“Phish fans brave plague-related drama for Labor Day weekend shows - The Denver Post” plus 2 more

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• Phish fans brave plague-related drama for Labor Day weekend shows - The Denver Post
• Phish Delivers Deep "Everything's Right" & "Mercury" Jams, Nods To The Plague In Dick's Opener [Photos/Videos] - Live for Live Music
• Demystifying Kickers & The "Plague" They Are in Fantasy Football - The Fantasy Footballers

Phish fans brave plague-related drama for Labor Day weekend shows - The Denver Post Posted: 30 Aug 2019 05:42 PM PDT A little bit of plague? Some last-minute scrambling to avoid sleeping in your car? A few air-conditioned shuttles? That's just par for the course for Phish fans, who braved some travel headaches, health hazards and housing hullabaloo for the jam band's annual Labor Day weekend shows at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. This month concerns about fleas and prairie dogs infected with the pneumonic plague forced the venue to cancel camping outside the venue, where some 3,000 people planned to set up for the weekend. Parking lots also were closed, diverting show-goers into an overflow lot down the street at Northfield Stapleton Mall. The late-breaking news caused thousands of people to change their plans, but stressing about sleeping is not what the Phish experience is all about. Karin Weule thought she'd be camping for the shows when she planned her trip from New Mexico. As she contemplated sleeping in her car, a friend heard about her predicament and connected Weule with a relative who had an open bed. "My philosophy is: Surrender to the flow," Weule said as she unloaded a box full of brightly colored crocheted hats from her trunk. "That's the beauty of the band. It's unconditional love." On Friday afternoon, Phishheads from across the country slowly trickled into the mall parking lot. One man strummed on a guitar, while others sipped on IPAs and chatted about their favorite shows. Dan Mansfield learned about the camping ban when his credit card suddenly was refunded. "I was like, 'Noooo!'" Mansfield said with a laugh. But he quickly turned the unfortunate news into a timely scheme. Mansfield stood up straight and displayed his creation: bright blue T-shirts with a picture of a rabid prairie dog in a tie-dyed bandanna. The shirts read "Plague Side, Rage Side," a play on a popular Phish motto (the band's pianist, Page McConnell, is positioned stage right during live performances.) "I was bummed at first," Mansfield said as he hawked the T-shirts to fans in the lot. "But you can't go through life being bummed." Mike Torretti took a sip of his beer as he watched Mansfield show off his creation. A Breckenridge resident, Torretti has been to more than 60 Phish shows, including one at which he and his friends trudged eight miles to the venue because of flooding. "This is par for the course," Torretti said. "We'll roll with it and have a great time." Phish fans said the band always brings it, but especially when they know their fans have been through a lot. Without ample parking at the stadium, fans boarded coach shuttle buses to take them to the show. The transportation setup appeared to be running smoothly, and security reported no issues. Outside the stadium, vendors sold beer and merchandise, steaming hot gyros and brightly colored dresses. Fans lined up to buy tickets, while others sat beside their cars in lawn chairs, soaking in the pristine Denver weather. One group laughed about the whole scene, making jokes about the "Plague Year!" Chris Sherman of Broomfield said the street with all the vendors — known as "Shakedown Street" — was a "little lamer than usual," citing lower energy from the lack of camping. Next to him, William Crane agreed. "But it's still going to be a great show," he added.

