Scott,

I'm having trouble seeing the point you are trying to make in your second paragraph here. Sounds like you disagree with the author in paragraph 2 and then agree with him in the 3rd, in terms of how tours used to build onto the next year, or even from the start of the tour until the end of tour. I can pretty confidently say that for the most part they weren't thinking about that shit long term when they were doing huge amounts of drugs on tour from 94'-2000, and if they were, it most likely got thrown out the window a few shows in. I would guess it was more of a "lets hit the stage with this set list and see what happens" kinda mentality, with a few obvious exceptions. Did you see the show at Polaris, in Columbus Ohio, maybe 95 or 96, when they basically had to prop Gordon up in front of the mic and do the equivalent of whipping a race horse to get him to wake up and start playing? I doubt they had a coherent discussion before that show,or the Deer Creek shows that followed about how that night's performance is going to fit into the whole entity that was that summer tour. Or Vegas, when it sounds like a bullfrog jumped into Trey's voice box because you know what does you know what to your voice when you're on too much of it? Again, I'm not sure if the point you are trying to make here is that they do this now and didn't do it then, or vice versa. Either way I can safely agree with you concerning it being way too early to be talking about overall historical context of one show, a few days after, but to channel a 94 Tweezer teaser set in 2014 is hands down awesome, and we shall see where things go from here. On another note, does this show change anyone else's idea of what "the message" on new years might have been? I know it has changed mine.