A '90s bumper sticker summarized the stereotype of Phish fans: "Jerry's dead, Phish sucks, get a job."
"Jerry" would be late guitarist Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, the Baby Boomer jam band to which Phish frequently is compared, often with a caricature of Phish fans as drug-addled latter-day hippies who missed the Summer of Love by way too many moons.
Nate Jones of Northside is weary of the image.
"I don't like to put the Dead and Phish in the same sentence," says Jones, 31. "When Phish was coming up, newspapers were all waiting to see how many drug arrests there'd be. Phish fans are a great community. Some people use drugs and alcohol at the concerts, but there's drugs and alcohol at any concert."
Jones is a member of the Phellowship, a national group of Phish fans dedicated to sobriety. He discovered the Phellowship online at Yahoo! Groups and keeps in touch via its Facebook page. He and other members will get together this Friday and Saturday to attend Phish's concerts at U.S. Bank Arena and help other Phish fans stay sober.
Phish fandom, Jones says, has mellowed since the heady days of the '90s.
"The fans are a little older now, and the concerts are a lot more laid back," Jones says.
Vermont-based Phish - guitarist Trey Anastasio, drummer Jon Fishman, bass player Mike Gordon and keyboardist Page McConnell - broke up five years ago but returned to the stage in March and released their 11th studio album, "Joy," in September. The U.S. Bank Arena concerts mark Phish's first Cincinnati appearances since 2003.
Ian Snowden of Hyde Park has already seen the band twice this year, at Noblesville, Ind., and East Troy, Wis.
"I'm only 26, so I'm in the younger crowd of Phish fans," says Snowden. "People say 'Oh, you're a newbie,' but just having older siblings I've been listening to them since the early '90s." Altogether, Snowden has seen about 20 Phish shows since 2003.
Like Jones, Snowden disdains the stereotype.
"The music's free-spirited, and you'll see some lost souls at the concerts," he says. "That image isn't me. I love the music, that's why I'm there. We're all there on that same level."
Joy Ward, 28, will attend both concerts this weekend. She saw her first Phish concert when she was 16 and has traveled to about 40 Phish shows since. When the "Joy" CD came out, she received three copies as gifts from friends.
"You have all different types at the concerts," says Ward, who lives in Walnut Hills. "I'm OK with the stereotypes because you do have some of those types there. But I know why I'm there, and it's because of the music."
Her older sister, Jill Helpman of Anderson Township, has seen Phish play more than 80 times. Helpman followed Phish tours over three summers, 1998-2000, while she was a student at the College of Mount St. Joseph, traveling with friends from her days at Oak Hills High School.
She says Phish's virtuosity, with each concert offering extended jams and different playlists, is the biggest contributor to the extraordinary sense of community among Phish fans.
"It's like being part of a club," says Helpman, 30. "There's so much to learn or know about them. It's like with Harry Potter, there's so much to collect, like all the bootleg CDs or tapes, because there's so much music and every show is different."
Helpman won't, however, be at this weekend's shows - she's expecting a baby.
"If I'd had the baby last week," she says, "I could have made it."
