"the sense of wild improvisational abandon with which it frequently played in 1993 through 2000, plus 2003 and 2004. Sure, perhaps it's unfair to take this one ten-year period of the band's work and consider that the norm. "

They didn't "frequently" have improvisational abandon in 93... it happened in like a dozen shows, tops. I defy you to find many interesting jams between the Backyard in Austin (day after the Bomb Factory) and 5/26/94 - a stretch as long as this tour has been. Hell even in 95, I saw 5 shows on the fall tour (the NW run) and the only interesting jams were a slightly different arrangement of Slave in Seattle and a very good Harry Hood in Spokane, but probably not much better than last night. With the exceptions of 97 and 03-04, the big improvisational highlights were always in the exceptional shows, the ones we talked about after the tour, not something to expect night after night after night. It's just that no one listens to 6/13/94 or 11/23/96 or 10/5/95 so we forget that they exist.