I moved to Colorado a year before the annual Labor Day run at Dick's began and I feel considerably lucky to get these three days every year. In '15, I had a family obligation and flew back to the midwest Sunday morning, missing the famous THANK YOU show. And tonight was my second missed show because....old age. Okay - I'm still in my '30s, but Friday and Saturday kicked my ass, so I did the stupidest thing you can do as a Phish fan and chose to deliberately miss a Sunday show. Furthermore, missing a Sunday show at Dick's compound the stupidity if you just glance at the records: '11 second set obliteration punctuated by Guy Forget, '12 Sand Bliss, '14 Dark Sand Bliss and funky Wolfman's, '15 THANK YOU, '16 Crosseyed &hose& Painless / Light II. I watched the free feed tonight (Thanks Phish!) and it was a really upbeat show with a couple of highlights, but not a barnburner by any stretch of the imagination. Side note: Most Events Aren't Planned is fast becoming one of my new favorite Phish songs (do we call it a Phish song or cover if Page wrote it?).
I noticed something on Friday that piqued my interest on Saturday, and, since I was sitting at home tonight, I actually looked into it a bit. It felt like Phish has been playing a lot of the same songs every time they do their 3 days at Dick's. I'm not a math person, so I can't begin to discuss statistical probability with even a modicum of authority. But this is what I do know - the following is a list of songs played at Dick's 7, 6, or 5 times. I've asterisked the songs that were additionally played at 1st Bank Center during their 3-day run in Fall '10. I know that they don't really look at what they've done historically at a certain venue to inform their setlist decisions and that those are predicated far more on what's been played recently, but am I crazy in thinking that they need to start focusing on '10 - '17 (if and) when they play Dick's next Labor Day weekend? This year, more than anything, I kept getting a bad taste in my mouth and yearning for some variety. I don't go on tour, so these are the only shows I get to see every year. I love this band and I think they did something monumental and historic with their MSG run last month. If they can avoid repeats for 13 straight shows, surely they can take a look at their past setlists and avoid playing Light and Chalk Dust for the umpteenth million time next year, right?
Light (7)*
CDT (7)*
Ghost (7)*
Moma (7)*
Hood (7)
Piper (7)*
Antelope (7)*
The Wedge (7)
DwD (6)
Sand (6)
Tweezer (6)*
Gin (6)
46 Days (6)*
Slave (6)*
Carini (5)*
Free (5)*
WotC (5)
- - WotC played only 36 times in 3.0 (almost 1 in of every 7 at Dick's)
Steam (5)
- - Steam played only 27 times since it’s ’11 debut (more than 1 in every 6 at Dick's)
Carini (5)
Twist (5)*
Mike’s Groove (5)*
Hallye's (5)*
Suzy Greenberg (5)
BOTT (5)*
One more note - I haven't been keeping up with the boards lately, so if someone has already pointed this out, I had no intention of plagiarizing them. Surely I can't be the only one who has noticed this, right?