'s no need to worry about the business side of the band, just enjoy the music. Be glad they\'re still playing runs in CT. But, also realize that if they\'re not filling up The Webster, which they don\'t (I am hard pressed to believe there was ever 500 people at a Webster show), they\'re not going to be the next big thing overnight. No band will EVER be as big as Phish was. And, The Breakfast will probably never be as big as moe. is. Just hope that they are able to make decent money while doing what they love, being creative, growing as musicians, writing great songs, making amazing music, and making us all smile, laugh, and dance.
Just my 2 cents worth. Actually, it\'s probably more like 100 dollars worth given the length.
