This is great! Thanks for your work

Big surprises: (1) No Down With Disease anywhere on the list
(2) I thought Bowie-> Cities-> Bowie would be a first ballot winner.
(3) Only one 2.0 song (though it is the clear favorite of 2.0)

Really and truly rad! Thank you!

Awesome stuff here. I really appreciate the effort put into this. I'd love to see the full rundown because I friggin love both stats and Phish.

Thank you so much for all the hard work!

Very interesting stuff! I'll contribute to the inevitable discussion of "I can't believe ______ didn't make the cut!" by saying I am surprised that there's no Big Cypress represented.

As mentioned above, I am really surprised Cypress isn't represented. Other versions that didn't make it that I thought were shoe-ins are the 12/2/95 Tweezer, 7/30/97 Bowie> Cities> Bowie, and the Dick's Light, Sand or Undermind. On the other hand, all the jams that did make it were more than worthy, so no complaints at all.

The Dick's Sand/Undermind/Light were all close and the New Haven Tweezer I think was the closest song to not make it in. Weirdly, the Bowie> Cities> Bowie however only ended up with 10 votes. Strange.

This was a fantastic exercise. Thanks so much for putting it together! I have few quibbles with the fans' voting, except to say I cannot believe the Tahoe Tweezer received the most votes. Just can't believe it. I like the jam a lot, but most popular jam ever? Hmmm....

Could we get a list of the "near-misses" from each tier?

How did Dick's Simple get that many votes, but the Memphis 96 Simple is no where to be found? And how did a single Reba not make the cut?



in all seriousness though thanks for taking the time to put this together. It's not your fault all the voters don't have the same impeccable taste of FrankStallone

I really enjoyed your dedicated work in putting this together. The Albany YEM link is gold for me though

@12_29_97_4eva said:

This was a fantastic exercise. Thanks so much for putting it together! I have few quibbles with the fans' voting, except to say I cannot believe the Tahoe Tweezer received the most votes. Just can't believe it. I like the jam a lot, but most popular jam ever? Hmmm....

there is a reason the sports Hall of Fames put a 5 year waiting period on eligibility

Agree with you on Tahoe Tweezer, its a cool jam but I've never understood this crazy hype it has taken on. I imagine it's mostly to do with when it occured as people had for whatever reason been waiting on a 3.0 jam to reach 30 minutes, and this one came during a summer that had to that point been pretty lacking in terms of jams to that point. People latched onto Tahoe Tweezer from the minute the stopwatches ended and never looked back. Even for just 2013 I like the Hampton Tweezer better

That's not to say it isn't a good jam, but coming in at an overwhelming #1 ever... ridiculous

I voted for the 7-31-13 Tweezer, but FrankStallone makes an excellent point about "waiting periods"...though the point about 10-20-13 being a superior Tweezer...I will not agree with that.

The 11-29-97 Runaway Jim would have probably scored a lot higher in the summer of 1999, for example (and not just because a lot of good stuff has come since then).

I have just never 'got' the 11-17-97 Ghost. Don't get me wrong, I certainly enjoy it...but I enjoy the Tweezer and post-JBG jam more from that show even more.

8-29-14 Simple...12-6-96 would like to have a word or two with you (I actually voted for 11-16-94).

Definitely making it my goal to listen to every song in every tier. Thanks! I now know how I'm spending my next few days now, couldn't be more excited

Thank you to @TheRealBurnham for running this; voting was a lot of fun, as was the discussion.

A few points:
1. I do kinda wish more people had voted, just to open up the sample size a little bit more. I doubt the 7/31/13 Tweezer would have been #1 in that case (though I'm pretty sure it'd still be high up there), which would negate what I can only assume will be a *lot* of bitching about that. More on that in a sec.

2. The actual top 7 jams are absolutely respectable selections for the inner tier (yes, even the goddamn fucking Providence Bowie). Can you make arguments against them being in there over something like Tweezabella or the Fukuoka Twist or the Radio City Ghost? Sure, of course. Can you really say that any of these jams are egregious selections that 100% should not be there? IMO, definitely not.

3. My guess on no Cypress jam making it in either tier is because a bunch of different Cypress jams split the vote. This, I imagine, will be taken as another reason why Cypress is the best show - all the great jams that nobody can reach a consensus on. I argue that it's the reason why Cypress is so overrated - a bunch of very good jams that can sound somewhat similar, to the point where distinguishing them can be tough (although, really, the best jam is Sand -> Quadrophonic Topplings IMO).

4. I find it interesting that @FrankStallone's throwing out the old canard about the Tahoe Tweezer being ranked this high because it's a long jam, especially - *especially* - because the ever-present anvil that hangs over 3.0's heads is that they don't play long jams anymore. I have to note the comment about that summer "lacking in jams to that point" - we'd already gotten the SPAC Melt, SPAC Carini, Jones Beach Tweezer -> Cities -> The Wedge, Alpharetta CDT, MPP Light -> Boogie On, MPP Stash, and some good jams in Chicago. Those are all jams, last I checked, and darn fine ones to boot. But what aren't they? 20-minute plus jams. Which, of course is the rub.

I mean, what else would you expect? Tell the 3.0 fanbase that their incarnation isn't special or that they're not getting real Phish or this or that because they don't play 20 minute jams (they had, already, in 3.0, but let's ignore that inconvenient point), and OF COURSE when they break a half hour people are gonna go bonkers. But here's the thing - that 30 minute jam also happens to contain *extraordinary* music, glorious music, and lots of it (30 minutes is a long time!). As always, @waxbanks said it better than me - there's a good deal of great music in 2013; the Tahoe Tweezer isn't head and shoulders above all of it (as @FrankStallone also mentions, the Hampton Tweezer is superb and I wouldn't be too annoyed if you said you preferred it to Tahoe's). But THAT much exceptional music, all in one epochal jam? Tough to beat. Quibble with it being voted above every other Phish jam ever, but I don't see how you can quibble with it being in *any* of the HOF tiers.

Honestly, I'd say the Tahoe Tweezer being #1 is mainly due to the (relative) unfamiliarity with 3.0, and that if most folks have heard a jam from 2009-14, it's that one. The Gorge Rock & Roll not being in any tier steams my mustache more than the Tahoe Tweezer receiving the most votes.

5. As for the Hall of Fame "eligibility" period, a) we're talking jams, not humans (as has been somewhat angrily pointed out to me before when I analogized concerts to NBA sports teams), and b) the "eligibility" period makes no real sense when we're talking about *the best of the best jams*. Are Phish going to play anything in the remainder of their career that is SO FAR above the Tahoe Tweezer to render it along the lines of, I dunno, a random 2010 Disease or 1996 Mike's Song? No, probably not (though I'd love it). Let's say we ARE talking about humans - what good does it do to make Pedro Martinez wait 7 years for the Hall when he could die then? Isn't he a Hall of Fame pitcher from the moment he retires? Nobody's talking about sticking the 7/16/13 CDT (which I adore) in the Phish HOF - the two jams that made it are almost certainly the most famous and beloved jams of this iteration, give or take a Gorge Rock & Roll or Miami Disease.

By the way, does this mean we can get a 25 year waiting period on voting for jams from 1.0 and 2.0?

6. I'm *really* surprised that the 6/18/94 Bowie is in there - not because I don't love it (I definitely do - way, WAY more than Providence's), but because I'd never heard it brought up as *that* level of elite jam before. It's kinda cool, actually.

7. As to a Reba not making the cut - a) which would it be, and b) what unbelievable Tweezer or era-defining Gin or killer Ghost would you knock out to put in its place? I love Reba, I truly do, but not even my favorite ones (10/31/94, 10/19/10, 7/6/94) I would consider anywhere near any of the 26 jams that make up the three tiers.

Great work here! Thank you!

@n00b100 said:

7. As to a Reba not making the cut - a) which would it be, and b) what unbelievable Tweezer or era-defining Gin or killer Ghost would you knock out to put in its place? I love Reba, I truly do, but not even my favorite ones (10/31/94, 10/19/10, 7/6/94) I would consider anywhere near any of the 26 jams that make up the three tiers.

a) 8/16/93

b) 11/29/97 Jim, 6/18/94 Bowie, 6/11/94 YEM, 7/6/98 Ghost, 12/6/97 Tweezabella, 11/17/97 Ghost

c) The Tahoe Tweezer has solidified its position as the most overrated jam of all time. Not bad. Just overrated. Massively.

d) In case you think (c) is jaded-vettery, I'm WAAAAY in the minority among the jaded vets, and will pay for my blasphemy in one form or another.

e) two cents, IMHO, God Save the Queen and all that

I have no problem with the fans voting in the Tahoe Tweezer as #1, because the fan voting is incredibly biased in the Twitter age (it's so easy for casual fans to have heard the Tahoe Tweezer and not, say, the Orlando Stash, etc.).

