Phish is my new religion.

There's no doubt about it, Phish gets me to a spiritual place. So much of the music has a peppy, "everything is awesome" feel to it. Imagine listening to the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but all funked out. No, don't imagine it. Watch it. If you happen to have an awesome flatscreen to watch it on, so much the better. If not, sit real close to your monitor, turn it up super-bright, and squint. Similar effect.You are surrounded by a sea of happy, dancing people. Whenever the song goes into the chorus, it's like Day Dawning in your eyes (especially if a light happens to be directed at you, that can be blinding). People sing and sway to the music. You don't know hardly anyone, and there are thousands of people in the throng around you, but you feel perfectly safe. Everyone takes care of everyone else. Someone dancing near you is dying of thirst, can he have some water? Of course! You get hit on the head with a glowstick, that guy will snatch it up from the ground and hand it to you to throw back into the crowd. You're walking through the crowd to go to the bathroom, and some random girl stops you and hugs you and puts a tiny ladybug sticker on your sleeve. It's just such a good time.

On FB, I linked to a Youtube clip of the entire show, but there's no video, it's just a stationary graphic. But the dude at the "Watch it" link above has a really good view and made multiple videos. So you can see exactly how it is, why I love this band so much. And no, Mom, I'm not "worshipping" a band. I just imagine that the feeling I get at these shows is how I'm supposed to feel in church. Totally happy, not needing anything, just having a "we are all awesome" moment with my fellow humans. (Ooh, I need a shirt that says that!)