Tonight (Tuesday, July 21st), Phish will air their memorable performance at the iconic Hampton Coliseum on October 20th, 2013 as the seventeenth episode of their ongoing archival webcast/cooking series, Dinner and a Movie. Tune in below at 8:30 p.m. ET and scroll down to follow along with our 10/20/13 Stream Companion.

Phish Dinner and a Movie Episode 17: 10/20/13, Hampton Coliseum [Full Show]

The seventeenth episode of Dinner and a Movie follows the 8/31/12 “F— Your Face” show, the 7/27/14 Merriweather “Tweezerfest”, the 7/25/17’s Baker’s Dozen “Jam-Filled” night, Magnaball night two (8/22/15), last year’s first night at Mohegan Sun (7/9/19), the first night of the band’s 2016 Halloween run in Las Vegas (10/28/16), the final night of 2017’s Mexican destination event (1/15/17), the band’s first of three nights in Alpharetta, GA in 2018 (8/3/18), the out-there 1997 U.S. tour opener featuring a guest appearance by LeRoi Moore of Dave Matthews Band (7/21/97), the improv-heavy second night of their 2018 Madison Square Garden New Year’s run (12/29/18), 2013’s Friday night at The Gorge (7/26/13), the band’s 1995 debut at Deer Creek Music Center (6/19/95), the fiery Wednesday night at The Mann in 2015 (8/12/15), an evening at the iconic Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA from 2010 (8/7/10), and an “avant-garde” set two video from Northampton, MA back in 1989 (5/1/89), and 2019’s wild Alpine Valley finale (7/14/19).

This week’s Dinner and a Movie takes us back to the opening run of the band’s 2013 Fall Tour. Of course, the narrative among fans leading into this three-night run was less about the start of the tour and more about a triumphant return: These three shows marked Phish’s first return to Hampton Coliseum—”The Mothership”—since the return. While it would be tough to top the emotion of the band’s 2009 reunion shows at the Virginia arena after a 5-year “breakup,” the fact that Phish was back at Hampton for three nights was enough to push fan excitement for this run to a boiling point.

The difference between the ’09 reunion run at Hampton and the ’13 reprisal was apparent as soon as you hit the lot. While the ’09 Hampton lot was flooded with ticketless hopefuls waving fistfuls of cash and a finger in the air, the Hampton 2013 scene was awash with extras. Literal “ticket trees” dotted the lots, with extras tickets tucked under pieces of bark, ripe for the picking.

While the demand for Hampton tickets may have flipped from ’09 to ’13, the band’s track record for delivering memorable performances at The Mothership held as true as ever. The first two nights of the run were solid, but the third night, Sunday, October 20th—the show we’ll revisit this evening—blew them both away and set a high bar for the remainder of the year.

The band hit the stage with pep in their steps to kick off the show, nailing a string of upbeat selections including “Julius”, “Funky Bitch” (Son Seals), and “Back On The Train”. A hint of exploratory jamming on the always-welcome cover of Ween‘s “Roses Are Free” kept the GA crowd on its toes before the sing-along train kept chugging with “Sample In A Jar”, “Ginseng Sullivan”, and a brief but hearty “46 Days”.

The undeniable highlight of set one followed, as the band delivered a sublime rendition of “Divided Sky”. Though played to virtual perfection, the takeaway from this version of the classic Phish composition would be the “pause,” as the entire arena raised their lighters amidst a delirious chorus of cheers. Following a somewhat-unsuccessful fan campaign on various Internet forums to get fans to raise their lighters during setbreak the previous night, the stars finally aligned during this “Divided Sky”. With the idea already planted in fans’ heads, many were quick to meet the composed break in the music with a flame held skyward. Those who hadn’t heard quickly followed suit, leading to a powerful scene to behold. Get a taste below:

Phish – “Divided Sky” Pause Lighters at Hampton 2013

 

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You can often gauge the energy in the room at a Phish show by how long the band sits back and basks in that mid-song respite. The 2.5-minute runtime of this interlude reflected the electricity of that moment of connectedness between the four men onstage and the thousands in the audience, still just as glad to see Phish back at Hampton four years later. After finishing the song and taking a moment to deliberate, the band opted for a set-closing cover of Jimi Hendrix‘s “Bold As Love”, sung with gusto by the Chairman of the Boards.

