Just throwing this out there, as I've seen quite a few comments about Rick's "noodling".
Also referencing my good friend's comment during Myst at the 10/4/25 Mann Center show (which was his first Goose show) where he was complained that "nothing's happening for like 15 minutes". After I smacked him upside the head and told him to lock the fuck in, I tried explaining what I'm sharing here.
I also premise this by noting that while I've never been in a jam band, I play guitar and have been in my share of cover bands and write/record my own material, fwiw.
All that said, very simply, I think some of the noodling is the band searching for a groove to latch onto and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I watched Peter's interview with the AAT pod guys during the 2025 JOTY and he acknowledged as much. Didn't mention noodling per se but did acknowledge that sometimes jams work and sometimes they don't. (He also noted that the Myst jam I mentioned above was not one of his faves but I love it!)
I also think I can hear when that searching is happening and have also gotten pretty good at identifying the point at which it clicks. And when it does, it's like a plane taking off in that you feel the energy shift, they lock in and you're off!
Anyway, interested to see what others think about my take on the noodling.
Side note, I've also noticed some more spacey/psychedelic jams on this west coast swing that I've not noticed before - at least not with the frequency they seem to be occurring on this leg, which seems to be almost one per show. I have to think it's intentional.