this conversation with Charlie and Andrew was fantastic, was very interesting to hear about the evolution and approach to jamcharts

and, wow, Brinkman has an exciting 'internship' with the team coming up, he must be walking on cloud nine this morning

whenever I listen to the first few notes of this come out of Trey's guitar, I picture Page, Mike, and Fish grinning nervously and thinking to themselves "holy shit, here we go"

yep ... and I know everyone comes for the Gin but all of it is amazing ... including the Uncle Pen, which is both playful and tight as shit

playing around w/ the look of my song-duration plots on this Friday afternoon ... this iteration (using Disease as an example) has 'jamchart' versions in orange ... potentially useful (?)

perhaps unsurprisingly, almost all jamchart versions are longer than the moving average (blue line) #PhishPlots

to go with @hfpod.bsky.social's discussion of AC/DC Bag today, here's a plot of the duration of AC/DC Bags through time w/ some of the longer ones annotated (blue line is a 20-point moving average, just to help see any trends) #PhishPlots

check out the uptick in length in 4.0 (compared to 3.0)

and these textures of the current era aren't only Trey/Page/Mike but also Fishman's fundamental playing style ... in many of those late 90s jams he plays it pretty straight (in the pocket, solid backbeat groove) ... nowadays he can be all over the kit ... a percussion rinse, if you will

you know the Bittersweet Motel scene when Trey says fans don't care if they miss changes, that's not why they come, they come for the energy (something like that, I'm paraphrasing)

while I don't get bent out of shape with flubs, but I *love it* when a composed section is nailed ... so satisfying

me when I ask myself "Should I stop listening to the SPAC shows?"

yes! ... it is maybe the most spectacular segment of an all-time spectacular show ... the transition back into Reprise is breathtaking

I did not know this ... so, is not just you

I don't even know where to start ... when I have a moment of wanting to explore, I become overwhelmed with the catalog

and, finally ... I computed the median gap after removing outliers (defined as values outside of 2 standard deviations, a common approach) ... just a smidge better than above

none of this really matters, it's just nerdy fun ... if you all keep proposing these ideas on the pod I'll do more of this

I couldn't resist doing some more on this ... here is the median gap (middle value of distribution) instead of the average gap ... still a poor correlation but a little better; at least the blue trend line in the direction that supports the hypothesis

nice! ... I took your computed '# of 20/25 minute jams per show' stat and put into these simple bar plots ... just to help visualize

my gosh ... 2021, 2024, and 2025

Largest performance gaps for Summer 2025 tour (with at least a 50-show gap). Data from phish.net

Second, here's a similar bar chart but showing the largest performance gaps (for those with ≥50-show gap).

A bunch of bluegrass-y tunes up there near the top.

Most frequently played songs for Summer 2025 tour (with at least 4 performances). Data from phish.net

Alright, a couple of Summer 2025 tour data visualizations for those of you who are into that sort of thing. #PhishPlots

First, here's a chart of the most frequently played songs (with at least four performances). We all know why Tweezer Reprise is at the top 🤩

I have yet to explore relationships to jam chart designations ... is on my long-term to-do list ... if only I could somehow have a day job of analyzing Phish stats, lol

the dataset is rich to explore! ... however, I've been less inclined to analyze relationships to show rating because of the subjective nature of that (at least relative to 'hard' metrics like show gap, song duration, number of songs, and similar)

(of course, this all assumes that the phish.net show rating is an accurate measure of show 'quality', which is a whole can-of-worms as we all know ... but, it's what we got)

I was also intrigued by this hypothesis, so I did a quick regression (vertical axis = rating, horiz axis = average gap), definitely no correlation.

However, I agree that the average is a misleading stat (for reasons you discussed). The median would be more appropriate, but need to do add'l work.

I was listening to this Tweezer this morning (it's in my 'workout' list, a rager that wakes me up when riding the stationary bike early) ... and at this point it *almost* sounds like a SPAC 2025-style segue into Tweezer Reprise could've happened ... a fleeting moment almost 30 yrs ago, check it out

My spouse texted me yesterday morning: "How was the show on the final night?".

I replied "They did a whole special thing, which I can try to explain later."

Spouse: "That's fine, I'm glad you all had fun! See you soon."

I'm still processing last night, what a special show –– I think I'm gonna wait to get into all the takes from the community, just sit with the experience for a bit

what an amazing run and weekend –– in addition to the fantastic music, I reconnected with some old friends

I haven't been in a position to attend a lot of shows the past decade+ (you know, just the circumstances of life, c'est la vie) ... but I'm doing the entire SPAC run and super excited to connect with my 1.0 buddies ⭕

had I not webcasted last night's show and only saw the list of songs in the first part of the second set I would've scoffed at Sparkle's placement –– but it strangely worked, it seemed to get them all pumped up (especially Trey)!

I'll likely skip it on a relisten, but it was fun in the moment

Phish #pick5 Chicago N1

Back on the Train (opener)
Sigma Oasis
Cities
Chalk Dust Torture
More

Plot of number of shows since last performance (gap) for You Enjoy Myself. Bold line is a 20-point moving average to help see trends/patterns. Data from phish.net

Plot of number of shows since last performance (gap) for David Bowie. Bold line is a 20-point moving average to help see trends/patterns. Data from phish.net

okay, I made a few more of these 'song gap timeline' plots ... when I should've been doing real work 🤫 ... here's YEM and Bowie

the higher the number (and bold line, which is a moving average) the longer the gap between performances ... the lower it is, the more frequently it's played #PhishPlots

so, is this to be called the Mann Sand? 🤔