What Will Phish Be For Halloween 2013?

The calendars and stars have aligned once again: Phish will be dropping by the Atlantic City Convention Center next week, for a string of late October shows, including one on Halloween night. It’s Phish tradition to perform a complete cover of another band’s classic work, and it’s time for some exceptional speculation. In late August, Rolling Stone played up the hype in an article that confirmed Trey and Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel had exchanged words about joining forces in covering the classic 1974 cosmo-rock The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway; RS confirmed, however, in their final paragraph, that Gabriel was on European tour until 10/26, and was a “notorious perfectionist,” implying that he probably couldn’t handle the unsteady ‘calm’ that is onstage at a Phish show. As we slog headlong into the deepening autumn tour of 2013, setlists reflect a variety of interesting choices of cover material, beyond the typical “Roses are Free” (Ween)  and “Bold as Love” (Hendrix): “Takin’ Care of Business” (BTO), “Crosseyed and Painless” (Talking Heads), “Rock and Roll” (Zeppelin), and, last night in Glens Falls, a double shot of Beatles (“Back in the USSR” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”). None of this is new musical territory for Phish; their Halloween ‘costumes’ in the past have consisted of:

1994. The Beatles' White Album.
1995. The Who's Quadrophenia.
1996. The Talking Heads' Remain in Light.
1999. The Velvet Underground's Loaded.
2009. The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. 

Prior to the last Phish Halloween show (in 2010, again the climactic third night of a run at the AC Convention Center), my best guesses were Zeppelin’s “Physical Graffiti,” or Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” They chose Little Feat’s Waiting for Columbus, complemented by additional percussion. Either of my 2010 picks shouldn’t be ruled out, but the 1970 Bowie classic probably isn’t as technically complicated as Phish may desire. Other great yet flawed ideas: Workingman’s Dead (too archetypical; the world has lost its ability, even at rock concerts, to achieve that mellow vibe), Live Rust or After the Gold Rush (Trey dwindling register couldn’t sustain for the rest of the night, were he to sing even one Neil Young song), Led Zeppelin I, II, III,  or IV (simply too predictable). Pleasant and do-able surprises would be a sparkling cover of Zappa’s One Size Fits All, but would require as much diligent practice as Trey learning all the passages to “Reba” 100 times over.

 

 Guess #1: Chicago?

The 1969 Chicago Transit Authority album is a remarkable two-LP debut, full of Southern California Purples and impassioned existentialism (“Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is/Does Anyone Really Care?”). While the endeavor would require a small horn section, nothing sounds impossible: from the six minute instrumental “Introduction,” to the “Free Form Guitar” (6:47 on the original album), to the fifteen-minute closing cheer “Liberation.” There’s a smoothness and funky vibe to that album that Phish would handle nicely, and give everybody something to feel good about (“Beginnings”). Fishman sings “I’m A Man;” Mike drops the synth pedal in “Questions 67 and 68.” This material is extremely jammable—when Chicago wanted to release recordings of its own performances in the 1970s, the endless/priceless noodling took up six LPs.

Guess #2: The Bruce?

A “Tenth-Avenue Freeze Out” funk in the bitter Atlantic winds of the Boardwalk in late October? After global tours earlier in the year, The Bruce and his band have been off the road since late July, with an 11/6 gig coming right up at MSG in NYC. In 1999, when Springsteen decided to pull the E Street Band back together, The Bruce and his crew took up residence at Atlantic City Convention Hall, for a string of ‘rehearsal’ gigs; bootleg recordings of these shows are choice E Street moments. If Phish chooses to cover an album by The Bruce, the audience should be prepared to welcome more than just one epic lone frontman. My educated guess from the Boss’ catalog would be The River (1980), as it’s a two-LP set—the size of Phish’s previous Halloween undertakings-- and would allow for a creshendo in live performance, from chanting the sublime and familiar anthem “Hungry Heart,” to perhaps Fishman crooning “I Want to Marry You.” I would like best to hear how Phish would handle “Jackson Cage” and “Independence Day,” a fine study of contrast in defining pop styles: outright and barely meaningful, versus expressive and downtempo. The River would end with a giant singalong, featuring the whole huddled masses of South Jersey muttering along to the album’s namesake song: “But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy/Now all them things that seemed so important/Well mister they vanished right into the air/Now I just act like I don't remember/Mary acts like she don't care […]We'd go down to the river/And into the river we'd dive/Oh down to the river we'd ride”

 

 

#3: Sir Paul?

There had been a time when the top-grossing tours were consistently jam bands: who could compete with the profit margin, of another Grateful lineup, filling another stadium or venue with an ‘always-already’ audience? In late August, however, the Huffington Post detailed the Pollstar data that declared Sir Paul as king of performance profit: with individual tickets retailing at around $130/each, the Last Silver Beatle has been jetting around the contiguous US, appearing not just onstage, but in interviews (including a recent and tragically-brief appearance on the Howard Stern Show). Could McCartney materialize, for a second-set romp with Phish, perhaps wading in the disco-velvet sea that is Band on the Run?

Odds of McCartney appearing—let alone collaborating—with Phish are pretty long; chances of a withered and unrehearsed Peter Gabriel showing up in AC are still better than any odds offered by the chiming Mr. Cashman video slots at the Showboat. But Sir Paul is on a break, for another few weeks, and I’m sure Page and Mike could/have make/made wonderful sense of “Jet,” “Let Me Roll It,” and much else. Maybe Sir Paul looks on from sidestage, and joins the show for a “Live and Let Die” encore. With or without the presence of McCartney, Phish would do well to cover a Sir Paul album, if only to get closer to understanding the music-theory mysteries of pop bass and banal lyrical bombast  Paul is known for (if I really thought they’d be covering RAM next week, I’d be packing my bags, and checking on my room comps at the Tropicana).

 

 

Wishing you all well!