Fucking Phish, Man

Because how much of the by decade of my career has been dedicated to advancement on behalf of Insane Clown Posse and Phish and their poignantly misunderstood fans information technology's crazy to me that the book that would eventually become You lot Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Me was sold in proposal form as Confessions of a Popular Civilisation Masochist.

Before I began exploring the worlds of Insane Clown Posse and Phish on a cardinal level I did not know either cult act withal that did not proceed me from disliking them notwithstanding. I went into my epic Phish/Insane Clown Posse journeying seeing the road ahead equally a masochistic ordeal, admitting one that would pay rich dividends in the class of a snarky page-turner making delicious sport of Juggalos and jam band fans.

That is not how things played out. Instead of making fun of  phans and Juggalos I became a hardcore fan of Phish and Insane Clown Posse. I found my tribe and they were a gaggle of blissed-out jam ring aficionados and clown-painted horrorcore devotees.

At this point I have been to something like 46 Phish shows. In nigh a calendar week and a one-half I will go to my EIGHTH Gathering of the Juggalos. The terminate of You Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Me concluded upwardly existence the beginning of my life as a Juggalo and Phan.

I don't just bask taking drugs and listening to the band Phish perform live: I need it on a spiritual and emotional level. Every bit much as I love this website and all of y'all wonderful readers, Phish shows are my Happy Place. They're my organized religion, my church building, my synagogue, my spiritual heart.

It's only a bit of an exaggeration to say that ane of the things that got me through the pandemic was the hope of being able to come across Phish again.

We've reached a place with this awful pandemic where you lot can go to an outdoor concert without feeling like a sociopath willing to hazard their own life and the lives of loved ones for the opportunity to meet Vanilla Ice perform his hits. We accept non, however, reached a place where you lot tin can go to a concert without feeling more than a little irresponsible, even if you have been vaccinated the way my married woman and I have both been.

So it was with a mixture of all-consuming excitement and trepidation that the wife and I ventured back into the big, exciting, scary earth of live music past seeing Phish perform in our new neighborhood of Alpharetta Saturday, August 31st.

It was my first show since Juggalo Days in Los Angeles in early 2020, AKA the Before Times. For one magical Sabbatum nighttime the wife and I were able to forget most all of our dreary developed responsibilities and be fans once more.

It was wonderful having an opportunity to get lost in the crowd again, to give myself over to the groove. Everywhere I looked people weren't just happy: they were goddamn ecstatic, overcome with joy. In that location was literally nowhere in the entire world I would rather be than at that show.

The wait and dubiousness that comes with live music in the age of COVID just made everything sweeter. In my darkest moods I wondered if concerts would even be possible going forwards and now hither I was at 1 of the best and virtually blithesome shows I had always been to.

The thing about the incredible loftier that comes with seeing your first Phish evidence in twenty four endless, dispiritingly eventful and completely calamitous months is that it comes with one motherfucker of a hangover.

That hangover is literal of grade. It'due south a affair of coming downwards from all of the wonderful substances that were in my body during that unforgettable show, some legal, some less so.

But information technology'southward emotional and spiritual as well. I haven't been able to stop thinking about Phish since the bear witness. I take had "Air conditioning/DC Pocketbook" and "Weekapaug Groove" going through my head hardcore for the last vii days.

I tin can't wait to see Phish again. I tin can't wait to feel the transcendent feeling that comes with losing yourself in the crowd. That'south a big part of the reason I am excited about returning to the Gathering on Baronial 19th for three strange, magical days and nights of musical insanity.

Bad things happen when you chase the high of a Phish show too hard or for too long. Function of what makes information technology special is its rarity. There'south a time and a place for that level of spiritual and literal intoxication. For me, that time and place are my hometown Phish shows and the Gathering of the Juggalos every twelvemonth, equally well equally "Weird Al" Yankovic concerts just that's another matter birthday.

I'll accept to look at least some other year to experience that but I have ZERO dubiousness that it volition be worth it. It always is.

 Be a part of the recently launched Indiegogo campaign for 7 Days in Ohio Ii: Return of the Juggalos over at https://world wide web.indiegogo.com/projects/make-seven-days-in-ohio-2-return-of-the-juggalo-happen--2/ten/14797497#/ and help ship Nathan dorsum to the Gathering for the EIGHTH time for more literary magic, madness and miracles!

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