Phish - Sci-Fi Soldier (2021)

Phish have just released their new album, entitled 'Get More Down', performed by their alter-egos Sci-Fi Soldier. Sci-Fi Soldier come from the distant future in an attempt to save the home planet of a group of ancient prophets (Kasvot Växt of Earth) from a self-inflicted apocalyptic event called The Howling, set to take place in 2071. Using the prophets' teachings about the "nine cubes", which allow you to freeze time and view nine possible realities, the Sci-Fi Soldiers embark on a quest to find the great oracle, Holy Blankenstein, and learn how to stop The Howling (put a blank space where Earthlings’ minds should be on 10/31/21). They travel back to 2021 to find human vessels to use for the task, riding the time stream to Earth, and set out as the members of Phish (Clueless Wallob as Trey Anastasio, Pat Malone as Page McConnell, Paulie Roots as Jon Fishman, and Half-Nelson as Mike Gordon) to save the planet by helping it "get more down". 

Phish had actually previewed this set of songs a year ago, in their Halloween "musical costume", which was performed as the invented band Sci-Fi Soldier on 31 October 2021. Fans who attended the gig in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, were given a 14-page comic book on entry, which detailed the group's adventure to save the planet. The booklet is packed with fun sci-fi and comic tropes, veiled environmental allegories, and attempts at universe-building within the Phish canon a la Marvel or D.C. In true Phish fashion, the narrative is strange, silly, and packed with in-jokes. For the set itself the band performed in elaborate costumes (helmets and all), with alternate instruments (Trey on a BCR Mockingbird), each playing within a flashing/glowing shape (two circles and two squares), after descending (in the form of holograms) from the ceiling in cylinders of coloured light. 

'Knuckle Bone Broth Avenue' included extended choreography by Trey and Mike, while during 'Get More Down' matching upright geometric shapes danced around behind the band, reducing to the two circles overlapped by 'Egg In A Hole', which featured pyrotechnics. Before 'Clear Your Mind', Trey introduced the band as from the year 4680, and during 'The 9th Cube' there were projections of donuts and turtles on a cube above the band. Fireworks rained down on the stage during 'The Inner Reaches Of Outer', and for the closer 'I Am In Miami', Trey switched to an acoustic guitar and the band stood together at stage front with the four-mic a cappella setup. After the set, the band departed as holograms back up the coloured tubes. The album versions of these songs are quite concise, but the live takes stretch them out considerably, extending the three tracks which last less than a minute on the album to over five minutes in a live setting, while others top the ten-minute mark. If you like what you hear then do check out the studio version and support the band. 

Track listing

01 Knuckle Bone Broth Avenue
02 Get More Down
03 Egg In A Hole
04 Thanksgiving
05 Clear Your Mind
06 The 9th Cube
07 The Inner Reaches Of Outer
08 Don’t Doubt Me
09 The Unwinding 
10 Something Living Here
11 The Howling
12 I Am In Miami

Various Artists - The Cinema Show (2013)

The recent neo-prog tribute album to Yes seemed to go down pretty well, so the obvious follow-up is a similar tribute to Genesis. As with Yes, my favourite albums are the Charisma ones from the early 70's, and this album concentrates on those, picking some of the classic songs from 1970 to 1973, and letting some modern neo-prog bands loose on them. The Flower Kings make an appearance this time, which is great as they are one of the best of the bunch, and they tackle the title track with some relish. In 2010 Genesis were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and as part of the celebrations Phish performed a live version of 'Watcher Of The Skies', which went down a storm. Chaneton are an Argentinian prog-rock band formed by Alex Chaneton, who are heavily influenced by Genesis, and who have covered some of their songs on their albums, so I've picked 'Eleventh Earl Of Mar' as one of their best. Ex-Gong supremo Daevid Allen joined space-rock band Solid Space and contributed their version of 'Visions Of Angels' for a 1998 tribute album, as did Evolution for a similar record in 1996, and Over The Garden Wall in 1995, and these are the best examples from their respective albums. Neil Morse and Roine Stolt's Transatlantic love their progressive rock, and have covered many classic tracks on bonus discs of their albums, and they included a great cover of 'The Return Of The Giant Hogweed' on the extras disc that came with the special edition of 'The Whirlwind', while The Samurai Of Prog included a great cover of 'Dancing With The Moonlit Knight' on his 2013 album 'Secrets Of Disguise'. Like the Yes post, we close the album with a live recording by a band who aren't afraid to tackle a 24-minute track and record it live in one take, with Nursery Cryme's cover of the classic 'Supper's Ready'. You can hear the love and respect that these bands have for Genesis, and so enjoy an hour and a half of classic prog-rock by some of their biggest fans.   