Phish Delivers Deep "Everything's Right" & "Mercury" Jams, Nods To The Plague In Dick's Opener [Photos/Videos] - Live for Live Music Posted: 31 Aug 2019 06:49 AM PDT On Friday night, Phish returned to their regular Labor Day Weekend destination, Dick's Sporting Goods Park, for the first of three shows in Commerce City this weekend. The show marked Phish's first date since their stellar Sunday night performance at Alpine Valley Music Theatre. The band put together a solid performance on their first night at Dick's, playing through a focused setlist comprised predominantly of newer-vintage original songs. The main storyline ahead of this year's Phish Dick's run, however, did not concern the music itself, but rather the outbreak of the plague—yes, the plague—in fleas affecting the area's prairie dog population. While "the band plays on," the plague situation forced Phish to cancel onsite camping and vending for this year's run. It didn't take the band long to reference the deadly disease "plaguing" the Commerce City areas fleas and prairie dogs. "You still alive out there?" Trey Anastasio asked as the band took the stage. The band offered up a surprise for their first song of the weekend, diving into the second-ever performance of long-lost original, "Can't Always Listen", a boogieing blues-rocker penned by Trey and longtime songwriting partner, Steve Pollak, better known as The Dude of Life. The song debuted to a positive response as the meat of a second set "Ghost" sandwich 12/30/15 at Madison Square Garden only to go missing entirely until last night. Even after the nearly 4-year gap, this rendition was tight and well-played, making fans wonder why it has been forgotten for so long. Here's hoping it finally makes its way into the rotation. Sticking the landing out of "Can't Always Listen", the band chugged forward with "Free". While the sludgy funk interplay between Mike Gordon and Page McConnell was surely noteworthy on "Free", this rendition was most notable for its lyrical adlibs, which heard Trey change several instances of the word "Free" to "flea" in yet another nod to the story of the plague. After a moment of deliberation, the band moved into "No Men In No Man's Land". While this version of the funky Fuego track didn't reach the improvisational heights of some recent renditions, it showcased a band locked in and ready to wow their faithful Colorado audience. From there, the band tumbled into the easygoing bounce of "555", a song that's always remained close to its composed structure despite seeming ripe for an improvisational ride. This would not be its night, however, as the band swiftly moved out of "555" and into an energetic "Back on the Train" and a spry "Rift". "Steam" billowed up next, giving the band an opportunity to utilize some patient, dynamic, swelling tones as Chris Kuroda showed off his impressive light rig on the soccer stadium's sprawling expanses. After exploring some dark, ominous improvisational space and riding some interplay between Page's organ and Trey's nimble guitar riffs, the band punched their bluegrass card for the evening with a rendition of A Picture of Nectar ditty, "Poor Heart". "Undermind" was up next, followed by a welcome change of pace in the second "Train Song" of the year. Following a dynamic "Wingsuit", the band put a pin in the first frame with a "Blaze On" set closer. Phish returned after set break and launched into "Everything's Right", the TAB/Phish crossover that's come into its own as a go-to jam vehicle in recent tours. Gordon's bass led the way on this simmering jam, assisted by an airtight (as always) Jon Fishman behind the kit. After starting in "evil" Phish territory, the jam shifted toward happier pastures as Fishman maintained his unrelenting backbeat. As the crowd stood transfixed by Kuroda's lighting, Page helped push the jam into swirling spacey territory with delicate synth work before the song bled into another recent go-to jam vehicle, "Mercury". "Mercury" has become increasingly reliable as a second set improvisational centerpiece, and this version surely didn't buck that trend. Clocking in at nearly 24 minutes in length, the Dick's "Mercury" moved through several distinct sections, from a methodical buildup to an island-tinged major key groove to some excellent Page/Trey call-and-response to a sparse, salsa-style breakdown. Trey unleashed a barrage of fast-fingered riffs over Page's synth swells as this outer space voyage made its way back into the galaxy of blues-rock. After ballooning to a big Trey peak (bolstered by Kuroda's bobbing and weaving technicolor visuals), the band found their footing in a "Blaze On"-like groove before fading into a