It's interesting that there are a few different schools of thought when it comes to Coventry. Some won't touch it, and prefer to forget it. Some find it emotionally jarring, and in a way sincere, and some of Phish's truest, most open, honest, though dark, jamming. I think the discrepancy in whether or not these shows should even be listened to comes from the fact that some of us were there, or have been phans since 1.0, and some of us are new to 3.0. I'm from the latter camp and appreciate the emotion that is extremely apparent coming out of some of these jams. I think the younger crowd is interested to find out what Coventry was all about and the only way to do that is just listen. Those in the know at the time of the festival, probably won't be that interested in re-visiting.

Having said that- please check out the soundcheck, on 8/13/04. This may be a top 5 phish jam for me. The first 30 or 45 minutes is dark, exploratory, crunchy, and moves through several distinct sections.. it kind of dissolves into what i can only describe as acid country gospel. They lose me from there, but check the first half out. It was broadcasted over the Bunny as people were stuck in traffic.