Archival Phish webcast and cooking series Dinner and a Movie, which has run consistently since the beginning of the pandemic, will finally come to a close with its 35th episode tonight, Tuesday, June 29th, featuring a showing of the band’s July 20th, 1991 show at Arrowhead Ranch in Parksville, NY featuring the Giant Country Horns. After that, the band will put DaaM in the freezer and look toward new shows and webcasts (gasp).
Over the course of its year-and-change run, Dinner and a Movie has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for an assortment of charitable causes. The beneficiary for the final edition of Dinner and a Movie is Phans for Racial Equity (PHRE). PHRE promotes racial equity and respect for differences within the Phish and greater music community and beyond, striving to make a more welcoming space for people of all races and ethnicities, bearing in mind the many ways in which race/ethnicity intersects with gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, disability, and other identities.
PHRE’s aim is to facilitate education and thoughtful engagement, first and foremost within the Phish community, about race and its intersection with other issues; give people tools to build a more welcoming environment; and activate our community to positively impact racial equity in the U.S. more broadly. For more info, head here.
Episode 35 of Dinner and a Movie follows last month’s showing of 7/24/93 at Great Woods in Mansfield, MA. Run down the list of all the past Phish Dinner and a Movie episodes and their accompanying Stream Companions below:
Well, gang, here we are. After fifteen months of regular (mostly) Tuesday streams—first weekly, then monthly—Dinner and a Movie is coming to a close. The series has continually provided a respite for quarantined Phish fans around the world, a way to connect the community, if only for a few hours, in a way that couldn’t happen in person during the thick of the pandemic.
What started as a stopgap amid an unprecedented time of uncertainty for live music has turned into something Phish fans always remember. Even years down the line, when this “year off” is a distant memory and we’re all used to hanging on lot together once again, someone will ask, between sips of a Heady Topper, “Hey, remember when they used to stream an old show for free on Tuesday nights and we’d all tune in?” Sure do, friend. Those were the days.
But as much as Dinner and a Movie played a role in helping get Phish fans through 2020, it’s doubtful that the series will be missed too sorely. Why? Because we have a real-life tour coming at us, with all the excitement, surprises, storylines, and experiences that come with it. Real-time webcasts, too, for the folks still playing from home (just sayin’).
The gears of the return to action have already started turning. In the time since the last installment of Phish Dinner and a Movie, Trey Anastasio has returned to the stage, mounting a five-night run of solo shows with pianist Jeff Tanski and the Rescue Squad Strings—a product of The Beacon Jams—including three nights at SPAC and his two-night return to the Beacon Theatre, which marked the venue’s first full-capacity audiences since last March. This weekend, he’ll play to thousands more when Oysterhead headlines The Peach Music Festival on Saturday, July 3rd.
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our weekly/monthly dives back into the Dinner and a Movie memories from years past. That said, we’re ready to make some new memories with the Phish, and that opportunity is finally on the horizon: Phish Tour 2021 kicks off in less than a month. Let that sink in.
Until then, the Phish team has offered up a fantastic selection for the final installment of the pandemic-spurred series. July 20th, 1991 at Arrowhead Ranch marks the oldest full show to get the Dinner and a Movie treatment, the only older edition being the “avant-garde” set two video from 5/1/89 in Northampton, MA from Episode 15.
The performance comes from a storied tour in Phish lore, the 14-show July 1991 run featuring the Giant Country Horns, an accompanying brass trio comprised of Russ Remington on tenor saxophone, Carl Gerhard on trumpet, and Dave Grippo on alto sax.
Much like the Rescue Squad did with Trey’s solo arsenal throughout The Beacon Jams and his recent solo shows, the presence of the Giant Country Horns in 1991 added a new layer of life to various Phish staples as the band’s career path was entering a rapid upward trajectory.
Tonight’s Dinner and a Movie show—which notably included opening sets from Spin Doctors and The Authority—sees the GCH adding their brass adornments to Phish classics like “Suzy Greenberg”, “The Landlady” (also featuring Rene Lopez on percussion), “Bathtub Gin”, “David Bowie”, “Golgi Apparatus”, “Stash”, “Possum”, and more. “Reba” was not one of the songs to get the GCH treatment on 7/20/91, but it did see Phish cede the song’s whistling duties to Carl Gerhard.
The horns also allowed Phish to explore some more jazz-oriented tunes, from Duke Ellington‘s “Caravan” to “Flat Fee”, and that’s not to mention their assists on “You Enjoy Myself” (complete with a burger-based vocal jam) and “Dinner and a Movie”—which, for those keeping score, appropriately makes this the first and only Dinner and a Movie show to actually feature “Dinner and a Movie”.
So tune in, make some grub, donate a few bucks to this month’s cause, and enjoy it. This past year has been far from ideal, but with Dinner and a Movie to look forward to on Tuesdays, it’s been just a bit more bearable. Now, let’s get this show on the road…
Setlist: Phish | Arrowhead Ranch | Parksville, NY | 7/20/91
Set One: Chalk Dust Torture, Foam, The Squirming Coil > Llama, The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > Suzy Greenberg[1], The Landlady[2], Bathtub Gin[1], My Sweet One, David Bowie[1]
Set Two: Buried Alive > Reba[3], Caravan[1], Dinner and a Movie[1], Flat Fee[1], Golgi Apparatus[1], Stash[1], The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Avenu Malkenu[1] > The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, You Enjoy Myself[4], Rocky Top
Encore: Possum[5]
[1] Giant Country Horns.
[2] Giant Country Horns; Rene Lopez on percussion.
[3] Carl Gerhard whistled with the band.
[4] Giant Country Horns; vocal jam based on burgers.
[5] Giant Country Horns; Charlie Chan and Oom Pa Pa signals.
This show featured the Giant Country Horns on Suzy through Bathtub, Bowie, Dinner and a Movie through Stash, Avenu Malkenu, YEM, and Possum. The Horns were introduced after Landlady, which featured Rene Lopez on percussion. During the introductions, Page teased Call to the Post and “Charge!” Carl Gerhard whistled with the band during Reba. Chalk Dust contained a brief Buried Alive tease from Trey. The Bowie intro contained an Alone Again (Naturally) tease and quote and YEM included a Chameleon tease by the Horns. The YEM vocal jam was based on burgers. Possum contained Charlie Chan and Oom Pa Pa signals and Dixie and Buried Alive teases from Trey. Spin Doctors and The Authority were the opening acts. This show is available as an archival release on LivePhish.com.
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