Tonight (June 23rd), Phish will webcast their Wednesday, August 12th, 2015 performance at The Mann Center For The Performing Arts in Philadelphia, PA as the thirteenth 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 8/12/15 Stream Companion.
Phish ‘Dinner and a Movie’ Episode 13 – 8/12/15 – Full Show
The thirteenth 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), 2013’s Friday night at The Gorge (7/26/13), and the band’s 1995 debut at Deer Creek Music Center (6/19/95).
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This week’s episode of Dinner and a Movie will benefit the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. You can donate at any time via phish.com/waterwheel. Of note, the weekly Dinner and a Movie webcasts have now brought in over $400,000 for a variety of charities. Good on you, Phish fans. Keep it up.
This week’s selection is plucked from Phish’s 2015 summer tour, which many fans consider to be among the strongest tours of the post-breakup era. Many fans look to Trey Anastasio‘s activities earlier that summer as a reason for the exceptionally strong playing throughout that tour: the musical boot camp he underwent to prepare for a five-show run with the surviving members of the Grateful Dead in honor of the band’s 50th anniversary, Fare Thee Well.
Tonight’s stream takes us back to Phish’s second of two mid-week shows at The Mann. The summer home of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 1976, the picturesque, wood-paneled amphitheater’s spacious surroundings, bucolic scenery (for a venue in a major city, at least), and gorgeous views of the Philly skyline in the distance have made it a jewel in Philadelphia’s entertainment community crown for decades.
Phish has also maintained a long and storied history with The Mann. The band first performed there in the summer of 1992 as the opening act for Santana. They returned to The Mann as a headlining act the following summer and have gone on to play 11 total shows at the venue. Many Phish shows at The Mann have borne notable highlights, from the Phish debuts of “2001” and “Purple Rain” in 1993 to the setlist shenanigans of 6/25/95, but 8/12/15 is the cream that rises to the top for one main reason: the ever-elusive, five-song set.
This week’s setlist breakdown will be intentionally brief. It’s not a show with a gimmick or a particularly interesting backstory. This show is about the jams, and they easily speak for themselves.
The setlist for the first half of 8/12/15 was entertaining, if not somewhat run-of-the-mill. The “Cities”/”Stash”/”Birds of a Feather” segment, in particular, is a typically-fun snippet of first-set Phish. It’s set two, however, which made headlines at this performance.
Beginning with “Bathtub Gin” (featuring a “Tequila” tease from the Mixologist of the Boards, Page McConnell), Phish left no stone un-jammed during the second set on 8/12/15. After getting things moving with “Gin”, the then-new “No Men In No Man’s Land” took the two-slot for a groove workout. Clocking in at over 12 minutes in length, this “No Man’s” wound up being the shortest song of the set.
“No Man’s” eventually flowed into “Twist”, which stretched on for nearly 23 thrilling minutes and immediately rocketed to the top of many fans’ “jam of the summer” lists. The band followed that with a rare “Scents and Subtle Sounds” featuring the intro from Undermind. The jams continued on “SaSS” as the band experimented for more than 15 minutes before finally closing out the five-song, 77-minute set with “Harry Hood”. A “Loving Cup” singalong served as the encore to drive the show home, but at that point, it was all gravy. Buckle up, folks. This one’s a doozy.
Setlist: Phish | The Mann Center for the Performing Arts | Philadelphia, PA | 8/12/15
Set One: AC/DC Bag > Free, Ya Mar, Sample in a Jar, Cities, Stash, Birds of a Feather, The Line, It’s Ice > Character Zero
Set Two: Bathtub Gin, No Men In No Man’s Land > Twist, Scents and Subtle Sounds, Harry Hood
Encore: Loving Cup