@bertoletdown said:

Pilot, on this point I am with you and fuck that Waxbanks guy .

Bug is a great song.

i'd say, rather, that a lot of people relate very strongly to it despite it being a terrible song.

i say it's a 'set killer' in the sense that *for me* (and for lots of other folks) the first few minutes of the song are really tiresome, and they tend to happen at peak emotional moments -- trey relates differently to it than i do, christ knows. the mild cheek of the lyrics mismatches painfully, *to me*, with the sluggish music. there *are* profound phish songs, but bug goes for a little lyrical trick ('which did you think i meant?') instead of going deep.

i think there are some songs that trey feels so deeply that his sensitivity to their musical 'appropriateness' is reduced.

for me, Light is a more interesting song in the same vein -- but it's actually *alive* as music. Piper, to me, *embodies* (but doesn't lyrically evoke) the same rolling cyclical all-is-continuous feeling as Light, though the lyrics are just musical elements (meaningless as words).

and i don't mind stupid phish songs -- Steam has unbelievably bad lyrics too, but they fit superbly with the ever-increasing tension of the song's written part (which dissipates partially *as steam*, get it?). the whole song works. but SofL and Bug don't light anything up for me, and there are lots of phish songs that fit their roles in a second set without jarring lyrically.

also, fuck that bertoletdown guy.