I don’t envy the official reviewer of this show. It was, by all accounts, the opposite of what one might think of when they think of a scorcher Phish show. 20 songs across basically 3 sets of music with only one song over 20 minutes. And yet, this shows flow, exploration, patience, and intensity are dialed up to the max.

Set one flow was flawless, with multiple deep moments, stellar playing, a near perfect Mound, and a Ghost peak punctuating the first frame.

Set two gets going right out the gate. Someone in the forum said the one two punch of Bag>CDT felt 30% longer than their actual clocked times. There was a temporal dilation for sure and these two were certainly punching above their weight. Yeah, CDT could have gone longer, but that is basically the Theme of this show, don’t judge a book by its length. Each song went precisely as long as was meant to be.

Which leads us to set 3, because can it be called anything else. No phoning it in here, no one and done, 45 minutes of more rage, creating more proofs for the thesis put forth by the first two frames; length and girth (in this context at least) don’t matter; this of course being Dicks. Its simply the motion of cosmic ocean driving this big boat to the (ether) edge.

My recommendation: carve out the better part of an afternoon, preferably today, and listen to this entire show from front to back. Then, set a recurring calendar invite to revisit it often.

I DON’T BELIEVE WHAT I JUST SAW!
While enjoying conversation with our phriends and new phriends in section 121, I paused a moment and took a look around about 30 min before the opener. I thought to myself and had the opening notes dance in my head to Fluffhead and then quickly dismissed the notion and didn’t say a word. . .and 30 min later I began my Saturday Night journey to bliss!

I am still not sure what completely happened last night but I do know if someone mentions 9/2/23 Dicks in the years to come, a big smile will come to my face and I will say, YEA!

Excellent show front to back. Fluffhead was an incredible opener, featuring a bliss jam on the end. The rest of the first set kept up the momentum, featuring some classic songs like Cavern, Reba, the rare Mound, Taste and Ghost. While nothing else got jammed as much, it was an incredibly enjoyable set with excellent flow.

The second set was also incredible. AC/DC Bag was an unexpected but superb opener, and while the jam was not as long as the heavyweight versions from the late 90s, it was still an excellent version among the best we have heard in years. Chalk Dust Torture follows next, and almost immediately gets into some neat territory. It unexpectedly segues into Ether Edge, a neat new song. That is then followed up by an excellent 46 Days, one that reaches some truly impaired territory. The Howling continues the momentum and also produces a wonderful jam. Piper was a wonderful set closer, and this version featured and excellent bliss jam. A wonderful set with impeccable flow and never truly slowed down for a second.

For the second night in a row, we get a treat of an encore. 6 songs! Theme, Mango, Dont Doubt Me, Evolve and Golgi would have been a fun, unexpected long encore all on its own. However, Run Like an Antelope starts right as Golgi ends and is the perfect closure to a wonderful show.

This was a wonderful Saturday night show. I have loved my first Dick’s run, and I am sure we are in for another great show tonight!