That said, wow the Tahoe Tweezer is overrated here. Would not make my top 26 jams. I do think it's great, but Phish has '93-'00 of heavy touring in their prime to contend with. I could find 26 better jams in '94-'98, without too much trouble. Ymmv.

I don't think it's overrated. Or at least, you can't make that claim from this data. We submitted 10 entries, but we didn't rank them. I put the Tahoe Tweezer on my list and I bet a lot of others did too because I wanted a ballot that included songs from every era. This Tweezer was my only 2009-2014 selection. I bet that's true for other voterss. So what you get is a worthy HOF song that likely had small competition from the era-standpoint, so it ends up on a high percentage of ballots, and is, imo, misinterpreted as being overrated. If the list had been ordinal, Tahow Tweezer would have been on the bottom of my list.

@squail said:

I don't think it's overrated. Or at least, you can't make that claim from this data. We submitted 10 entries, but we didn't rank them. I put the Tahoe Tweezer on my list and I bet a lot of others did too because I wanted a ballot that included songs from every era. This Tweezer was my only 2009-2014 selection. I bet that's true for other voterss. So what you get is a worthy HOF song that likely had small competition from the era-standpoint, so it ends up on a high percentage of ballots, and is, imo, misinterpreted as being overrated. If the list had been ordinal, Tahow Tweezer would have been on the bottom of my list.

Well, there you have it.
You didn't rank the top Phish jams of all time, you put your own spin on it. Which is fine - but that is my point. It is not a top 10 (or 26, IMO) Phish jam of all time.
It's damn good, though. (Personally, I think the MSG Tweezer from 12/28/12 approaches its quality, and the Dick's Simple is a better jam.)

@n00b100 said:

Thank you to @TheRealBurnham for running this; voting was a lot of fun, as was the discussion.

[edit]

6. I'm *really* surprised that the 6/18/94 Bowie is in there - not because I don't love it (I definitely do - way, WAY more than Providence's), but because I'd never heard it brought up as *that* level of elite jam before. It's kinda cool, actually.

7. As to a Reba not making the cut - a) which would it be, and b) what unbelievable Tweezer or era-defining Gin or killer Ghost would you knock out to put in its place? I love Reba, I truly do, but not even my favorite ones (10/31/94, 10/19/10, 7/6/94) I would consider anywhere near any of the 26 jams that make up the three tiers.

6. I was very happy that UIC94 Bowie made it as that's my favorite version by a healthy margin. Part of the fun of doing this exercise was relistening to all of these jams and it worked out well that so many personal favorites just made the cut. I think that the Bowie is shorter than most other versions so it can get overlooked but the MLB intro elevates it way up and then it's played with such ferocity that it's practically on fire.

7. I don't have the data file in front of me but I believe that the 10/31/94 Reba was the highest vote getter but it really wasn't close to getting in. I would have thought 8/16/93 or 7/6/94 would have had a chance but really, like DWD, there was a lot of vote splitting in versions. Same with Big Cypress and lots of NYE95. 7-8 songs from those shows all received some votes which really illustrates the quality depth there. Maybe the next poll will just be HOF shows? That could be fun...

I created a phish.in playlist if anyone is interested: http://phish.in/play/phishhof

I think we all put our own spin on it. But this was called the "Hall of Fame." Fame being the key word. Going by this sample, that Tweezer is "famous".

Is it the best, or even top 10 from a musical standpoint? I'm not qualified to say. But fame is something else.

One of the reasons I didn't vote in the Bowie> Cities> Bowie is that I, like a few other folks on Twitter, only voted for standalone jams. That is, no segues. I feel like a segue is really its own kind of improvisatory move, and for Phish to achieve such transcendent music when they are just exploring the space of a song, rather than the space that connects one song to another, feels like a different type of musical endeavor. Just my own weird take on it. But that did exclude a bunch of jams from my ballot, including pretty much every Tweezer-fest (12/6/97, Bomb Factory, MPP '14, etc.) and two of my favorite jams of all time, the 12/14/95 Halleys> NICU> Slave and the 7/30/97 Bowie> Cities> Bowie.

I'm really surprised the 11/29/97 Jim made it in at all. I think that it's something of a novelty jam because it's the record holder. Does it have great moments? For sure! The first 20 minutes or so are breathtaking, and very unlike fall '97. The slow, funky-ish jam is nice, but when it gets faster again halfway through I'm bored, and the ambient section is boring too. It only really comes back good for the Weekapaug jam at the end. But musically I'm a much bigger fan of Runaway Jims from Dick's '12, 7/22/97, 12/31/95, 6/16/95, and 7/3/00.

Bummed that my favorite 2.0 jam, the 7/13/03 Seven Below, didn't make the cut, although the SPAC '04 Piper is certainly a worthy 2.0 jam to represent that era. I'm a little surprised at the Nassau Tweezer - I've never really gotten why so many people love it! It's a great jam, for sure, but not even in my top 3 of that week! (2/22/03 Gin, 2/22/03 Tube, 2/26/03 Moma, if you're counting).

To @n00b100, I'd say the 5/16/95 Reba is a pretty good candidate for a version that should have made it in. Or Clifford Ball. And I'd have been happy to see it unseat the 6/18/94 Bowie, which is great not mindblowing, IMHO. And like @illbuyyouaewe, I'm surprised no DwD anywhere. Totally agree with @frankstallone, I prefer the Hampton '13 Tweezer to Tahoe. But I have no problem with Tahoe being in there.

I voted not necessarily for the best type II jams, but for me, it was all about the moments I enjoy the most. I also only put 1 version of every song on my list. Which is why I put the 6/11/94 YEM instead of the 12/9/95. Really glad to see that the Red Rocks '94 version made it. That first note of Trey's solo after the tramps segment cuts to the core.

I'll grant the points by @TheEmu and @smoothatonalsnd about Rebas that could have made any of the tiers. Like I said, I love Reba.

@RoundTheRoom said:

I have no problem with the fans voting in the Tahoe Tweezer as #1, because the fan voting is incredibly biased in the Twitter age (it's so easy for casual fans to have heard the Tahoe Tweezer and not, say, the Orlando Stash, etc.).

That said, wow the Tahoe Tweezer is overrated here. Would not make my top 26 jams. I do think it's great, but Phish has '93-'00 of heavy touring in their prime to contend with. I could find 26 better jams in '94-'98, without too much trouble. Ymmv.

You could find 26 jams you like more, you mean. It's an important distinction!

How many casual fans are on this message board, I wonder? If you're actually seeking out a message board for a band like Phish, I argue that it's actually very hard to be a casual fan. You have to be a *committed* fan. You *have* to have heard more than just 3.0 (otherwise you'll never hear the end of it), and are most likely familiar with the great shows and jams. This ain't 1995 - you won't have to search far and wide to hear the Orlando Stash. Like I said, I actually believe it's more the opposite effect - plenty of people have heard the Orlando Stash or Denver Ghost and so on, but if you're talking 3.0, you've ONLY heard the Tahoe Tweezer. It's its own reference point. You're not talking about 26 jams you like more than the 6/3/11 Disease or 8/31/12 CDT or 7/13/14 CDT, right?

But, again, let's say that you're right and this board is flooded with folks that have heard the Tahoe Tweezer but haven't heard, say, the 12/9/95 YEM. Let me ask you this:

1. Why the heck would they be voting in this little exercise, then?
2. Doesn't that *still* say more about how 3.0 is regarded than anything else?

@squail said:

I don't think it's overrated. Or at least, you can't make that claim from this data. We submitted 10 entries, but we didn't rank them. I put the Tahoe Tweezer on my list and I bet a lot of others did too because I wanted a ballot that included songs from every era. This Tweezer was my only 2009-2014 selection. I bet that's true for other voterss. So what you get is a worthy HOF song that likely had small competition from the era-standpoint, so it ends up on a high percentage of ballots, and is, imo, misinterpreted as being overrated. If the list had been ordinal, Tahoe Tweezer would have been on the bottom of my list.

Which, again, says more about how 3.0 is considered than anything else. Look - they've played a good deal less shows from 2009-14 than in any other 6 year stretch between 1993-2000, and I don't think it can be argued that the quality from the latter six-year stretch would be higher. But what that *doesn't* mean is that they didn't play music from 2009-14 that's right there with the old days, and that said music is just concentrated to one 36-minute jam played in a casino parking lot. I voted for two 3.0 jams on my ballot, and definitely would have voted for more if the ballot had been larger.

