Just discovered this banter, through this thread, today. I ate it up and eagerly await more. My lifelong (well, since I was 15) addiction to Phish has ebbed and flowed, and it's currently risen back to near-ridiculous status. I too am curious to know how you rate the later albums. For as much as I love the boys and have continued to go to shows (and am listening to so much live stuff of theirs these days), my interest in the studio albums tapered off almost completely. I loved (most of) the Ghost material (was touring full-bore at that period), but have never owned even a copy of the album. There was a brief resurgence in interest with Farmhouse. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved it. After that, I can sum up my enthusiasm for the studio output as "Meh."
The studio Llama (and Picture of Nectar as a whole) was my first Phish exposure, as my brother picked up Nectar, WSP's Space Wrangler, and Spin Doctor's Pocket Full of Kryptonite immediately after reading the HORDE article in a '92 Rolling Stone (we were already big Blues Traveler fans). You are so right about Fish's playing on Llama. It bowled me over, and as soon as I heard Trey's opening riff that sounded like something Hendrix would have thought up (Trey loves Band of Gypsys), I immediately scrounged up a Maxell and dubbed myself a copy (a pirate from the old days). I was so impressed that there are almost as many styles of music as there are tracks, and that's after I'd already been sold before I got 4 measures into the opening cut.
Anyway, carry on. Good stuff.
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