I am writing this a few days before Phish’s 2014 run in Commerce City, Colorado and my mind is racing. Sure normally, I’d be wondering what Phish might play or if there would be any interesting jams, but this soccer stadium in suburban Denver has something special going. For whatever reason, Phish has decided to play a game there.

The history of these three shows is well known. The first year Phish played songs that all started with the letter S (excluding the article in The Sloth). That largely caught people by surprise; it was late in the first set before the pattern became apparent to most. The following year had the initial letter of song titles painstakingly spell out Fuck Your Face until that song was played. Last year’s phrase was “Most Shows Spell Something,” but the catch was that they played it backwards. You could only figure out the pattern if you read the setlist from the bottom. Impressively, the fan base was wired in by then. Send a message through the setlist in reverse order? Fine. People figured out the pattern by GNI.

The game is more than just a way for the band to amuse themselves. It serves a dual purpose. It locked the fans into paying attention more than we might otherwise, thinking of each song not just for the music played, not even for normal setlist thoughts about bustouts and overplays, but for it being a piece of the puzzle. Getting fans to focus tighter is always a good thing. In addition, these games have the same purpose as a poetic structure. By limiting the available songs, you force extra creativity. The S show had multiple songs played for the first time since the 1990s. The shortness of “Fuck Your Face” message inspired extra improvisation. Even the slightly maligned 2013 stunt had the debut of Easy to Slip and the rarities of Icculus and Oh! Sweet Nuthin’. Creativity through restriction is a time-honored tradition.

As the games have become more complicated, it’s time to wonder what is left for 2014. My first theory is that they would use the last letter for a change of pace. Everyone is so focused on the first that it would take quite some time for people to catch on to the change. Maybe they’ll do something more evil like spelling out “Oom Pa Pa” and then not playing the Harpua that implies. Of course, there’s always the hope that they come up with something interesting that no one has thought of.

With Phish abandoning the Halloween cover album tradition, calling it a bit of a trap, there’s a fear that eventually the Dick’s spelling game will have the same fate befall it. Unlike Halloween or New Year’s Eve, there would be no room for anyone to carp over this change. This never has been announced. It’s just something Phish does as a bonus for attentive fans. The complete lack of attention called to it by the band is what makes this one of the coolest traditions in the music world. For those lucky enough to be there on Friday, for the thousands more who will be watching at home, let’s hope that this continues one more year. There’s a reason why we all love Dick’s.

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David Steinberg got his Masters Degree in mathematics from New Mexico State University in 1994. He first discovered the power of live music at the Capital Centre in 1988 and never has been the same. His Phish stats website is at http://www.ihoz.com/PhishStats.html and he’s on the board of directors for The Mockingbird Foundation. He occasionally posts at the Phish.net blog and has a daily update on the Phish Stats Facebook page

His book This Has All Been Wonderful is available on Amazon, the Kindle Store, and his Create Space store.