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I did hear a lot beautiful music this summer though, which seems to be what you're getting at.
The Star Lake Stash wasn’t evil? Word. Still opened wormholes if yr willin’ to clamber on through.
Thread seems naval gazey or something. Maybe I need to do another deep dive into the History of Phish Music but I feel like peaks are apart of the game. Every era has them and every era has a crutch. Trey probably played too fast in '92. The funk of '97 evokes a certain mood and its stylings obviously got repetitive, whether that's good or bad is up to you. Regardless, their music was incredibly nuanced thens as it is now. Bliss just seems like a lazy characterization of what's going on.
At their best this summer (Alpharetta and MSG seem to be the standard bearers there) Phish were fluid as water.
Now, sometimes they were fluid, then, almost immediately, not.
Sometimes it was funny: MSG 2001 -> HYHU anyone!? (How can you not love it?)
Sometimes it was like, bruh... why'd you stop the MSG Disease to start The Dogs?
(Seriously, we couldn’t have found a musical passage into The Dogs? Ya had to stop? Ehhhalright. Fine.)
I heard a lot of creative and inventive playing that was loaded with intent this summer. Towards the end of my run through MSG I started saying it was like watching an orchestra – a concert rather than a party, if you catch my drift. Syracuse KDF might best illustrate this for me: It gets to a spot of incredible improv where I feel like all four of them are in simultaneous, co-equal control. But it's not like folks were dancing so hard we were afraid the roof would collapse, or for the band to unhinge the bearings of the amphitheater to take us on a race through the galaxy. It was a gentle coast through the cosmos. So I get with OP in the sense that Summer 2023, overall, was not a gnarly funky throwdown. In my experience. Regardless, 2021-2023 has been a really cool era for the band.
The idea that they’re uncreative or formulaic or played out is ridiculous to me. They have a playbook, sure. Would I like a bit more weird funk I can clap some ass to to be mixed in during a jam not named Split Open and Melt? Of course! I want Ken Dorsey to dial up Diggs 15 times a game too. So it goes.
Each show I saw this summer contained extraordinary moments of improv and musicianship and artistry and silliness that got me thinking / feeling / moving / connecting / opening. Plus I watched a band seem to step up their game each night. If was all just a I-IV-mixolydianoodlepoochsandwich then so be it, I guess. But something in me suspects that there’s a lot more going on in the music than OP is giving credit to.
Plus I think Trey finally nailed Sugar Shack! That’s gotta count for something!!! smdh… Just a shame so many of you are so wrong
EDIT: This bit's lame but it should be said: I'm willing to look at jam charts and/or listen to / read people's thoughts on such charts btw. Always down to learn about what Phish is up to musically.