I have no doubt that @squail is right about the Tahoe Tweezer being the only 3.0 jam on plenty of ballots. I just think that kinda sucks.

Thank you so much for this! I think I voted, maybe I didn't. It's hard to remember if I voted for this or the brackets. Anyway, my biggest surprise is that nothing from 96 Vegas made the cut.

Thanks for putting this together! Very nice work. You'll never please everyone with something like this, but you should take some deep satisfaction from the amount of discussion it spurs.

How wonderful-that version isn't in my top ten tweezers. LOL!

I would also add the AC/DC Bag from 11-7-98, which is as good as either of the two listed.

Happy jamming!

@n00b100

Not every "jam" has to be a has to be a type 2 mission to mars to be great

For me personally, when I think hall of fame Phish I think of things like 12/30/93 Mike's Song or 12/31/93 Hood or 10/31 Divided Sky as much as I think of a Riverport Gin or Lakewood Ghost. Early 90s Trey blazing through a fury of perfectly executed notes leading up to a face melting peak is as "Hall of Fame" as any late 90s extended jam to me. So yeah I'd have plenty of type I Rebas/Hoods/Slaves/etc on my list (and I did)

As far as Tahoe Tweezer goes, It's great but there is nothing IMO that puts it ahead of plenty of other late 90s/2.0/3.0 jams other than when it occurred. I thought Summer '13 was pretty weak until they hit the West Coast, and that wasn't for a lack of extended jams its b/c they sounded rusty and Trey was leaning heavily on his whammy. Then that Tweezer came seemingly out of nowhere and people went nuts. That's not in any way trying to say it isn't great, it's just trying to somehow explain the ridiculous amount of hype that somehow made it #1 on this list

Okay, maybe top ten I just jammed it again.

Constantly amazed that the 6/19/04 Piper gets so much (rightful) love, yet the 6/20/04 Twist gets overlooked. That Twist might be the best Phish jam I've seen, and I think could be their very best 2.0 jam.

And I know I'm on an island here, but I'm also surprised at how highly Ghost is thought of: the third most voted on song/jam!? I tend to think the best 2 or 3 Ghost jams are incredible, but the drop off after the elite few is steep. A lot of Ghost jams that I find boring are, I think, highly touted b/c they're long.

Wow. I loved reading this. And was pretty shocked and thrilled to see that (literally) my #1 and #2 Phish jams were -- whaddya know? -- #1 and #2. Should I be proud to have my finger on the community's pulse, or upset that my opinions aren't unique or interesting? I'll have to meditate on that.

@frankstallone said:

@n00b100

Not every "jam" has to be a has to be a type 2 mission to mars to be great

For me personally, when I think hall of fame Phish I think of things like 12/30/93 Mike's Song or 12/31/93 Hood or 10/31 Divided Sky as much as I think of a Riverport Gin or Lakewood Ghost. Early 90s Trey blazing through a fury of perfectly executed notes leading up to a face melting peak is as "Hall of Fame" as any late 90s extended jam to me. So yeah I'd have plenty of type I Rebas/Hoods/Slaves/etc on my list (and I did)

As far as Tahoe Tweezer goes, It's great but there is nothing IMO that puts it ahead of plenty of other late 90s/2.0/3.0 jams other than when it occurred. I thought Summer '13 was pretty weak until they hit the West Coast, and that wasn't for a lack of extended jams its b/c they sounded rusty and Trey was leaning heavily on his whammy. Then that Tweezer came seemingly out of nowhere and people went nuts. That's not in any way trying to say it isn't great, it's just trying to somehow explain the ridiculous amount of hype that somehow made it #1 on this list

Oh, yes, I don't disagree about jams not having to go out there to be great - the 6/14/00 BOTT isn't anywhere near as Type II-ish as the 12/30/09 version, but it's still a great piece of business. Horses for courses w/r/t Summer 2013; I don't think it's that weak, but hey. I do agree that there is/was a *tremendous* and nearly ridiculous amount of hype surrounding the Tahoe Tweezer (which, again, what would you expect? It's 36 minutes long!), but then I'm just circling around again to my main point w/r/t 3.0.

I *will* say that I don't think the voting makes it out to be the #1 jam ever, just that it received the most amount of votes on ballots that were explicitly designed to *not* rank the jams (I wouldn't have it #1 on mine, either - that's the Radio City Ghost for me). And all that means is - I'll say it again - more folks gotta listen to more from 3.0.

Thanks for all your hard work!

I'll be honest it took me a few reads to really understand the difference between tiers and other defining factors that went into the final list. Nonetheless, a great read.

I'll echo previous comments made and ask how Reba or Down With Disease failed to make the cut, despite both being on the list for number of unique versions. With respect to the latter, there are too many HOF worthy versions to single out the one DWD which should be on the list.

As a huge Reba fan, I am very partial to 8/16/93 and believe this version should be somewhere in the HOF, if not top 10. 7/6/94 is a great version, but personally I think 8/16/93 is the better of the two.

I have issues with the Tahoe Tweezer being #1. I love it, I really really do! But I also love the 12/16/99 Tweezer, the 2/28/03 Tweezer (which made Tier 2), the 11/17/97 Tweezer, and many many more. They may not be as long as the Tahoe version or have as many sections, but longevity does not equate to superior. Don't get me wrong, I do think it deserves a place in the HOF. But I wouldn't put it in the top 10, let alone #1.

The one jam I'm most shocked which not only failed to make the list, but failed to make the lists of those made public in the earlier post: 6/29/00 Drowned. Maybe because its more of a segue into RnR? Either way I think its a travesty for this jam to miss the radar of so many fans.

Finally, I wonder if Vocal Jams can be ranked or included in the HOF? I guess these would have to be attached to the song they were born from (YEM, Sneakin' Sally, etc.), but think this is a great topic for one of the next of many Phish lists.

In summary: 8/16/93 Reba, at least one DWD, and 6/29/00 Drowned need to be in the HOF.

@n00b100 said:

5. As for the Hall of Fame "eligibility" period, a) we're talking jams, not humans (as has been somewhat angrily pointed out to me before when I analogized concerts to NBA sports teams), and b) the "eligibility" period makes no real sense when we're talking about *the best of the best jams*. Are Phish going to play anything in the remainder of their career that is SO FAR above the Tahoe Tweezer to render it along the lines of, I dunno, a random 2010 Disease or 1996 Mike's Song? No, probably not (though I'd love it). Let's say we ARE talking about humans - what good does it do to make Pedro Martinez wait 7 years for the Hall when he could die then? Isn't he a Hall of Fame pitcher from the moment he retires? Nobody's talking about sticking the 7/16/13 CDT (which I adore) in the Phish HOF - the two jams that made it are almost certainly the most famous and beloved jams of this iteration, give or take a Gorge Rock & Roll or Miami Disease.

By the way, does this mean we can get a 25 year waiting period on voting for jams from 1.0 and 2.0?

A waiting period definitely makes sense because there is naturally more hype surrounding something that occurred recently. That's just human nature, regardless of whether we're talking sports or jams. I have little doubt that in 10 years, the Tahoe Tweezer will NOT be voted #1 jam of all-time by Phish.

I'm getting thumbed down again (always fun to see that happen), so I'm going to bow out of the whole 3.0 discussion. Contrary to what it may appear, I don't like making the same points about any of this, nor do I have any sort of bias against 1.0.

@Icculus asked for comments that draw attention to why jams mean so much to us, so I'll use this post to just talk about why I think the 5/22/00 Ghost should be in the top tier:

1. Mike Gordon, whose work in underpinning these great jams can often go more neglected than it should, had his finest moment as a member of this band in this jam. Listen to his work when Trey plays That One Lick after the 20 minute mark - his playing is just so fluid, gorgeous, and *overwhelming* that I can't take my ears (so to speak) off of it. It brings such joy to my heart.

2. The late-90s jams, in comparison to the spikiness of the mid-90s jams, tend to roam across the same wide swaths of improvisational lands, but in a much smoother way than the older ones do (3.0 follows the same tack; small wonder I'm as drawn to 2000s Phish as I am to 97-00 Phish), and this is probably the smoothest jam they ever played. I think that's why people can find it boring or soporific - it's SO smooth, so precise in its transitions and how it shifts shapes, that it gives the effect of being effortless when in actuality it is anything but. The 2.0 jams aimed for the same effect, with varying amounts of success, but none of them reached the same level this jam did.

