@AlbanyYEM said:

I don't mean to hijack this but I just have to talk about this YEM.

Just a disclaimer here, I don't think the jamming if taken out of the context of the YEM, is even close to rivaling some of the top stuff we've heard from the past few years. That said (at least for me), the fact that this YEM exists is right up there in importance with the watershed breakthroughs of Dick's 12 and last fall's run. There was a clear sense of turning the corner.

How could an averagely-awesome jam come close to any of those far better sounding moments? It seems to me that Phish in 3.0 has pretty self-consciously been purposely denying themselves any sense of being derivative to what they once were. Part of the consequence of so rigorously moving forward is that the vehicles of 1.0 (though they were already moving away from this in 2.0) with the exception of Tweezer and Disease were just cut off from ANY attempt to jam (and I mean type II here). Quite frankly, I'm not even sure why they still played Mike's or YEM.

But isn't self-consciously denying being derivative in itself simply a negative movement away from the past? If they are purposely trying to deny past avenues, in a way they are still defined as-against the past. I know I feel it when I hear a Mike's, even in the first set, or a now-rare YEM closer, even though I don't want to, I inevitably hope against all odds that THIS will be the one. The one that goes big. And knowing the feel of those glorious jams from back in the day, I can't help but compare 3.0 to 1.0 and 2.0, the very thing they are trying to move away from. Consciously not jamming the big jam vehicles seems to me to be caring about the past in a way that hampers truly transcending the past.

The seeds of this transcendence are strewn through Bowie, Stash, Weekapaug, and dear-god Hood, where the band does not deny any pathos for rational or self-conscoius reasons, but simply accepts the movement of the whole. The more this kind of thing takes them beyond themselves, the more comfortable they are in opening up to an identity that is not self-ascribed but simply where the music takes them. This is an open-ended process where their identity is not closed off (be it because of the past or through conscious choices) but necessarily remains open. The hints of the future are felt in the snapshot of the present, but we can only really see the context in retrospect. The shows, the jams, the feeling cannot simply be contained as facts or knowledge in our minds because the razor's edge of the present constantly starts this process anew.

I don't want to contradict myself here and suggest that I know exactly what the present identity of Phish is, and I'd suggest anyone with those kinds of glib answers is depending solely on a retrospective comparison or idealizing in a worshiphood cult of arational response. The past is static and can only be a point of reference that gives context to the present. If we look at the present state of Phish, the obvious clues of transcending the past as a referent do not tell us what the future will bring, but rather only that Phish is open to the future by being fully engaged in the present.

Taking off the guardrails of their identity, forgetting about having to consciously deny ever being derivative, means that we have finally gotten over the 1.0 shadow. I really do think the last step in this process (again, not denying the openness of the present here) is shucking off the "we don't do that anymore" mindset. Doing this is not about giving the fans what they want so we can all live the glory days again, but instead is about not letting those very glory days tell us what we can do anymore. The constant demand for comparison (though obviously still a possibility) does not compel us anymore because Phish is just going to play Phish's music.

That's why I think this YEM tells us more than its jam.

All I would like to add is there were other things let's call them that helped the boys create those magnificent jams. Those things are not in use these days.

If you look at the Beatles for instance. How their music sounded when they started and the evolution that took place after they used drugs.

I'm not saying phish couldn't go there with out drugs because there's many different factors that contribute to their style and a jam within a tune. And I don't believe drugs were ever the foundation for them or anyone. But when used properly they did catapult their music into some of the most incredible moments many of us have witnessed and herd in our lives. Thankfully they're healthy today and can still share their great music with us!