@PersnicketyJim said:

Don't want to come across arrogant in any way by explaining my methods below, but I'm comfortable with neither savant nor cheater labels. Thank you @bl002e and team for putting in the effort over the years. This has all been wonderful...

1) Identify the key. Maybe half the time that leads to the actual song due to the nature type II jamming; otherwise I memorize and reference it when scanning samples. It helps when you have "perfect" or absolute pitch, plus relative pitch. In today's case, it's in C.

2) Identify the tempo/beat. More of a general characterization (e.g. medium, fast, etc.) than identifying a specific key, but memorized and used for reference in the same manner as key. Again, in today's case it's right around 120 beats per minute. I'm also a drummer, and I've been trying to play along to Fishman for over 20 years.

3) Guess the era. This is primarily a gear/effects identification exercise. It's tempting to do this first but I think too many MJMs purposefully mess with this. Sometimes, though, the sound of Trey's "mini kit" really narrows it down, as it did today. Add a certain cymbal, keyboard or filter effect and it can be further narrowed.

4) Characterize the venue. Indoor, outdoor, small, large... Today's indoor sound combined with the mini kit pointed straight at Fall 1995. I already prefer listening to AUDs over SBDs, FWIW.

5) Open up .net song histories in a new tab, and jam charts in another. If the key and tempo suggest a particular song, I'll use the two charts to get a sense for when it may have been notably jammed. But if they don't, like today for me, then I'll just focus on descriptive clues.

6) Open up phishtracks.com (or similar online database) and sample according the memorization and clue-ranking methodology above. This is a rapid-fire exercise in which I scan approximately 20-30 second segments of jams before moving on to the next performance.

Today I sorted the jam charts by year (1995) and went down the list looking for mentions of Trey's drum kit. (Note: I laughed at the persnickety description of the 1995-11-09 Simple ... "Excellent and very rocking version, with Trey on the mini percussion kit, but in a great way."

Out of caution, I listened to a few specially worded Summer 95 jams w/o mention of Trey's drums before diving into the the 5 that do clearly reference them in the notes. It took me only about one minute to do steps 1-6, followed by 10-15 minutes to get through perhaps 6 jams before I arrived at 1995-11-24. I probably listened to the posted MJM clip 5-10 times in between.

That's all. It would be great if someone built a Shazam for Phish - not for MJM, but for science. Obviously the advent of Phishtracks and its relatives changed the game a while ago. And once I started winning, of course, opening .net and refreshing became a Monday ritual. I should also point out that I honed my skills at @cmonster 's coffee shop - he plays Phish nearly every day and he indulges my obsession by refereeing while I pour my brew. @uctweezer, @mcgrupp81: who's next?

Nice job. Been too busy at work and when I check in, you've already bagged it and tagged it. It was interesting to hear how you break it down. I've never studied music and have always told myself that with Phish and much other music, I am depriving myself of an inner layer of the beauty by not becoming more informed. Kudos to you on your abilities. Side note: Looking at your avatar is bringing to mind the idea of the MJM spin off; Mystery Art Monday (MAM). "Yeah bra, I was totally checking Ascension of Christs from the 17th Century until he threw out that brushstroke hint".