@fastsareuseless, totally! Thanks for that

Trey plays what he hears. That's what he's always said. The Golden Age rug-pull, while I was watching (had to watch 2nd set twice, second time next morning, I thought I missed something, and it was past 1am east coast...) wasn't that bad. It "sounded" to me like that was going to happen. If Trey isn't getting the food he needs from the band, I think he decides it isn't sounding good, or good enough, and he pulls it. Page is the main giver here, at least I think Trey has said that in the past. Page plays mostly chords, and guitar can play notes over top them. The bass gets lucky (I play bass) in that the bass notes HAVE to mesh well underneath the piano, since piano/keys outline chords more properly than a guitar can (it's the length of the strings and the fact a piano string plays only that note, while a guitar string can play 24, or whatever...its a vibration/wavelength thing). So bass has to be right on.

But Page's playing is so right on, and he can throw in little different notes to slightly change chords, that Mike gets to really lay on an off-color note and you hear it. You hear that if you're there, on couch, in car, etc. And then Trey goes "BOOOOOOM" and he's playing in a different scale and your heart melts with ecstasy. When Page is feeding Trey things that can take the jam into "type II" territory, we love it and don't complain, the song goes into 15+ minute territory (the point in time, quoting Page from the IT PBS show, where "something" new and different starts to happen).

Maybe Trey gets that food some shows, or some sets, and others he doesn't? I personally thought Mike wasn't laying it on as much dicks2 or dicks3, compared to other nights of the summer. He wasn't all over the place and was more locked in and didn't venture into unknowns; something he likes to do and can make work almost all the time.

I guess, to me, that's that "trigger" or that "something" that you hear as a musician that makes you play something for over 5 minutes, it's that good you have to do something about it and with it. One of the all time musical highlights of everything I've ever seen live at a Phish show was the transition from Tweezer> Silent at Alpha this year. It was just really too good, and at that moment I realized I wasn't seeing the same phish as the year before, or any other year. People commented how good it was, but also how short the Tweezer was, and that it made it not as good as "it could be." But that cohesion, those 4-man segues, that's Phish right?

And for AC/DC bag, yes @facts, where are the bags of old? I saw it almost every show since 2011 now (lucky maybe lol) and its kinda the same: a burner of a song, but not like what Chalkdust is now. It's funny, like i was saying before, that big vehicle songs (like free or katy, etc.) got changed into standards, but now songs like chalkdust, undermind and heavy things (of all songs!!! wow!) are exploratory vehicles. Heavy Things the last few years has really come into its own, the one from way back Miami new years 09 was really super sick (y'all should listen to that one again) and while being there, I was probably more pumped during that song as it evolved than any other that night! We should look at these new views of old(er) songs as highlights to focus on, not if a Tweezer pushed past 12 minutes or not. A chalkdust that goes beyond a couple minutes, or a huge Page solo in heavy, is worth a 30 minute Tweezer to me or more any day, cuz we've all heard those super long songs that are already super long to begin with

Man, this thread is super fun guys!