"Phish: The Biography"

Phish: The Biography is certainly not the first biography written about the band, nor will it be the last, considering they are still a touring band (I'd like to read one complete biography someday, but when there is money to be made, there is money to be made, I guess), but what strikes me most about this current biography is the stark contrast of the late nineties period in comparison to how that era was percived only ten years ago. Bittersweet Motel depicted that era--especially 1997; my favorite Phish year--as nothing but sick funk-jamming and good times had by all. And it was; it was a period that saw a significant shift from the full-throttle jamming of the early 90s to something wildly creative and exploratory.

But in Parke Puterbaugh's text, it's depicted as the tipping point where things went terribly wrong:

In some ways, Phish and their audience were moving in different directions. Phish had simplified and toned down their style of playing; the words "sparse" and "ambient" were often heard in conversation with the group members in 1997 and 1998. At the same time, much of the younger and wilder audience longed to be hosed by music and dosed by drugs as intensely as possible. But the buildup and crescendos, the displays of speed and virtuosity, weren't forthcoming from Phish as routinely in the late nineties. Between the abbreviated domestic tour schedules and escapes to Europe in 1997 and 1998, coupled with the turn to more low-key textural jamming and bass-driven "cow funk," one might infer that Phish was on some level endeavoring to tame the crowd scene.

I think that's some interesting hindsight, most of which I don't agree with. It's one thing to address a period of time where the root of drug problems may have kicked in, but to infer that Phish was in some way playing down to the crowd to keep things under control is a fairly ludicrous statement, given how highly those tours have been held in Phish chronology. They were simply different styles of shows compared to earlier years, and fans tended to side with one or the other. This kind of personal reaction might be due to bias, but at the same time I don't believe that Phish has ever played for anyone but themselves (and I don't mean that in a negative sense).