Hey it seems like you guys @Jestinphish and @FACTSAREUSELESS pretty well have it covered in terms of the whole jaded vet aspect.

I'd just like to say that I certainly don't consider myself a jaded vet by any means. Somebody like @n00b100 is more of a 'vet' in my book because he clearly knows what he's talking about when it comes to Phish even though the moniker lets you know his stats say 'noob.'

It's all relative and hopping on when I did makes me really respect the people who've been around forever and still are so passionate. They've earned the right to be 'jaded,' even though most of them aren't if jaded means disliking current Phish.

But what I mean about the DTE was that Trey is damn well aware of the 'ripcord' phenomena just as he was aware people wanted a cover set for Halloween. Phish has always been highly self-referential and playful. I mean, that to me is why they play Neil Diamond songs with a vacuum solo. It's about having fun up there on stage, and in that respect I completely agree with @Jestinphish

Actually, I think Trey's intentionally poking fun at people who have demands for the band, much like those same jaded vets' arrogance you were talking about. Pure pranksterism. I don't pretend to know what's really going on in Trey's head, I can only speculate based on the music, the tour context, and their behavior on stage. I certainly didn't mean to come off as bitching about the show but more like someone taking the facts available and hypothesizing about some bizarre natural phenomenon.

The context for me was that this band is at the absolute top of their game. The jams all were going places and ended intentionally abruptly. This isn't a struggle for the jams to find legs, this is cutting them off full stump. Add Trey running around communicating changes and absolutely having a blast doing it. Again, there's no huge moral judgment here just an attempt to explain what the hell happened.