It started at Horning's Hideout. I went down there in August to see String Cheese Incident. The first set, while not the best thing I've ever seen in my life, still managed to bring back that feeling. At a time when I was starting to wonder if I would ever experience that again, it felt great to be in a headspace where all there was was the music and me.

The interesting part of the show though wasn't that set. It was the other ones, the ones that I enjoyed but wasn't blown away by. I looked around the crowd during the show. I saw some incredible hula hoopers. There was a guy named "Mr. Fun" who was lending people all sorts of toys. People were in elaborate costumes and set up huge camps designed to maximize eye candy. Even the rituals seemed powerful and intelligent. I was surrounded by people whose goal was to try to make sure that everyone was having a blast. That's when the question occurred to me - would I even want the music to be better?

Taken to its extreme, of course, the answer is an obvious yes. I'd much rather see 1973 Grateful Dead or 1994 Phish than anyone currently playing. However, those aren't options right now. With that in mind, I'm not sure I'd want minor improvements. The weak lyrics and occasional bad song formed a barrier. If you couldn’t handle the relentless positivity, you would have no interest in going. I know this first hand, because I've been occasionally blocked out by the barrier myself; I'm right on the edge of those who can enjoy a String Cheese Incident show. Looking around at the energy created by the crowd, I could honestly say that I was perfectly happy with the situation as it was.

I kept that attitude going a few weeks later. Gabby La La and Particle were playing Seattle. Like String Cheese Incident, both of them get a lot of crap, most of it underserved. No one calls them the Next Big Thing (TM). That's liberating in a way.

A lot of bands these days - Raq, Tea Leaf Green, and Umphrey's McGee, for example - are being hyped by their fans. While that's a natural reaction to being blown away by a band, it also sets the expectations way too high. It's hard to keep the quality of music in perspective when you're constantly hearing that the band playing the bar will be in sheds in two or three years.

My expectations thus tempered, I discovered that Gabby La La was incredible. No, not in a "She'll be playing Madison Square Garden by 2008" sort of way. It's just that she was herself in a way that few artists allow themselves to be. She was going to tell her jokes and her stories and wear her cool clothes, and maybe you'll like it. If you didn't, oh well. All of the Next Big Things have this pressure on them to constantly grow their crowd and to never disappoint their fans. Ms La La just was having fun on stage playing some cool songs.

Particle continued that theme. I couldn't ever imagine going on tour with them or anything, but that wasn't the point of the show. What I saw reminded me of why I started seeing music in the first place. No one ever woke up and said, "Hey, I want to throw away all of my vacation time and disposable income. Anyone have a good obsession for me?" It starts much simpler than that. It's about going out for a night and being able to enjoy yourself even in the face of bad news; the Particle/Gabby La La show was the night before Katrina hit landfall.

For those of us who felt the compulsion to follow around a band that no longer exists, it's somewhat weird to think of music as a mere form of entertainment. Traveling around the country to see a band stopped being a novelty and started to feel like the normal way of existing. When the object of obsession goes away, it's somewhat natural at first to just try to replace it. No more Grateful Dead? Hey, look, Phish! Phish broke up? How about Perpetual Groove tour?

At some point a band might get huge again. In the meantime, let's not force it [1]. Let this generation of bands grow up naturally. Maybe it's time to stop looking for that Next Big Thing and start focusing on the many little things.

[1] This obviously is addressed at those of us who have been searching for a new band to get obsessively excited over. If you've found one already, this doesn't apply to you.

David Steinberg got his Masters Degree in mathematics from New Mexico State University in 1994. He first discovered the power of live music at the Capitol Centre in 1988 and never has been the same. His Phish stats website is at www.ihoz.com/PhishStats.html

He is the stats section editor for The Phish Companion and is on the board of directors for the Netspace Foundation. You can read more of his thoughts at http://www.livejournal.com/users/thezzyzx.