3. Plenty of jams find different moods, but to my ears, none of them find their particular mood as well as the 5/22/00 Ghost finds its mood - serenity. They have never played a jam so full of serene, blissful confidence as the 5/22/00 Ghost, and they probably never will (the 10/28/14 Twist, to my ears, comes closest). It's not just the best of its kind - it might very well be the *only* of its kind. It's a monolithic jam, and (to my ears) their finest moment.

@GottaJibboo said:

The one jam I'm most shocked which not only failed to make the list, but failed to make the lists of those made public in the earlier post: 6/29/00 Drowned. Maybe because its more of a segue into RnR? Either way I think its a travesty for this jam to miss the radar of so many fans.

Amen. I absolutely thought the 6/29/00 Drowned (if not the entire Drowned> Rock and Roll sequence) should have made SOME tier. This is an all-time Phish jam. The segue is phenomenal and the Drowned jam builds from uptempo funk to a glorious peak. Ah well.

I think that most of the voting bias comes from the clear accessibility of the jam. We have such quick access to Phish music now, with PPV and Phish.in. I feel that the older crowd holds those older jams close to the breast because it came during a pivotal moment in that phan's life. I really like the comment where we are taking away from the 3.0 fan base when we lambaste the Tahoe Tweezer. Yes, we are taking the low turnout into account - I mean there are thousands of phans who would disagree with this list, but they didn't vote. The Tahoe Tweezer is of the upper echelon, and I can understand why it is considered number 1. Comparing the 94 Providence Bowie to Tahoe Tweezer would do both a disservice, yet if you juxtapose them, The Tahoe's quality is that much more in depth because the band is in a more mature place now. It would be interesting if they ran this again to see if the results were different, now that people see the initial results. Would more people vote because they see how the results were against their opinions?

Not one Melt. NOT. ONE.

Not too surprising, I guess. Compelling jams seem to flow more readily (though not always) from simpler song forms (Tweezer, Gin, Simple, Ghost, Mike's, Jim, Piper, Twist) than those with complex composed sections (Reba, Melt, Hood, Stash, Slave, etc.), the Providence Bowie and Albany YEM notwithstanding.

Anyway, great stuff, @therealburnham. (Curious: did the Coventry Melt rank anywhere?)

@n00b100 said:

I'll grant the points by @TheEmu and @smoothatonalsnd about Rebas that could have made any of the tiers. Like I said, I love Reba.

@RoundTheRoom said:

I have no problem with the fans voting in the Tahoe Tweezer as #1, because the fan voting is incredibly biased in the Twitter age (it's so easy for casual fans to have heard the Tahoe Tweezer and not, say, the Orlando Stash, etc.).

That said, wow the Tahoe Tweezer is overrated here. Would not make my top 26 jams. I do think it's great, but Phish has '93-'00 of heavy touring in their prime to contend with. I could find 26 better jams in '94-'98, without too much trouble. Ymmv.

You could find 26 jams you like more, you mean. It's an important distinction!

How many casual fans are on this message board, I wonder? If you're actually seeking out a message board for a band like Phish, I argue that it's actually very hard to be a casual fan. You have to be a *committed* fan. You *have* to have heard more than just 3.0 (otherwise you'll never hear the end of it), and are most likely familiar with the great shows and jams. This ain't 1995 - you won't have to search far and wide to hear the Orlando Stash. Like I said, I actually believe it's more the opposite effect - plenty of people have heard the Orlando Stash or Denver Ghost and so on, but if you're talking 3.0, you've ONLY heard the Tahoe Tweezer. It's its own reference point. You're not talking about 26 jams you like more than the 6/3/11 Disease or 8/31/12 CDT or 7/13/14 CDT, right?

But, again, let's say that you're right and this board is flooded with folks that have heard the Tahoe Tweezer but haven't heard, say, the 12/9/95 YEM. Let me ask you this:

1. Why the heck would they be voting in this little exercise, then?
2. Doesn't that *still* say more about how 3.0 is regarded than anything else?

@squail said:

I don't think it's overrated. Or at least, you can't make that claim from this data. We submitted 10 entries, but we didn't rank them. I put the Tahoe Tweezer on my list and I bet a lot of others did too because I wanted a ballot that included songs from every era. This Tweezer was my only 2009-2014 selection. I bet that's true for other voterss. So what you get is a worthy HOF song that likely had small competition from the era-standpoint, so it ends up on a high percentage of ballots, and is, imo, misinterpreted as being overrated. If the list had been ordinal, Tahoe Tweezer would have been on the bottom of my list.

Which, again, says more about how 3.0 is considered than anything else. Look - they've played a good deal less shows from 2009-14 than in any other 6 year stretch between 1993-2000, and I don't think it can be argued that the quality from the latter six-year stretch would be higher. But what that *doesn't* mean is that they didn't play music from 2009-14 that's right there with the old days, and that said music is just concentrated to one 36-minute jam played in a casino parking lot. I voted for two 3.0 jams on my ballot, and definitely would have voted for more if the ballot had been larger.

I have no doubt that @squail is right about the Tahoe Tweezer being the only 3.0 jam on plenty of ballots. I just think that kinda sucks.

OK, 26 jams I like more. I don't see much of a difference between that and "that are better" (obviously, IMO, since I am the author of the post...), but I'll appease and say that nothing is "better" than anything else, it's all just subjective preference. YEM isn't a better song than Sugar Shack, I just like it more.

I'm not sure I follow you about the opposite effect holding. Do you mean that Phish fans who don't listen to 3.0 have heard the Tahoe Tweezer, but not the DTE Disease? I do agree that it's a "reference point"; its effects rippled through not only the Phish/jamband community, but beyond it, in some cases. The woos and track time certainly didn't hurt that effect. It's popular; so are the Kardashians. People generally "get things right", when sample sizes are large - this Tweezer is damn good, it has plenty of value. I just don't think it's properly rated in this poll.

To answer your questions:

1. I can tell you from my own personal experience, that from 2009-2012, I was really interested in 3.0 Phish (I saw 20 3.0 shows, took a break from listening during the break-up, and then got back into them when they came back). I wanted to hear every notable jam from 3.0 that I didn't know - because that's the version of Phish that I was going to see a couple months later! Not the 1994, "unattainable" version. Then I started to realize how "little" (my mom would laugh; she would intercept the thousands of bubble mailers in '02-'04 before I could get to them) I knew about the 1.0 classics. I changed my focus, and got schooled. I think I'm not the only fan who enjoyed "living in the moment" at the expense of educating myself on the band's history. It's easy to say from the position of a MASSIVE Phish fan that everyone has heard the Classic Phish Jam X, but it takes time to get through the catalog. While I bet 95%+ of those who have posted in the last 100 days on phish.net has heard the Tahoe Tweezer, I'd venture to say that the percentages for the other tunes (if everyone were honest) would be significantly lower. I could be wrong.
2. I actually can't answer this one, because I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Will check back later for a reply, I'm curious.

Thanks for engaging.
RTR

@Maze_Solo said:

Constantly amazed that the 6/19/04 Piper gets so much (rightful) love, yet the 6/20/04 Twist gets overlooked. That Twist might be the best Phish jam I've seen, and I think could be their very best 2.0 jam.

Love that Twist. It's my favorite jam from SPAC '04.

Any way to see our voting list to compare the results to actual inductees? I cant remember the exact list.

I created some charts to illustrate some of the questions asked on Reba, DWD, and Cypress:
http://imgur.com/a/gZIaN />
@jason, i think your ballot is here. I don't really have the data file on any shared location.
Good choices here! Love that Fluffhead jam.
http://i.imgur.com/X0WfYA3.png

wow are u kidding me the Tahoe tweezer??? Imo that is alllllllll sorts of off the mark. I don't even have that in top 3 tiers. everything else is pretty on point. I miss my wormtown stash tho. I realize im in the minority but no go on the Tahoe tweezer for me.

@RoundTheRoom said:

I have no problem with the fans voting in the Tahoe Tweezer as #1, because the fan voting is incredibly biased in the Twitter age (it's so easy for casual fans to have heard the Tahoe Tweezer and not, say, the Orlando Stash, etc.).

That said, wow the Tahoe Tweezer is overrated here. Would not make my top 26 jams. I do think it's great, but Phish has '93-'00 of heavy touring in their prime to contend with. I could find 26 better jams in '94-'98, without too much trouble. Ymmv.

This is pretty much spot on imo except for the part of the Tahoe tweezer being great. it is good in my book but that's as far as I would go. Otherwise Im with ya roundtheroom

What about when Further tour stopped by and did that rap with Ken K. Onstage? Just kidding, that sucked. Ahh I miss a shakedown and being 17. Thanks for the list. Live Phish releases does taint it a bit, but thank you thank you!! Id put Readings Disease in the top 30.

