Phish Delivers A Spooky Spectacular Halloween Show in Las Vegas

There are a few times each year that Phish fans get more excited than normal.  New Years Eve is always a special run for fans of the band.  The other extra special night is Halloween.  This year Phish took things to a new levelFans that have been to Halloween shows in years past have been treated to musical costumes such as The Talking Heads, The Who, The Beatles and plenty of other classics.  But for the last two years Phish decided to change things up a little bit.  Last Halloween instead of stepping onto the stage to cover an entire album they debuted the songs from Fuego.  Last night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas the band did something that not many people expected or imagined they would see and hear.

As the first set (which was awesome) came to a close the crowd held its breath in anticipation of what was coming.  Fans were handed a Playbill (Phishbill) when they entered the venue.  Here is a picture of the one I received on Halloween 1996 when they covered The Talking Heads  Remain In Light at the Omni in Atlanta.  Below that is a picture of last night’s Phishbill.

Yes the band covered an entire album but it wasn’t from one of the classic rock legends that fans have come to expect.  This year the musical costume was Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House.  Yes, you read that right.  Read it again because you didn’t expect the world’s greatest rock band to bust out into a set full of sound effects from the 1964 Disney album.  But that’s exactly what they did.

I’ll be honest.  When I first read that this is what they were going to cover my initial thought was ‘I’m glad I didn’t travel to Vegas for Disney sound effects….’  That feeling quickly disappeared as I listened to what Phish was doing.  Many people who couldn’t get to Las Vegas logged into LifePhish to stream the webcast.  But do to some technical difficulties there were some problems and a quick decision was made to offer up a free HD stream of the show on YouTube.

What Phish did was amazing!  After a first set that contained plenty of Halloween themed songs (Buried Alive, Ghost, Big Black Furry Creatures From Mars, Saw it Again) the band left the stage.  Stagehands pushed a haunted house onto the stage and it was on!  Fans quickly realized that the band was inside the haunted house and then the fun started.  Although the crowd couldn’t immediately ‘see’ the band it was evident they were performing inside the Haunted House which was surrounded by a stage set up to look like a graveyard.

After about 10 minutes of adding some incredible music and jams to the spoken words that were on the album the walls of the Haunted House became clear and the crowd erupted when they saw Phish dressed in white tuxedos and zombie makeup.  It’s very hard to put into words exactly how amazing this spectacle was.  What Phish did to create a musical soundscape of intense and erie music to go along with the Disney album had many fans speechless.  I won’t even try to explain it.  Just do a little digging online and you can find out for yourself.

The second set ended, the band left the stage and eventually returned for a blazing third set that pushed right up to 1am local time.   This is definitely going to be one of those special nights that goes down in history as something that those in attendance will never forget.  The musicianship and theatrics were second to none and I personally hope to see these guys doing this for another 25 years.

Great job Phish!

About Dave Abrams

Dave has been eating, living, and breathing music since before he could talk. This makes Dave perfect for his role here at Guitar News Daily.