The more things change ...

I've been seeing Phish since 91-92. Right now, I think their jamming may be the best it's ever been, as it's not Trey going into a frenetic wankfest for 20 minutes. I think the dark and ambient jams are Phish at their finest.

Having said that, I like hearing the composed sections executed well. the first band I ever saw live was Rush, and I saw them several times over the years, including their retirement tour in 2014. I'd put Rush's music at higher complexity level than Phish's and those guys were still executing it despite being a decade older.

This does remind me of the late 90s and early aughts though, as I used to review concerts for the Denver Post and Relix, as well as a few others. Any time I wrote anything negative about a Phish show (9/27/00, 2/18/03) I'd get some variation of "You know nothing about music, go listen to Britney Spears." I remember talking to people on Phunky Bitches and a few other listserves at the time about how what was happening so reminded me of the Grateful Dead from 92-95, where the quality of the music suffered but nobody cared and in fact egged on Jerry/Trey. The last Grateful Dead show I was at in 94 at McNichols was an absolute trainwreck that had me in tears; I could see that Jerry was on the outs. I felt that way about Trey from 00-03, that his drug addiction had taken hold and his playing suffered and no one cared.

Now, I don't think Trey is on drugs again. What I've noticed is that it seems in 3.0, peak years are often followed by struggles. 2013 was fairly average after some of the highlights of 2012. 2016 seemed to suffer in comparison to 2015 when Trey had been practicing so much for Fare Thee Well, and I think after the BD last year, Phish is semi mailing it in right now in 18. the shows have had moments for sure, but they have also been sloppy. Pointing that out is NOT an attack on the band, and I think the "You should be grateful they are playing, can you have phun?" statements in fact do a disservice to the amazing musicians Phish can be. I wish they'd woodshed more; they are always better for it.