Thoughts on Dicks Lot

There’s no place like Dicks.

The shitshow rodeo each year reminds us that summer’s over and sends us into shorter days with a smile.

Stepping onto the dirt parking lot swarming with thousands of friends and lovers trying their best to make new memories, it’s hard to have a bad time. The Dicks Lot is a beast. Though it’s different each day and every year, the feeling is just plain familiar. If you’ve been there once, you know there’s no freer nor more chaotic place you could be Labor Day weekend.

Group costumes, crossover references to your favorite animated TV show and friends you miss dearly bombard your vision as you loop round and round before venue gates open. You’ll see a band or two earning their stripes, and you’ll be drawn into tented storefronts by songs you love. 

Beyond the $20 deals and Heady Toppers, it’s still about the music out here.

One quartet led by a frenetic xylophonist made its way around Lot this year, set up by the venue entrance at one point and further down the road near the chaos other nights. “The Goons” kept it interesting without relying on traditional covers you might expect on a parking lot like this one.  

The Goons jammed constantly through the four-day gathering, finding new fans and providing a meeting place for misplaced buddies. They hail from Long Beach, CA and were clearly stoked to make their Dicks pilgrimage this year, playing with wide smiles and cracking each other up. The Goons are a blast.

Find The Goons on instagram here.

Deeper in the lot, across from a tropical hemp ice cream truck, Denver’s own Dylan & Declan set up on a flat bed playing to a consistent crowd for nearly three hours before the Saturday night show. 

Dylan on guitar and Declan behind a drum kit, the Colorado-based duo was joined by a bassist for the Lot performance. They’re making rounds at Denver clubs and the likes of Cactus Jack’s in Evergreen. This June opened up for southeast Louisiana swamp-punk pioneers the Iceman Special at Lost Lake Lounge.

Dylan and Declan are on instagram here.

At one point on Lot, Dylan & Declan took on a unique version of J.J. Cale’s Ride Me High that toyed with the passing crowd’s familiarity with the opening guitar riff. Early arrivals set up chairs and coolers around the makeshift stage, raising the bar for what a parking lot concert before the concert could be. The crowd swelled larger throughout the evening in front of the exciting band readying the crowd for a third night of Dicks. These young guns will be on the scene for many Labor Days to come.

Inside the venue, Phish catered to the dusty faithful all weekend long. The band opened three shows with high-energy rockers that would prove tough to follow the rest of the night.

The show-opening Carini on Thursday, Wolfman’s Brother on Friday and Fluffhead on Saturday each stretched to be the longest tune of their respective first sets. (We’re not going to talk about Sunday.)

The stretched-out first song works well – it’s disarming and makes it near impossible to think about anything outside of what’s happening onstage when the band starts a night like that. You’re no longer thirsty for that beer, can’t remember what song you just called out as they walked onstage, and you’re dancing.

Each band member shone during Thursday’s Carini, the first song of the weekend. 

Around eight minutes in, Trey settled down from the song’s monstrous takeoff and Page took an upbeat solo that breathed another life into the jam. Fishman hopped on board and gave night one fans an extra ten minutes of blissful Phish to start the holiday celebration.

As the opening tune rounded the corner for a 20-minute jam, happy folks were still reuniting and picking up lifelong souvenirs on the sprawling playground outside the gates.

No doubt you noticed the super-blue-full moon at Dicks. And if you hadn’t by Saturday night, the band wasn’t going to let you miss it a third time.

From the field you can glimpse the moon rising between the crowd and pavilion roof during the first set, but it will surprise you again once it makes it overhead in all its glory. The night sky and second set brought a breeze and bright moon Saturday, refreshing after an especially early day on Lot in honor of Jimmy Buffet.

Twenty minutes into Set II on Saturday, Trey noticed the moon and winded down Chalkdust Torture. A newer song, Ether Edge, found its home here. They’d planned this one.

As the moon begins to rise
And through the air she flies
And as the night closes in
It all rolls away

Ether Edge (Trey Anastasio)

First played by Phish during a spacey opening weekend of tour in Huntsville back in July, Ether Edge returned for just its second appearance to somewhat bookend Phish’s 40th summer. Smack dab in the middle of Saturday’s second set, it inspired reflection and appreciation for the magical place the band created for us that weekend.

Phish let is loose from there. They ramped up into The Howling, beckoning the rabid crowd to howl at the sky and welcome in a long night under the full (enough) moon. The future-funk from outer space simmered and crackled under hoots, hollers and yells from the crowd. Trey found his way back to the chorus a pitch higher, and some ten minutes later the band triumphantly closed the song with more howls from stage.

Walking down the street this week, it feels cooler. The breeze is different in Colorado. Plans are coming together not involving party buses, wristbands or five-dollar-margaritas.

Dicks has come and gone again after proving to us why we do not go to weddings on Labor Day, why we do not watch Week 1 college football and why we will be back next year.