well-earned breather ballad, "Shade". While this marked the shortest-ever gap between "Shades" (it was played on the second night of the Alpine run just two shows ago), the heartfelt lament was a welcome interlude in this already-strong set two. "Light", another proven 3.0 improv vehicle, came next (bonus setlist points for "Shade" blocking the "Light"). While this version didn't cover as much ground as the "Everything's Right"/"Mercury" combo that started the set, it did produce some satisfying improvisation thanks in large part to the almost telepathic connection between Gordon and Fishman. Before long, Trey introduced the riff for "Party Time" and the rest of the band followed suit, moving full-tilt into the Joy-era call for shenanigans. A sizzling "Sand" followed, always a welcome song selection late in the show when the band's engines are already primed and ready to rip. After methodically building "Sand" up to a big white light Trey peak, the band found their way into the beautiful, swelling instrumental, "What's The Use?"—as always an impressive showcase of this band's mastery of dynamics. From there, Fishman's familiar opening drum fill signaled the start of "Harry Hood". One of Phish's best examples of musical tension and release, this "Hood" saw the band patiently inflate the jam behind some truly hair-raising Trey soloing for a set closer about which we can all feel good. With time for just one more, the band returned to the stage for a "Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S." encore, making it the first Kasvot Växt tune to make an appearance at Dick's. "Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S."  [Video: Live For Live Music] Night one at Phish Dick's proved to be a fun, well-played show—particularly considering the relatively (aside from "Can't Always Listen") run-of-the-mill song selection. Make sure you give an extra listen to both the top-notch 42(ish)-minute "Everything's Right" > "Mercury" segment as well as the highly potent "Hood" set two closer while you rest up for night two. The 2019 Phish Dick's run continues tonight, Saturday, August 31st. The party's just begun. Have fun out there, team. Take care of your shoes and steer clear of the plague. We'll be back tomorrow with a recap of night two. You can watch a selection of videos below and scroll down to peruse a gallery of photos from the show courtesy of photographer Bill McAlaine. Phish – "Can't Always Listen" [Pro-Shot] [Video: Phish] Phish – "Everything's Right" [Pro-Shot] [Video: Phish] Each show on Phish's 2019 summer tour will be rebroadcast on SiriusXM Phish Radio (Ch. 29) at 12:00 ET the following day. Subscribe here. For a full list of upcoming Phish tour dates, head here. Setlist: Phish | Dick's Sporting Goods Park | Commerce City, CO | 8/30/19 Set One: Can't Always Listen, Free[1], No Men In No Man's Land, 555 > Back on the Train > Rift, Steam > Poor Heart > Undermind, Train Song, Wingsuit > Blaze On Set Two: Everything's Right > Mercury > Shade > Light -> Party Time, Sand > What's the Use? > Harry Hood Encore: Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S. [1] Lyrics changed to "flea." This show was webcast via Live Phish. Can't Always Listen was performed for the first time since December 30, 2015 (142 shows). Free's lyrics were changed to "flea" as a reference to an outbreak of plague transferred by fleas to prairie dogs in the Commerce City area. Trey teased Tired of Waiting for You In Everything's Right. As a further nod to the outbreak, Amie by Pure Prairie League was the postshow music. Phish | Dick's Sporting Goods Park | Commerce City, CO | 8/30/19 | Photos: Bill McAlaine

Demystifying Kickers & The "Plague" They Are in Fantasy Football - The Fantasy Footballers Posted: 31 Aug 2019 06:23 AM PDT If Sticking Up for Kickers is Cool, Consider Me Miles Davis… I get it. Kickers seem like the most fringe part of fantasy to spend time on. At the end of the season, I compile all of my kicking data into the annual 25 Boom Boom Kicker Stats article which often gets met with disdain and an occasional "Do you have a life?" Over the last few years, throwing shade on kickers became an almost involuntary response for many in the fantasy community. We've had a number of commissioner articles on our site I've personally edited and published about banning kickers and encouraging leagues to oust them. If your league has already decided to punt our boot-legged friends off a bridge, so be it Baxter. I am not here to try and get your league to reverse its decision nor claim that kicking is the best part of fantasy. Each season-long redraft or dynasty league can create their own settings based upon what they