@TwiceBitten said:

@Gumbo72203 said:

A lot of the negative reviews come from the resulting feeling that the music being played is simply perfunctory...

I've gone back and forth on this since I got back on the bus in 2012. I honestly think that has way more to do with the listener than the band. Anyway. try listening to a Moma Dance from Fall 98, they're all pretty standard...it's really only a few early versions and some 2000 and 2.0 ones that aren't.

Excellent comment and so true. I think it's so tiresome whenever we compare eras in the vein of the "good ole days", because it just doesn't fly when you look at the whole picture in context.

You know, King Crimson was a jam band (of sorts) and most of their fans felt their best period was the early 70's when they were way the hell "out there". Yet the band went through period later on when they seemed bent on being as intricately tight as possible. I feel that their best album was "Discipline" which was a tour-de-force of delicate, tense, and precise musicianship which became richer with each listening.

Phish caught a lot of crap in 2010 for not taking chances, but that year saw some of the tightest playing by the band and some real virtuoso from Trey on a nightly basis. There were lots of 1,2,and 3 minute segments in many shows of that year that were absolutely breathtaking. They were simply brief.

This past year (and 2012) saw a progressive return to a looser, more experimental approach and we all generally loved it, but it was at the notable expense of precision on many occasions.

Beauty is in the eye of the listener as you correctly point out, we just have to have ears to hear it.

BTW, Trey is a huge King Crimson/Adrian Belew fan. Just saying.