First time reviewer-long time reader. I’ve been keeping set lists for many years but more recently have started to add detailed notes. I used to add notes but ‘sick jam’ and ‘mike cow funk’ were about the extent of them. I’ve been to every Dicks except 2021 and 2 shows from 2017. I love Dicks!
Going into D3 I was excited and appreciative. We get to the lines early for numerous reasons but being able to listen to the soundcheck is definitely one of them. The last two nights shows have been quite enjoyable and knowing the fondness the band has for this venue adds to the excitement of the impending show. Soundcheck consisted of My Home Place and Fast Enough For You (played twice). Always nice to enjoy a tasty appetizer before the main course!
Set 1 bounded out of the gate with Fluffhead. Strong cohesion from the band with Trey nailing the first composed section. The band dynamics were tight and Trey continued to execute the composed areas with a noble grace. Mike led them down a different path with some divergent bass lines and they were off into a wonderful exploratory jam. I noticed at this point that almost all of CK5s work was with the old school looking can lights. An entirely 180 degree visual difference from the 1st nights Carini opener. A true professor of visual delights he showered us in colorful swaths of beautiful lights almost entirely devoid of the dog bones-those spinning bar sections when lit white and spun remind me of the classic dog bone shape. I adore the new rig but it was cool to see his utilization of his full quiver of tools. Fluff continued with a beautiful melodic jam and finished at just over 21 minutes- what a start!
Next was the Clifton Chenier classic My Soul. I first heard this cover in 1997 at Deer Creek and loved it. It actually took me a few years to learn that it was a cover and not their song. I dig this song and this version was bouncy and tight. The energy level was kept up and finished with a nice rockin ending. Wouldn’t have seemed out of place in a hot, humid bar in NOLA at all. The Cavern that emerged next was one borne of funky waters. Atypical for sure it had a nice oozy funky feeling that permeated its entirety. I am of the opinion that Llama is appreciated best at a rapid tempo but I will say that Cavern at a different clip can be greatly appreciated. This version was nice and slinky and Mike had some dirty bass lines emerge. Fish’s drums were on point and provided a crisp contrast. Next up was Reba which lots of folks, including me, were wanting to hear. I firmly believe that Reba is the best song to pick for consistently entering into the Type 2 exploratory jam arena. This one entered it, albiet briefly, and proved why this song is one of the greats. Trey and Fish were locked in and the new bass Mike has been dialing in has been sounding better and better each show. I’ve been pining for Page and while he’s been shining in his spots-see Halfway to the Moon and Bathtub Gin-I want more. Spoiler alert-the end of the night doesn’t disappoint! As the show was progressing more and more of the new light rig was reappearing and Reba had a wonderful blend of old and new school. Reba ended and never came back-no whistling in this nearly 12 minute version. Next up was Mound! Whoa-pretty sure never at Dicks and they don’t play this song nearly enough anymore. For its age it didn’t show a lot of rust-nice and tight with some exploratory bass from Mike. He’s been focusing on some new tones and during this version he was hard at work on them. Really great to hear a Mound! A Wave of Hope started up and as the first non 1.0 song of the night it also brought even more and more of CK5s beautiful rig. This song has been a reliable jam vehicle and the crowd erupted when it started. Some nice work between Trey and Fish leading to a high-energy melodic jam. While clocking in at just about 8 minutes it was concise and coherent. Classic strong rockin ending-upbeat and colorful! Tease emerged next and one of my absolute favorite songs. I adore the little threads of Norwegian Wood teases that Trey weaves throughout it. This version was no exception and he had some delightful fretwork that had a beautiful harmonic companion from Page. Fantastic version with numerous Page/Trey dialogues. I could hear this song go on and on-but it had a graceful and succinct ending at about 8 minutes. To close out the first set Ghost rears it’s head. True to form a extremely strong percussive theme emerged lead by Fish. Mike added to that with a deep gravelly theme and they provided a killer inspiration for not only Trey and Page but also CK5. Everyone walked off the stage and the crowd was left howling for more!
The second set started with another of my favorites- AC/DC Bag. I say if this song is present in a show it’s gonna be fire!! And that statement held true again tonight. This version started off traditionally but Fish started some strong drumming themes and Trey followed suit. Page provided some eerie effects and Fish followed up with now new off tempo beats. Truly a wonderful thing to hear this band vibing off each other. Trey started using some his boomerang bounce back loop effects and we were now in a real deal jam! Mikes bass was exploratory but not obtrusive-these guys are good! They tightened it up at the end before going directly into Chalkdust Torture. The crowd goes nuts and the band bears down and cranks it up a notch. Tearing into this it gave way to a relatively gently yet highly melodic and deliberate jam with Trey leading the way. Perfect tone and note bending highlighted by the rest of the group. This ramped up slightly before entering another beautiful segue into Ether Edge. They played this twice during Fridays soundcheck and have only played it live once before. The realm that the Chalkdust jam entered was revisited again during Ether. Lots of room to grow in this song and I’m optimistic. Page was driving the beautiful song departure and as they neared the end they executed another flawless transition into 46 Days. Upbeat and happy this song stayed the path until Mike started getting into some funky territory-prairie dog funk? Dialing in his new Serek bass he found some deep grooves and took us to Funkytown on a carpet made of corduroy. Page was putting the Wurlitzer to good use and working up a sweat. Lots of great interplay going on with this jam section between all before heading back to 46 Days base camp. Big ending that had flirtations of Tweeprise-full on Dicks hose! As if the crowd wasn’t amped up enough they came at us with The Howling. EVERYONE was howling! Ripping version that actually went off into a divergent direction led by Page and his many effects. The jam that ensued made me think of the soundtrack you’d hear if you were walking down a dark alley at night behind the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz. Delightful yet deceptively sinister. They emerged from this section and returned again to the howling vocal part so everyone could play along. A light dissonance jam followed before another segue into Piper. Clocking in at almost 15 minutes this version had numerous Page led jams and delved into jam territory not always explored during this song. High energy and climactic multi-level rockin’ ending out us at the end of set 2. Wow -what a monster!
Encore started up and it seemed like the timing was a bit early-what do they have in store for us? Theme From The Bottom waded in and dove deep. Perfect interaction between music and lights put me under water and heading down. Slightly murky and compressed it was missing the high note Page staccato points but either way I’m on board! Trey utilized a nice warbly tone that exuded swimming. I knew we couldn’t be done-and what’s next but Mound! Wow another rarity! Mike and Page had some strong leads and it was great to hear this song live again-please play more often! Next up was Don’t Doubt Me. A fun and crowd favorite I thought this would cap the night. Great energetic flow. But no-here comes Evolve. Page really coming out strong in the sunset of the show and crushing his workload. I dig this tune. Can’t end here though-let’s end on Golgi! One of the best. Seeing Trey still put so much into this workhorse after all these years is inspiring. And no less than the fact that he wrote it in 3rd grade! BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE. Run Like An Antelope crashes through the plate glass window at Thanksgiving and shows everyone why this is the #1 band in the land. Holy Blankenstein-I think I just broke my glavin. My face definitely had melted off at this point and I hobbled out of the venue physically rode hard but mentally tumescent. 6 song encore over 42 minutes-nothing else needs to be said. Thanks for reading! Be kind to one another. Never miss a Sunday show. Or a a Saturday show.