Regarding Tahoe Tweezer, I agree @squail. I think it would be shocking if TT wasn't #1. Why? If someone is filling out this bracket in 2015, we can assume the voter has an active interest in Phish, i.e. they don't completely hate 3.0. If so, when ballot time comes around, they psychologically don't want to identify themselves as 1.0 snob, so they will want to include at least one 3.0 jam. If you are speaking of the major jams of 3.0, there are a number of beauties, but if you are only going to vote for one, TT is a very good choice. I have no doubt that if the voting had been ranked, it would not be #1. But, given its status in 3.0, given the voting demographic, and given the way the HOF was set up, it was almost inevitable that it would be ranked #1. Again, if there had been multiple rounds of voting, I doubt it would achieve this spot.

One of the major surprises for me, still, is no inclusion of Antelope (even at this point in the discussion no one has mentioned it). 10/30/98 or 8/14/93 deserves a nod.

What about when Further tour stopped by and did that rap with Ken K. Onstage back in 95? Just kidding, that sucked. Ahh I miss a shakedown, swinging and being 17. Thanks for the list. Live Phish releases does taint it a bit, but thank you thank you!! Id put Readings Disease in the top 30. Can't totally live in the past. Yo yo GD!

So many good points.... So many good jams.... And no Reba on the HOF list hurts me, just for personal reasons. It is the song that drew me into Phish. That Eb-> F jam hooked me the first time I heard it. I saw it live for the first time on 8-10-96 at Alpine and it cemented itself as THE Phish song for me. And to this day nothing soothes my soul and blisses me more than the first couple bass notes by Cactus as Trey starts to softly plink away and they relax into what could be a stellar jam. And I say could be, because they never seem to blow it completely out of the water. 8-16-93 and Clifford Ball are both amazing versions. I'm preferential to the 8-16 St. Louis (not just because its my birthday). I'm still waiting for the definitive version of this song. I don't think they've played it yet. I sure hope I'm there when they do.

Reba is my Phish pizza. It's one of my favorite things. I love it every time. Even when it's not the best ever, it's still pretty god damn good and I will never get sick of it. It is the only song I could see at every show and I wouldn't complain.

For now, I agree with it not being Tier 1 HOF material. Let's hope the coming years change that!

The backlash against the Tahoe Tweezer is unsurprising given it is the go to 3.0 jam, but it seems to be driven by that "I'm going to hate on whatever is successful right now" mentality that permeates the American sports mind. Tahoe Tweezer belongs in the first tier for a two simple reasons.

1. At 36+ minutes, it retains its focus and structural integrity for the entire jam. There are very few 30+ minute jams in the Phish canon that don't disintegrate into either dissonant chaos, a spacey ambient jam, or segue into another song. It is pretty much a half hour of blissful rock 'n roll.

2. It is viewed as a turning point of 3.0. Fair or unfair, this jam is viewed as the turning point of 3.0. Most of the best and most creative jamming of 3.0 came after Tahoe.

3. While not everybody's favorite Tweezer, I can't imagine there is anyone who straight up dislikes Tahoe. If we were to survey everyone's top 10 Tweezers, I assume Tahoe would appear on 90% - 95% of the lists. There are soooo many great Tweezers out there, but some of the greats don't appear to all ears (see Bangor, Fleezer, Bomb Factory, etc.). The Tahoe Tweezer is as close to a consensus favorite as you get.

Superb geekery. But I live by my own lists!!!!

Bowie> Cities> Bowie is truly inspired though.

... just as the jam section begins, in the quiet, an audience member blows a horn. It's incredibly timed and fits the section perfectly. Audience and band creating together. I actually think that horn sound, one simple note, actually propelled the song and band throughout. Love it everytime.

Nice job Matt. Looks like we got a David Steinberg Jr. here. As a stats geek myself, I'm curious as to the respondent's demographics. Would love to know how the versions stacked against one another based on respondent's:

Current age:
<20, 21-30, 31-40, 40+

Age of introduction:
<20, 21-30, 31-40, 40+

Era of intro:
1.0: pre '92, '92-'94, '95-'97, '98-2000
2.0: '02-'04
3.0: '09-'11, '12-present Day

Age of onset of heavy listening (> 40% of musical diet)
<20, 21-30, 31-40, 40+

Era of onset of heavy listening:
1.0: pre '92, '92-'94, '95-'97, '98-2000
2.0: '02-'04
3.0: '09-'11, '12-present Day

# of shows seen:
<20, 21-50, 51-100, 101-200, 200+

Imo the ac carini 13 should have made this list somewhere. But of course I am biased to carini-my story below:

http://forum.phish.net/forum/show/1375227848

I don't think the Tahoe Tweezer is overrated by any means. The last 12 minutes or so are up there with anything I've seen the band do. I do think it's my second favorite jam of 3.0 (Gorge R&R is first), but it's one or the other for me.

I got to go with the Halley's Comet Maine/ Dec. 1999 for my #1

@Jenks77 said:

Nice job Matt. Looks like we got a David Steinberg Jr. here. As a stats geek myself, I'm curious as to the respondent's demographics. Would love to know how the versions stacked against one another based on respondent's:

Current age:
<20, 21-30, 31-40, 40+

Age of introduction:
<20, 21-30, 31-40, 40+

Era of intro:
1.0: pre '92, '92-'94, '95-'97, '98-2000
2.0: '02-'04
3.0: '09-'11, '12-present Day

Age of onset of heavy listening (> 40% of musical diet)
<20, 21-30, 31-40, 40+

Era of onset of heavy listening:
1.0: pre '92, '92-'94, '95-'97, '98-2000
2.0: '02-'04
3.0: '09-'11, '12-present Day

# of shows seen:
<20, 21-50, 51-100, 101-200, 200+

Man. If someone could get a survey going with all this factored in, I would be so happy. It would be fantastic to see the results.

@meanpete said:

The backlash against the Tahoe Tweezer is unsurprising given it is the go to 3.0 jam, but it seems to be driven by that "I'm going to hate on whatever is successful right now" mentality that permeates the American sports mind. Tahoe Tweezer belongs in the first tier for a two simple reasons.

1. At 36+ minutes, it retains its focus and structural integrity for the entire jam. There are very few 30+ minute jams in the Phish canon that don't disintegrate into either dissonant chaos, a spacey ambient jam, or segue into another song. It is pretty much a half hour of blissful rock 'n roll.

2. It is viewed as a turning point of 3.0. Fair or unfair, this jam is viewed as the turning point of 3.0. Most of the best and most creative jamming of 3.0 came after Tahoe.

3. While not everybody's favorite Tweezer, I can't imagine there is anyone who straight up dislikes Tahoe. If we were to survey everyone's top 10 Tweezers, I assume Tahoe would appear on 90% - 95% of the lists. There are soooo many great Tweezers out there, but some of the greats don't appear to all ears (see Bangor, Fleezer, Bomb
Factory, etc.). The Tahoe Tweezer is as close to a consensus favorite as you get.

I respectfully, but strongly disagree with point #2.

IMO, the best year of 3.0 in 2012. I also like Fall 2013, but I think that 2012 is significantly better than 2013 and 2014, and that's without a fall tour.

So, what is the turning point of 3.0? I think there are quite a few inflection points, starting as early as Camden '09, but if I had to pin it on a show/a run of shows/a tour, I'd say Fall 2010. Funny enough, I didn't see a show on that tour. But there were quite a few powerful shows in a short period of time, and it led into MSG '10, where there were some major highlights. Summer '11 is not my favorite, but it had Chicago, Superball and Dick's, all of which kept momentum going. MSG '11 was a one-off dip, not sure what happened there, and then Worcester started '12 off right and it continued all the way through to the incredible 12/30 show (12/31 rarely does it for me, musically, it's more of a best-party-ever feeling than something I need to listen back to over and over again).

[/quote]
I respectfully, but strongly disagree with point #2.

IMO, the best year of 3.0 in 2012. I also like Fall 2013, but I think that 2012 is significantly better than 2013 and 2014, and that's without a fall tour.

So, what is the turning point of 3.0? I think there are quite a few inflection points, starting as early as Camden '09, but if I had to pin it on a show/a run of shows/a tour, I'd say Fall 2010. Funny enough, I didn't see a show on that tour. But there were quite a few powerful shows in a short period of time, and it led into MSG '10, where there were some major highlights. Summer '11 is not my favorite, but it had Chicago, Superball and Dick's, all of which kept momentum going. MSG '11 was a one-off dip, not sure what happened there, and then Worcester started '12 off right and it continued all the way through to the incredible 12/30 show (12/31 rarely does it for me, musically, it's more of a best-party-ever feeling than something I need to listen back to over and over again).[/quote]

I agree in many ways. In my mind, early summer 2012 signaled a definite change in the overall quality and consistency of Phish shows. I can't argue with anyone who suggests that late summer 2012 was the high water mark of 3.0.

