@cnote_prophet said:

IT's funny how this article speaks of phish kicking it up a notch then begs for phish to reurn to ways of its past. You know why the mystery jams interesting because it can truly come from practically any song any time. I'd love for Phish to finally challenge it's fan base like it did in the beginning. Become completely unpredictable again. IDK how that's possible. This band inspired most of us by finding sporadic human moments by pushing edges. What happens when that becomes formulaic? IM 100% sure this is what they've been wondering since Big Cypress. IT's still the most fun ever. But, certainly it's been a long time since it was new.

I hear your point and in many regards you are completey right.....post modernism and it's components (art) can be stifling.......however - all art builds on something that proceeded it....no art is completely original or concieved without a frame of reference (literally or figuratively). Remembering that and then looking Phish - we are smack dab in the middle of the post-modern debate. Phish = lot's of history; a ton of indivdiual moments we look back on and say..."if only they could just do something like that again" and that's not particularly bad....1.0 Phish set some serious framework for what a band could do if they went all-in on a nightly basis and when they went "all-in" we got IT; we got HOSED; we got an entire encyclopedia of musical happenings that we (collectively) look back on (and debate, cherish, argue over) and marvel. 2.0 we get Phish pushing the limits of their music usually resulting in some cathartic, soupy/dark/funk laden melange of show experiences (sometimes great; 2.28.2003...sometimes not; most of Summer 2004). In 3.0 we get a "rebirth" with literally Phish and its fans rejecting the permanence of our past selves and embracing something new albeit something undeniably linked to the past. And the best part - we're not even done with developing phistory...it will continue and we will debate on its merits (thank-God); debate on the old and its relation to the new and visa versa...I guess what it comes down to is that if the boys want to revisit a theme, an effect, a shelved song, a chord progression that once blew thier (and our) proverbial socks off then more power to them....i say learn from history and build on top of it....and then reveal in the "newness" of that creation. Don't get bogged down by the "inception-point" (or being part of someone else's inception point) as it is mostly a derivative of something we've (they and us) already heard, seen, thought, or said in the past.....let get deeper in Leg 2 and build on the foundation that's a lifetime in the making....