Run Like an Antelope: On the Road with Phish [Paperback]

Sean Gibbon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2001

One journalist's wild summer on the road with the world's most popular cult rock band, Phish.

Despite their enormous success and their status as America's biggest cult rock and roll band, Phish remains an enigma. Each of their albums has sold more than 500,000 copies, and their concerts sell out instantly, but the band makes a virtue of ignoring the mainstream, and the fans rather prefer it that way. In Run Like an Antelope: On the Road with Phish, Sean Gibbon deftly and hilariously chronicles this unique musical subculture.

Inspired by the offbeat road stories of Hunter S. Thompson and Bill Bryson, among others, Gibbon resolved to follow Phish and their kite's tail of hundreds of thousands of followers on their 1999 summer tour. What he discovered is a new kind of American tribe: a mixture of aging, resigned Deadheads, wealthy college kids, and dedicated Phishheads, all bound together by their belief in the band, passion for the music, and energetic spirit, which transform Phish into an experience. His ensuing adventures among the Phish fans constitute a memorable, insightful, uproarious odyssey into this new frontier of American pop tribalism. Whether he's being kidnapped by a group of ebullient Georgia Tech coeds, or being serenaded by devoted fans on the institution of Phish, Gibbon navigates the wild, fascinating Phish experience with verve and a keen eye, brilliantly communicating both the enormous energy of the band's music and the distinct character of their fans.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This chronicle of a summer tour with the celebrated Vermont jam band Phish does little to highlight the intriguing aspects of the band or its horde of followers, and even less to distinguish the evidently self-absorbed author. One problem is Gibbon's halfhearted attempt at doing an impersonation of Hunter S. Thompson. "Screw it. I got to write this sucker," he says early on. "Couple thousand words a day is what I'm aiming for. Crank it out." The real failing, though, is Gibbon's attitude toward Phish fans, and his reluctance to actually talk to them. What Gibbon doesn't seem to understand is that the people he lampoons as grubby potheads hawking grilled cheese sandwiches to get by are the very ones whose stories would make his book a success. Anyone can drive by a Phish show and see a lot of strange people, but isn't it the job of a book like this to go beyond the counterculture veneer and discern the participants' perspective? Surely something keeps them coming back besides the long lines, noisy campgrounds and traffic jams that Gibbon so often points out. The music can't be the whole story, but rather than ferret out the subtleties of this groupie culture, Gibbon devotes his pages to documenting his every queasy feeling, frenetic exultation and passing opinion. At one point, his brother joins him for a few shows and says, "I just think for the book you need to go and talk to people and find out what they're doing, where they're from... I think it's got to be more than just your observations." Readers will want to hug him, but Gibbon is unimpressed. It seems he just wants to crank this sucker out and get back to Burlington for a little peace before all those damn college kids come back. (Feb.) Forecast: For all their Phish needs, fans will continue to rely on the more comprehensive and exciting Phish Book by Richard Gehr (Villard, 1998).

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll are all here in this look at the "counterculture" world of Phish fans. The rock band from Vermont has never had a hit record, yet fanatical groupies follow its members from concert to concert with a devotion reminiscent of Grateful Dead fans. Although Gibbon gives readers some background material on the musicians and their music, this book is really about the experience of being on the road. Phish fans on tour sleep in tents or cheap motels, ride endless miles in old cars and vans, and wear grungy clothing. They let the modern world of 24-hour news cycles and the hottest technology slip away, replacing it with a parking-lot economy based on selling T-shirts, grilled-cheese sandwiches, and drugs to get enough money to buy gasoline and concert tickets. The romance of the road soon gives way to an almost mindless existence of navigating interstates and munching greasy fast food, punctuated by the high-energy celebration of a concert. For Gibbon, this is what "makes it all worth it." His candid portrayal includes a very bad trip on "very dank" brownies that landed his friend in an emergency room. A handful of uncaptioned, poor-quality, black-and-white photographs accompany the text. This insightful and absorbing look at Phish fandom may make rock enthusiasts think twice about going along for the ride.

Jane S. Drabkin, Chinn Park Regional Library, Prince William, VA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (February 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312263309
• ISBN-13: 978-0312263300
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Are you kidding????, June 6, 2001

By 

Robert Andrews (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Run Like an Antelope: On the Road with Phish (Paperback)

Let me start by saying, I really, really wanted to like this book. There, unfortunately are just too many flaws. Shall I list them? Sure, I will:

a.The central character, Mr. Gibbons is a boring "wannabe".

b. He appears to have no fun at the Phish shows he attends. (I am still baffled as to how this can occur.)

c. He lacks the writing skills necessary to carry the book.

d. He is too concerned to not step on any toes, and therefore misses out on any opportunity to add any insight or intelligent knowledge of the shows he actually attends. (He only attends 2/3rds of the shows on his itinerary.)

e. He is afraid to communicate with any other "phans." Therefore eliminating any possibilty for an interesting third party to be written in. For those of you who know, Phish fans on the whole are extrememly giving and understanding people. Yet he shuns every one of them he comes in contact with.

f. Nothing really ever happens.

Please do not buy this book if you looking for anything that resembles Hunter Thompson, life on the road with Phish, or a light hearted music fan looking for a good time. Mr. Gibbons sabotages any such opportunity and has written a downright pathetic book that limps from page to page.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What's the point, January 27, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Run Like an Antelope: On the Road with Phish (Paperback)

There is an occasional insight here, but ultimately this book is embarassing. You know that horrible scene in Bittersweet Motel with the two guys sitting talking about the difference between girls who ride in the jeeps and girls who ride in the microbuses? Imagine if those people went on tour and wrote a book about it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars High Expectations, February 20, 2001

By 

John M Imbriglia (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Run Like an Antelope: On the Road with Phish (Paperback)

When I recieved my copy of 'Run Like an Antelope' I eagerly read the back cover - and was immediately excited about the book. However as Sean Gibbon's story progressed I could not help but find myself dissapointed. Having attended over fifty Phish shows - and doing most of the tour Mr. Gibbon writes of - I was amazed at his lask of understanding of the true meaning of Phish. He constantly complains about how his tour was difficult, with backstage passes and hotel rooms, things that my friends and I would kill for. The author calls himself a Phish fan, and seems to enjoy the music (the best writing in the book occurs when he writes of his passion for the music), but he needs to realize all the positive things about Phish fans, not just the negative.