Phish drummer Jon Fishman‘s side project Pork Tornado is set to resassemble for a rare performance at Nectar’s in Burlington, VT. The February 15th appearance is part of a day-long tribute concert for late Nectar’s sound engineer Sergei Ushakov, who passed away suddenly on January 8th.
Celebrating Sergei: An Analog Outpouring will also feature performances by Grippo Funk Band, Jazz Mandolin Project, Blues for Breakfast, and Al’s Pals at the venue where Ushakov ran sound for the past 30 years. The show will start at 2 p.m. with Burlington DJ duo Local Dork spinning selections from Segei’s personal record collection and culminate with an Analog Superjam going until 1 a.m. Tickets for the show are free, but Nectar’s will be accepting donations on behalf of the Ushakov family.
Born August 16th, 1959 in Yaroslavl, Russia, Ushakov developed his love for American rock music by buying Creedence Clearwater Revival and Deep Purple records on the black market under the iron curtain of the Soviet Union, per his obituary. Ushakov lived many lives before becoming Nectar’s steadfast soundman, including building microcircuits in an aerospace factory and caring for elephants in a traveling Russian circus, but he always returned to his love of music and started his sound journey at the Yaroslavl Philharmonic. When Burlington, VT began a sister city program with Yaroslavl amid the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ushakov took the opportunity to immigrate to the United States, ultimately becoming a fixture of Nectar’s and touring nationally with Pork Tornado and The Samples.
Related: Watch Phish’s Page McConnell Jam With The Meters At Jazz Fest 2013 [Video]
Pork Tornado performed sporadically in the 2020s, most recently on June 9th, 2024 at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival for a tribute to the band’s late saxophonist Joe Moore. Two years before, Pork Tornado played a short 45-minute set at a benefit for Moore’s fight against cancer—the band’s first performance since 2013. Pork Tornado’s self-titled studio album, the band’s one and only release, arrived in 2002 amid Phish’s first hiatus.
Revisit Pork Tornado’s latest reunion in the clip below, and check out the full schedule for the Celebrating Sergie concert at Nectar’s.
Pork Tornado — “When I Get Drunk” — Burlington, VT — 6/9/24
[Video: Chris Meeker]
Celebrating Sergei: An Analog Outpouring Schedule
2pm Doors open
2pm-5pm Local Dork spins Sergei’s vinyl collection
5pm-6pm Al’s Pals
6:30pm-7:30pm Blues For Breakfast
8pm-9pm Jazz Mandolin Project
9:30pm-11pm Pork Tornado -> Grippo Funk Band
11:30pm-1am Analog Superjam
plus DJ Big Dog on set breaks
View this post on Instagram