Tonight (June 9th), Phish will webcast their July 26th, 2013 performance at the beloved George, WA natural amphitheater, The Gorge, as the eleventh episode of their ongoing archival webcast/cooking series, Dinner and a Movie. Scroll down to read follow along with our 7/26/2013 Stream Companion.
The eleventh 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 (7/19/19), 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), and the improv-heavy second night of their 2018 Madison Square Garden New Year’s run (12/29/18).
The eleventh episode of Dinner and a Movie was initially scheduled to air last Tuesday, June 2nd, but was postponed to this week as the music industry observed #BlackoutTuesday. The movement called for artists, labels, and other entities in the industry to pause releases and instead use the time to learn, listen, and take action against systemic racism in worldwide protests spurred by the unlawful killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and others.
Read Phish’s note about last week’s Dinner and a Movie postponement below:
Phish stands in solidarity with all those working to eliminate systemic racism. We are deeply troubled by the senseless killing of George Floyd and the injustice shown to countless others over the years. Building a better society requires every single one of us to play an active role.
Today, The WaterWheel Foundation is donating to Color of Change, a non-profit devoted to racial justice. Tomorrow night’s Dinner and a Movie webcast will be postponed until next week.
For dinner this week, we have a simple recipe from Page McConnell, who noted, “This week I’ve decided not to do anything that resembles a sandwich. Instead, I’ve chosen one of my favorite recipes for Red Beans & Rice. Now, I know that I will be hearing from some purists that this isn’t anything like what you might find at Mothers, or any of my favorite dining establishments in New Orleans. To them I would say that this recipe is not trying to replicate something, or transport you somewhere else; It is more of an interpretation. Anyway, I like it, and I hope you do too.” You can see the recipe in the Instagram post embedded at the bottom of the article.
This evening’s Dinner and a Movie takes us back to the band’s first of two nights at The Gorge during the second half of their 25-date 2013 summer tour. The show marked the first in a run of west coast performances following a stretch of shows in the Northeast and Midwest.
This show also followed an unlucky stretch of weather affecting the first half of the tour. The band’s performance in Toronto, ON, originally scheduled to take place on July 9th, was postponed until later in the month due to dangerous weather conditions and their first of three nights in Chicago on July 19th was abruptly cut short during the second song of the second set when a lightning storm blew in over Northerly Island. The band did its best to make things up to rain-soaked fans, performing a third set on night two in Chicago to make up for the truncated set the night before. Following the Chicago run, the band headed up to Toronto for their make-up show on July 27th before making their way to Washington with hopes of bluer skies.
Thankfully, Phish showed up at the Gorge on July 26th to sunny weather and wasted no time diving into what would wind up being one of the tour’s strongest gigs. The band got the show on the road with an “AC/DC Bag” that stuck an eventual landing into “Timber (Jerry The Mule)”. The show’s first true highlight followed in the form of a potent “Wolfman’s Brother” featuring strong funk grooves from all four players which built to a searing peak. [Note: LivePhish tweeted that there was a technical glitch and tonight’s webcast will be missing the beginning of “Wolfman’s Brother”. Fortunately for us, it doesn’t really get good until the second half, anyway.]
Due to a technical glitch, tonight’s webcast is missing the beginning to Wolfman’s Brother. Sorry for any inconvenience!
— LivePhish (@LivePhish) June 10, 2020
After a run through Son Seals‘ “Funky Bitch”, the band took a moment to celebrate lighting director Chris Kuroda‘s birthday with a brief, instrumental “Happy Birthday to You”. “Happy birthday, Toph!” Trey Anastasio noted as the band finished the tune. “There he is right there, our lighting director, Chris Kuroda. 21 years old today, old enough to drink. Somebody bring that guy an iced tea.” Mike Gordon even peppered in a little “Call to the Post” tease, which briefly morphed into a Rolling Stones “Satisfaction” tease, as Trey received and promptly donned a special gift from the crowd: a Seattle Seahawks Russell Wilson shirt with “Duh-Dunt, Duh-Dunt” printed on the front. The gift, appropriately, prompted a rendition of “Wilson”.
