[“From the Forum” is a new blog feature series that highlights quality posts from the Phish.net forum to share more broadly. This inaugural edition was originally posted by @Profjibboo on August 18, 2024. -Ed.]
38 - The number of shows Phish has played at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. In 2022, Dick's passed The Front to become Phish's 2nd most played venue of all time. It trails only Madison Square Garden, which has had 83 shows. Dick's accounts for 2% of all Phish shows. Commerce City is also securely #3 on the most played cities list, behind New York City and Burlington. At the end of 2024, it will have a 10 show advantage over #4, Noblesville, IN.
28 – The number of Dick’s shows in September, not counting the one in 2024. If we only counted September Dick's shows, Commerce City would be tied for 7th most-played location in Phish history - tied with Chicago.
10 – The number of Dick’s shows in August (not counting the 3 in 2024). If all three shows get played, then Phish will have played a lucky 13 shows in August at Dick's. If we looked at only August shows, Commerce City would still be amongst the 25 most-commonly played cities in Phishtory. 13 shows would make it tied with its neighbor venue – Red Rocks (last played by Phish in 2009). Speaking of lucky 13….
233 - The number of unique songs played at Dick's – up 6 from last year
2 - The number of one set shows at Dick's – up 1 from last year. After going 11 years without rain, Dick's has had one night impacted by rain two years in a row.
3 - The number of songs that have appeared at every single Dick's run. (“Chalk Dust Torture,” “Ghost,” “Harry Hood”). I am not aware of any venue played more than 5 times that has any “appeared each run” songs, let alone 3 for 13 years in a row. I’m thinking we should make a “guess the baby due date” type-game as an MBF fundraiser…see who can come closest to guessing what night and placement each song will get this year.
Top 10: All three of those songs are among the most commonly played songs of 2024 so far. In fact They are all part of a 7 way tie for most commonly played song of 2024 at 7 appearances each – roughly 23% of shows. (“46 Days,” “Bathtub Gin,” “Chalkdust,” “Character Zero,” “Down With Disease,” “Ghost,” and “Hood”);
^ That is actually down slightly. In 2023, the most commonly played song was “Chalk Dust” at 24% of shows; In 2022, “Free,” “Sand,” and “Sigma Oasis” were in a 3-way tie for most-common song, appearing at 23% of shows.
2 - The number of songs played in the band's history to be played over 200 times but not appear at Dick's - “My Sweet One” (251) and “Rocky Top” (205).
215 – Speaking of gaps, it has 215 shows since Phish last played “The Line” (10/21/18 Hampton). That is a travesty against humanity.
47 - That's the number of times Phish has played “Cities” since Phish started playing Dick's in 2011, making it the most common song to not be seen at Dick's since the Dick's era began. Despite being the #3 most commonly played City, and named City, it gets no “Cities.” “Cities” has been played 3 times since last year’s Dick's’s run. A lot of sad faces in Commerce City.
31 - The number of unique songs to open one of 38 shows at Dick's. Only five songs have opened a show at Dick's more than once. “First Tube,” “Free,” “Ghost,” and “Sand” have opened 2 shows each. “Moma Dance” has opened 3. “Moma Dance” is fresh off a N1, S1 Festival-opener role. That’s a high pressure situation for “Moma” there. The number of unique set one/show openers climbed by three last year with “Sigma Oasis,” “Fluffhead” and “Wolfman’s Brother.” “Carini” joined the two timers club. So far this summer, no song has opened a show more than twice.
9 - The number of songs to have appeared at the first Dick's show - The S Show - but never appear at Dick's since - “Strange Design,” “Sweet Adeline,” “Soul Shakedown Party,” “Sparks,” “Susskind Hotel,” “Sweet Virginia,” “The Sloth,” “Sabotage,” and “Sanity.” This number is actually down 2 from last year as “Scents and Subtle Sounds” and “Shine a Light” made their long-awaited returns in 2023.
5 - The number of songs that appeared at that first Dick's run in nights 2 and 3 combined that have not appeared at Dick's since - “Axilla,” “Fast Enough For You,” “Guy Forget,” “The Way It Goes,” “Come Together.”
119 - The number of shows OP has been to without ever getting a single “Sanity” or “Strange Design” (or “Dog Log”– C’MON “DOG LOG”!)
0 - The number of shows that have been canceled at Dick's due to turbidity–even though 2022 and 2023 tried to end that streak. RIP to our naked dancing in the rain fan.
Just some more random numbers:
4 - The number of times “Set Your Soul Free” has opened the 2nd set at Dick's. 4 out 5 (80%) appearances have been as set II openers. Outside of Dick's it was a set opener in 43% of its appearances.
1 - The number of times “Bathtub Gin” closed any set before the year 2000.
29 - The number of times it closed a first set since the start of 2000 - 4 of which have been at Dick's.
66% - The percent of the time “Tweezer Reprise” appears as an encore when it appears. At Dick's, it is 100%. All 10 appearances have been as an encore. Admittedly, “Tweeprise's” percentage of encore appearances is way way higher since Phish reunited in 2009. Since 2009, 91.5% of “Tweeprises” have come as an encore. Prior to 3.0, 52% of “Tweeprises” were in the 1st and 2nd set.
6 - Maybe it’s because Dick's is always the last stop, but that is the total number of songs debuted at Dick's–none of which have been played more than twice. (“On the Road Again,” “Sightless Escape,” “United We Stand,” “Legalize It,” “Easy to Slip,” and “The Way it Goes”)
99 - The number of problems OP has. (jk). But one problem he doesn't have - not enough “DWD” openers. It has opened three second sets here at Dick's and 99 second sets total. The next one will be #100. On a related milestone note: “You Enjoy Myself” (96), “Run Like An Antelope” (96) and “Slave” (94) are neck-neck-and-neck to be the first songs to 100 2nd sets closed. I like “Slave's” odds because “Antelope” has some 1st sets mixed in. Don't feel too badly for “Antelope”....
296 - The number of times “Antelope” has closed a set - be it 1st (191), 2nd (96) or 3rd (9) set. It is the all-time most common 1st set closer, tied for first with “YEM” for 2nd set closer, and 1st most common 3rd set closer. At Dick's, it is in a 3-way tie for 2nd most common 1st set closer (try saying that 3 times fast)(3x) (“Bathtub Gin” has closed 4, see above, tied with “Zero” and “David Bowie”) - but surprisingly, it has only closed 2 second sets here at Dick's - a distant 4th behind “Slave” (7), “Hood” (4), “Suzy Greenberg” (3) and in a 5 way tie with “First Tube,” “Piper,” “Walls of the Cave” and “Weekapaug Groove”).
2 - The number of times “Antelope” has opened a set at Dick's. 1 1st set, 1 2nd set. It has opened a grand total of three 1st sets and seven 2nd sets. So, 20% of its set opening appearances have been at Dick's. SHOW US YOUR ANTELOPE, DICK’S!
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