collectively think encourages more fun. (That is what The Fantasy Footballers is all about.) However, I'd love to offer a little push-back on the common arguments and lack of research given to this typically maniacal, rip-your-hair out fantasy position. Find out where Andy, Mike, and Jason stand on their 2019 kicker rankings. Kicker Unpredictability: A Myth? Introduce a Little Anarchy… -The Joker The core thesis of booting the kicker is based upon the unpredictability of the position. How many of us ran into a buzzsaw of Kaimi Fairburn's Week 13 performance last year or rode upon the wings of Adam Vinatieri's 22-point explosion a couple of years ago (that's me!) to victory? When those moments happen, it can be easy to make a micro problem a macro issue. We all get emotional because we've invested time and energy into researching for our fantasy lineups only to let a kicker ruin it for us. There is a major problem with zeroing in on the kicker as the sole problem for winning/losing… The other NINE guys you started that week. There are multiple variables in play each week and to assume that the kicker was the only one to make or break your week is like rejoicing that you've disarmed one grenade when there is an entire field of tripwires and landmines in front of you. Every week things change in fantasy. WRs, the bedrock of PPR scoring, is one of the most volatile week-to-week positions to start. Take, for example, Tyreek Hill, the #1 fantasy WR in 2018. While the finish was incredible, according to our metrics found in the Ultimate Draft Kit, he was the 15th most consistent WR on the season. Here is his weekly output from 2018: Yes, you started Hill every week. Yes, he exploded for five weeks as a top-3 WR. He also had weeks finishing as the WR54, WR44, and WR49 which absolutely killed your lineup, more so than the kicker who finished with three points. While this is but one example, we need to take into account there are multiple moving parts each week. Zeroing in on one position as the bane of your fantasy team's existence fails as a classic example of the fallacy of composition. In other words, the part (a weekly kicking blunder) is extended to the whole. If you think kicking is bad when it comes to unpredictability, let's take a look at the other classic fantasy positions that fall under the "onesie" category as popularized by friend of the show J.J. Zachariason, the editor of NumberFire. Put on Your Onesies Another major wedge of disagreement for our footed-fiends/friends is what happens at the draft. I'm assuming the kicker you start the season off with is not the kicker you often finish with. Many of the top-12 kickers based on ADP each year finish many spots lower than where they were drafted. In other words, looking at kicker ADP from drafting season and comparing it with the end of the season can be disheartening. When Chris Boswell was supposed to be a surefire thing on a Pittsburgh Steelers offense and basically falls off the rails, you are mad. But does this happen at other "onesie" positions? If we compare QBs with kickers based on ADP, we saw the EXACT same drop off in terms of PPG finish for both positions. Each position "dropped" 7.58 spots in 2018.  I choose points per game (PPG) as an even better determinant of this to weed out injuries as the main source of this change. While kickers is clearly a streaming position week-to-week, often QB is as well. We bring this up on the show all the time but if we include Week 17, we saw a total number of 41 different QB1s this year. There are only 32 teams in the NFL. There were 18 QBs who had 5 or more top-12 weeks on the season. For kickers, there were 41 different players to successfully kick a FG in 2018. There were 18 kickers who had 6 or more top-10 weeks on the season. While scoring from these two positions is vastly different and in no way am I trying to compare cross-positionally, we need to point the finger not only at NFL kickers but QBs and most importantly, at ourselves. In fact, if we look at the classic "onesie" positions, they all experienced fallout from what ADP to what actually occurred in the fantasy arena. Top-12 TEs dropped an average of 5.5. Other than Travis Kelce and Zach Ertz giving owners a major positional advantage, there was massive unpredictability. Jimmy Graham was a train wreck. Rob Gronkowski wasn't helpful at all considering his weekly injury updates. Trey Boo-Boo was a giant poo-poo stain. On a points per game basis, the position didn't deliver much based on our preseason predictions. DEF/STs dropped an average of 6 spots. As brought up on the Shocking Stats from 2018 episode, the Bears were the #1 fantasy defense leading the league