@icculus -

The 8/10/04 Birds jam is almost identical to the 6/19/04 ASIHTOS jam; its sweet early major-key segment foreshadows (pre-echoes?) the gorgeous 8/7/10 Light > 20YL jam, though without the latter performance's detail.

One key difference between the 8/2004 and 8/2010 jams is that in the earlier performance Trey is about 1/10 as attentive, aggressive, and interesting. I would add 'inspired' but who am I to say?

As it happens, I have the somnolent 6/25/04 Seven > BuffBill to hand as well. Funny how similar it sounds to the 8/10/04 Birds. We could do the same experiment with the 7/15/03 Scents soundcheck if necessary, or my beloved 7/31/03 Hood, but let's not.

My point is that if you're gonna stump for the interminable 8/10/04 Birds, you've got to welcome the MANY MANY other 03-04 jams that sound a lot like it, but with more detail - and acknowledge the '3.0' jams that incorporate so many other threads into the 2.0 style without losing its slow-building power.

@zzyzx - You're onto something there.