@smoothatonalsnd said:

Great review!

"Why are we so obsessed with jam length? Why can’t a nine minute jam be as good as a 20 minute jam? Well, because that’s not how it works. You need the time and space to push into truly original territory. I think that’s about 15 minutes, give or take."

I kinda disagree on this one RJ...especially in the more recent years of 3.0, it takes Phish very little time to push into truly original territory. Now, it might take time for them to push into truly original territory that is also a standout musical moment, but listen to almost any Light jam from the last 5 years and you can hear that they leap almost immediately into new keys and improvisational episodes. What I do agree with is that it's often the second or third improvisational episode that is a real "keeper." And sometimes those don't appear until after 15 or 20 minutes. But look at the much lauded Hampton "Tweezer," or of course the Tahoe "Tweezer." Both of them get into their first really exceptional improvisational episodes outside the norms of Tweezer-dom around 10 or 12 minutes.

Great point. I guess it's perception vs. reality. There is a lot of the opposite in these shows, in that they get there quickly. Maybe it is the original + standout moments. But we can get into interesting territory quickly. Can we get to original and standout more quickly? I guess probably!