I'm not bothered at all by the brief running time on this Light -- it's one of my favourite Phish tunes and I'd listen to an all-day version, but Trey had a lot on his mind from the first moments of this jam and there's not a wasted second. The Light > Scents segue isn't effortless or smooth, but it's not a botch either; Trey hits on a possibility and takes his time pulling it together, and if the band still isn't quite ready to move on, that's the risk they/we sign on for. Either way, Trey doesn't take them out of the tune until he's spent a couple of minutes working through some interesting stuff; it's an unusual vibe for Light. I really like it.

And then Scents goes wild! The Scents > Cities segue is ace! Cities itself is nasty!

So Simple > Winterqueen > Light > Scents > Cities is an hour of risk-taking music, with every tune in that series going someplace interesting, and if two of the component tunes in that run are short, no big deal. Song lengths have been a lot less important since 2009 than they used to be, haven't they? Weren't we all going on 2010 or 2011 that they were doing so much with contained jams and getting to the point, etc. etc.?

I guess my point is: the review briefly touches on the post-Simple tunes, but they're interesting on their own terms and the whole set's worth listening to.

Thanks for the review, L.B. Clodsmith.