love diCK5” CO-flag motif painting to Chris Kuroda. We caught his attention after set break started and when he realized what IT said his eyes lit up with Joy!
Walking back towards the front I felt high on life.
Before I knew IT the boys were on stage again and belting out Chalk Dust Torture. This version wasn't quite the dust-storm we saw @ DICK'S exactly two years earlier, but like K.D.F., C.D.T. Has made an appearance all 4 years. C.D.T. segued into Twist and moving all around Twist's end result was The Wedge. I was lucky enough to witness this summer's Northerly-Wedge and while this one didn't rival Chicago's wedgendary status IT was placed perfectly before the 4th annual appearances of Tweezer and Sand. Tweezer is a temptation Trey finds hard to resist and this is became evident as the jam seized the day and stepped back into Sand. Sand drifted into a spacey Piper who made her 4th consecutive Sunday appearance at DICK'S. Piper came and went as fast a microburst, but before the sound of the storm was over we had new words to sail upon. Joy rose up and would be gone before too long; however, Steve Allen made the bold call of a “raging 2nd set Joy” and rewarded with a ground-scored Troy Pistachio coozie.
A momentary pause in this otherwise continuous jamming set was the spilt-second break needed for what many fans are calling the best Mike's Song of the 3.0 era. Being that we were already treated to one of the best appearances of Simple on Friday, Sneaking Sally Through The Alley served as a great choice to sneak between Mike's and Weekapaug Groove. Sally included her usual vocal jam reminiscent of Aerosmith's Rag Doll. As the groove continued I couldn't help but feel that we were all sharing in the culmination of 4 years of magic.
IT was obvious the boys were feeling the magic too as they took the stage for the last time and the beautiful buzz lasted a few more minutes with Loving Cup. Loving Cup was certainly not fumbled as the boys stumbled back into the freezer one more time to close out the weekend with Tweezer Reprise. I got my “S” show in '11 and although they didn't play a Friday “W” show like I predicted the Sunday night spectacular was really what I was waiting for...
The FYF show is probably my favorite show I've attended, but 8/31/14 has now become my most sentimental show. Maybe I imagined IT, but the lights never looked better than they did that 2nd set. Phish's decision to return to DICK'S every Labor Day weekend hows how important this run has become to their career and ranks up there w/ New Year's Eve and Halloween as the most sacred days on the calendar. The only thing left to say is FOUR MORE YEARS...at the very least!