Last Record Left Alive : PHISH Festival 8 Halloween Musical Costume

Phish-Halloween-card

[Scroll to the bottom for recent Updates as they arrive]

Earlier this year, PHISH posted an animated flash map, which sent their fanbase on an apeshit crazy hunt to figure out the location of the 3-Day Halloween Festival.  The location was finally disclosed as the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, CA but, although it is a major detail, it is only one of multiple questions that has been answered, regarding the festivities.  Slowly more and more information is being released.  The official schedule is up, which involves the bands first ever all-acoustic set (donuts and coffee provided).  The main question that’s been racking everyone’s brain, however, is what PHISH will be playing for their Halloween set.  Now another new interactive, flash animation feature is slowly providing that information as well.

Those familiar with PHISH‘s history know that the Halloween shows tend to be legendary.  Often referred to as “Musical Costumes“, the band played a handful of shows throughout the nineties in which they devoted the second sets of the night to covering a legendary album by another artist.  The first time that they performed one of these shows was on Halloween of 1994, when they covered The White Album by The Beatles.  In 1995, they played Quadrophenia by The Who and, the following year, they pulled out Talking HeadsRemain in Light.  After performing The Great Went festival in 1997, there wasn’t a Halloween performance scheduled, but they returned with another Musical Costume of The Velvet Underground‘s Loaded the next year.  Two days after the Loaded show in Vegas, the boys surprised at the E Centre in Utah with a Nov. 2nd performance of Pink Floyd‘s Dark Side of the Moon.  This was the last of these cover shows performed by the band but, now over a decade later, the theme is returning.  This will mark the first time that PHISH has ever played one of their trademark festivals on the West Coast, as well as the first time that they are combining their Halloween tradition in with one of them.

The PHISH website currently features an image of a card/invitation (see header above) which features the text “Play the Last Record Alive“.  Once the picture is clicked, a series of 99 different album covers can be scrolled through and viewed.  Each album is featured in an intricate picture frame and represents a possible album that the 4-piece may be covering at Festival 8.  The album covers are slowly being eliminated, or “killed“, off of the list, as graphics of arrows, axes, or butcher knives draw blood as they are plunged into them, one by one.  Some albums are obviously just fillers, while others are clear possibilities.  It’s obvious that they wouldn’t be covering Rubber Soul, Velvet Underground and Nico, Fear of Music, Who’s Next, Meddle or The Wall, because they’ve already covered albums by The Beatles, VU, Talking Heads, Pink Floyd, and The Who.  Then there’s a couple of classic “hippie” albums, like American Beauty and Eat A Peach, sprinkled in, but those are probably only in there to throw off the scent of the young kids that don’t know any better.  Then there are the albums that feature tracks that they’ve covered in the past like Purple Rain, Hunky Dory, and Led Zepplin 1… (possible?).  I’m happy to see crazy shit like Double Nickels on the Dime listed but, just because I’m psyched, doesn’t mean that any one else at the show will want to hear any Minutemen songs.  I just simply find it hard to believe that there’s a large percentage of movie collections with both We Jam Econo and Bittersweet Motel in them.  A Tribute to Jack Johnson?  Amazing album but… never gonna happen because, even if Page could cover the Herbie and Corea roles, nobody’s gonna pull off Miles‘ horn.  Crooked Rain Crooked Rain would be great to hear, especially since Pavement has a reunion planned for next year.  Obviously, there’s 99 albums on this fucking list, so there’s a lot of choices and possibilities here.  I think that a lot of these “filler” albums are placed on here just so that many phans will become aware of them and finally check them out, not because there is any chance for them to be covered, and I think that’s a noble move.  Influential bands like Love deserve that added attention from a larger market.  This theory is further proven to me by the inclusion of the Pork Tornado album, Jon Fishman‘s widely ignored side project.  Some artists, like Hendrix, Bowie, and Zeppelin have multiple albums listed.  Who knows?  I’ll leave the rabid speculation to the forums; I just really hope that they don’t cover Hotel California or The Joshua Tree.  That is, of course, unless I don’t make it to the festival, then I hope that they do because I’m a spiteful dick.

Below is the official schedule for Festival 8.
We have also provided an entire list of the 99 album cover titles below and will be crossing them off of the list as they disappear.

