Post-neo-hippie me - Part 1

I know that music is good when it compels me to start playing guitar on a daily basis again.  This has been the case with Phish over the past couple of weeks.  I was skeptical at first, but after a few listens I seem to be completely hooked.  To the point that I've already made a hypothetical plan for saving hypothetical not-yet-earned money for hypothetical tickets for a hypothetical Phish tour that hasn't even been announced yet...  this could turn ugly.

But, back to the music. Their jams are so free and fluid, they warm up the mind to be carried to the same place that the jam is heading.  I need to correct myself here because saying that the jam is heading somewhere implies that there is a final goal.  Perhaps some of the songs are orchestrated beginning to end, but from what I've heard so far, the music is (r?)evolutionary.  Each note is borne of the previous.  Every new note is related to every one that came before it, and to the whole arch of the preceding melody.  It doesn't simply take it's place in any pattern, nor does it work towards anything.  Then when the time is right the jam comes back to the main theme, but so naturally it almost seems like the main melody is part of the jam and it just happens to match whatever they were playing at the beginning.  The catch to making this sort of flowing music is that you need to have near technical virtuosity and visualize the way that the notes draw on each other.  I can only dream of having such a holistic understanding of music.

While writing that, I realized that I'm mainly talking about Trey Anastasio's guitar which is, being a guitar player myself, what stands out to me most.  This brings me to the second aspect of Phish that blows me away every time.  Not only is the music evolutionary, the band itself is like a naturally developed organism.  The years of playing together seem to allow them to fuse the sounds of their instruments together perfectly.  Perhaps I've only been given their best stuff, but they don't get lazy and sloppy.  If the jam goes off in a confusing or uninteresting direction, it is quickly corrected.  If what I've heard and read is true (example from a fan website, "A bad Phish show is an oxymoron") then even if they play a mediocre show, you can never say that they didn't try.

All I can say is that I really want to see them try again.