a.) Noting the accuracy of the music actually performed in composed pieces is entirely different from “not being able to get over the flubs.
b.) of course we want to have both types of fans. From years and years and years of these comment sections, however, it seems the latter group, the fun and energy (fenergy?) group (which we are actually all a part of, believe it or not) can’t and/or don’t want to tolerate the subset of fans who want to be even the least bit analytical about the whole enterprise. I’ve never seen a critical recapper ask someone who had a great time at an average show to quit Phish. To the contrary, over and over, the message is “your experience and enjoyment of every show is your own, nobody’s saying it wasn’t fun, regardless of the description that follows.” But the retort is, “maybe you should quit Phish/can you still have fun?”

It’s like a thought police that is scared of critical thinking or analysis, because that might somehow detract from your personal experience. The thing is, as I mentioned above, it’s totally valid to enjoy Phish as an escape and celebration and choose to see all the positive. Nobody on the site team, none of our writers, is forcing anybody to engage in rankings or act like an art critic, or engage with the music in any way beyond how you want.

So it’s frustrating and confounding to be told over and over, often in insulting, emotional, and aggressive ways, that we can’t and shouldn’t engage with the music how we choose, on a website that we built for the specific purpose of engaging with the music analytically and critically.