LivePhishHalloween
(click image for official festival 8 site)

OFFICIAL FESTIVAL 8 PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Friday, October 30th, 2009

  • 4:00PM – Concert Field opens
  • 7:30PM – Set 1
  • 10:00PM – Set 2

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

  • 12:00PM – Concert Field opens
  • 3:00PM – Set 1
  • 7:30PM – The Halloween Set
  • 10:00PM – Set 3

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

  • 10:00AM – Concert Field opens
  • 12:00PM – Acoustic Set
  • 5:30PM – Set 2
  • 8:30PM – Set 3

Phish-Cover-Albums
(click here to link to the Halloween day site)

 

  1. Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street

  2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Damn The Torpedoes

  3. Medeski, Martin & Wood – Shack Man

  4. Huey Lewis And The News – Sports

  5. Talking Heads – Fear Of Music

  6. Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man

  7. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground And Nico

  8. The Who – Who’s Next

  9. The Beatles – Rubber Soul

  10. The White Stripes – Elephant

  11. Ween – White Pepper

  12. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours

  13. Primus – Sailing The Seas Of Cheese

  14. The Allman Brothers Band – Eat A Peach

  15. Manu Chao – Clandestino

  16. Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

  17. The Roots – Phronology

  18. Tom Waits – Rain Dogs

  19. The Eagles – Hotel California

  20. Jane’s Addiction – Ritual de Lo Habitual

  21. Various Artists – Saturday Night Fever

  22. fIREHOSE – Flyin’ the Flannel

  23. X – Los Angeles

  24. Peter Gabriel – So

  25. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – Against The Wind

  26. David Bowie – Scary Monsters

  27. Elvis Costello- This Year’s Model

  28. Bob Dylan & The Band – The Basement Tapes

  29. Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

  30. Duran Duran – Rio

  31. Michael McDonald – If That’s What It Takes

  32. Pink Floyd – Meddle

  33. John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band

  34. Pork Tornado – S/T

  35. Queen – A Night At The Opera

  36. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

  37. Arcade Fire – Funeral

  38. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

  39. Violent Femmes – S/T

  40. Daryl Hall & John Oates – Private Eyes

  41. Ramones – S/T

  42. ZZ Top – Tres Hombres

  43. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Green River

  44. Aerosmith – Toys In The Attic

  45. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV

  46. The Grateful Dead – American Beauty

  47. Devo – Freedom of Choice

  48. Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Blvd

  49. U2 – The Joshua Tree

  50. Journey – Escape

  51. Pearl Jam – Ten

  52. The Doors – S/T

  53. Rush – Moving Pictures

  54. Love – Forever Changes

  55. Guns N Roses – Appetite For Destruction

  56. Beastie Boys – Hello Nasty

  57. KISS – Alive II

  58. Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks

  59. The Jimi Hendrix Experiment – Are You Experienced

  60. Blind Faith – S/T

  61. Pixies – Come On Pilgrim

  62. The Band – S/T

  63. Metallica – Master Of Puppets

  64. Frank Zappa – Hot Rats

  65. Miles Davis – A Tribute To Jack Johnson

  66. Rage Against The Machine – Evil Empire

  67. The Police – Ghost In The Machine

  68. Curtis Mayfield – Superfly (OST)

  69. Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic

  70. Neil Young – Tonight’s The Night

  71. Van Halen – S/T

  72. The Modern Lovers – S/T

  73. Brian Eno – Before And After Science

  74. The Clash – London Calling

  75. Nirvana – Nevermind

  76. Black Sabbath – Paranoid

  77. Boston – S/T

  78. AC/DC – Back In Black

  79. Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers

  80. Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

  81. T.Rex – Electric Warrior

  82. Chicago – The Chicago Transit Authority

  83. Minutemen – Double Nickels On The Dime

  84. Television – Marquee Moon

  85. Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run

  86. Frank Zappa – Apostrophe

  87. Pink FloydThe Wall

  88. Yes –  The Yes Album

  89. David Bowie – The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars

  90. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin I

  91. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks

  92. Michael Jackson – Thriller

  93. Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

  94. The Jimi Hendrix Experiment – Electric Ladyland

  95. King Crimson – Larks’ Tongues In Aspic

  96. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular

  97. Radiohead – Kid A

  98. David Bowie – Hunky Dory

  99. Prince & The Revolution – Purple Rain

UPDATE (10.6.09): Cover Art Changes

Apparently, the people in charge of dealing with the Halloween graphics for PHISH.com are also tired of looking at the same fucking album covers over and over again.  Today they decided to mix things up a bit and incorporate some PHISH-related imagery and alter the original album artwork.  Here are the changes, so far,  for those who are interested:

The first sign that something was different was the change in the Blind Faith album from the censored cover to the original more graphic cover art.

Then things began to get a little more interesting.

PHISH-Festival-8-born-to-run-languedoc

You’ll notice that in the original cover (Right) Springsteen is playing a Fender Telecaster, while in the PHISH.com image, he is holding a Paul Languedoc guitar just like Trey Anastasio‘s

Phish-tom-petty-t-rex
Tom Petty‘s now rocking a PHISH T-shirt and the Electric Warrior cover was changed from “T.REX” to “T.REY

Trey-and-Mike-Moving-Pictures

RUSH‘s Moving Pictures album now features Trey and Mike moving a keyboard.

PHISH-hello-nasty-pretzel-logic

Finally, the Hello Nasty sardine can is packed with PHISH members instead of Beastie Boys and the vendor on Pretzel Logic is wearing Jon Fishman‘s viking helmet.