Track listing

01 Firth Of Fifth (Over The Garden Wall)
02 Watcher Of The Skies (Phish)
03 Eleventh Earl Of Mar (Chaneton)
04 Visions Of Angels (Daevid Allen & Solid Space)
05 The Return Of The Giant Hogweed (Transatlantic)
06 White Mountain (Evolution)
07 Dancing With The Moonlit Knight (The Samurai Of Prog)
08 The Cinema Show (The Flower Kings)
09 Supper's Ready (Nursery Cryme)
 

The cover is from a brilliant collage by Paul Whitehead, which includes figures from just the four albums that these songs come from, and so was perfect for the post.

Phish - The White Album (1994)

Now that we've worked our way through all of Phish's Halloween shows we go right back to the beginning, and the one that started the whole thing. For their first-ever musical costume, Phish asked their fans what album they’d want to hear via a mailed-in voting system, and the overwhelming winner was The Beatles’ 'The White Album'. The show took place at the Glen Falls Civic Center, with Phish playing a full set of originals, followed by the 29-song Beatles record, then a third set of originals as well. The band had never performed any of the songs on 'The White Album' before, barring a one-off performance of  'Piggies' a decade prior, and fans were absolutely stunned, leaving the venue around 3:30 a.m. after a ridiculous and triumphant night. The legend of this show continues to propel Phish forward, as the show launched a Halloween legend that is still going on today.

Track listing

01 Back In The U.S.S.R.
02 Dear Prudence
03 Glass Onion
04 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
05 Wild Honey Pie
06 The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
07 While My Guitar Gently Weeps
08 Happiness Is A Warm Gun
09 Martha My Dear
10 I'm So Tired
11 Blackbird
12 Piggies
13 Rocky Raccoon
14 Don't Pass Me By
15 Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
16 I Will
17 Julia
18 Birthday
19 Yer Blues
20 Mother Nature's Son
21 Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
22 Sexy Sadie
23 Helter Skelter
24 Long, Long, Long
25 Revolution 1
26 Honey Pie
27 Savoy Truffle
28 Cry Baby Cry
29 Revolution 9

Phish - í rokk (2018)

In 2018, when rumours surfaced that Phish would cover an 'obscure album from 1981', some jumped to the conclusion that they would play 'Mark Of The Mole' by The Residents while others placed their bets on 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts' by Brian Eno and David Byrne, or Rush‘s 'Moving Pictures'. When the Phishbill was given to the first attendees, everyone at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and on social media was buzzing about the ultra-obscure Scandanavian prog-rock hidden gem, 'í rokk' by Kasvot Växt. Upon further investigation, however, some members of the vast Phish community discovered that the entire album was a hoax. The sketchiness of the whole 'Swedish Phish' concept began once researchers and Phistorians couldn’t find much information about the album. Anywhere. Conclusions were made that Phish had orchestrated one of the biggest pranks in their 35-year-career by fabricating the false links and an album cover themselves, and that's exactly what they'd done. Phish knocked it out of the park as they pulled off this stunt, executing the 10 new songs with precision and confidence. All of the album’s tracks, including 'Turtle In The Clouds', 'Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.', and 'Play By Play' have found their way into Phish’s vast catalog as setlist staples. In fact, the band had been having so much fun with the new material that they paired up 'Mercury' and 'Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S' for their 2018 New Year’s Eve gig. 

