Very interesting blog premise and really interesting synthesis with the comments.

You can dissect Phish fans a number of different and meaningful ways but one of them is more a trisection: (1) fans who tolerate songs while waiting for Big Jams; (2) fans who love the songs and want to hear them performed capably, first and foremost; and (3) fans who need both well-executed songs and rangy improv to be satisfied.

If you find Coventry compelling in any way, shape or form, you fall into the first bucket. Period. I am not saying it's a bad thing, but you should cop to it.

I fall somewhere between groups 2 and 3. Though I vastly prefer big jam-oriented shows, I can have a perfectly fine time at a Phish show without them, as long as the songs are capably performed. Coventry, like much of the tour before it, is just a non-starter.

There were periods at Coventry where Trey not only forgot how to play some of the band's simplest songs (like CDT) but forgot how to play guitar. The sight of him looking down at his fretboard during Glide and clearly having no idea where to put his fingers, or what this strange contraption was before him, is something I never ever need to revisit. It was a "how the mighty have fallen" moment without any trace of schadenfreude.

I don't listen to Hampton '09 anymore either, but those shows served as perfect counterpoints to Coventry - some have called it a musical apology but it was more a rebuilding. It was a deliberate illustration of the band's command of repertoire and Phish fundamentals, and it's good that they put themselves through that exercise before allowing themselves to enter freer spaces.