@ColForbin said:

Why should we have to "let go" of those jams? The band is clearly capable of playing that way still - I submit the Bethel "Waves" soundcheck and the Superball storage jam into evidence.

No question, they can definitely go to that place when they want to. But that's one kind of band-band and band-audience communication, and the period when that was the main such form of communication is over. I think that's a neutral observation, right?

Of course Phish is under no obligation to play that way if they don't want to anymore. But those of us who prefer that style are under no obligation to like the fact that those jams are for the most part gone.

This is true. But I'll submit this counterpoint: if you listen to the band and aren't committed to finding the utmost pleasure in what's happening now, and keep holding the music against the standard of what they played 15 years ago, then yes -- 'egotism' and 'selfishness' are very precise terms for what's wrong (in my view) with that practice.

I don't mean ego=you're a dick. I mean ego=placing your (my!!) expectations above the moment.

I have had a great time at the few shows I have seen in 3.0, even when they have been maligned for lack of jamming (12/29/12, for example). I still love the band. There are still playing music every night that is worth hearing. But I'm not going to stop wishing that they play something as good as the Went Gin again just because people on the internet tell me that is a selfish thing to want. It isn't.

The phrase 'as good as' is what's messing that paragraph up, for me.