COVID Silver Lining: Phish Can’t Tour
For live music fans, this year can be described simply as a major bummer. From the basement of the Doug Fir all the way to Coachella, concerts have become a thing of the past. But folks around the nation are finding joy in the simple pleasures that this tumultuous year has created. For one: the fact that Phish can’t tour. You won’t be seeing the band on the Ilani casino marquee nor will they be making their return to the Gorge Amphitheater. For Beaverton resident Shonna Haynes, that is a godsend.
Haynes is a member of the Phish Wives community – a support group for women whose husbands take time off every year to see multiple Phish shows. “I just don’t understand how someone could sit through a five hour jam session over and over,” remarked Haynes. “It’s insane.“
In 2017 Haynes’ husband attended Phish’s thirteen day “Baker’s Dozen” residency at Madison Square Garden. When he returned, he slept for an additional week. “I can’t imagine what is happening to my husband’s brain at these events. The cocaine and whippets common at Phish shows are one thing, but the music has gotta be just melting his brain entirely.“
Many members of Phish Wives have succumbed to the promise that “you just gotta see them for yourself”, and Haynes was no exception. She finally attended a show in 2016 but didn’t fall under frontman Trey Anastasio’s spell. She says that she just didn’t fit the demographic. “Phish fans are the most diverse group of white guys you’ll ever meet. A Phish show will have rich, poor, smart, stupid, addicted, sober, successful, deadbeat – every type of white male you could possibly think of, all in the same room singing ‘bury the meatstick’ together.“