Actually, “finally” probably isn’t the best word to be using… I’m sure that have plenty more of these shenanigans waiting in the wings.

10.07.09

Mike-Gordon-Ramones

Another album cover has been changed.  Gordo‘s head has been placed over that of Johnny Ramone.

Another strange addition is that several of the albums now contain embedded links , which will take you to youtube videos.

10.9.09

Phish-Page-Against-the-Machine

Evil Empire has been changed to read “Page Against the Machine”

phish-pork-tornado-knifed

Along with taking out Plastic Ono Band, on John Lennon‘s birthday no less, Pork Tornado endured an especially brutal removal involving 6 separate knives.

10.10.09

Phish-Exile-on-Main-St

Another subtle album alteration:  Fishman has now been added to the cover of Exile on Main St.

10.15.09

story-of-the-ghost-in-the-machine-phish

More album cover changes.  Ghost in the Machine now reads “Story of the Ghost in the Machine“….

AC-DC-BAD-Back-in-Black
and Back in Black changed to “AC/DC BAG“.  We’ve all been thinking it anyway.

10.16.09

Double-Knickels-Minute-Men-Page
The Minute Men’s Double nickels on the Dime cover has now changes.  The review mirror now shows Page‘s eyes instead of the eyes of Mike Watt.  I kind of expected this one and have been checking the rear view to change in some way.  For those of you who don’t understand the title of the album, I figured that I would throw in a little fun fact.  It’s a reference to driving 55 mph (double nickels) on interstate 10(the dime) in Los Angeles.  Do yourself a favor, go listen to Minute Men and/or rent We Jam Econo.

Electric-Lady-Fishman
One of these dames is doing her own thing…  (It’s the one with Fishman‘s head.)

12 thoughts on “Last Record Left Alive : PHISH Festival 8 Halloween Musical Costume

  1. Great article, and I think we’re all dying to know what’s going to be covered! If you’ve not heard Trey’s most recent radio interview,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScJcMwvwtw8

    He briefly touches on the halloween cover, and mentions that he and Page are both still scratching their heads on which album to perform. So the way I see it, I’m not even sure if the band knows exactly what they’ll be covering at Festival 8.

  2. Thanks for the link.
    What do you want to hear them play?

    Even though I could easily see them do a “Ziggy Stardust” or a “GNR”, I’d rather hear “Hot Rats” and “Seas of Cheese”. I don’t think that they could really pull off Rain Dogs.

    What I’d really like to see is a quick version of “Rang Life” or another “Gold Soundz” at some point during the weekend, with a Malkmus guest appearance. Vocally, it’s more in their range, but what I want and what will happen will be 2 completely different things, I’m sure

  3. Hey i think you might have forgotten Led Zepplin IV, which they just took off (I think before American Beauty?) and then Devo, but you probably haven’t updated since then.

    just letting you know.

    by the way, thanks so much for this site….I check it multiple times a day

  4. Thanks. I thought I had done Zepplin but i didn’t. It’s been a weird day. If someone’s actually reading this shit that I post, I better step my game up.

    By the way, DEVO has already booked a tour to cover Freedom of Choice in it’s entirety, any way. They’ll be doing it around November

  5. I will be checking and updating the list at least once a day (usually a whole lot more). I, however, have been out on my hustle and figuring out how I’ll be getting to the festival. For the next day or so, it might not update as quickly, but it will be updated.

    Thanks

  6. Anyone hear the rumor that there is a 100th album killing all the others, and that’s the album they are playing?

  7. Bryan-

    Yeah, there’s actually quite a few more theories floating around, in fact. Many of them revolve around clever titles like Michael Jackson’s “Off The Wall”, which I would actually rather hear more than Thriller. Another theory for a possible 100th album/killer is the Alice Cooper album “Killer” because Cooper is doing a show in the area on the 30th. Some have even pointed to the Rolling Stones album “Let it Bleed”

    A workers map has even recently been “leaked” that shows how the venue will be divided. From what we’ve seen, there are 7 campgrounds which have been titled according to a specific album which will be left on the list. (Oh yeah, there’s a theory that 8 albums will be left before show time.) Here’s the 7 albums on the campground map:

    1. David Bowie – Hunky Dory
    2. Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
    3. Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland
    4. King Crimson – Larks’ Tongues In Aspic
    5. Prince – Purple Rain
    6. Radiohead – Kid A
    7. Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street

    This has been rumored for a while, in fact. The only album missing from the original rumored list is MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular. The sketchy thing is that previous maps have been stated as having a “Oracular Spectacular” campground, so it’s confusing as to why it would be removed. Two possibilities: a lot of changes and reorganizing is apparently going on with the festival and 2, this map might still be bunk as fuck.

    Here’s the PDF link to download it for anyone that wants to give it a scan in detail.

    http://www.sendspace.com/file/e53x8s

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