Track listing

01 Turtle In The Clouds
02 Stray Dog
03 Everything Is Hollow
04 We Are Come To Outlive Our Brains
05 Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.
06 The Final Hurrah
07 Play By Play
08 Death Don’t Hurt Very Long
09 Cool Amber And Mercury
10 Passing Through

The original fabricated album sleeve

Phish - The Rise & Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (2016)

After a year off from their annual costume gig, Phish returned to the MGM Grand Arena in 2016, using their Halloween set to pay tribute to the legendary David Bowie, who had died in January of that year. Phish’s choice to cover Bowie for Halloween was not necessarily surprising - the band had never been shy about proclaiming his influence on their music, and 2016 saw the band play a number of tributes to their hero in the wake of his death. However, their choice to cover his iconic album 'The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars' was still extremely meaningful, for both the band and fans alike. During the performance, Phish truly did justice to one of the most-wished-for musical costumes over the years. The band offered up stellar renditions of some of Bowie’s most beloved songs from his glam era, including 'Suffragette City', 'Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide', 'Moonage Daydream', 'Ziggy Stardust', and 'Starman'. The band’s sound was supplemented by backup vocalists Jennifer Hartswick, Jo Lampert and Celisse Henderson as well as a string section composed of Sylvia D’Avanzo, Alisa Horn, Hiroko Taguchi, Todd Low, Antoine Silverman and Alissa Smith. At the end of the night, fans agreed that it was a perfect way for one legendary act to honor another.

Track listing

01 Five Years

02 Soul Love

03 Moonage Daydream

04 Starman

05 It Ain't Easy

06 Lady Stardust

07 Star

08 Hang On To Yourself

09 Ziggy Stardust

10 Suffragette City

11 Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

Phish - Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House (2014)

After taking a few years off from Halloween shows, in 2013, Phish returned with a shw that confounded their audience. Instead of covering a classic album in full, they chose to cover their future selves, by playing a full set of material that they were about to record in the studio for their next album 'Fuego'. Some fans saw this as the end of a much-loved tradition, but in what will go down as the most creative of their musical costumes, Phish surprised damn-near everyone the following year with a unique cover of 'Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House' from Walt Disney Records. The album is split over two sides, one containing short, spooky stories, and the other holding a variety of sound effects to match the narration. Phish took this album and rolled with it, creating brand-new compositions while using the sound effects as samples and/or inspiration. The band opened the set inside a haunted house, with a makeshift cemetery, full moon, and lots of zombie dancers surrounding them. When the walls of the house eventually blew off, it revealed the band members in white tuxedos and zombie makeup, performing in close quarters while totally jamming out a full set of new instrumental material. There is a video available of this show, and it's worth seeking out as the set and dancers certainly add to the atmosphere, while the performance itself demolished everyone’s expectations, and re-opened the door to one of the band’s most beloved traditions.

Track listing

01 The Haunted House
02 The Very Long Fuse
03 The Dogs
04 Timber
05 Your Pet Cat
06 Shipwreck
07 The Unsafe Bridge
08 The Chinese Water Torture
09 The Birds
10 Martian Monster

Phish - Waiting For Columbus (2010)

