I have no problem with anyone liking this better.

It seems like the improv now has more in common with the 97-04 improv, and the improv in 2012 had a lot of knotty old school Phish to it.

Pound for pound, note for note, I think I liked the 2012 improv better than anything since 1995. 97 and 98 especially had a ton of good jams, but most of them seemed to be about dancing around 1 or 2 ideas (Usually one of those ideas being "start your breakdancing routine on the 1!"

Maybe I'm overrating the complexity of 2012 or only thinking of a few choice highlights.. but maybe it's just a question of what we prefer. A lot of people have told me they thought the jams are a lot less rushed now, but to me they just seem to be less creative.

I guess I'm talking about Fall more than Summer and think of Summer 2013 as an extension of Summer 2012. There seemed to be a concerted effort to loosen up the jams . It sounds like a great idea in theory.. but I'm not getting the same giddy feeling that Mike could switch his phrasing the tiniest bit and everyone else would suddenly begin reacting, breaking apart and then cartwheeling back together like the constituent molecules in the Enterprises transporter.

It's a pretty small difference overall, but they seem to be ramping it back up and introducing some stuff that isn't quite so linear.

I remember saying Fall Tour would have to be incredible for 2013 to even get in the discussion with 2012 in my mind. I wasn't even willing to put it over 2011 (which has so much more good shit than we remember- 2010 too!) before Fall. Now I am. So that's something!