Phar Out!

VENTURA â€”  This is not a flashback.

Same sights, same smells, same approach, maybe. But this is not the Grateful Dead.

This is Phish, a 13-year-old Vermont-based quartet with its own form of improvisational rock ‘n’ roll that has amassed its own set of devoted, free-spirited fans who travel from show to show.

To be sure, there is lots of tie-dye, patchouli oil and pot smoke and no shortage of ticket-hungry devotees with fingers in the air who traveled hundreds of miles to see a band they have seen dozens of times before.

But it’s the music that brings most of them here, Phish heads say.

“We’re not on tour for the lot scene,� said Dave McAdam of Denver. “We’re on tour for the music. That’s what we’re here for. To see the band.�

McAdam is on the road for 12 days with friend Dan O’Malley. Both 22, they saved enough cash for plane tickets and cheap hotels to catch six shows from Austin, Texas, to George, Wash.

They were among thousands of fans who poured into the Ventura County Fairgrounds parking lot Wednesday, happily floundering in the sunny-afternoon breezes and waiting impatiently to hook their hearts and souls into their favorite band.

Ventura police set up a command post at the fairgrounds, with 16 officers on special duty to keep an eye on the estimated 13,500 Phish heads who filled the Ventura Raceway for the 7:30 p.m. show.

But police anticipated few problems.

“They’re a pretty passive crowd,� said Ventura Police Sgt. Bob Velez. “Their main purpose seems to be to follow the band and enjoy the music. Of course, there’s always a few knuckleheads. But by and large, the crowd is pretty calm and pretty relaxed.�

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The fairgrounds were a regular tour stop for the Grateful Dead throughout the 1980s. But complaints from nearby condominium owners about unruly and unticketed fans swimming naked and dealing drugs at Surfers Point prompted fairgrounds officials to bar the band from the venue in 1987. The ban was later lifted, but the Dead never returned.

Phish fans are tired of the endless comparisons with the Grateful Dead, the venerable San Francisco band that took its traveling circus on the road from the mid-1960s to the death of guitarist Jerry Garcia in 1995.

“The [parking] lot scene is the only thing comparable whatsoever,� McAdam said.

Phish heads are a younger crowd than Deadheads, fans say, more college student than homeless tour rat, more Toyota 4-Runner than Volkswagen bus.

“I see no similarity,� said 22-year-old Robin Newman of Boulder, Colo., who will have attended 25 of the band’s shows after Wednesday’s performance. “The only similarity I see is that kids follow them. They’re so good and they’re so on. It’s really intense music. You can’t just sit there and watch.�

Newman is a crossover fan. “I saw the Dead many times, and I’d rather be at a Dead show,� she said. “You can’t compare them. It’s not fair, but everyone always compares them because people follow them.�

It looks like the same crowd to Sam Abdul, owner of Clark Liquors in downtown Ventura. Whether it was the Grateful Dead tour in the mid-1980s, last year’s Further Festival or Wednesday’s Phish concert, business booms as the concert-goers stream in to fill their coolers.

“They’re calm people, not violent,� Abdul said, moments after lending a Phish head a razor blade to trim a stray shoelace. “I never had trouble with them. I don’t know what they do outside, but when they come in here, they’re very nice.�

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Phish has built its following not on airplay or chart-busting albums but by the power of its lengthy live performances.

In 1996, Phish had the 18th-highest-grossing tour in the nation, according to Pollstar’s annual survey of the concert business. The band reeled in $16.5 million at 50 shows in 42 cities.

Fans say the band spaces its performances across long distances on consecutive nights to discourage people from tagging along from show to show.

Velez said that has helped to keep crowd problems to a minimum, with fewer drug sales and overdoses and fewer stragglers after the show ends.

But no performance is ever the same twice. And a true Phish head always finds a way to get there.

“They’re really not out to make a bunch of bank,� McAdam said. “The money they make is on tour. They’re not really selling a lot of albums. They don’t seem to care, and that’s really cool.�

“It gets better and better and you just hope there’s no creative burnout,� said 19-year-old Jill Gottesman of Athens, Ga., who has seen the band 20 times from coast to coast.

“Everyone gets it. They’ve got a lot of new songs I’m going to hear for the first time tonight. You rarely see a band with such high expectations from the crowd. You just know walking in there that you’re going to have a blast.