Thanks to all the level-headed people who are able to recognize fallibility in this admittedly terrific band. There have been some truly amazing peaks in their long and joyful career, but Coventry was not one of them. It was a joke and anyone who tries to, by way of verbal acrobatics, dress it up to be anything less, either wasn't there or is an apologist that isn't able to address Phish with any real clarity. These shows were terrible; there are times in our lives when we need to rise to the occasion, and on this occasion Phish did not. Trying to praise these sets is an act of The Emperor's New Clothes; they were aimless, dispirited, and dissappointing. The one thing I always remember of Coventry is not hiking 20 miles up 91 after abandoning our car (yes I was one of those devoted fans); it is not slogging through mud all weekend, and it is not the half-assed music put on by four guys that had rarely reached such lows (even in 03-04). It was the sight of each one of them hopping into their own luxury tour bus and getting the fuck out of there seconds after the paltry one-song encore was over. There we were, the fans who had made it all happen over the years, ankle deep in mud, wondering what to do as the band ruthlessly abandoned us to the soggy shit-show that the scene had become. Bravo, indeed.
People need to be able to think critically, no matter how much they love their subject. I love the music of this band and hope that never changes, but I really found this article to be the least insightful piece of writing ever. I'm sure the author loves Phish quite a bit, but I feel sorry for him if he cannot distinguish the all-time great shows from the disasters. My god, man, are you really attempting to compare Coventry CDT with Randalls '14 or Dicks '13? Its just as well that you more or less left '97 out of your analysis; I'm afraid to think what troublesome comparisons you would have made. Its common knowledge that at this point in their career (03-04), Phish was not practicing. It shows.