Four Albums Phish Might Play on Halloween
With just ten days to go until Phish‘s Halloween concert in Atlantic City, speculation over what classic album they’ll perform in its entirety, as is the band’s tradition, has reached a fever pitch. Last year the band created an elaborate web page with one hundred album covers that were slowly eliminated to reveal their choice (the Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street), but this year they’re dropping fewer hints. The only official word comes from a recent interview Trey Anastasio gave to the L.A. Times. “This year this one’s for me,” he said. “The one we picked, I’m going to get more out of this as a musician than I ever have before. Three songs into it, I called everybody and told them, ‘None of the other ones — I wouldn’t think, hopefully — will have nearly the effect on my playing this one’s going to.'”
See photos from Phish’s 2009 Halloween show
That’s not much to go, but here’s a list of the albums fans think are contenders.
Loveless, My Bloody Valentine: Of all the contenders, this seems to best fit Trey’s description of a work that will challenge him. He’s also on record saying he tried to get the band to play it many years ago. “Loveless is the best album recorded in the ’90s,” Anastasio has said. “History will tell, and 20 years from now that album will be considered a complete classic, while a lot of the albums that are real popular today will have been forgotten.”
Photos: Phish and more play Austin City Limits
A Night at the Opera, Queen: Photos that recently appeared online show Phish’s designer Jim Pollock working on new concert posters, which fans have observed as being similar to the cover of Queen’s A Night at the Opera. Judge for yourself.
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Genesis: Tickets for the Halloween concert have the image of a wolfman on them. Genesis had the same exact picture on a 2007 Philadelphia concert poster. Trey inducted Genesis into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year. The double LP would surely be a challenge for Trey — and a challenge ofr non-Genesis fans to sit through, as well.
Physical Grafitti, Led Zeppelin: This past June Phish played the obscure Zeppelin cut “The Rover,” sparking speculation that they might do Physical Graffiti. Many of the past Halloween albums (The White Album, Quadrophenia, Exile On Main St) were double LP’s, and this would certainly be more of an audience friendly choice than Loveless or The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.