In my comment, I was representing what I interpret to be the consensus opinion of the board, which is that fall '13 is the best tour, and the Tahoe Tweezer is viewed by many as the start of a run of greatness. (I would not argue with anyone who cites the Gorge shows as the true starting point, but we're talking jams, not full sets or shows).

Thanks! Its cool to see how diff versions of songs get people going. I really think there is a spot for Reba also. But which one. I didnt vote for a single version tho, what was i thinking? Its a song that absolutely breathes Phish for me. Ive always enjoyed the 2000 version from Great Woods. Maybe the encore from Augusta, ME? Hard to pick. A friend recently bruoght to my attention that they havent played Reba at Dick's yet, so maybe there is a chnce for a HOF jam in the making! Cant wait for tour!!!!!!!

@jason said:

Thanks! Its cool to see how diff versions of songs get people going. I really think there is a spot for Reba also. But which one. I didnt vote for a single version tho, what was i thinking? Its a song that absolutely breathes Phish for me. Ive always enjoyed the 2000 version from Great Woods. Maybe the encore from Augusta, ME? Hard to pick. A friend recently bruoght to my attention that they havent played Reba at Dick's yet, so maybe there is a chnce for a HOF jam in the making! Cant wait for tour!!!!!!!

Correction, that was '99.

Absolutely summer 2012 is by FAR the best tour of 3.0 , I can name over ten tunes from summer 2012 run that overtake Tahoe tweezer. alright im done babbling

Thanks a lot for putting this together- I saw it last night and blew off the work I needed to do to put whatever tracks you mentioned into a playlist--happy that I had most of the jams in my collection! And tonight I've been doing that work while listening to the playlist, revisiting old favorites and exploring those that I had either not heard or not given as careful an ear to. (And never saw the 12/9/95 YEM video. Cool.) Love the Hall of Fame playlist. Creme de la phish.

I only perused most of the above comments, since more than a few were gripes. I have nothing to gripe about, because the tunes I voted for that didn't make the cut... are still on my playlist! (as a few others have said, 6/29/00 Drowned > Rock & Roll). Antelope might be my favorite song to hear live, yet when looking through iTunes I'm not sure if too many versions do anything far enough out of the ordinary to enter the Hall, but anyway. 12-29-97 off the top of my head, with the wah-licious breakdown. Waves soundcheck--was that disqualified because it's a soundcheck?

And though I didn't vote for it or even think about this version recently, the absence of Sand made me give 6-7-09 a listen again, and I'm glad I did. Czech it out.

PS - I wholeheartedly support the Tahoe Tweezer as the greatest jam ever.

Great Phish HOF list which was a pleasure to read. Thanks for all the time that went into the HOF ranking.

Personally the Providence Bowie just doesn't do it for me. I really love that whole show, just don't see that Bowie as an all time jam as so many others do.

@illbuyyouaewe said:

This is great! Thanks for your work

Big surprises: (1) No Down With Disease anywhere on the list
(2) I thought Bowie-> Cities-> Bowie would be a first ballot winner.
(3) Only one 2.0 song (though it is the clear favorite of 2.0)

Actually, there are two from 2.0: Nassau Tweezer and the SPAC Piper

Maybe a 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 HOF would be cool! Seems to be a lot of conflict about The tahoe tweezer (justified or not). I know its a HOF....but even baseball HOF has a pitchers, coaches, etc category. Just throwing the idea out there!

Thanks for putting this list together! There's a whole lot of awesomeness, and seeing as there are a million plus immaculate jams to choose from, there's already no chance of pleasing everyone. Some jams I was surprised to see missing:
6/18/96 simple
11/26/94 bowie (the jam from 25 minutes on literally made me cry in bliss and in a "wtf how are they THIS good" sort of way...I know you guys are familiar with the feeling.)
12/29/97 theme (for some reason I feel like this doesn't get the love it deserves.)
7/2/97 stash

Also, I have no idea how Tahoe out ranked Auburn Hills....that's just insanity

Just my two cents...

I'm sure most of you have seen this already, but it def. sums up the HOF debate well. Feel free to sub tGD w/ tPh

Grateful Dead Concerts Are Like Baseball Games

by David Gans

The following is the text of my famous Baseball Analogy as it appeared in The Official Book of the Deadheads (Grushkin-Bassett-Grushkin, Quill, 1983). It was modified somewhat from the text I submitted, and if I ever find the original I will replace this with that. -- D.G.

Grateful Dead concerts are like baseball games: no two are ever alike. The plays are always different, and there's always fresh hope. Sometimes the game's an all-timer even though individual performances are sloppy; sometimes everybody plays great but the team loses anyway.

Some people thrive on yesterday's moments, and aren't too keen on the way the game's played today. Some have only been fans since last year and don't care what happened way back when. You can cherish the great victories and triumphant seasons and chart them across decades, or you can go simply for the enjoyment of tonight and to hell with the standings. Like all the great teams, the Dead have their pennant years and bleak innings, perfect games and whippings, hits and foul balls, heroes and goats.

To many they're an institution, to some mere child's play, and to others the Grateful Dead is more or less an indispensable part of life. There are those who say the game's too slow, that the brief moments of action and excitement are too few and far between. Like "America's Favorite Pastime," the Dead are both celebrated and criticized, and some people will never see what's to enjoy.

Like big-league fans, Deadheads are as varied as the game is long. There are scorekeepers who record every detail for statistical analysis and a place in the Hall of Fame; camera buffs and video freaks; armchair umpires, die-hards, groupies. Some are bleacher bums who'd be in the stands no matter who was playing; and there are even spousal fans who go because if they didn't, they'd be left home alone. A lot of people attend because they've always gone and really don't care to stop.

It may take a few visits to grasp the subtleties, but if you let yourself into the flow of things, there's something to enjoy from the very first moment you're there. As the old saying goes, the mind believes what the mind believes: Grateful Dead is cerebral if you choose to analyze it, but it's basic and instinctive too. Like the game of baseball.

I am beyond bewildered that the Bozeman Tweezer doesn't appear to be mentioned in this thread.

Denver Ghost? Gross.

There are lots of things going on here that could make me question the sanity of those around me..

But guys. Bozeman. There is nothing better than that Tweezer. Prohibatively long, maybe a dozen different themes explored, and unlike the other massive 94 Tweezer from Maine all the pieces fit together. It's like Phish made a collage out of everything they could do, cut it into a jigsaw puzzle, threw it in the air and then disintegrated into light. The eddies from the creation of those four wormholes blew all the pieces of the puzzle gently into place. Then the puzzle turned into a time travelling swamp monster. It's right behind you. Right now. Wondering what your problem is.

I think that this list shows people REALLY need to hear much more of November 1994, which has some truly magnificent, extended improvisations. The 11/16 Simple, 11/22 Funky Bitch, 11/26 Bowie, and 11/28 Tweezer are all stunning, extended explorations. I suppose each has a few slow spots but each also soars to some of the highest heights Phish has ever reached.

If it were my Hall of Fame, both the Bitch and the Tweezer would be Tier 1 jams, the Simple would be Tier 2, and the Orpheum Bowie would probably get one of the last spots.

@nichobert said:

I am beyond bewildered that the Bozeman Tweezer doesn't appear to be mentioned in this thread.

Denver Ghost? Gross.

This.

Regarding Tahoe Tweezer being voted highly and (heaven forbid!!) tops...

I did not vote because I have not been paying close attention to the site recently, but I just read every damn post on here. A good natured lot, which is appreciated.

Anyway, it is an exercise in pretzel-logic to penalize this glorious jam because it's long, ie; citing it's length as a sort of mindless hole that people punch...a rite of passage that allows entrance into the discussion. Defenders of the jam's status among the elite (I am one) are quick to point out the sheer brilliance and organic nature of the movements, which were astounding on their own merits, regardless of the length of the piece, though one cannot discount its length in it's consideration for HOF status.

I'm not going to pretend that I've heard every piece of music cited in this discussion, because I have not, but certainly have heard a good deal of it, and this Tahoe gem ranks favorably with all of them, using any accepted Phish criteria you can come up with.