In 2010, fans were laser-focused on one band and one band only for Phish’s Halloween costume: Led Zeppelin. Rumors of 'Led Zeppelin II' or 'Led Zeppelin IV' were flying as the band descended on Atlantic City for a three-night run. The band put the Zeppelin rumors to bed by performing an epic 'Chalkdust Torture' -> 'Whole Lotta Love' -> 'Chalk Dust Torture' on 30th October, and they played 'Ha Ha Ha' afterwards, essentially laughing at the crowd for all the rumors, and marking one of the Phishiest moments in the band’s history. The show’s second set would go on to feature snippets of 'Heartbreaker', 'Ramble On', 'Thank You', and 'Stairway To Heaven', further cementing the joke for fans and band alike. The following evening, on Halloween proper, Phish performed 'Waiting For Columbus' by Little Feat - an out-of-left-field choice for sure, but one that perfectly fitted the band’s vibe. Phish was joined by a five-piece horn section that evening as well as legendary percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo, who expertly added to the sound. The band switched instruments on 'Willin'', with Page McConnell picking up the bass, Mike Gordon moving to piano, Trey Anastasio playing drums and Jon Fishman singing lead vocals, and the four musicians then moved to the front of the stage for an a cappella arrangement of 'Don’t Bogart That Joint'. The show also featured many standout moments, including excellent renditions of 'Fat Man In The Bathtub', 'Dixie Chicken', and 'Time Loves A Hero', but the clear winner of the evening was a raging version of 'Spanish Moon' that left the Boardwalk Hall in awe of Phish’s abilities. The band have since said that when performing this album in its entirety they weren't so much trying to make note-perfect renditions of the songs, but their aim was to engender the same sort of vibe that Little Feat used to get at their concerts, and if that was what they wanted then I think they pulled it off. 

Track listing

01 Join The Band
02 Fat Man In The Bathtub
03 All That You Dream
04 Oh Atlanta
05 Old Folks Boogie
06 Time Loves A Hero
07 Day Or Night
08 Mercenary Territory
09 Spanish Moon
10 Dixie Chicken
11 Tripe Face Boogie
12 Rocket In My Pocket
13 Willin’
14 Don’t Bogart That Joint
15 A Apolitical Blues
16 Sailin’ Shoes
17 Feats Don’t Fail Me Now

Phish - Exile On Main Street (2009)

With an eleven year gap between Halloweens, a lot had happened in the world of Phish, with the band going on hiatus, reunited, officially breaking up, and then reunited again. 2009 marked the ultimate comeback, kicking off the new era by hitting many of their old favorite venues, including combining their festival and Halloween traditions into one giant extravaganza dubbed Festival 8. The three-day Halloween event took place at the Empire Polo Club (also known as the home of Coachella), drawing in smiling crowds as far as the eye could see. The anticipation for what album they band would cover was turned into a full-on Phish event, and the band launched a website with 99 albums that would get whittled down each day as Festival 8 drew nearer. Finally, ten albums remained, and the festival housed themed campgrounds based on each remaining album, and on the day of Halloween proper, fans were handed a Phishbill upon entry, announcing that The Rolling Stones' 'Exile On Main Street' was the winner. When the band hit the stage, they were joined by Sharon Jones and a few of her Dap Kings horns for a truly special performance and nailed the album, with 'Loving Cup' and 'Shine A Light' remaining two of the most beloved songs in Phish’s repertoire of covers to this day.

Track listing

01 Rocks Off 

02 Rip This Joint  

03 Shake Your Hips 

04 Casino Boogie 

05 Tumbling Dice  

06 Sweet Virginia 

07 Torn And Frayed 

08 Sweet Black Angel 

09 Loving Cup  

10 Happy  

11 Turd On The Run  

12 Ventilator Blues 

13 I Just Want To See His Face  

14 Let It Loose 

15 All Down The Line  

16 Stop Breaking Down 

17 Shine A Light 

18 Soul Survivor 

Phish - Loaded / The Dark Side Of The Moon (1998)

After taking a year off from Halloween in 1997, Phish returned to their Halloween tradition the following year with a performance at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. With heavy rumours of Pink Floyd‘s 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' circulating, the band surprised everyone when they instead performed 'Loaded' by The Velvet Underground. This performance lacked any guest musicians, focusing instead on the four members of Phish as they performed the classic art-rock album, and 'Rock And Roll' remains the true standout from the night, having  found a home in Phish’s rotation of covers ever since.

