Arts ©Entertainment
Wednesday, August 23, 1993 Page 12
Courtesy of EleWra
PHlSH
Hookedfans feed on band's big success
By John FulwkJer
Staff Reporter
The beginning was not unusual.
Phish was the product of flyers
posted around a Vermont college
campus.
But the band’s success — not the
quadrillion-selling album, all-over
the-airwaves success, but rather die
hard-fan-base success—is some
thing few others have achieved.
The group played 100 shows in
1994 to more than 600,000 fans. It
sold out New York’s Madison
Square Garden in four hours;
Boston Garden in an hour.
Call it a phenomenon. Call it
results of hard work and long tours.
Call it what you will. The band has
achieved a cult following so
dedicated, many have drawn
comparisons to the Grateful Dead.
Phish’s latest tour will land the
group in Lincoln’s Pershing
Auditorium Oct. 21. And local fans
couldn’t be happier.
Standing in line Saturday to buy
tickets to the October show, Luke
Ed son, a Lincoln fry cook, summed
up the reason why Phish has such
loyal fans.
“Nobody sounds like Phish,” he
said.
Eric Olson, a graduate of UNL,
agreed.
“Their music is so big,” he said.
“It encompasses so many styles of
American music, from bluegrass to
weird jazz”
Dan Kubicki, a senior computer
science and philosophy major, has
never followed the band around. But
he, like many other Phish fans, has
gone to great lengths to see the
band. He and three friends drove 14
hours in “a big red thing from the
seventies” to get to a Phish concert
in Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphithe
ater.
Well, sort of. Eleven of those
hours were spent driving to
Sugarloaf Mountain in Wyoming.
Kubicki and his friends met four
other friends there, and after three
days of hiking and camping, drove
down to the Colorado concert. After
the concert, they spent the night in a
hotel, then drove yet another 12
hours back to Lincoln.
But Kubicki said getting to see
the group’s attitude on stage—one
of humor and spontaneity—made
the trip worthwhile.
“They don’t take themselves
totally seriously,” he said.
At the two concerts he’s been to,
Kubicki has seen smoke bombs,
giant beach balls, trampolines —
and 6,000 people bouncing.
“At Red Rock they were playing
‘Bouncing Around the Room,’ and
6,000 people were bouncing around
in circles to this song with crazy
lights and smoke,” he said. “It
wasn’t quite the same as a mosh
pit.”
Kubicki and others have com
plained that today’s alternative
bands try too hard to push social
messages in their songs.
And the lack of that trait is
exactly why Kubicki and many
others like Phish.
“Most of what they sing is pretty
ridiculous, actually.”
^_
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The top 10 TV shows from Aug.14-20 fp*
are below, along with their networks and B^ ' _ m m m _
Aaron Steckelberg/DN
Concerts rock on despite injuries
By Jeff Randall
Senior Reporter
In the wake of injuries at the Aug.
14 Soul Asylum ana Matthew Sweet
concert at the Pershing Auditorium, a
number ofsecurity questions have been
raised by local concert goers and, more
often, their parents.
But DougKuhnel, executive direc
tor of Pershing Auditorium, said no
complaints had come his way since
last week’s show.
At that show, five people were
transported from the auditorium to
local hospitals for what Kuhnel called
“precautionary treatment.” All five,
including one Pershing employee,
were released the same night.
“We’ve received no harsh phone
calls or anything like that,” Kuhnel
said. “In fact, most of the reaction
seems to be from the media.”
In the last week, Kuhnel said, the
only calls of concern have been from
people who were checking on rumors
that concerts would be eliminated from
Pershing’s schedule.
“We plan to continue with the same
events we always have had,” he said.
The injuries at the Aug. 14 concert
came as adirect result ofbody surfing,
a now-popular activity at rock con
certs in which people are carried
around the crowd by other fans’ up
lifted arms.
As far as security goes, Kuhnel
said, there were no problems at the
Soul Asylum concert.
“It (body surfing) is a form of en
tertainment for people nowadays,” he
said. “We in no way condone or en
courage it, and we have posted signs
to let tne people know that any injuries
that result from it are their responsi
bility.”
Security guards at Pershing have
been told to stop body surfers when
ever they are spotted, Kuhnel said.
Those who are caught are removed
from the facility, he said.
Fan reaction since the concert has
been supportive, Kuhnel said.
“We have received calls
complimenting the security and have
a letter on file from a fan who was by
the stage at the concert,” Kuhnel said.
“He fully complimented the security
guards for trying to stop any prob
lems.”
Pershing’s next scheduled concert
will be the Oct. 21 show by rock band
Phish. The show will go on as planned,
Kuhnel said, despite any rumors to the
contrary.
“We have to deal with the same
problems as any concert venue,
whether it be in Omaha, Kansas City,
or wherever,” he said.
