@boombox:  i understand that it\'s an important weekend for a WHOLE lot of people, but let\'s set the record straight.  This weekend ain\'t really doin much for "music" besides showing people an example of musicians who were able to become wildly sucessful by ACTUALLY PRACTICING AND GETTING GOOD AT THEIR INSTRUMENTS!!  seriously, i\'ll bet there are a lot of people who truly believe that you can\'t have both...  but look, that\'s not enough to call a reunion tour "the most important weekend in music in years"...  if phish spent a serious amount of time scouting out a new AWESOME undiscovered band to open each of their shows, then yes i\'d say it\'s an important move for music.  but this is just an important move for phish\'s fans and bank accounts.  not knockin phish or their performance (i\'ve been pretty impressed...), just saying...  we need to remember that music needs WAY more than a few past-their-prime players getting their **** together enough to be in a band again....

Quote from: boombox;222335

Question: is anyone else having trouble explaining to friends just why this is the most important weekend in music in years?

Yes.

Friday night - Erin after listening to me whine about not being in Virginia: "Ant, c\'mon, are they really that good?" Ant: "Absolutely. You have no idea. But the kicker is you either get it, love it and have a passion for it, or you don\'t. There is no inbetween." Let\'s just say her expression was very odd and I think after knowing her for about 3 years she now labels me as \'odd\'.

It is fundamentally impossible to explain Phish to regular mainstream people.  That\'s why you have Phish friends in your life.  If you have to try, may I suggest having them read my pre-show article The Super Bowl Of Concerts  It might help.  Just make sure you always have Phish friends in your life and you won\'t have to bother trying to explain it to people who would never get it.

thank you jim.  they are past there prime, but can still bring it and make ya feel good inside, as lame as that last part sounds.  it still makes me scratch my head when people say things like, "it doesn\'t sound the way it used to,"  to that i wanna say, "no ****, they peaked like 10 or 12 years ago, what do you expect, them to get younger and play with the same enthusiasm and sense of breaking new ground like they did back in \'92-\'97?"

so i guess for me, an important weekend in music would have to have all the repetitive, watered down **** that has been showing up over the last 10+ years and passing for great or amazing or whatever the hot phrase of the moment is, to just disappear and go back to the way it was, ya know, when being good, getting exposure, and knowing people would be what you need, not just knowing people or having a ceratain look.  yes, having a certain look has always been the case, but you also had to have talent.  

what i think i\'m trying to say is, for example, u2 has 22 grammies and i think they\'re great, mostly cuz of the feeling i get from hearing their music for like my whole life thanks to mtv when they actually showed videos.  i think they deserve all 22 of them.  and for that people think they are legends and great.

some people however only seem to equate greatness with how many awards you win and album sales.  that fuckin\' hack li\'l wayne is a great example of this, he has 8 nominations this year and sold millions of albums, and because of that people think he\'s a **** genius and an icon.  so i think that\'s why, imo, music is so shitty for the most part and only a few bands/people do it for me personally.  sadly, **** like that has been happening so long that most people can\'t differentiate between good and bad music anymore.

as you said, if they discovered awesome and deserving new bands to open for them and maybe acknowledged them so people knew they actually liked them, then that would be a truly great weekend for music.

which leads me back to my or your original point...i think. sorry if it was "ranty," opinionated, and long winded.

Sorry, jim, but I beg to differ. Reasons for being an important weekend acan be many. Discovering a new opening band is good yes, especially if it were the Breakfast, but as has been suggested by posters above, great music is more about how it makes you feel. Anticipation of a reunion by one of the alltime great live draws adds a further frisson of excitement.

Compared to all the other reunions over the last few years, this is the big one - not least because, in your words, it\'s the coming back together of "musicians who were able to become wildly sucessful by ACTUALLY PRACTICING AND GETTING GOOD AT THEIR INSTRUMENTS!!"

Genesis just went through the motions - technically good, but no soul. The Police were downright sloppy at times. Even Zep, who were awe-inspiring at times back in the day, were only competent on the night. Also, they could not bring the same intensity night after night back in their heyday and now it looks like the O2 gig was a one-off, so we\'ll never know if they really still do have it. With Phish back on the road, who knows how many more concerts we\'ll get like this weekend\'s run. I\'m optimistic it\'s going to keep on going, especially as they are obviously working on new material for another album.

Personally, all I can say is that I had a big grin on my face for 3.5 hours yesterday and Saturday as I listened to the shows and drove into work this morning singing/shouting along to Hampton Comes Alive in the CD player. Am now well and trully set up for the week, whatever crap work throws at me.

Oh yes, and I got my AC/DC Bag and Silent in The Morning last night too!!

Sorry, jim, but I beg to differ. Reasons for being an important weekend acan be many. Discovering a new opening band is good yes, especially if it were the Breakfast, but as has been suggested by posters above, great music is more about how it makes you feel. Anticipation of a reunion by one of the alltime great live draws adds a further frisson of excitement.

Compared to all the other reunions over the last few years, this is the big one - not least because, in your words, it\'s the coming back together of "musicians who were able to become wildly sucessful by ACTUALLY PRACTICING AND GETTING GOOD AT THEIR INSTRUMENTS!!"

Genesis just went through the motions - technically good, but no soul. The Police were downright sloppy at times. Even Zep, who were awe-inspiring at times back in the day, were only competent on the night. Also, they could not bring the same intensity night after night back in their heyday and now it looks like the O2 gig was a one-off, so we\'ll never know if they really still do have it. With Phish back on the road, who knows how many more concerts we\'ll get like this weekend\'s run. I\'m optimistic it\'s going to keep on going, especially as they are obviously working on new material for another album.

Personally, all I can say is that I had a big grin on my face for 3.5 hours yesterday and Saturday as I listened to the shows and drove into work this morning singing/shouting along to Hampton Comes Alive in the CD player. Am now well and trully set up for the week, whatever crap work throws at me.

Oh yes, and I got my AC/DC Bag and Silent in The Morning last night too!!

After listening to the first show, I have to say WOW.  I think that this weekend was huge for the jam community, but even though I wasn\'t even a thought at the time, I\'d still have to say that Woodstock \'69 was and is probably the most important weekend of music to date...

watchin the clifford ball dvd that came in the mail today.... eeeehniiiiiice!!

You can get this this from amazon for $49.99; forget $79.99 from phish.com and $89.99 from best buy

i gotta say, mrs. officer by lil\' wayne is a good tune... probably bc its been stuck in my head for over a week. wee oo wee oo wee..