Thank you very much @RationalThinking
That was one one of the most thoughtful and well-articulated things I've read here in a long, long time. I used to read .net constantly, as well as contribute my attempts at interesting writing. Occasionally I would offer what I thought was level-headed, negative criticism and I was downvoted into oblivion or, on more than one occasion, my posts were removed. I barely read .net anymore because of the problem you deftly illustrated: this is not a space for discussion, debate or even honesty. Its an echo chamber of incessantly glowing reviews. It became so boring to follow along with a tour or a run when every review was the some version of the same thing, and that thing was attendance-biased and one-dimensional.

Some people may have enjoyed the gag and I'm happy for them. I found it dreadful. My rebuttal to the review however is that while, yes, "relentless pursuit of evolution" is admirable (for any artist, let alone one of Phish' tenure), when that pursuit is placed above all else, including a consideration of what the devoted audience may want or like, then it loses the admiration of some (including myself). Coming from someone who has loved this band mightily and yet recently been finding it hard to access that love, let me iterate a few of the things that I think support my point:
- incessantly playing new songs, clearly unable to grasp when they aren't very good and are way below par, solely for the fact that they are new
- relying too heavily on stage gadgetry (e.g. pedals/synths/toys) at the expense of musical invention
- removing themselves from day-to-day involvement in the ecosystem of their community, allowing tickets to become absurdly expensive and for this once cutting-edge band to be sending email blasts twice a day for discounted merchandise
- settling into a pattern where two of the three most predictable events of the year (Mexico and MSG) are prohibitively expensive for many

Thanks again @RationalThinking for the great response to the review. And to @meganglionna, yes, relentless pursuit of evolution is certainly a hallmark of this band, however that may push away as many people as is inspires.

@RationalThinking said:

The downvotes of the "non-mainstream" opinions in these comments prompted me to write this response.

Downvoting a comment that they want Fish to play the drums, or even worse, downvoting (-15?!?) a comment that someone didn't enjoy the performance is exactly why phish.net has substantially degraded in content over the last 2-3 years and why, I think, many of the "big name" analytical users have stopped posting. As a very long-time lurker/reader (like, rec.phish.net), this place, for 10+ years, used to openly welcome and encourage critiques and criticism and in-depth analysis and obsessive comparison. Over the last 2-3 years, that phish.net identity has swung substantially to the opposite side of that spectrum, where easy answers and instant gratification of whatever the most recent jam/show they played is the best ever, inarguably. And the comparative discussion/analysis literally stops there.

Example: Current .net superuser: "That July 2024 Tweezer/that 15-minute Ruby Waves/that entirely standard-good 2024 jam was the best they have ever played! They've never sounded so good!" (current .net's response: +20 upvotes + yes it was the best ever because I was there/webcasted it + rejects any and all comparisons/critiques as to why that July 2024 Tweezer/Ruby Waves/jam maybe isn't the best they've ever played + harshly rejects any contrasting opinions/contrasting examples). And so on, ad nauseum. This is phish.net's current reality. The extreme recency bias (plus the outright rejection of the critical comparison of recent jams to other historical jams and the rejection of compositional accuracy/speed/integrity, as compared to now vs then) on today's forum is mind-blowingly absurd.

True, "academically critical" discussion of Phish (and not for any negative outcome/purpose) used to be what the forum used to be all about. Intense, deliberate, musical dissection that would harbor appreciation, welcome differing opinions, and promote a discernment between "standard good" versus "really good" versus "good... but not that good." Encouraging deeper listening, deeper understanding, and deeper appreciation for just how good Phish always was (and, at times, still is) and how everything compares to everything so that we can identify the truly exceptional, the great, the good, the average, and the subpar, and understand the paths to get to them, and how they all connect/relate/compare.

This is because Phish is comparable to one band only: Phish. We should be intensely comparing Phish to Phish on the phish.net forum. We should not be giving them a free pass to deity because they played a show you attended. This is literally what the phish.net forum is was for: to share all thoughts and analyze all parts of Phish's music. Except, now, the forum is the same as almost every other internet forum -- many/most threads are completely unrelated to Phish, and those that are related to Phish seem to be an echo chamber of nodding heads that are entirely unwelcome to a contrasting opinion... just like any other internet/subject matter forum.

And let me make one thing very, very clear: Phish is great and I LOVE them. They're Phish. They're the top of the mountain in the jam world and also in the live music world. But that doesn't mean every jam they play is great. It doesn't mean every show is great. And it doesn't mean everything they play or try is the best thing ever. What's more, and something that current phish.net doesn't seem to be able to reconcile, is that you can still have the time of your life at a subpar, average, or above average show without needing to call it the best show ever and call its jams the best jams ever. I have been to 100+ shows over three decades. I have had a blast at some shitty Phish shows, and I have had a blast at some extraordinary Phish shows, and I have had a blast at some average-good Phish show. And after each show, after the lights go up, I know which type of show I was at, and I accept it. I don't try to turn it into something it wasn't just because I had a good time, or just because I reallllllllllllllllly wanted it to be a great show.

Unfortunately, with today's iteration of phish.net superusers, if you're not saying/agreeing with them that every jam Phish is playing is the best thing ever, OR if you are saying xyz jam show was entirely average/forgettable, the non-superuser is ostracized, downvoted, or otherwise told, as you, @dongusbologna, alluded to, "You aren't a real fan, you don't get it, can you still have fun?" And, subsequently, here we are today in a very watered down version of the forum, where the only opinion allowed is the one that aligns with this statement: "this is the best thing they have ever played."