I applaud the author for deciding to focus on the music because, as the comments saliently convey, there's a tremendous amount of subjectivity that colors the "experience". After inching 10 miles in 12 hours, Big Cypress felt like being in one, long 60-hour dream. But if I were to become acquainted with the aforementioned fire ants, it might've become a nightmare. No matter what happens in my life, one of the greatest moments of my existence will be looking up at the pre-dawn sky, all pink and fluffy gray clouds, five hours into The Set and thinking, "This is not real. This is too perfect to be real." You can't incorporate that feeling into a retrospective of the music. I traveled over 24 hours (pre-traffic jam) to BC with five college friends and the guy who was unequivocally most excited on the way down missed the lion's share of the midnight set because he ate some powerful 'shrooms and was having a terrible trip.

It takes balls to rank Coventry as high as it was ranked - I disagree, but can't argue with the logic. Despite issues with the composed section, that WAS the greatest Melt of all time. The Bag, while not nearly as good as MSG '97 or Boise '99, was still a Top 5 rendition. The highs were high and the lows were low.

One last thought that I know will go against the grain, but I think this community needs to hear it. I guess it's fine to gripe about the "sameness" of some of the BC jamming. But you are not taking into account a) a three-set show that took place the day before and a super-long set that occurred the evening of b) how much energy it takes to play for 7.25 hours in a row (please don't use this sentence to make light of Trey's struggle with drug addiction) and c) given how physically taxing it is to play for 400+ minutes in a row, the mental/creative synapses are not going to be firing full-bore for that freaking long. That's why when you look at the highlights, the preponderance of memorable jams take place in the first half the set, not the second.

1. Big Cypress
2. IT
3. Went
4. Magnaball
5. Oswego
6. Clifford
7. Coventry
8. Lemonwheel
9. Fest 8
10. SB IX