I guess what i meant about "jams after Carini" is just that.. Some of the most inspired sets of all time only featured 10 minutes of exploratory improvisation. It isn't really what Phish is about in large part. Besides some 97-04 shows where they'd have multiple songs leave their structure and go into long drawn out jams on a single theme.

What got me thinking about 2012 vs 2013 was 7/8/12.

I can't even remember the last time anybody mentioned that show within my ear/eyeshot.

And yet that Light-> Twist> Kill Devil Falls-> MFMF> Swept> Steep-> Piper-> Kung> Hood
segment would have probably been my 3rd favorite set of 2013. It's just so well put together, with exquisite DEEP improv in Light and Piper bookending a segment with unexpected improv in the KDF outro jam and the little mini jam out of Steep. Page funks it out hard on the clav during Twist instead of going for Oye Como Va.. I mean.. it's a damn near perfect set of Phish.

I dunno. I just can't even imagine 2013 being better than 2012 unless Fall Tour is a bunch of Dicks 2012s and Guyuticas.

It isn't a competition.. but let's hold our horses and go back and think about how much stunning music from 2011 and 2012 we've forgotten about in our haste. When's the last time you listened to the first 2 nights of Bethel? Or the Riverbend Twist or GBOTT-> HYHU or Sand-> Nellie Kane or the DCU Roses or those exquisitely crafted 2nd sets from DCU 1 and AC 1&2.. It was kind of a monster of a year, capped off by Dicks, the 3 best shows they've played in a row since either 6/14 through 6/16/2000 or 4/2 through 4/4/98

And don't even get me started on 8/28/12.. Which was like a freaking dream come true for people who wanted to see Phish build a jammy set around songs you wouldn't expect.