This particular “Wilson” was notable for helping to ignite a connection between Phish and then-rising NFL quarterback Russell Wilson, who had just completed his rookie season with the Seattle Seahawks when Phish arrived in Washington for their 2013 Gorge run. When the song reached its customary pause before the “blat-boom” line, Trey took a moment to tell the Washington crowd they had invited “the guys from the team” to the show and that “this song is going to be in the loudest stadium in the world next season. … We expect the ‘Wilson’ chant. Make it happen!” Trey had previously advocated for the Seahawks to adopt the “Wilson” chant earlier in the year during a solo show in Seattle.
Sure enough, Wilson and the Seahawks fanbase adopted the “Wilson” chant at CenturyLink Field during the 2013–2014 season—which ended with a commanding victory over the Denver Broncos at Super Bowl XLVII in February of 2014. NFL Films even wound up making a 15-minute documentary about the unlikely Phish/Seahawks connection. The film featured an interview with Trey Anastasio and Jon Fishman including highlights like Trey getting super embarrassed about having to explain the concept of Gamehendge to the NFL. You can watch the full doc below:
NFL Films Presents: The Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson Collides with Phish
“Wilson” gave way to another pair of Phish classics, “Possum” and “Tube”, before the band dropped into their first performance of “Secret Smile” since 11/1/09, a gap of 156 shows. The song has only been played once by Phish since, at Madison Square Garden on 12/29/16. The band continued from there with another Gamehendge favorite, “McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters” followed by a McConnell-sung cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s “Ballad of Curtis Loew” and a set-closing rendition of “Split Open and Melt”.
Phish returned for set two with a purpose, launching into a Type II rendition of Talking Heads‘ “Crosseyed and Painless” which stretched to almost 18 minutes in length. This version of the go-to Talking Heads cover kicked off a near-seamless set that made its way through “Twist”, “Steam”, “Waves”, “Twenty Years Later”, “The Mango Song”, “Bug”, and “David Bowie” featuring plenty of “Crosseyed” teases to go around.
After a late-show run through “Rocky Top”, Trey kicked off what would wind up being a set-closing “Character Zero”. While a “Zero” set closer is not a particularly notable occurrence, this rendition saw Kuroda turn out the stage lights at Trey’s behest to give the band and the crowd a chance to howl at the moon. Finally, after opening the encore with a satisfying “Harry Hood”, a blistering cover of Jimi Hendrix‘s “Fire” closed out the memorable performance.
You can tune in to relive 7/26/13 tonight at 8:30 p.m. Enjoy!
Setlist: Phish | The Gorge | George, WA | 7/26/13
Set One: AC/DC Bag > Timber (Jerry The Mule), Wolfman’s Brother, Funky Bitch, Happy Birthday to You, Wilson > Possum, Tube, Secret Smile, McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > The Ballad of Curtis Loew, Split Open and Melt
Set Two: Crosseyed and Painless > Twist > Steam > Waves -> Twenty Years Later > The Mango Song > Bug > David Bowie, Rocky Top > Character Zero[1]
Encore: Harry Hood > Fire[2]
[1] Band members howled at the moon.
[2] Alternate lyrics “Move over rover and let Jon Fishman take over!”
Happy Birthday was played for Chris Kuroda (last played March 8, 2009, or 186 shows) and contained a Call to the Post tease from Mike. There was a full-band (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction tease before Wilson. Before the “blat-boom!” in Wilson, Trey, wearing a Russell Wilson t-shirt, talked about how he wanted to hear the Wilson chant this season in Seattle. Secret Smile was performed for the first time since November 1, 2009 (156 shows). Crosseyed included Seven Below teases from Fish. Twist contained a Tequila tease. Steam contained a Crosseyed tease and quote. Bowie contained Bug teases and Crosseyed teases and quotes. During Character Zero Trey asked Kuroda to turn off the lights for a “Moon Jam” that featured band members howling at the moon! Fire featured alternate lyrics from Trey “Move over rover and let Jon Fishman take over!”