@AlbanyYEM said: "Maybe the lack of bridges lets things go deeper..."

The Dead only went type 2 with a very small portion of their song catalog, even in the early days, and always with songs that had a musical bridge which invited exploration. A couple obvious examples of this are Uncle John's Band and Playing In the Band. An approach, btw, which Phish is soundly panned for these days. @waxbanks said as much last year. In other words, AC/DC Bag is a song by Phish, owned by Phish, written by Phish. Yet, usually, when Phish plays their song, we will complain and groan because they don't play that Bag, and we all know what that Bag is....in our minds we long for the Bag from Hampton '97, don't we? But that's not fair of us, any more than it would've been to expect Jerry to go type 2 on Loser. Just because it happened a few times in history doesn't mean that's what we should expect. Ditto for Roses Are Free. It's been jammed out only a few times, but as a result of our EXPECTATIONS, we are dissapointed when they don't do it again. To me, that's the quintesential definition of being "jaded", ie; when the music doesn't meet my standard of yesteryear, I downgrade it in my mind as average. This is not fair, but I digress.

To me, Tweezer has always been Phish's Dark Star. The composition itself invites darkness and space. It just rages a bit harder. The Dark Star performances from '70-'73 still rank in my mind as the greatest improvisational pieces ever recorded. The Dead were TIGHT then, and their mojo was exploratory, chancy. Yet and still, most of their library was played straight down the middle, even then.

What you said in your first post on this thread about the way this show flowed....how it wasn't just the BIG jams, but everything seemed to feed off itself, as though the music was playing itself, and your comment about concentration was right on. It does take enormous concentration to play like that and not get swept up in the excitement of the crowd and the stage, but to be able to listen at that level to one another and submit yourself to the greater whole....that was always what the Dead's music was all about.

It really needs to go beyond the "jam". It bothers me that so many phans seems to have a mindset of 'well they played this and this this and it wasn't very interesting but then there was THIS, and it made it worth it. No. That's missing it.

You know the great Tweezer on 2/28/03 was predicated by a great first set that night, just like Divided Sky predicated the Tweezer on this show. In fact the Bathtub Gin that everyone raves about from 2/28/03 was germinated in Worcester two nights earlier during Ghost. Listen to that Ghost and you'll hear Gin from Nassau. It's like that.

It's all one song. It all flows together. Or it should. Perhaps we, as fans, are the ones restricting the band more than they are. Maybe we are pushing them through our reaction to the music into this anthematic jamming, though I doubt it. Just a thought.

So, this has become way too long and I'm sorry. I'm trying to flesh out and give form to some concepts you've been discussing and it's hard to do that quickly.

At any rate, my original thought here with this post was the idea of a musical bridge vs. the lack of one. Mike's Song has a natural bridge point that lends itself to a jam, much like Uncle John's Band. Wolfman's has it. Bathtub has it. Bowie has it. Hood has it. But what's cool about Phish is they have many times gone type 2 with songs that don't naturally lend themselves to that type of exploration, such as Suzy and Bag and Halley's.

Then again there are songs that beg for type 2 exploration that never seem to get it, such as Theme, Cities, McGrupp, et al.

I think in the end it's like you said. The band dynamics need to be right and they must be unselfish and willing to take chances. But the crowd needs to be willing to encourage it as well. You know I thought the Merriweather crowd was beautiful that second night. As the stop/start jamming in Light was happening, and it was quite dissonant, ala 1994-95, the crowd was right there, cheering and encouraging it. The sophistication of the Phish crowd is unmatched, I think. It gives the band freedom. But sometimes I cringe when I watch the crowd at some shows look deflated when Trey takes an unexpected left turn during a show. I don't think Trey is happy when he sees everyone stop moving and just stare at him. I don't know. That's probably stupid talk.

Lastly, this past show to me is the brother of the the first Gorge show from this past summer. The same type of georgeous flow and submission to the vibe. I'll never ever forget when Trey played Mango Song that night. It was so PERFECT for the moment. Yet I doubt many fans would've requested Mango Song for a mid second set placement.