So the reunited jammy jam band, Phish, has just put their tickets on sale. Wow. I really better get on that.
Call me crazy, but it isn’t it a little old fashioned to camp out for hours or days to wait in line, get pissed at the loud person behind you on their speaker phone all night, to get tickets for a band who (with all due respect) kind of do a knock-off of a band that did this in the sixties?
But that’s every band, you may be thinking, what’s so bad about that?
I don’t know. I’m so turned off by most popular music since the Beatles, that I resort to even OLDER stuff. Old blues and jazz records. Charles Mingus, Robert Johnson, Bo Carter and the rest of the Harlem Hamfats, Son House, Memphis Minnie, you know.
So how can you call waiting in line to get Phish tickets “old fashioned”? (This is what you are asking me).
All I’m saying is listening to the same songs on syndicated “classic” rock and roll channels since the 70′s is not good for us as a people. Seriously, in every city in this freakin’ Obamanation, there is one or more rock station that plays (and has played) the same damn playlist, give or take a Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains addition, since what?- 1975? Really?
Now you got the video games. Guitar Hero, Rock Band, who cares? Now they have taken that same tired, dusty, moldy, uninspired playlist and turned it into a video game that puts YOU in the song that you have heard your whole life, whether you like it or not. Songs that you know by heart, even though you have never bought or listened to these songs on purpose.
A friend and student of mine (I gave him some guitar lessons a while back), responded to one of my bitch sessions about Guitar Hero with this nugget of wisdom: “But playing this game has really helped my guitar playing.”
You know what would also help your guitar playing? PLAYING YOUR FREAKIN’ GUITAR.
So while you wait in line for days, pawn your furniture to get enough money to afford one of these amazing Phish tickets, you can… A) play guitar hero
B) play an actual instrument
or C) turn around and go back home where you can listen to music that is creative in a way that may open your mind, and not just because those hot tamales that Red Dog gave you just kicked in, but because you are actually getting something new out of an experience. New creativity. Do you know how long ago 1975 was? C’mon.
That’s all I got. This is only my opinion. I’m going fishing.
Here’s one more for you that I feel is appropriate.
January 30, 2009 at 2:28 pm
i threw my guitar hero game — instruments and ps2 — into the trash and bought myself a guitar for the very exact reason you stated, oh wise one.
January 31, 2009 at 10:20 am
you know what would help my guitar playing? lessons. yes, lessons. *cough*
February 8, 2009 at 7:04 pm
A. I didn’t have to wait in line or pawn any furniture to buy my Phish tickets. I bought them online like most people nowadays.
B. Classic rock radio is always the same. They always play classic rock (duh). Phish does not.
C. Guitar hero IS kind of a waste of time and energy, but it’s FUN. So is playing my real instruments.
D. Most of those old blues and jazz artists you mentioned were dead before 1975.
C. Go home and try listening to Phish with an open mind and you will get something new out of the experience, provided you don’t smoke too much pot.
February 25, 2009 at 8:05 am
have you ever listened to phish? obviously not, and i am not some kid, but an adult who enjoys many styles of “good music.” might i suggest something like “The Siket disc” for you to start with, a totally instrumental blend. And please, if you are a teacher, you owe it to yourself and your students (even if it is a blog and not a hometown news event…which i found on google) to research before you write. These tickets sold out on line before anyone could even open the door to leave to wait in some line, which by the way very few people do anymore, since Ticket Master usually obviously gets all the tickets first to sell in their partner company “tickets now” for hundreds of dollars above face value.
peace and take the hook out friend, enjoy your phish and eat it too!
PS i am looking for tickets if you no of any!!
living sky