First set was not my favorite of the run but featured a very compositionally heavy setlist. Fluff and ghost were really great !

The weight of that second set must have caused a rip in space time because those times were shocking to look at after witnessing them. 46 days thru piper is the clear winner of the night. That whole place was popping off during howling. Page was dropping howl-like synth wails that kept the audience playing along. Piper peaked and peaked and peaked again.

Longest encore ever? We are spoiled.

Is phish making dicks great again ?

I’m gonna write this review Spreaditround-style (in format, not opinion), to pick up the proverbial slack left since they have not left a review since the end of MSG. I like the format, might as well use it!

Fluffhead: Outstanding way to open the show. Jammed out Fluffheads will never get old.

My Soul: Standard

Cavern: Standard

Reba: Short but sweet, groovy and no whistling. Song selection has been outstanding so far.

Mound: Standard

A Wave of Hope: Interesting placement, not necessarily a bad spot for it but notable that it bucks the jam-vehicle trend it has been on. Straightforward yet solid, comes back for a landing. No complaints here.

Taste: Standard. Again, outstanding song selection so far.

Ghost: Short, fiery set closer.

Set Two

AC/DC Bag: Bag’s comeback campaign continues. Extended improv, nothing crazy but the future for Bag remains bright.

CDT: Short and extremely laid-back. Great interplay between the whole band. The band is taking their time finding something explosive, which is fine.

Ether Edge: Unlike a lot of you probably, I actually like this song. Listen to the 7/12 debut and this one back to back and appreciate how much color the Mike/Page backing vocals add. First questionable song placement of the night, it absolutely does not work here on this specific set. This is a good landing pad song but the set has not yet taken flight. Slick -> into…

46 Days: Extended, nice romp through murky water and a minor peak. Good stuff.

The Howling: Finally gets the jam treatment it deserved from day one. This one makes the simplistic lyrics and structure very easy to overlook. Drawn-out groove colored with incredible work by Page, pivots to suspended bliss. Incredible stuff, well worth repeated listenings. Slides ->

Piper: High octane balls to the wall set-closer. Starts off with quieter delicate interplay and erupts into a one way ticket to the stratosphere. Great way to close out a solid set.

Encore:

Theme: Standard

The Mango Song: Standard

Don’t Doubt Me: Standard

Evolve: Less explosive than the MSG or SPAC versions but it works nicely. Also realizing this is encore song number FOUR.

