While Phish has been tearing up Madison Square Garden for their historic Baker’s Dozen run, another quartet from Vermont, Twiddle has been making historic moves of their own. Friday night saw the group kick off their annual festival, Tumble Down, which saw performances by Fruition, Midnight North, Holly Bowling, Everyone Orchestra, and more. The biggest performance of Friday night was a surprise sit-in by none other than Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh during Twiddle’s own host performance. In the afternoon, Phil Lesh had joined his son Grahame Lesh during his son’s performance with Midnight North, treating early-arrivers to the show to a four-song cameo. During Midnight North’s set, Phil and his son’s band were at points joined by Twiddle’s own Mihali Savoulidis and Ryan Dempsey, hinting at what was to come later in the night.
A few months ago, Twiddle performed at Lesh’s own Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, California. Fans were excitedly anticipating the performance, and particularly the chance that Twiddle would be joined by the original Grateful Dead bassist, though the collaboration never came to fruition. Last night’s Tumble Down performance made up for lost time, with Twiddle and Phil and Grahame Lesh working through fiery renditions of the Grateful Dead’s own “Eyes of the World” and Twiddle’s “When It Rains, It Pours” and “Subconscious Prelude,” with each featuring extended and explosive jamming. You can watch pro-shot video of “Eyes of the World” below, courtesy of the band.
Setlist: Twiddle w/ Grahame Lesh, Phil Lesh, and Elliot Peck | Tumbledown | 7/28/17Â
I: With the Giant Country Horns, Nicodemus Portulay, Beehop, Orlando’s, Grandpa Fox, Fantastic tale of Ricky Snickle , Beethoven and Greene
II: White Light, Eyes of the World (Phil & Graham, Elliot), When it Rains it Poors (Phil & Graham, Elliot ), Subconscious Prelude (Phil), Latin Tang (Alex Jordan), Drifter, Lost in the cold (Dave Grippo)