See maybe bungled was the wrong word.

But in Fluff, it seems pretty clear that Trey wanted to layer the Piper chords over the big Fluff peak, but Fish heard Piper, apparently thought it was a signal to drop out and start Piper from the start. Then there's a weird confusion and Trey just goes ahead and starts singing- IMO a pretty clear indicator that he had intended to completely bypass the intro of Piper. On paper that sounds like a lot to get across, but he and either Mike or Page- I need to re listen- mutated Fluff into Piper absolutely effortlessly.

I guess I'm back to bungled after getting my thoughts out, mainly because it went from "could have easily been a hyper ambitious yet energetic yet perfectly nailed segue to go on the all timers list" - opening myself up to scorn here, but a Disco Biscuits type of segue. Say what you want about them, they're fantastic at making a chord change right at the crescendo of a jam which suddenly reveals another song. It's a huge part of their power over their fans. That moment of cathartic release combined with "oh shit The next song is starting!!" Is a doozy. Their whole career may be thanks to the power of those moments.

-> Water it seemed as if 3 guys were totally on board but Fish didnt pick up on it until Page waterfall'd it. Trying to wrap my head around how a drummer of Fish's statue can't seem to throw out a drumroll and change beats on the other end of it is a sure route to insanity.

I need to just not worry about it, I know. Lol.

The calls for a 2nd Mikes jam, or the idea that a Gumbo would be anything other than its been for the last decade is kinda weird to me. Mikes Groove isn't going to"go anywhere" - if it does, it will likely be in the same manner as the MPP Stash or Dicks Piper where they manage to get more concrete thematic movements into a 4 minute jamlet than some huge sprawling monstrosity from 1999.

The difference between Mikes Song and Possum is negligible. Right? Hell. Blossom Possum is probably more "type II" than any Mikes played post Coventry. Kinda like Bathtub Gin is about as improvisational as Hood or something. Lot of downgraded jam songs, which is fine, because their actual Improv is stunningly amazing now.

If you ask me, the attempt at a real segue from the Wedge into Weekapaug was worth the price of admission. The amount of real -> Paugs where the jam before it rises up to meet it is startlingly small for a song that starts off with just bass or just drums. 12/2/97 out of Ya Mar is my favorite, but there are a handful of others- Seven Below-> from 8/6/10, Wolfapaug 6/2/09, of course the double dose of 12/1 and 12/7/95 directly out of Mikes.