I would like to point out, however, that there are other, more germane reasons why it strikes such a chord with so many of us. I consider this jam, whether justified or not, as the defining point when "3.0" ceased being "well, for 3.0", and came into it's own league as what had come before. We knew the boys were back before this (Dicks, BG3, etc), but in dancing and wooing on that littered parking lot, magic happened between band and audience which transcends the recording, and it screams at you when you listen to it. Say what you will about all "wooing" since, this night it was an organic and visceral experience.

The jam meant as much to me for the context in which it occured as it did for the music itself.

I personally think that 8/29/14 Simple is its equal in terms of jamming, but contextually it does not stand as tall, in the same way that K2 does not dominate the skyline the way Kilimanjaro does.

So, allow it to receive the love it's getting without denigrating its status. It means a lot to people for lots of reasons.

Love the Tahoe Tweezer but I second Nichobert's emotion on the Bozeman Tweezer. I rank them both very close - way above ALO and others that have some interest as experiments but not as listenable on repeat replays. And even though it was a soundcheck, the famous Waves soundcheck is right up there too. :-)

Todd

And n00b100 don't get discouraged. I highly value all your reviews and posts! Please keep posting.

Todd

I would have without question voted for Dick's Light and also second the Gorge Rock & Roll comment. I can't say there should be any reason to leave covers off, but that might be only 1 made the list.

@beyondthebeyond said:

I would have without question voted for Dick's Light and also second the Gorge Rock & Roll comment. I can't say there should be any reason to leave covers off, but that might be only 1 made the list.

Dick's Light is a monster, but I don't know that it makes the all-time list in my book. Def one of my favorites though!

First, thanks to @TheRealBurnham for making this happen, I'm surprised it hasn't been done before, and I'm a little bummed that I missed the boat on the voting and am late to the show with comment. That said, a few things:

1.) Tahoe Tweezer: I'm with most in agreeing that there's this doesn't belong at the #1 slot (it wouldn't make my top 30, or even my top 3 of 3.0 for that matter), but I agree with @squail that it is likely due to the relatively narrow selection pool for 3.0 "all-time jams" vs. the vast selection pool for 1.0, and most people not wanting to exclude 3.0 completely thus the token single vote for Tahoe. It's the only way this makes sense. It's still a great, great jam though.

2.) Notable omissions (off the top of my head):

Reba!!! Not one version?!? 8/16/93, 7/6/94, 10/31/94, or 5/16/95 all are worthy candidates
Divided!!! Several versions from 93-95 are worthy (6/18/94, 10/31/94 and 10/31/95 are my Top 3)
2001!!! One of these should probably be noted: I'd go with Gorge 98, MSG 98, or Memphis 99
12/30/93 Mike's - thematic, melodic, concise, dark, intense, with a perfect, dream-like segue into Horse. So much goodness in this one
11/12/94 Hood - to me, head and shoulders above 12/31/93 (which I think is similarly great but slightly overrated). Jam starts off with a couple quiet moments, then builds slowly into a rumbling out of control freight train (Fish just goes off on this one), then virtuostic Trey followed by a glorious double peak. Unparalleled version (although A Live One version comes close, as does 7/1/95).
11/26/94 Bowie - as good or better than Providence, IMO
11/28/94 Tweezer - to me, the pinnacle of their early "Type II" jamming
6/16 or 6/26/95 Jim
12/1 or 12/7/95 Mike's Groove
12/14/95 Tweezer> Timber> Tweezer or Halley's> NICU - this is one where the entire set should just count as one entry. Hot, hot stuff.
12/31/95 Drowned or Jim
10/26/96 Simple (I'm with @frankstallone on this)
11/27/96 Diseazer
2/17/97 Carini - this is Tier 1 material IMO. Dark, frightening, and downright psychedelic in parts, then releases into a refreshingly gorgeous cooldown hosing at the end.
7/2/97 Stash - another Tier 1 contender. (Off topic: so stoked this is getting a official release!)
7/23/97 Ghost
7/30/97 Bowie> Cities> Bowie, as others have mentioned
8/13/97 Gumbo - shining example of 97-style cow-funk jamming
12/29/97 Theme - I'm with @VanillaTheHun on this. This hardly gets any mention, and sure it's squarely in the Type I mold, but the way Trey just wills this solo on, hitting several cool licks and mini-themes (we're talking, a couple measures then we're moving along here), then out of nowhere builds into one the most orgasmic, 30-second long guitar peaks ever caught on tape. There really isn't another version that compares with this one. If there was a Type I HoF this would be Tier 1 w/o a doubt!
4/2/98 Twist - for me, THIS was The Jam of the Island Tour
7/2/98 Ghost - depending on which day of the week it is, I like this better than the Prague ghost
7/24/98 Wolfman's - underrated and possibly my all-time favorite version
8/1/98 Tweezer - so much gorgeous jamming in this one
11/6/98 Split - one of the most locked-in, funkiest grooves they've ever played (and that's saying a LOT!). Maybe not "out there" enough for inclusion w/ some of the others on this list, but a definite shoe-in for the Type I HoF.
12/28/98 Carini> Wolfman's - funky & dark, with lots of the signature 98 ambient jamming thrown in.
12/7/99 Halley's - possibly Tier 1 material IMO, especially in the last 10 minutes of the jam. The bliss section that winds its way into the beautiful ambient-style finish makes me see all that is beautiful and right in the world. Would take this over 11/22/97 any day of the week.
12/16/99 Tweezer - not sure if it belongs given all the amazing versions, but definitely better than 2/28/03 IMO.
12/30/99 Mike's - the most face-melting version of any song they've ever played merits a slot in the HoF. There are few things I can listen to that make me feel like I'm in a totally altered state like this one can.
12/31/99 Sand > Quadrophonic Toppling - I'll go with @n00b100 on this, there's too much good jamming from Cypress to mention, but if I were forced to pick just one...
6/9/00 Tweezer - soooo underrated this one. A half-hour head trip that covers so much ground.
6/29/00 Drowned > Rock & Roll as others have mentioned

I'm sure I missed a bunch of 1.0 nuggets (just thought of Chula Vista Boogie On, Van Andel Halley's, UIC '98 Gin & Bag...aagh!), but I'll stop there since I've gone on way too long, I'm more inclined towards 1.0 anyway. I do agree with most of the omissions others have mentioned for 2.0 and 3.0 though, particularly Gorge RnR, Dick's Light, MPP Light > Boogie On, Hampton Tweezer, Reading Disease, and Randall's CDT> Light.

@shupadupa said: [quote]

1.) Tahoe Tweezer: I'm with most in agreeing that there's this doesn't belong at the #1 slot (it wouldn't make my top 30, or even my top 3 of 3.0 for that matter), but I agree with @squail that it is likely due to the relatively narrow selection pool for 3.0 "all-time jams" vs. the vast selection pool for 1.0, and most people not wanting to exclude 3.0 completely thus the token single vote for Tahoe. It's the only way this makes sense. It's still a great, great jam though.

Thanks for your input. You put a lot of time into your post, and I smiled at many of your mentions, nodding my head in mutual reminicnence. You obviously much prefer most of 1.0 to the modern era of the band, particularly early nineties material, which is like a whole different animal than modern Phish.

Early nineties Phish compares to current Phish in similar ways that the Dead of '68 compared to the Dead of '77.

I respectfully disagree with your assessment that the Tahoe Tweezer achieved its status via the obligatory 3.0 vote (you portray it as a sympathy vote of sorts), and also by your insinuation that it represents solitary brilliance in a sea of mediocrity.

While I am sure there are folks who fall into the categories you mention, it's a big assumption on your part (based on your own preference) that "most" people don't think it belongs on top. As I mentioned in my post, the Tahoe Tweezer compares favorable to any other jam in Phish history, by any criteria you want to use, unless of course you simply harbor a default prejudice against 3.0 in general. I mean, what else do you want to see or hear that it doesn't have? I know........time. You impress me as one of the many fans who view jams from the past as gaining ever-increasing stature as they grow more distant in the rearview mirror.

Nostalgia isn't a valid criteria for a list like this, unless it forms context.

I enjoyed your post though, you listed some great ones!

(I wrote this at the time I compiled my ballot. I included post-result comments in italics)
1. 12/29/94 David Bowie
2. 7/29/98 Bathtub Gin
3. 11/14/95 Stash
My "no-brainers". An inductory class of Hall Of Fame Phish jams, that was lacking any of these three performances, would be IMO a farce, read-Icculus.

I got 2 out of 3 right. I suppose it makes sense that the Went Gin got more votes than Riverport, but I still can't believe the Orlando Stash didn't make tier 1.