in DEF/ST touchdowns, interceptions, and fewest points allowed. All of that said, Chicago only beat the #2 DEF by 2 fantasy points per game and the #7-12 defenses were only 4 ppg behind. In fact, over the last 10 seasons, only one overall #1 fantasy defense went on to finish in the top-5 the following season, the 2015-16 Arizona Cardinals. Case in point: the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags were a massive bust for owners who took them early after an earth-shattering 2017 campaign. Final verdict: we weren't great at predicting in fantasy especially at onesie positions in 2018. And to take this a step further, the first part of getting better at fantasy is admitting we don't know as much as we think we do. We learn, we adjust and we recognize being 51 percent correct is a step in the right direction of a process but it is not the end-all. The fact kickers are singled out is often more anecdotal than actual. Looking for Trends in the Right Places If you choose to venture out on the adventure that is fantasy kicking, here are five helpful hints to get you started: 1. High-volume passing offenses rock for kickers. The way a kicker piles on the fantasy points is opportunity. Yet, opportunity comes knocking especially with high-powered offenses who aren't afraid to throw the ball 40+ times a game. If you were to look at last year's top kickers, you'll find often they happened to be on teams that were among the league leaders in passing yards per game. You might be asking yourself: how do passing yards help pace this kicker group ahead of the rest of the pack? Moving the ball through the air has a direct correlation to something we're chasing when employing the right kicker: FG attempts. Despite all the factors that influence the game flow and field position, you are looking for sheer attempts, which leads to our next point… 2. FG accuracy isn't the #1 telling factor. According to a regression analysis in 2013 investigating the science behind the fantasy kicker, FG accuracy is a less telling fantasy statistic compared to other factors. The study found that total points scored, scoring rank, wins, QB passer rating and QB passing yards all held much more weight in terms of revealing kicker kick-assness in the fantasy football world. Of the top 12 fantasy kickers from 2017, HALF of them finished outside the top 12 in terms of accuracy. We saw the exact same number in 2018 including our guy Ka'imi Fairbairn finish at 88.1%, 14th best on the season. Honestly, anyone over 82 percent is viable. 3. Vegas lines are your kicker's best friend. If you're not paying attention to Vegas, now is the time to take notice that these lines are extremely valuable for giving us an informed piece of the puzzle. Vegas books live and die by these numbers so this isn't Jo-Somebody with an internet connection and a Geocities website ready to give their opinion. When Vegas starts drawing totals upwards of 45+, there are points to be scored in bunches. That seemed to be the breaking point last year as you look specifically at favorites on teams with high projected totals. Why pick the favorite? Because what we find is that teams with positive game scripts will often settle for FGs when ahead as opposed to pushing the limits for a TD. Patrick Smith/Getty Images 4. Kickers live and die by 3rd downs. Another statistic which can lend us some credence towards employing a well-thought-out kicker is the 3rd down percentage. It's fairly straightforward knowing that the more a drive is extended down the field, the more opportunities there are for teams to put one through the uprights. However, we need to be somewhat tempered as the best offenses often turn 3rd down conversions eventually into visiting the end zone and a kicker receiving 1 point as opposed to 3+. In 2017, New Orleans led the league at 48.6% on 3rd downs which in turn allowed rookie Wil Lutz to boot his way to a 5th place finish among kickers. Baltimore had the most 3rd down attempts in the league (231) which boded well for the always faithful Justin Tucker, the 2nd overall kicker. The Jets didn't seem like a very effective offense last year but shockingly had the 6th most third-down attempts in the league. Although their conversion rate ranked fourth worst, it helped Jason Myers finish as the 6th best fantasy kicker. Myers made 6 made FGs beyond 50-yards, which was tied with Brett Maher for most on the season. 5. Put in the research time like any other position. While I'm not suggesting you spend your Saturdays weighing out whether Zane Gonzalez or Ryan Succop need to be added to your squads, why not give a little effort?

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