Golgi: Standard

Antelope: Great closer. Played with more patience than had been observed through pretty much the entire tour which I thought was great. Six song encore complete!

Overall a very solid show. Highlights in Fluffhead and the Howling, and the longest encore in Phish history is worth checking out. Pretty good song selection throughout, with only one placement I thought was questionable. 4.2/5

Another 20+ minute opener! Nobody in my section picked Fluffhead to open and that's the way we like it haha. There were no stretched out jams this night but it didn't matter. The setlist was fire. The band sounded amazing. The way they played every song could've been a set closer. There was no holding back. But I think many would agree however that the highlight of this show has to be the encore which my friends have deemed as a 3rd set. This is Dicks 2023 people.

I think we would've been satisfied with just a solid theme from the bottom to end the night. And solid it was. I love way Trey has changed the opening of this song to have more bounce and variety. Heard him play it like that in MSG earlier this year and I'm glad he did it again. But anyways, as we all know now, there was more to this encore then anybody could've saw coming. Mango Song was a treasure, I love this song. I knew they couldn't end it there though, but anything is possible. But as I thought they played a 3rd. Don't Doubt Me is one of the most fun new additions to the Phish song rotation in recent years. It would be a strange closer I thought but this must be the last song. Nope! Let's goooo. Four song encore, they go into Evolve, a very beautiful song but not my favorite. Who cares, the show was amazing and this version of Evolve is fantastic. Wait... What? They are not done?! The first notes of Golgi are played and me and the rest of Dicks go wild. 5 fuckin songs. This Golgi hits the peaks you'd expect, the crowd loves it. As they start going through the last riffs of Golgi one of my friends says he's going to try to beat the crowd and says his goodbyes; runs up the stairs. He is not alone, the whole row in front of me has left as well. Thankfully before he walked out, he heard the first notes of yes... A sixth song. Never leave a show too early! This is no longer just an encore at this point. And the band plays the song people were begging for through the first 6 sets of this Dicks run. Antelope begins and pure overwhelming joy fills my body. This is why we keep coming back. This band delivers. Amazing, love this band, love the crowd, see y'all tomorrow.

Great show! I think now that time has passed since I got back from Colorado, and a couple of re-listens in between, I will admit that the spectacle of the Encore did cause me initially to over-value the concert. But, and I will come back to that in a second, it truly did feel like the cherry on top for an overall awesome show.

Set 1 was very good overall. As is becoming all too common nowadays, it bucks our traditional expectations of a toe-dipping excursion.
Fluffhead was the obvious stand-out, and I am so glad I got to hear a 20+ min version of this one. Its composed section was tight, with nice little interludes throughout, and some solid jammin' to close it out. Reba was well done, and the final quartet of songs had great energy and nice transitions, seeing the band members work so well and patiently together in spite of the shorter type I jams. My buddy posed an astute observation/question at the end of this set, "how would this band function if just 1 of the members was down with disease?"

As if to defiantly refute that thought, an amazing Set 2 emerged. Typically, one would expect an amazing set 2 to include bust-outs and/or extended songs, and this set had neither. However, it traded in 1-2 show stoppers for 4 great type I-II jams, broken up only by an energy lifting CDT and a briefly calming Ether Edge interlude. The fire was burning from the 1-2 punch of AC/DC->CDT, and we were all feeling it. 46 Days was great, full stop. Having been at 10.31.2021, my wife found the musical costume to be bland. I told her it is hard to hear 90 minutes of new music, but that there were going to be some good jam vehicles coming from this work, and lo and behold, the Howling was probably the unexpected highlight. 30,000 adults howling in unison was hilariously incredible, and Page and co. really got everyone's feet moving. It was, I guess, predominantly type I (if you believe there is any structure to these songs to begin with...), but incredibly funky. Leading into a 2nd straight year of a Dick's Set 2 closing Piper, and another worthy jam.

K, Encore time. I will start by saying that I have always craved a solid encore. The typical 2 songs for an encore often feels limiting for them, and I always feel like if they could, they would (play longer), but they don't know how... Every now and then we get a barn burner of an encore, and I already felt fortunate to have just experienced it the prior night with SOAM. I am standing next to a newly made friend from Denver and a veteran at Dick's, whose expectations for this Encore were low (as he felt the band would be building, as usual, to a bigger finale on Sunday).