Track listing

01 Who Loves The Sun
02 Sweet Jane
03 Rock & Roll
04 Cool It Down
05 New Age
06 Head Held High
07 Lonesome Cowboy Bill
08 I Found A Reason
09 Train Round The Bend
10 Oh! Sweet Nothin'



Funnily enough (or not so funnily enough depending on who you talk to), Phish would deliver on 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' rumours just two nights later, performing the album in its entirety at an undersold “E” Center in West Valley City, Utah, as an unofficial entry into their Halloween catalogue.

Track listing

01 Speak To Me /Breathe
02 On The Run
03 Time
04 The Great Gig In The Sky
05 Money
06 Us And Them
07 Any Colour You Like
08 Brain Damage
09 Eclipse

Phish - Remain In Light (1996)

When Halloween came around in 1996, Phish eschewed the fan-vote process and decided to simply pick their own musical costume. It’s a great thing that they did, because, in 1996, the world was blessed with Phish’s full-album cover of The Talking Heads' 'Remain In Light'. With two huge albums under their belt with 'The White Album' and 'Quadrophenia', perhaps the band wanted to pick a shorter album that they could really perfect. Adding horns and a percussionist to the mix, the band absolutely nailed the album, especially their version of 'Crosseyed And Painless', which remains a standout jam-vehicle for the band to this day.
Phish would go on to say that the work they put into perfecting their cover of 'Remain In Light' had a major impact on them moving forward, and you can hear on the albums that they released in the late 90’s. As if the Halloween tradition couldn’t get any more exciting, it started to become clear to the band and fans alike that this yearly process was helping launch Phish in new and exciting directions.

Track listing

01 Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)

02 Crosseyed And Painless

03 The Great Curve

04 Once In A Lifetime

05 Houses In Motion

06 Seen And Not Seen

07 Listening Wind

08 The Overload

Phish - Quadrophenia (1995)

I posted Phish's 'The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday' as a prelude to a series of albums that I'll be posting from the band, based on their annual Halloween performances. One of the most beloved Phish traditions is their Halloween 'musical costume', which dates back to their 1994 Halloween performance at New York’s Glen Falls Civic Center. For their first-ever musical costume, Phish asked their fans what album they’d want to hear played live, in full, via a mailed-in voting system, and the overwhelming winner was The Beatles’ 'White Album'. The show took place at Glen Falls, with Phish playing a full set of originals, followed by the 28-song Beatles record, then a third set of further originals. The band had never performed any of the songs on the 'White Album' before, barring a one-off performance of 'Piggies' a decade prior. Fans were absolutely stunned, leaving the venue around 3:30 a.m. after a ridiculous and triumphant night. The legend of this show continues to propel Phish forward, and the show launched a Halloween legend that is still going on today. 
Bearing in mind the recent anniversary re-issues of the 'White Album', and the many reinterpretations that the bonus tracks have inspired, I thought people would have heard enough of it over the past few months, so I decided to skip that inaugural show and start this series with the following year's choice - 'Quadrophenia'. (I can always post the 'White Album' show later if enough people want to hear it.) After the wild success of their tribute to the 'White Album', Phish decided to continue the Halloween tradition, asking fans to send in suggestions for albums to cover for Halloween 1995. While Frank Zappa's 'Joe’s Garage' was the clear winner, the band decided that the album's extensive production and potentially offensive lyrics were a non-starter, so they chose to cover the runner-up instead, which was The Who's 'Quadrophenia'. The show took place at Rosemont Horizon in Illinois, and Phish absolutely tore through the album, delivering a powerful performance of another classic record. When the band took the stage, they were joined by a horn section and some backup vocalists to fill out the album’s sound. The band turned in a true masterpiece performance on that evening, surpassing the already-high expectations that they had set for themselves the previous year, and whetting fan's appetite for next year's show, whatever it would be. 

