Mr Fatness1,

Thank you for the entertaining account of your SBIX 9 experience. It pleases me to hear about such a peak experience.

One thing that I have learned over the years is that Phish is different things for different people. Some like a well played Bouncin (okay, like three people) and others like a dark abstract jam. Its amazing that Phish can play to such a spectrum of tastes. I think we should take a similar view of those who choose to make their show reviews available to the public.

It is sad to think that someone else's review of the concert would affect your experience. I really hope that it didn't to the extent that one might be lead to believe from your review. You make the case yourself for the subjectivity of the experience of a fish show quite thoroughly. Still, there is a relatively objective place from which we can evaluate a musical performance. I think as phans we need to work at consciously separating the two.

Some phans enjoy picking apart the music. For them, ok me, this enhances the experience. Someone once said on Phishthoughts comments, roughly, 'if the analysis of the music is negatively affecting your experience, stop reading'. From reading your review, I would suggest politely that you may benefit from ignoring those who want to analyze music.

I think your essay does make an interesting point about the overall phish experience. I don't think that it adds anything to the conversation about how or why to review phish shows. I appreciate your concern with reviews but I don't think the problem is with the reviewers. I think the problem is that you are letting it affect your experience. If you want to have a discussion of phish review theory, we are usually willing to have the discussion on Phishthoughts. Just be prepared to express yourself respectfully cause pot shots don't go over well.

Cheers! Hopefully through writing this essay and the attention it has attracted you will be able to enhance your experience. And Don't worry about Mr. Miner. He had a great time at SBIX 9 and loved the storage jam set.