I'm 22, first saw phish when I was 18 at bonnaroo 09. Obviously, I've been hooked every since that show.

But I only know 3.0 Phish. I've listened to 1.0 and 2.0 but listening through headphones is different than being at the shows.

Is the vibe about the same at the concert? In the lot? Is it better, worse?

I know there are probably a million threads already about this but just thought I'd ask again rather than search... feeling lazy.

Ahh, the Clinton years. Reefer and bjs abounded, and everyone played the sax.
Only nerds were on the web, Seinfeld was king, and the guy known as President Bush was a relative moderate.
Glowsticks were so big you could only throw one at a time, but then, who the hell brought glow sticks to a show, much less threw them, anyway?

Heady times, they were...

http://forum.phish.net/thread.php?thread=1294183481
http://forum.phish.net/thread.php?thread=1285768789

2 good ones from the archives, so to speak.

in retrospect i have no idea how me, my friends or any of our associates got our shit together without cell phones

@Phakemike said:

in retrospect i have no idea how me, my friends or any of our associates got our shit together without cell phones

To wit:
http://forum.phish.net/thread.php?thread=1311260117

The 90's were like this

Beepers, Patchwork Overalls, Patrouli Oil... My god they were good times.

There was the silver pants thing from Smashing Pumpkins, and shopping malls looked like a year long Halloween when Marylin Manson got big

The 90's were more similar to now than the 00's. In the early 90's "grunge and alternative" washed the polish off of pop culture..weird became mainstream. Festivals started to happen, lead by Phish. I'll never forget Trey...."we are the biggest town in Maine."

Then the '00's came along...similar to the late 80's...glam, polish, money, greed, Donald Trump.

By late '00's indie rock and hippesterness started working into the mainstream. Uncool works it way into pop culture. It seems like current pop culture is more similar to the mid-90's than at any time between then and now.

But in regard to Phish...yes and a bit of no.

The 90's were a blur - still are

We waited for The Schvice. Then the instructions for Phish Tickets by Mail were just complicated enough to weed out non-fans and the chronically stoned, so an order was always filled.

Tickets for the went were under $100. I'm thinking somewhere around $75. That was pretty sweet.

My music tastes swung from Death Row Rap (God I still love it so much though) to pretending to like Nirvana and NIN to finally landing at a happy hippie home via Classic Rock. My family had a computer with only Oregon Trail and Commander Keen on it. No cell phones made it so people actually had to coordinate and meet somewhere as planned. Truly good vibes in the late-90's. Great time to be a teen. I feel bad for teens now - they have technology so far up their ass they don't even stop and smell the roses or look at another human. Sorry for sounding like an old man. Just my thoughts.

As for Phish, my experiences were from the mindset of a 16-20 year old so I unfortunately always remember things better then and sometimes sell the experiences short when I happen to catch the band now. I always deferred to the older heads in the lots and at shows with a major respect and self awareness that I was a young buck. They were nurturing and welcoming. Psychedelics gave way to Molly which gave way to Pharmies as the century turned. I did not like that change. Musically Phish clearly peaked 94-98 and each show was pretty much stellar for the most part.

Socially speaking our parents were true Boomers (for better or worse) and we took a lot from them and their 60's thing so herb was back in style, classic rock/folk rock was ingrained in our brains from birth, and they let us do our thing. An 18 year old now likely has parents that came of age after that. It's a different experience. A lot of parents now hated the 60's (again for better or worse) and all that so its a generational shift. Interesting topic - maybe I took it too deep but I am bored as hell at work.

Clinton was the man.

Sincerely,
Dosque

wanna know how much condoms cost back in the 90's?

i dont know, we never used em

Big Jeans. Like huge!

@walstib said:

Biggest difference was Slick Willie and the BJ's. We needed that coming out of the 80's where we were told that having sex of any kind was almost certainly going to kill you.

As would doing drugs of any kind. Even once.

@Pooty said:

Big Jeans. Like huge!

Hahahahaha JNCOs!

@JayDubya said:

yeah right, Bill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bktd_Pi4YJw

He might not have inhaled but Monica certainly did.

going to phish shows in tje early 90's was an absolute riot...felt like you/we were getting away with something. it of course was obvious that you were witnessing TRUE greatness, and then they play the last note of the show and instead of exiting stage left, they might exit stage front, walk to the bar and order a beer. and if you wanted to dance ur ass off in the back of the room or hall, you could, and if in the middle of YEM you got a wild hair to go front row, then you simply walked/danced to the front...fun fun fun!
mid 90s was when the boys started playing their dream venues, which was great, but they still filled most of their dates with UIC sized rooms...but by 94-95 the mic-less acapella encores were in the books. late 90's imho is when the wurm turned. 97 & 98 were more than tolerable, and usually outathisworld, but the scene had begun to deteriorate, and by 99-00 i pesonally had written phish shows(not music) off as a very fond memory, but definitely part of my past...untiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllll...i took my kids to alpine 2010!! 90's were great, but id take 2012 Phish in a heartbeat!

I feel like the crowd at shows in the 90's was different. Lots of leftover Dead fans, and the vibe was way more hippy, friendly, peace and love. I've been disappointed by the vibe at some shows in 3.0 (not the music). It seems like that great feeling of community has lessened. More people are there just to get "fucked up". The younger kids at the shows are always on the phone, talking, not paying attention during the long jams.

So, while I didn't see tons of shows in the 90's (well I did - just not tons of Phish), I remember the scene being different, and more to my liking. Like the other poster said, maybe it's the 60's finally going away entirely in this generation.

Bethel may have been the exception to this.

Just as many people were there in the mid to late 90s just to get f***ed up as now. Misconception.

oh..... The best part of the 1990's was the song selection, you got some more variety and less fillers IMO.

Way more real music lovin hippies and much less of people like this