Track listing

01 I Am The Sea
02 The Real Me
03 Quadrophenia
04 Cut My Hair
05 The Punk And The Godfather
06 I'm One
07 The Dirty Jobs
08 Helpless Dancer
09 Is It In My Head
10 I've Had Enough
11 5:15
12 Sea And Sand
13 Drowned
14 Bell Boy
15 Doctor Jimmy
16 The Rock
17 Love, Reign O'er Me

Phish - The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday (1987)

'The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday' is a 1987 concept album written by Trey Anastasio, the guitarist and lead vocalist of the American rock band Phish. It was written as his senior thesis while attending Goddard College, and included an essay piece and collection of songs (recorded by Phish) relating an epic tale from the band's fictional land of Gamehendge. Although the album was recorded, it has never been officially released, although the band circulated the studio recording in 1987 and 1988 and it quickly became a collector's item. At one time Anastasio announced plans in Doniac Schvice, Phish's newsletter, to release the material as an interactive CD-ROM, but this never happened and the album can currently only be found on bootleg.
The story of Gamehendge is told in nine parts, with short spoken narration in between the songs, and the saga can be compared to rock concept album projects like The Doors' 'Celebration Of The Lizard' or Rush's '2112' suite. The story's primary protagonist is Colonel Forbin, who goes through a mysterious door which he finds while walking his dog McGrupp, and other major characters include Rutherford The Brave, Tela, the 'jewel of Wilson's foul domain', and the evil Wilson himself. Several of the album's spoken narrative sections are accompanied by background music borrowed from sections of the Phish songs 'Esther' and 'McGrupp And The Watchful Hosemasters', while the final track 'Possum' is the only song not composed by Anastasio, having been written by former Phish member Jeff Holdsworth and later added to the Gamehendge cycle. Many of the album's songs are still included in the band's live setlist today, and the entire Gamehendge saga has been performed on five occasions, usually as the entire first set of a live show. 

Track listing

01 Narration
02 The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday
03 The Lizards
04 Narration
05 Tela
06 Narration (Ride On A Multibeast)
07 Wilson
08 Narration
09 AC/DC Bag
10 Narration
11 Colonel Forbin's Ascent
12 Narration
13 Fly Famous Mockingbird
14 Narration
15 The Sloth
16 Narration
17 Possum

Suggested by 'The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear' by Bruno MacDonald

Phish - The Victor Disc (2002)

'The Victor Disc' was recorded by Phish at an impromptu jam session in New York City the night before the band's December 2002 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. It came between the release of 'Round Room' and Phish's return to the stage on New Year's Eve 2002 after a two-and-a-half year break, and provides an intimate glimpse of the band in a stripped down, unpolished studio setting. The story goes that while the band were in New York to appear on The Late Show With David Letterman, Anastasio and McConnell popped into a downtown recording studio sometime after midnight, decided to play, and phoned Fishman and Gordon back at the hotel to ask them to come down and join in. Phish then taped an hour and a half of spontaneous playing, decided on a title (naming it after the engineer who oversaw the session), and came up with a cover idea. The album has never been officially released, but parts of it soon leaked on the internet, and it's circulated widely among fans ever since. Later versions often include four additional tracks that appear to be part of the raw session recordings, from which the album tracks were extracted, and this post includes all 10 of those tracks. As much as I love the band, even I wouldn't say that this is among their best work, but for Phish fans it's a must hear, as it shows them in their favourite environment, improvising in a relaxed atmosphere and just having fun.

Track listing

01 Lazy And Red
02 Den Of Iniquity
03 Bubble Wrap
04 Sky Train Wand
05 Blue Over Yellow
06 Guantanamo Strut
07 Victor Jam Session
08 35 Minute Jam
09 Heartache
10 Last Victor Jam