This is a tale of how I was turned onto Phish and shown the light. It all started last summer, the day I returned home from backpacking Europe. As I walked into my house for the first time after a couple months on the road, the phone rang.

"Ellis!!! Are ya coming to the Stones?!?"

"What? who?"

"The Rolling Fucking Stones man!"

"Does a bear shit in the woods?"

So that was it, a minute after entering my house I was set for another road trip with my roadwarrior buddies in 5 days time.

I come from Prince Edward Island (the smallest province in Canada) and the concert was the Toronto Rocks concert (Stones, AC/DC, Rush, Blue Rodeo) up in Toronto(18hr drive). So we decided to make a solid road trip out of the whole thing, with a couple nights in montreal, toronto and small town ontario.

In our efforts to recruit a few more buddies, we discovered that some of our friends were going to this huge concert by the band Phish. Around these parts, Phish is very unknown. I was a relatively informed music fan and only knew them as the supposed band that covered "Gin and Juice" and had a huge following.

The concert, IT, happened to be scheduled on the day we would be driving back towards our home and by the Limestone site.

So we're sitting at our friends place, getting all boozed up and we start trying to convince our other friends to come with us to the Stones.  They were having none of it, but suggested we join them for Phish. I'm thinking $230 Canadian to see a band I dont' know... I'm so sure. But thank god for my buddy James who, in a drunken stupor, walks over to the computer, hauls out his Visa and buys two tickets, looks at me and says, "Well, looks like we're going."

So I found a little bit of room on my visa card and picked up a ticket as well, and that was that, we were going.

So at this point, the only real Phish song I knew was Farmhouse. Sad, I know. So we put together a Phish mix for the cruise and it consisted of Birds of a Feather, Weekepaug Groove, Waste, Pebbles and Marbles, Round Room, Chalkdust Torture, Wilson, Heavy Things, Down With Disease and a few others.

So after 6 days of lighting up the east coast of Canada, we found ourselves entering the kingdom of Phish. Being total newbs, we soaked up everything.

I kept asking myself how come I was never aware of something so special, so great. The longer the weekend went on, the more I realized Phish was exactly what I was looking for in music.

Upon my return home, I went Phish crazy. Downloading, buying, and burning anything I could get my hands on. Now as I look forward to Coventry (it consumes my thoughts), I find it hard to believe that Phish has only been a part of my life for less than year. It saddens me that the Phish train is winding down it'\s incredible journey, but am I ever grateful that I've been able to catch the last few stops. Thanks Phish.