JQ asked a question on Phantasy Tour yesterday: Do you still care about Phish/Trey?

He actually received a number of fairly normal answers, no one called him a douchebag, and people respectfully (well, as respectfully as they can on PT) agreed and disagreed with each other. If anyone else had posted this question I would have skipped it. But when one of your best friends is asking it, you take more time to think.

It's been well documented that I had a rough year in 2004 after they announced the breakup. I couldn't listen to Phish for a good long while. I'd ask people to turn it off if they had it playing in the car, I couldn't watch the awesome IT DVD (and still haven't watched it end to end), and I will probably never ever be able to hear The Curtain With (which I love) without feeling physically ill.

After I could listen to them again without completely breaking down, I found that I didn't want to. I was trying to do my best to move on – to see and support smaller bands, to really get involved with other genres, to give other music a longer, harder listen. And J's right – there's a massive amount of amazing new music out there that's kicking the pants off of anything coming out of the ex-Phish camp at this point. Why listen to Shine or GRAB or The Everyone Orchestra when there's a new Slip album on the way, or MMJ's blowing your socks off, or TLG's sold out the Fillmore again?

Essentially J's asking whether or not – after the past two years of stops and starts and shit like "Shine" and twists and teases and promises – Phish still matters.

I think they do. That shouldn't surprise anyone...of course I think they do. But in reality, I've been turned back on to them in the past few months to an extent that makes me truly believe – to my absolute core – that there has never been anything better out there.

I've been listening to Fall '97, and that's part of it. There's nothing better to me than Funky Phish, and that's the pinnacle of their pornofunk explorations. I've been listening to summer '04 shows and watching the Live in Brooklyn DVD, and that's another part of it. They had a new sound – "the beast" – and it had so much potential. The Brooklyn Moma jam, the SPAC Piper, the entire Miami run...they were in the middle of something big and new. I've been turning to them for comfort again – work has been rough, but I've been able to block it out with Phish – for the first time in 2.5 years. And then Trey, in his maddeningly hopeful way, comes out with this, and I'm hopping around our flat yelling "GAME ON!" like a total dweeb.

So yeah, they still matter. Nothing excites or comforts or makes me laugh or cry as much as they do. No one else makes me want to quit my job and live in a tent for months at a time. I know a lot about a lot of other bands, but I still want to sit and analyze Phish ad nauseum. I want to get to 100 shows. I want to take my kids. I want them back.

Listen to this AC/DC Bag from 12/30/97 and tell me you wouldn't sell your grandmother to hear them again: AC/DC Bag, MSG 12/30/97