It's crazy to me how much this sounds like Hood

Chalk Dust Torture has had no lack of killer versions in its entire history, but has really had one overfloweth of a cup since 2012 or so; this gigantic version, with its brilliant Hood-esque peak, might be the finest of them all.

Absolutely stellar CDT type 2 jam. One for the ages. Amazing energy at MSG!!

of all the Chalk Dusts out there... this one has become one of my favorites

One of the few times (only time?) the sea shanty is proven wrong, as quite a lot happens in this 4th quarter CDT (per the jam chart). CDT's 2014-16 is one of the things (of many) I like to bring up any time someone tries to say 3.0 isn't worth its salt.

The jam out of CDT's verses would be more than enough to get this sucker on the chart, but the fact that the Marimba Lumina/Mike on keys segment, which could very easily have come across as a gimmick, works so damn well makes this a no-brainer contestant for Summer 2016's jam king. CDT in the last 5 years has really been something else, hasn't it?

I don't understand why no one talks about this Chalk Dust. I watched this on the webcast and was expecting it to be an instant classic but then nothing happened. This has to be the most old-school version they've done since 1.0. Tension and release jamming is everywhere! I thought the .net idolized that kind of playing! Do yourself a favor and check this out then complain that it should at least be mentioned on the jam chart.

Another one of those jams, like the 12/31/14 Tweezer, that one imagines people would *flip their shit over* if they played it in 2009, but kind of gets a "hey, this is pretty good" now because 3.0 has taken such a quantum leap since its first year. Don't miss out on this one, is what I'm trying to say.

My favorite CDT from 2015, a year for CDT nearly (if not exactly) as good as 2014, the year that CDT made its astounding transformation from "let's rock this mother out" to "let's, um, exceptional improv this mother out". This baby just *goes* places, and the wild segue into Twist at the end is just icing on the cake. People are gonna hear 9/5/15 II years from now and ask themselves "why did people not like this show, again?"

The Ghost of the year, IMO; there's just as much going on here in terms of interesting improv as in the 7/16/13 CDT, which is two minutes shorter but good enough for the (deserved) Highly Recommended treatment. There's more top-end Ghosts than CDTs, for sure, but this one is well worth its place on the chart. Magnaball really *is* a treasure trove, isn't it?

One of those jams that's so low-key and unassuming that you almost don't realize how darn good it is until you've listened to it a few times. That tells you just how dialed in the band was at this point of Summer 2015, I'd say. The CDT -> Tweezer duo from Blossom may have kind of a dorky nickname, but god*damn* is it a monolith.

A lovely, very subtle version, the kind of jam you're not likely to hear in any other era (you sure as shit wouldn't hear it in 1993), and a great opening to one of 2014's very best sets.

This jam may not have a huge climax or a linear journey, but the entire jam is connected Phish. Fishman brings in the Wedge-like drumming around 14 min and takes this one into the fourth quarter. The transition into Piper was so natural. There was a huge swell of smiles right when we all knew the worm was on the way. One of my favorite moments of the entire weekend.

There's something really kinda fun about going through old setlists and seeing CDT sprinkled all throughout both sets for most of its career (it was just as likely to pop up mid-Set 1 as mid-Set 2), and then looking over the last two years and seeing it in Set 1, Song 1/2 as the big jam anchor for that set - there's pretty much nothing in the catalog that prepares you for that kind of transformation. This is a darned good version from 2014, a year not particularly lacking for really good CDTs, which has the bad luck of being played in a show most folks consider a lesser one from the year (I would, too). It would've made great filler after 7/13/14 II or something on a tape, though.

Best jam of 3.0 period. 2015 included. My opinion of course. Any other choice?

I think it's a top 5 phish jam of all time...it's perfect.

I'd say this should be listed as a key version of CTD. Definitely above the IT version, which got boring at times.

Well the best of 3.0 has to be the best ever.. Right?..... I love Camden 99 and all, but I think I like Camden 10 more, and they've topped that a handful of times

Imagine if the IT Chalk Dust was given a haircut, a hot bath, and dressed up in a Brooks Brothers 3-piece, and you have the Randall's Chalk Dust, a 28-minute improvisational journey that may not have the peak of the other two Big Time Jams from this show but does everything else exceedingly well. You won't even notice the time flying by, as the band leaps from idea to idea with the excited fervor of 1994, but with the fluidity and grace that marks 3.0's best jams - upbeat jamming, dives into darkness, the hilarious LxL/2nd Mike's jam tease, off-kilter plinko-esque weirdness, and buzzing semi-hose to take us out. A benchmark jam, the best CDT of 3.0 (ever???) to date, and the first of a devastating 1-2-3 punch.