Well, things start out very nicely with a Theme that may well be considered jam chart worthy (as an aside, check out 08/10/22 version for those who love this song) when all is said and done after the powers that be review this tour. Beautifully played with a nice solo. Mango Song follows and is a pleasant surprise. As the song ends they hold those final notes and everyone, me included, thinks they're packing it in. But still, a glimmer of hope, and I shout "keep going!" The Denverite taps me on the shoulder, as if to suggest, "don't be greedy, young man..." We all know what happens next, they launch into Don't Doubt Me, followed by Evolve. Neither of which, admittedly are my favourite songs, and seemingly weird choices to close on. At the end of each of these, I again yell, "keep going!" People in front of us have left, such that we now find ourselves several feet closer to the action by the time Evolve has ended. Golgi starts, and we are all smiling ear to ear, half-bewildered and looking at one another in disbelief, and half-ecstatic. A high energy Golgi, and we will all happily vacate the arena with a 30+ min encore in the books and a story to tell, right? Or, maybe....? By the end of Golgi, everyone around is cheering and yelling with anticipation, and an even more perfect set closing Antelope ensues. The crowd is in a frenzy by the time Trey speaks the name "Marco Esquandolas," and there is no doubt that each of our souls are in high gear.

Over 3 hours of delectable music, great song choices, great jams, and the longest encore in Phishtory all makes for an excellent event!

Other notes:
1) From the rhythm crew, Fishman gets a lot of love and deservedly so, but this was Mike's most outstanding show of the weekend (continuing from the great work in SOAM the night before)
2) IMO, Jam Chart songs - Fluffhead, AC/DC Bag, 46 Days, The Howling, Piper, Theme(?)

SET 1:

Fluffhead: Exceptional time II jam. Easy all timer. Truly inspirational and wow – what a statement to open up Saturday night’s show. It’s ON!

My Soul: Trey melts some faces.

Cavern: Intro sounds odd. >

Reba: Seemed it was played kind of fast. Wish Trey’s tone wasn’t quite so shrill and sort of thin sounding otherwise this would have been great.

Mound: LOL, train wreck city. “We're talking about practice. Not a game; not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it's my last, not the game, we're talking about practice, man.”

>

A Wave of Hope: Played close to the vest – but that’s fine – it rocked. >

Taste: Pretty decent version right here! The very ending Trey kind of struggles with but no big deal. >

Ghost: Type I face melter. Interesting placement – very cool!

SET 2:

AC/DC Bag: Pretty cool jam here. Nice, aggressive, and intentional. It is very cool to see jams coming out of this tune! ->

Chalk Dust Torture: No let up in the energy with this in the two slot. Let’s go!! Pretty mellow jam here. It seems that this may have been practiced as it seemed to seamlessly peter out and went into the next tune rather perfectly. >

Ether Edge: Yuck, terrible. Slick segue though into… ->

46 Days: Heavy effects drive a chunky, funky jam. I appreciate the band thinking outside of the box on this one. Cool stuff would recommend! >

The Howling: Such a lazy tune. But this one actually has a nice jam to it. >

Piper: Another bliss jam.

ENCORE:

Theme From the Bottom: They continue to play around with the composed section. I love it! 28 years after it debuted, and it is still open to being tweaked pretty cool. >

The Mango Song: Cool in the encore slot!

Don't Doubt Me: Now things are getting interesting. Is this turning into a third set? >

Evolve: Yep, a third set. But this song is still lol.

Golgi Apparatus: Little bit loose but whatever. >

Run Like an Antelope: Standard as she goes. But the effort and energy of this encore is very telling. Way to go Phish!

Summary: Strong and fun first set. Second set ok. Crazy encore feels – tacked on. C’mon, you know it’s true. If you were there, you were all like – best ever. But then the drugs wore off. This is a good show with honestly just one major highlight (Fluff) and then a couple of good jams and then basically a third set. You know this to be true. Search your feelings. 3.9/5

Replay Value: Fluffhead, AC/DC Bag, 46 Days,