@Sporkfan, thank you very much for those anecdotes, they are sincerely appreciated and well-received. Sounds like a really great time, and there is no way me, we, or anyone else is trying to triviailize or undermine your experience and memories with our words from afar. The Sabotage > 2001 example is awesome. There is no way I (or 99.99% of Phish fans who did not attend Lemonwheel) could have known what that must have felt like unless we had someone like you tell us. That's why you paid for the ticket, the travel, and the experience - to have that moment shine for *you.* That's your awesome contribution/involvement to/within Phish history, among many others I'm sure. I am glad you shared that.

My only retort is that if any sort of anaylsis is left exclusively to those in attendance/there it witness it live (whether it is music, history, cultural events, political events, sports, ect) then we would be living very boring, sheltered, closed off lives, exempt from so much perspective and information that has happened outside of our own personal, eye-witness experiences (which are quite few and limited).

I do understand and agree with your point of how being there completely changes the experience... this goes for literally any experience. I also see the other side, however, our side, where we can inform ourselves in focused, educated, but perhaps limited, arenas in order to formulate an opinion about an experience or event, in some capacity.