Both 2012 and 2013 boasted some darn fine CDTs, but this one was the first harbinger of Chalk Dust Torture's peak year of 2014, and something of a junior version of the much more famous version played four nights later.

Lucky enough to catch this jam live, and boy was it a jam to behold. At about the nine minute mark the band begins to develop this very spacey and sustained jam, king of like the ending of the famous Dick's 12 version but a lot more jarring and eerie sounding. Over this wall of sound trey began to play a delicate wha chord while mike plays the drill which gives this jam another unique quality. As this part of the jam fades away trey starts to play delicate chords with page switching to piano. as this part of the jam grows leg mike and trey began to play-off each other while page lays down the texture with sustained synthesizer notes, but seamlessly trey began to play a riff eerily similar to tweezer reprise and page hops on the clav and mike gets this really strange bass tone that complements the groove perfectly. Then go to a start stop section which is straight fire, with page railing away on the clav and trey making nast effect with his echo-plex. The jam then shifts into a quite rock groove before fading away into Mike's Song.

This is one of the most powerful jams out there. I like it more than 7.31 Tahoe Tweezer and 7.13 Randalls Chalkdust Torture.

Proof positive, if you really needed it, that it isn't always the length of a jam so much as what is done with it. 7/16/13 II is a damn good set, and this is the centerpiece.

This CDT is every bit as good as Camden 99 -- a whole different feel, as mentioned, but every bit as substantial. The jams is incredibly cohesive, melodic, and it moves -- it doesn't let up for a second in fact. It might be my favorite jam of the era besides Tahoe.

I agree with my Michigan avatar-sharing friend - this is one of 3.0's best jams, and certainly one of the 2-3 best CDTs ever. I wrote about it last year for @LawnMemo's website (it's been long enough that I'm okay plugging myself now): http://lawnmemo.com/33-in-33-31/

I personally believe this should be a key version. The progression in this is incredible and its one of my favorite versions. I know the camden one is a whole different monster, but this is a beast too.

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I could drive down a highway to this.

Sounds like a sped up and happier what's the use in bliss section

Sped up Simple Jam when it hits "bliss" section

To me, length of a song has nothing to do with how great it is. I have no problem with anyone calling this the greatest CDT ever. This is 14 minutes of incredible, jaw-dropping music!

It's funny to see just how short (or "short" this jam is, considering that lots of folks consider it the best CDT ever (and one of their great jams). It doesn't take too long for the band to break out into a lovely upbeat jam, then after briefly sliding back into CDT's limits they turn on the hose and Trey's soaring notes take over, not unlike the Reading Disease (which only hints at the Allmans, instead of outright teasing them like here), before taking things down to a slow boil and segueing neatly into Roggae. I don't know if I'd call it the best CDT, but it's certainly the one with the biggest peak, and really is an uplifting piece of music.

I love this version of CDT so, so much, and the Alpharetta 2013 CDT has more improv in it than this entire CDT does. Just further proof that a good run of segues can be as impressive as a monster jam.

Trey plays a wrong chord in the intro that I happen to like quite a lot. Check it out if you're bored like me on a Saturday night in your apartment and haven't gone outside all day and are thinking about ordering a pizza but are kinda on the fence about it.

I absolutely adore this version. The two Gullotti shows from Summer '97 are easily two of the most slept-on shows in the live catalog; 7/25/97, in particular, is right up there with some of the Fall tour.

In keeping with the "James Brown" theme of this show, this Chalkdust jam alternates between a typical raging jam and a wah-wah funk rhythm that predicts the uber-funky 6/13/97 Dublin version. Fishman gets into it as well, shouting like he does during the breaks in Suzy Greenberg

This version just might be better than the version from 11/16/94 released on A Live One. Trey is firing off notes like Katniss Everdeen shoots arrows: at a furious pace and with deadly accurate aim.