Phish Announce Fall Tour

Posted on Oct 9th 2009 5:15PM by Benjy Eisen
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Phish continues to make their comeback a year-long feast for fans as, early Friday, they announced a long-rumored fall tour. The dates are not exactly news for the faithful, as they've been circulating the internet for more than a month now as a highly-regarded rumor.

As has been the norm for "Phish 3.0" the official announcement came via a video on Phish's website. This time, the video features trees in a forest with anthropomorphic faces awakened by the sound of Phish performing a live version of 'Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan' (a track off their new studio album, 'Joy'). The dates begin on November 18 in Detroit, MI, and wrap their way around Phish's familiar East Coast territory -- including a three-night stand at New York City's Madison Square Garden beginning December 2 -- before concluding at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, VA., on December 5.

Whether or not the name of that arena has anything to do with Phish's Halloween plans remains uncertain but fans are certainly clamoring to find any clues they can, no doubt finding meaning in coincidences and long shots. Not that Led Zeppelin would be a long shot. We're talking, of course, of Phish's Halloween tradition of covering an album in its entirety as their "musical costume." Unlike past Halloweens, when the band has covered the Beatles' 'White Album,' the Who's 'Quadrophenia,' Talking Heads' 'Remain in Light' and Velvet Underground's 'Loaded,' this time around the holiday set will be placed in the middle of Phish's three-day festival in Indio, CA, at the site of Coachella. Except, unlike Coachella, Phish is the only band performing at Festival 8.

As for the band's cover choice, Phish revealed a list of 99 potential candidates and are, one-by-one, eliminating them via a Flash game on their website. The last album standing will be the winner. While front-runners in the fans' imagination remain David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' and MGMT's 'Oracular Spectacular,' indeed there are two Led Zeppelin albums on the master list -- 'Led Zeppelin I' and 'Led Zeppelin IV.' Here's a complete list of what albums remain and which ones have been, literally, axed.

Meanwhile, Phish, in their characteristically trickster way, have been having fun with their fans' obsession -- they have dropped clues, many of which are likely misleading, by playing around with the album covers and even including hidden links to videos. Bruce Springsteen's guitar on the cover for 'Born to Run,' for instance, has been replaced with Trey Anastasio's signature Languedoc guitar. On 'Electric Warrior' the T.Rex logo is replaced with T.Rey. And for the Beastie Boys' 'Hello Nasty,' the members of Phish appear in the sardine can via a photo taken from an old photo shoot for Rolling Stone magazine. There are other hidden treats too, usually appearing in batches of eight in keeping with the name of the festival.

To those who just want to see Phish perform Phish, tickets for the fall tour will go on sale to the public beginning October 24. Before then, a limited number of tickets are available for order directly through Phish's online ticketing system. Good luck with all that -- every Phish show this year, besides festivals, has been an instant sell-out.