@zzyzx said:

They didn't "frequently" have improvisational abandon in 93... it happened in like a dozen shows, tops. I defy you to find many interesting jams between the Backyard in Austin (day after the Bomb Factory) and 5/26/94 - a stretch as long as this tour has been. Hell even in 95, I saw 5 shows on the fall tour (the NW run) and the only interesting jams were a slightly different arrangement of Slave in Seattle and a very good Harry Hood in Spokane, but probably not much better than last night. With the exceptions of 97 and 03-04, the big improvisational highlights were always in the exceptional shows, the ones we talked about after the tour, not something to expect night after night after night. It's just that no one listens to 6/13/94 or 11/23/96 or 10/5/95 so we forget that they exist.

i have been making this point over on OPT for a while now. see the discussion over the camden tube on my review...short tubes used to be the norm and jammed out tubes were the exception. that being said, i am a little perplexed as to why the song rotation has been shortened so this summer. i would expect that all the advances in technology (livephish & webcast) would have pushed the band in the other direction towards more spontaneity and rarities in order to keep interest high and purchases coming in. what motivation does any fan have to see multiple shows and purchase multiple LP downloads if all shows are mostly the same and musical excursions few and far between?