4. 7/31/13 Tweezer
Of any Phish song, Tweezer probably has the greatest number of versions that are of a quality high enough to be seriously considered for this ballot. To refine my selection process, I considered which version would be the most important to the musical legacy of the band. 5/7/94 Bomb Factory was the only version that I considered to be of greater significance, but Tahoe Tweezer clearly captures the musical abilities of the band at that particular time, whereas IMO Phish quickly expanded upon, and surpassed, the breakthrough they achieved during the Bomb Factory Tweezer. (Perhaps @N00b100's arguments for the value of 3.0 jams have worn me down, but I feel very good about this pick.)

Is the Tahoe Tweezer the most important jam when considering the band's legacy? Perhaps, but I will still suprised to see it get the most votes.

5. 8/14/93 Run Like An Antelope
Along the same argumentative lines as the Tahoe Tweezer, I feel that this selection does the best job of capturing the band at this stage of their career. It seems to me that this performance obviates the need to include anything from earlier in their career; that it all had been leading up to this moment.

Not surprised that this version didn't get a mention, but I agree with @illbuyyouaewe - how was Antelope not represented at all? Looks like I have a new cause: Run Like An Antelope is underrated!

6. 12/9/95 You Enjoy Myself
A mid-90s YEM is a relatively "conservative" candidate; I could have selected probably a half-dozen other versions instead of this one. However, I feel this performance (Page stepping forward while Trey moved to the mini-percussion kit, and the silent jam, and the Shaft quotes, and the vocal jam) is so distinctive from anything else on my ballot that it warrants inclusion.

yep.

7. 8/13/96 Mike's Song
The 10/31/96 set is given a lot of credit for pushing the band towards the sound of 1997, but listen to this jam and you will hear that the change was already in motion. At the peak, the jamming is as full-throttle, pushing and aggressive as anything I considered from 2.0. And then, first Trey and the Fish lay back and allow Page and Mike to step forward and guide the jam. This is the sound of Phish putting clear effort into a performance that displays their mastery of the form and their ability to improvise together.

another possibly underrated jam. But since we're here, IMO including Mike's Song and Weekapaug Groove in a single vote is weak. Either the individual song warrants mention, or it doesn't. Having 12/31/95 listed in tier 2 is particularly bothersome since Mike's and Weekapaug weren't performed as a suite, or even in the same set! Both performances are worthy of inclusion on this list, but together?!

sorry, @therealburnham. I am very thankful that you put the effort into organizing the vote and compiling the results. If this is the most significant complaint you receive about the process, I hope you will consider this a job well done.

8. 11/17/97 Ghost
Cue Confession Bear meme: I think the Fall 1997 tour has become a tad bit overrated, probably going back to the first hiatus. But like the first three picks, if I'm going to limit myself to one jam from 1997, it would be absurd to pick anything besides this first set monster. It could be argued that this performance was the improvisational peak of Phish 1.0, and that all the way through to the 2004 breakup, they were trying to recapture the elusive essence of this jam.

The most famous, most recognized jam of Phish 1.0? I might agree with that.

9. 6/14/00 Twist
This jam is truly heavyweight class. I recall defending the Big Cypress midnight-to-sunrise set in a past thread on this forum, and someone countering that 6/14/00 Fukuoka was a superior show, because it distilled the essence of those amazing moments in the Everglades into a standard-length show. It's a fair argument, and the two shows definitely share a similar vibe, but IMO it is only this Twist, and the succeeding jam that segues into Walk Away, that gets to the place the band was in during the early hours of January 1st, 2000.

Tier 2. Sorry, Island Tour fluffers, but this jam makes the 4/3/98 Roses wilt and fade.

10. 7/10/99 Chalk Dust Torture
To my ears, this performance is the defining "Phish millenial sound" jam. The band hit this groove many times over 1999-2000, but this fist-pumping peak is the grandest of them all. As with the Fukuoka Twist, the ability to play music such as this comes at a cost; even so, the results are marvelous.

Another Tier 2 result. Wait 'til next year?

Love this.
We are a passionate & well listened community to be sure. I don't feel like the Tahoe Tweezer needs defending, if the music doesn't move you for 36 straight minutes then ok, it's all a subjective trip anyways. But for my money the argument that it's only good because of what came before it is just fool's logic.
If Phish ever wasted a ton of time(and they have) then it wasn't in that Tweezer. The Worcester Jim on the other hand....surprised that cracked the Top 30 to be honest.
I'll join the wtf legions on the exclusion of any DWD,Antelopeor SOAM.
I've always found DWD to be much much better in certain years, 97'-98', 12'-14', and I have the Went DWD on my list.
The lack of covers is also a bit confounding. I know the average fan loves a great cover jam so I was surprised to see no Rock N' Roll (Long Beach!), Drowned,C&P(West Palm), Cities(many verisons) or Boogie On(Chula,duh) but I get how those Jams can be less "accessible" so it's whatever.
I'm sad the following didn't make it:
IT 46 Days
Fleezer
Went DWD
Albany Seven Below
Nassau Gin
98' Gorge Mike's Groove
7-22-03 Melt (I always come back to it)
I would love to see Light, Fuego & Carini make the cut but I don't think they've earned it....Yet.
Anyhow, enough nitpicking for me. Great Job people. See yall this Summer.

Now that this fun exercise is in the books, as it were, I want to make a statement of context...

I feel strongly that 2014 was in many ways a major step backwards from 2013. With a couple of years gone by to add perspective, most agree that 2012 was a tad better than we wanted to give it credit for at the time. Based on the Dick's run, particularly, we had high hopes for 2013.

When Trey came out with his older Languadec and stripped down sound at Bangor, many fans took some time to adjust to it and that, in addition to some horrendous weather, caused the tour to take time developing. But Tahoe (coming off an epic 2-night Gorge run) was a high water mark, and the momentum seemed to deeply impact the Fall of '13, which was the first time that many long-time fans felt they were approaching pre-hiatus levels.

I want to say, though, that the band's playing, with a few exceptions, was spotty, sloppy, incoherent and quite frankly (to my ears) rather disconcerting during large stretches of Summer and Fall of '14. There were some great moments certainly, such as Halloween, but generally the year felt to me more like a Fall '13 "hangover" than a progression to the future.

I think we may be witnessing another stretch similar to 99-00.

For example, the Randall's Chalkdust, which so many lauded as the finest jam of '14 (I certainly don't share that opinion), is basically a rock-fest, turned directionless noodle exercise, that never really took any form or synergy before finally giving up entirely after a god-awfully long 28 minutes of nothingness. Yet it's considered top-shelp 3.0 fare.

Sorry, for once I must side with the jaded vets....perusing through the lists of old-time classics yields a richness of experience that the band still hasn't begun to match on a consistent basis.

I truly hope that '15 yields a change of direction and we see a tighter, more focused, approach to music. I'm not interested in long rehearsals.

Here's to summer...may it shine brightly.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that 2015 may have had some HOF jams in it. Wow.

While I may not have as much Phish listening in my past as others, I've got 20 years of consistent listening behind me and while I am now actively listening to all of these Hall of Fame jams, I'm surprised that two are not mentioned:
Suzy Greenberg from Darien 2000 (listed as Darien Jam #1 on LivePhish vol. 3)....this one melts my face every time.
Hood from a Live One (10/23/94 Gainsville, FL)

Curious how others think these two stack up.

OK, gotta lobby for 12/31/99 as a tier 1 jam. Best DWD and most exciting from Big Cypress (with fireworks and, like, a new millennium and everything). Seriously, we need a DWD and Big Cypress jam in tier 1 and the his seems to fit both criteria...what do you think?

Where is the love for my IT FESTIVAL GHOST? 30+ min of movement-laden ethereal soundscapes. Good dose of funk, with lots of ambient stuff and a ton of outer space-sounding stuff that played on the motif established during the secret set Tower Jam the nite before. In fact that weekends produced many worthy mentions at least. The massive 39 min 46 days with full-fledged "mini-tower motif," the 25 min CDT that up until recent years was really the seminal jammed out type2 CDT. in addition you have a 17 min Ya mar that has a tower motif to it, and very much worthy of mention is the limb x limb/seven below/scents and subtle sounds/rock and roll (I know that is totally outta order and might even have one song Wrong but forgive me I'm dictating to siri. The final mention that absolutely deserves some love is the crazy, never before done and never to be repeated 20+ min version of Waves that just takes going out there in space to really another level not seen outside of very special events and in particular imho prob not seen besides cypress to be quite honest. Maybe Worcester Jim set? But thT waves is both sick, and quite out there! Certainly not what you'd play to someone who isn't familiar with phish and doesn't already have a love of ambient soundscape music!