This was my first Dick's run and boy was it fun. Decades of phishy evangelicalism towards my family paid off last year when my Denver-based nephew went to the full Dick's run and was thoroughly converted. In 2015, he helped pull together a terrific excursion to Bend and then encouraged me to make the effort to get to Dick's. In Oregon he was openly hoping for Harpua as well as a slew of more conventional songs. I found his song-chasing and hopeless newbie romanticism endearing as it made me nostalgic for my equivalent 1.0 zeal of the converted phase, back when I was the 20-something forgetting his birthday off partying at Clifford and Great Went. I told him that he'd have to hope they didn't play Harpua at Magnaball and then maybe they'd play it at Dick's. But really. They didn't play it at all in 2014. Don't git yer hopes up there young fellah.

Impressions after the show: the first set was super-eclectic the highlights of which were the Landlady bustout, rough as it was, Scent, Frankenstein, and Seven Below. Fun but nothing special as first sets go.

I went down to the floor for the remainder after a weekend in the stands and that was a great decision with all the high energy tunes that followed. The Disease jam got weird for a bit before developing an uplifting melodic pattern that built slowly due to Trey keeping himself at the periphery for what seemed like forever, such that when he did come alive it took the jam and the whole arena off into outer space. I was reminded of the Went Bathtub, not quite that euphoric a peak but definitely in terms of the patience and crowd/band synergy. Carini/Steam/Piper would never make it onto a fantasy setlist of mine but there was tasty playing stashed away throughout that burned away any consideration of the opportunity costs of their being in the setlist. The 2001 was perfectly placed and stretched out with loads of the new zippy trippy loop like effects, which I'm a big fan of. I love late set Tweezer, don't remember much about this one. The Slave was a solid A Slave. Really great set in the grand scheme of things.

The set ended around midnight. My nephew asks for my encore prediction and I optimistically call for Harpua on his behalf. He suggests that Harpua doesn't end with a bang, so maybe not a great final song. Well then sure, just tack on the Tweeprise, why can't we have both? So they come out and do Tweeprise, and I am sad, because I think that must mean that they are hitting their curfew and that's all we are going to get.

Needless to say, the highlight of this show if not the whole summer was the OM PAH PAH moment. The next half an hour was pure magic, a nostalgic trip for me back to Big Cypress (After Midnight), 7/8/94 Gamehendge (NO2), Fall 95 Chessboard tour (Keyboard Army), Vegas 2014 (Your Pet Cat). I didn't go to the RIL 96 Halloween show and it is just as well because I thought the Once in a Lifetime was a musical mess, but it just didn't matter. So much joy.

I have not yet listened to the recordings and I'm sure I'll find more to like and more to criticize down the road.

As an aside, the venue staff at Dick's were hilarious and suitably passive. Some were high-fiving, some were chain smoking, some were dancing their ass off, some were taking bribes of nugs to let people on the floor, some were bewildered, but most of them seemed to enjoy the atmosphere. One told us "were were told... you can do what you want so long as you don't fight." As it should be!