@Azimuth said:

Great time at the show as always. Go home, get on the global connectivity interface and complain.

This sums it all up. However, 'it' is the misunderstanding of the motives and intentions of the recappers and anyone who doesn't bestow glowing praise upon every show the day after it was performed.

No one is complaining. That's the thing. With maybe a handful of exceptions; we all, regular users and admins alike, love Phish and are 'on board' with what they are doing in 2013.

Phish is playing twenty-five shows this summer, which is about seventy-five hours of music. It would take somebody over three days to listen to the tour in its entirety, which is like ten midnight-to-sunrise sets at Big Cypress in a row. That is a lot of music. Some people are going to listen to it all, which is great. Some people are going to pick and choose what they listen to - either a few select full shows or highlights from each night - and will still thoroughly enjoy the music and love Phish. What is the problem with someone providing a matter-of-fact appraisal of a performance for someone who again, loves Phish, but wants to stick to the highlights?

I love Bob Dylan more than probably any musician in history but I have yet to hear "Tempest" because I don't really have any interest in hearing it. If I was at a place that was playing it or had it recommended very highly by someone who knows every nook and cranny of the Dylan world, I'd give my ears to it. Does that make me an ersatz Dylan fan? I guess so, but who cares? It's my life and I'll do what I want.

The bottom line, to me, is this: the music is out there and is easily accessible. No one is restricting access to it and it will be around forever. If the show is in fact truly great, people are going to hear that and pick up on it eventually. Maybe it might take ten years for people to come around to its greatness, but if you like it now, that should be all that matters; and if you had as great time at the show as you say you did, who cares if someone gives it a 'C+' review?

It seems to me like a certain segment of Phish fans need to feel like they saw a great show as deemed by someone else's opinion on the internet. I can understand and relate, I read people's opinions about music to the detriment of my own critical faculties sometimes too. I'm not going to get mad if someone gives a three-star rating to an album I love and say the person doesn't know what they're talking about and say their jaded and complaining.

I don't know how to wrap this up, um, thanks for reading if you made it this far.

@pzerbo Thanks for your response, insight and kind words. Cheers!