@lumpblockclod said:

@12_29_97_4eva said:

I won't disagree with you about the 12/30 Gin and Chalkdust being better jams than the 8/15 46 Days and Piper. But then you're admitting that the only criteria we're using to judge a Phish show is the strength of its top jams. That's fine if we want to make that the criteria, but I don't think you or any of us really want to judge a Phish show strictly on that basis (I'm still sticking to Steinberg's criteria - jams, bustouts, antics...plus intangibles.

No, not admitting that at all. 12/30 has other things I like (the Paug > WTU > Paug is tremendous... relistened to it so many times already, I think a debut always adds some excitement and the return to Ghost was fun, though I could see others taking the view that the new song killed the Ghost). But I'll admit to significant type-II being the most important factor in my rankings.

Out of curiosity, was 7/27/14 in your Top 10 for 2014? If not, then I understand you at least consistently choose shows that have "best of the year" jams over shows that have a combo of strong jams/antics/bustouts, etc. But if you did put 7/27/14 in your Top 10, it fails your Type-II/"jams we're going to talk about for awhile" test.

For the record, I think it absolutely belongs in the Top 10, but for reasons that differ from the reasons you've laid out for selecting shows.