Phandom

"How many times have we done this?" "who's driving?" "you think he's gonna buy the poster"? "What do you mean 'the' poster?!" "The question is 'how many' posters is he gonna buy?" "Where did we park the car?" "Did you see that guy?! He was a tall billy goat." "Hey, they got balloons." "You never come out the same way you went in..."

6 guys from different parts of the country made a pact to get together every year, to see their favorite band... and so they do. This is an attempt to tell that story

The 6 friends live all over the country, two in Columbia, SC, two in Greenville, SC, one whose nomadic ways have led him from South Carolina, to Tennessee, to Texas and on to Chicago for awhile, and one who is from Nebraska, where the corn sleeps. And every year they try to get together and go see their favorite band... Phish.

Somewhere along the way, the competition started. Who would make it to more shows? 50 means a tattoo, of course. One early afternoon, in Raleigh, NC the conversation started in earnest about the tattoos. They met a fellow fan named Hugo. There was intense discussion along the way about what, exactly, we were doing here...

One night, while watching PAC-12 after dark, the conversation turned to inter-terrestrial travel, and if the "Aliens" showed up, who would we send to battle for the fate of the Ultraverse... that's a conversation that can't be lost, can it? And so, while the show counts climb and stall amongst the group, the conversations need to be retained, if not for posterity, then at least for the sake of those that remember things like this...

Somewhere along the line, the cards showed up. It might have been Alpharetta. They definitely made it to Wrigley. They are the only cards that have ever been made by any member of the Group to pass out at any of the shows. There has never been a card with any mention of glorious comets. That is known.

Through their travels, the 6 have experienced major league ballparks and ice cream helmets in all kinds of places, and have purposefully skipped a ballpark or two, due to the weather... like in Colorado, where the Rockies played a sunday day game as temperatures soared into the high 90's... nevermind...we'll be at the hotel pool.

While the Phish organization is all about their fans, and the music, and would in no way condone or support a money grab (this is our favorite band, and of course they would...I gladly support them in this effort...as evidenced by the tee shirt collection...) they do make tickets rather hard to get. It requires some skill, some luck, some determination, some credit cards, and some top notch ticket wrangling all around, but with an awesome group of friends, it always seems to work out... except for that time at Hampton... Most popular is the PTBM or "Phish Tickets By Mail" request, which scores specially designed tickets for "Phans" with unique art and designs. These ticket requests aren't done "by Mail" anymore, however, and are a competitive and disheartening dive into the credit card billing cycle, where you might strike out, or you might get charged $2800.00 for Spac Lawns. If you strike out, you can always join in the Ticketmaster ONLINE sale, and after that debacle, when you lose out to scalpers from all over the globe, you then try the "local" network of phish phans, using sites like www.CashorTrade.org...

So, the band has been doing this quite awhile, celebrating their 35th anniversary this year, and what started as a local Vermont band has grown into a global phenomenon, but analysis of all the venues in the US they've ever played, shows that, while we might follow them all over, the further backward we look, we see the dominance of New England performances in their history, and why we all make a pilgrimage, at some point, to NYC and the rural upstate...

It doesn't mean much, to travel around the country, collecting shows and song stats without your friends, and family. So, while below is a composite of all 6 of this group, showing each of the shows they've attended, and what number each of those shows was for them, in the quest for 100, or 50 and a tattoo, or just 25 and some modicum of respectability amongst the noobs, it's actually not about that at all. IT has always been about the good times, and the laughs, and the community than it ever has been about just the music. We've all got sound systems and speakers and record players, and streaming apps, so it isn't just the tunes we miss, it's the friends and the camaraderie of being in it, and out of it together.

So, how many shows, and where did you go? The map below compiles all 6 phans attended shows, and the dates, and the circles steadily grow bigger as more and more shows are attended. Who's due for a tattoo? Well, only one person has one yet, even though it looks like a few have been earned, and some are tantalizingly close...

when all will reconvene in Charleston for 3 days