Tonight (April 28th), Phish will webcast their October 28th, 2016 performance at Las Vegas, NV’s MGM Grand Garden Arena as the sixth episode of their ongoing archival webcast/cooking series, Dinner and a Movie. You can tune in below starting at 8:30 p.m. ET and follow along with our initial review of the show here.
Phish ‘Dinner And A Movie’ Ep. 6 – 10/28/16 – MGM Grand Garden Arena – Full Show
The latest episode of Dinner and a Movie follows the 8/31/12 “F— You 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), and last year’s first night at Mohegan Sun (7/19/19).
This evening’s ‘Dinner and a Movie’ selection takes us back to the first night of Phish’s 2016 Halloween run in Vegas, which came at the end of a brief Fall Tour featuring stops in North Charleston, SC; Jacksonville, FL; Nashville, TN; Alpharetta, GA; and Grand Prairie, TX.
Of note, you may notice a different lighting rig than you’re used to behind the band. If you recall, Chris Kuroda employed a system of mechanically-operated LED screens in 2016 that would expand and contract as the show went on. That rig was abandoned for a more traditional setup in 2017.
While Phish had celebrated Halloween with multi-night runs in Las Vegas before, the 2016 run marked the first time they extended their stay in the Sin City to four days (from three). It’s funny the difference a couple of years can make: When the band announced in early 2016 that the year’s Vegas Halloween run would last four nights instead of three, the whole staff at Live For Live Music joked that four nights might kill us. This, however, was before those beautiful couple weeks in 2017 known as the Baker’s Dozen. By the time Phish announced their next trip to Vegas—a four-night Halloween 2018—our reaction was notably different. Four nights? No problem.
The band’s 2016 Halloween run, as with most Phish Halloween runs, is best remembered for its 10/31 show. In 2016, the All Hallows Eve show saw Phish recreate the classic David Bowie album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The band, however, had plenty of excitement in store for fans in the days leading up to the Bowie costume.
The 10/28/16 show, night one of four, got started with “Martian Monster”, a nod to the band’s last trip to Vegas in 2014, when they created a new set of songs with Disney’s The Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House sound effects album as the blueprint. In celebration of this re-stream, longtime Phish choreographer Jon Rua, who was responsible for the Halloween 2013 Abe Vigoda “Wombat” dance and the New Year’s Eve 2019 “Clones” shenanigans, shared a new “Martian Monster” dance tutorial and will host a Zoom call during the broadcast for everyone to dance together. Brush up with the tutorial below:
“No Men In No Man’s Land” succeeded “Martian Monster” in the two-slot, followed by the first of several bust-outs of the night with “Dogs Stole Things”. This rendition of the ’97-vintage Trey Anastasio/Tom Marshall blues vamp marked its first performance since 6/17/12 in Atlantic City. It has only been played two more times since, on the final night of the Baker’s Dozen (8/6/17) and the second night of last year’s Mohegan Sun run (7/10/19).
Another rarity followed from there, as Del McCoury‘s “Beauty of My Dreams” made its first Phish appearance since New Year’s Eve 2010 (a gap of 227 shows). Rare song selections continued to be the name of the game as 10/28/16’s first set moved from there into Mike Gordon-penned fan-favorite, “Destiny Unbound”, which had been revived earlier that year at Lakeview Amphitheater after a two-year absence.
Set one kept moving with “Limb By Limb”, the second-ever performance of Big Boat track “Home”, Los Lobos‘ “When The Circus Comes”, a strong “Steam” > “The Wedge” segment, an energetic “Cavern”, and a customary set-closing “Walls of the Cave”.
To kick off set two, Phish dove into “Crimes of the Mind” for the first time since 11/29/09, a gap of 283 shows. Written by longtime songwriting collaborator Steve Pollak (a.k.a. The Dude of Life), “Crimes of the Mind” has not been played live by Phish since that night.
Things really got moving, however, with the second song of the set: a sprawling, 25-minute improvisational odyssey on TV on the Radio‘s “Golden Age” which remains Phish’s lengthiest take yet on the well-loved cover. After a couple of scintillating peaks and plenty of Type II exploration, the band slipped smoothly into “Simple” followed by a relatively compact but sonically diverse “Light”. The “Light” got a little darker as the band moved from there into “Twenty Years Later” before closing out the set with “Blaze On” and a stunning “Squirming Coil” replete with Page McConnell‘s always-powerful, walk-off piano solo.
Finally, after starting their encore with “Bouncing Around The Room”, Page got one last chance to shine on a show-closing cover of Jimi Hendrix‘s “Bold As Love”. The always-welcome cover has only been played twice since: on “Holes Night” at the Baker’s Dozen (8/4/17) and at last year’s Mexican destination event (2/21/19).
Tune in at 8:30 p.m. to relive Phish’s 10/28/16 performance at the MGM Grand for Dinner and a Movie Ep. 6.
Setlist: Phish | MGM Grand Garden Arena | Las Vegas, NV | 10/28/16
Set one: Martian Monster, No Men In No Man’s Land, Dogs Stole Things, Beauty of My Dreams, Destiny Unbound, Limb By Limb, Home, When the Circus Comes, Steam > The Wedge, Cavern, Walls of the Cave
Set two: Crimes of the Mind, Golden Age > Simple > Light > Twenty Years Later > Blaze On, The Squirming Coil
Encore: Bouncing Around the Room, Bold As Love
Trey teased San-Ho-Zay during No Men In No Man’s Land and Sand in Golden Age. Simple contained a Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now tease from Trey and Page. Dogs Stole Things was played for the first time since June 17, 2012 (182 shows). Beauty of My Dreams was played for the first time since December 31, 2010 (227 shows). Crimes of the Mind was played for the first time since November 29, 2009 (283 shows).