While this first set is nothing to thumb your nose at, the second set on 10/20/13 was what put this performance in the conversation for “Show of the Year.” When the band stepped back onstage for set two, Trey stepped to the mic to address a group of fans in the crowd. “Are you guys, like, in jail stripes,” he asked, “Or are you Waldo?” When the crowd roared back, “Waldo!” Trey let out a sigh. “Ah, we thought you were in jail stripes, so we were gonna play a song for you.” Then, pointing to the back of the arena, where a “Paul and Silas” sign had been hanging over the balcony all weekend, he added, “We’ll play it anyway, we’ll play it for those guys.” With that, the band opened set two with “Paul and Silas”, the traditional gospel tune about the two biblical prisoners saved by their faith. As always, the rule rang true: The best way to get your request played is to request songs the band wants to play.

The brief moment of crowd banter ahead of “Paul and Silas” proved to be the only pause for the rest of the set, as Phish got down to business with a pair of fantastic, stylistically wide-ranging jams on “Tweezer” and “Golden Age”, together clocking in at more than 41 minutes of thrilling improvisation.

With the band feeling loose, cohesive, and creative, the “Piper” that followed seemed destined to follow in the path of the two Type II behemoths that preceded it. Instead, at the 7-minute mark, that creativity took the band in a different, seemingly unexpected direction. After locking into boogieing rock groove, the band rode that thought seamlessly into a cover of Bachman-Turner Overdrive‘s 1973 smash, “Takin’ Care Of Business”.

Despite how well the two seemed to fit together here, “Piper” > “Takin’ Care Of Business” isn’t a common Phish pairing. Before this moment, “Takin’ Care Of Business” wasn’t even part of the band’s repertoire. Was it rough? Sure, but it was hot. At the time, some fans wondered if the new cover may be a clue about the surprise “Costume Set” on Halloween night in Atlantic City [Spoiler Alert: They were wrong… Wingsuit’d].

Whether they planned the pairing before they stepped onstage or simply found themselves in that progression and collectively decided to run with it, this organic debut is the sort of thing that keeps fans coming back again and again, year after year.

As “TCoB” wound down, a funky “2001” rose from the vapors to keep Hampton dancing, and the funk continued full-force from there into and ominous “Sand”. Finally, with time for one more, the band shifted from demonic to angelic for a stellar, set-closing “Slave To The Traffic Light”.

Much like the first set ended, the encore began with a fan-favorite classic rock cover as sung by Page McConnell—this time, The Beatles‘ “A Day In The Life”—before closing out the show and the weekend with the emphatic punctuation known as “Tweezer Reprise”.

Grab a ticket off the tree and tune in tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET to relive 10/20/13 at The Mothership.

Setlist: Phish | Hampton Coliseum | Hampton, VA | 10/20/13

SET 1: Julius, Funky Bitch, Back on the Train, Roses Are Free > Sample in a Jar, Ginseng Sullivan, 46 Days, Divided Sky, Bold As Love

SET 2: Paul and Silas > Tweezer > Golden Age[1] > Piper -> Takin’ Care of Business[2] > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Sand > Slave to the Traffic Light

ENCORE: A Day in the Life > Tweezer Reprise

[1] Fish on Marimba Lumina.
[2] Phish debut.

Back on the Train contained a Jean Pierre tease from Trey. Golden Age featured Fish on Marimba Lumina. This show featured the Phish debut of Takin’ Care of Business.

 

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Tonight’s Dinner And A Movie features the band’s October 20, 2013 show from Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA. The full show will play for free at 8:30PM ET tonight at webcast.livephish.com or here at Phish’s Facebook page. For this week’s recipe, it’s Breakfast for Dinner! Burlington’s beloved Penny Cluse Cafe has been serving up breakfast and lunch for over 22 years and a long line for a table is a regular sighting and well worth the wait. While Mike wanted us to make clear that while his regular order (“the salad with grilled tofu and corn and peanut dressing and a side of sautéed spinach with mushrooms and pesto”) is on the healthier side, he thought some of Penny Cluse’s signature breakfast dishes might be more fitting: biscuits with herb gravy and their gingerbread pancakes. The biscuits and gravy are often ordered with 2 eggs, any style. The recipes can be found at: https://phish.com/news/daam-ep17 Our beneficiary this week is World Central Kitchen. Donate anytime at phish.com/waterwheel. Founded in 2010 by Chef José Andrés, World Central Kitchen (WCK) uses the power of food to heal and strengthen communities through times of crisis and beyond. WCK weaponizes empathy and uses hot plates of food not just to nourish bodies but to share hope, dignity and a sign that someone cares and tomorrow will be better. WCK’s COVID-19 relief response has served more than 20 million meals to vulnerable communities and frontline responders across the country. For more info, visit WCK.org Photos from 10/20/13 by Dave Vann

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