I’m baffled at why anyone would rate this scorcher as less than 4 stars (and I wasn’t there, either).

Out of the gate with the delightful and super rare “Willin,” into a superb, swirling, stretched out Tube, a spirited SYSF jam, the joyful return of You Sexy Thing, a Tweezer>Manteca>Makisupa/Sexy thing mashup>Twist dance party...and that’s just the first set!

I could write an essay about the odyssey of Waves>Carini, and the Chalkdust>Have Mercy is wonderfully tasty and playful. Finished off with a majestic Hood jam, and the first Sweet Jane since Bakers.

I get that this wasn’t 12/30/19, but if this isn’t a 4 star show....well, it is a 4 star show. Period.

This, and the other two, are good shows. There’s so much good stuff. So what gives on the ratings folks?!?

We all know listening/watching a show and being at a show are two different experiences. So I propose we take a ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ approach with a two rating system: votes if present at show (audience rating) and critic rating (for those not present). I’m certain the data will show unconscious bias.

If ever any argument were surely beaten to death, only to jump back to life in the next moment, it’s the one surrounding the existence of an objective measure of the quality of music.

To wit: when I listened to 2/22/20, I heard a band who dropped several major bust out covers (Willin’, you sexy thing, Manteca, Sweet Jane) and a few decent jams (Waves,Tweezer, Carini, CDT), but who managed to get in their own way with song selection (third slot evening song, energy set opener) and overall lack of energy.
Trey refused to engage his guitar in any meaningful sort of fashion for about 50% of the show. Fish and Mike did most of the heavy lifting, Mike in particular shining on Carini (which was dark af and, along with Waves, the highlight of the show).
You had a blast on the beach or on the couch? Great. No skin off anyone’s nose. The rest of us can save our our four star assessments for the shows when it comes together.

This is my first time commenting here and I generally dont post on the internet in general....

I have a couple of thoughts which may not be popular based on the ratings of these shows.

I disagree with the comment above about Trey. I remember in the 90's early 2000s when we would complain amongst ourselves about Trey dominating the jam too much. I finding it nice that Trey is giving the rest of the band space to lead the jam which you could see and hear. I thought that led to rich full band cohesive jams. I prefer this to Trey dominating as I am going to Phish shows and not a Trey show(I know he defers in TAB as well but this is to illustrate a point). I really enjoyed hearing Mike more up in the mix all weekend, I noticed it right away on Thursday and thought it was fantastic.

I am also confused how none of the songs from the weekend ended up on the jam charts. I definitely think Waves from this show seems like a strong candidate for the jam charts.