Never ones to skimp on the amusement factor, Phish is at it again.  Following up their whimiscal approach to revealing the location of Festival 8, they’re at it again with a delightful countdown to revealing the album to be played on Halloween!  The list is wide ranging, from classic rock, to jazz, to 80’s heavyweights, to relatively recent stuff like MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular. Already out of the mix: Shack Man by MMW, Huey Lewis and the News’ Sports, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Damn the Torpedos, and Fear of Music by the Talking Heads.  The mostly-complete list can be found here at hiddentrack.

While it’s doubtful the eventual winner will be fully revealed before Halloween, I think this will just fuel the speculation even more.  Still, there’s some I wouldn’t bet too heavily on.  Anything relatively new, which rules out Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the White Stripes’ Elephant, Funeral by Arcade Fire and the beforementioned MGMT.  I would also probably not expect them to play any bands they previously played for Halloween, which would exclude Rubber Soul, Velvet Underground and Nico, Who’s Next, Meddle, and The Wall.

Then there’s the stuff that just wouldn’t work.  A Tribute to Jack Johnson only has 2 songs, and they’re both themselves basically improvs.  Master of Puppets and Appetite for Destruction, while both great albums, don’t really fit the demeanor of the band or the crowd.  I don’t think they have the vocal chops to pull off Thriller, Purple Rain, A Night at the Opera, or Super Fly. And I know Zappa is a huge influence on Trey, but I just can’t see them pulling off Apostrophe or Hot Rats.

My bet is on three of the biggest influences of the band – The Dead, The Stones, and Zeppelin.  Of course, I’ve been speculating for weeks, and my top three, even before this was unveiled, were American Beauty, Exile on Main Street, and IV.  And they’re still alive!

I would really like them to choose the Dead. I know they’ve downplayed comparisons in the past to the Dead, and rightfully so, but let’s face it – no other band informs their live experience as much as the Dead.  Plus, they’ll be in California for this. It all makes sense for them to embrace this opportunity.

There are a few others on the list though that I would love to see that hadn’t occurred to me – Eat a Peach (although this really needs another guitar…Warren Haynes, anybody?), Ziggy Stardust, Blood on the Tracks, either of the Hendrix albums, Paranoid, and my sleeper choice, Rush’s Moving Pictures.

It’s gonna be an interesting month!  Let me know what you want to hear.

Filed under: Category Uncategorized | Tags: by doug