@tmwsiy said: [quote]fuel to the fire I suppose, but nevertheless, another's opinion on recent happenings with Phish: http://www.avivhadar.com/2011/06/16/phish-a-personal-reflection/[/quote ] Well he said it much more eloquently than I could. I agree with him completely. These days I go to shows sober(completely), and except for a few times at the 2 OH shows I thought the shows were mediocre at best. Blossom was one of the better ones? Yes, I really enjoyed the first set of Blossom- the FIRST set. FYF through Rocket in my Pocket I really enjoyed. Foam was nice- nothing special, but enjoyable. Ocelot is my son's song and it was a good one. I really like the outro jam in Ocelot. They treated BOTT like a first set cookie cutter song. Filler. Guelah is Guelah- still dig it though. I was hoping they were gonna take Tube somewhere. I thought in my head, "they read our posts on the .net about how shitty the PNC Tube was and this is gonna be their redemption!" Nope. Just another four minute Tube 3 shows later. Man Page wanted to go too!! Fukin take the leash off that dawg and let'em run around a bit. In 96 a 4 minute Tube was excuseable/awesome cuz ya got one once a year. That, and they hadn't shown us what they could do with that beast yet. ie 97-98. Antelope ... just don't run like it used to.

Second set: Birds?? not in 98 and not now. Blossom Possum.. jaggered up timing and all. At least it was unique. Piper was filler on 6/4 and not the kind you put at the end of a blank tape as a tasty bonus-morsel. Steam is AWESOME. I like it a lot. Some Phish songs take me a bit to warm up to but not Steam. I can see this turning into something(hopefully) like the Meat soundcheck jam from 7/8/98. Now, that Sally IS SPECIAL. They could'a done that staccato/plinko segment for the rest of the show and I would have been beaming! Anyways, two and a half hour concert and there was about 40 minutes of keeper. And this is one of the better shows of the tour????? That's not how I remember it. That is definately not how I want it to be. We know what this car is capable of..... let's get er out on the open road and see what she can do.

I'm not gonna get into Riverbend except I had been waiting since Big Cypress for another C&P and, well. I got one. Prior to the OH shows I was scheming on how I could make it to more shows. "Well, Darien is only 4 and a half from the Burgh. I could get Wed off...." Then after following the tour through Bethel and PNC I was like, well, let's see how the OH shows are. Now, I want everyone to know I had an excellent time and this tirade makes it sound like I am hating, but I'm not. Love Phish. But driving home I decided I was cool with the 2 shows I got. This is the first time in my 16 years of Phishin that this decision has been at all easy. And I am ok with not seeing them until.... ??? Looks like a NYE run maybe!?! Next year maybe!?! I don't know but I hope they either shift gears and stop posing like the kings of jam or do something with their off time to bring some cohesion to the group. I am hopeful but weary.

@tmwsiy Notice at the bottom of Aviv's blog how he denied the 'comments' part of the blog. He probably didn't want to deal with the imminent retaliation. Like the one I'm about to most likely experience.

Peace and love the phish