Phish Festival 8 Was Sheer Entertainment, Even Without Anyone In A Michael Jackson Costume

Yup, that is right I spent my Halloween weekend at Phish's 8th festival in Indio, CA in the desert on the Empire Polo Fields. Ok. I’ll admit, I haven’t been to a Phish show in awhile.  Back in the day I was an avid Phish fan, but over the years my love for the band dwindled. Walking into the grounds I had no expectations, and thought this would be a just another  show.  8 shows and 3 seriously funky nights later my skepticism was out the door. 

After a 5-year absence, Phish was in good spirits and seamlessly played their technically challenging songs without a hitch.  The band’s clarity may have a lot to do with Trey’s newfound sobriety, which seemed to bring a new level of maturity to their performance.  And, even though the crowd was smaller than usual, the band’s enthusiasm was contagious and it quickly turned into a 40,000 person dance party.

Although most of the crowd chose to go with the “dirty hippie” costume, Halloween night was a parade of Disney characters, pirates, and of course…a team of magic 8 balls.  There were also plenty of Super heroes, ferries, and Elvis’.  Much to my surprise not one Michael Jackson was to be found.

The grounds were equally entertaining.  The crowd was offered a Ferris wheel, gigantic flat screen TV, maze, water sculpture, glowing blimp and farmer’s market to keep us entertained during set breaks.  At the back of the grounds 8 fire spires towered over the audience shooting off 20 foot columns of fire during the set’s crescendos.   

On Friday they opened the first show with 'Party Time', one of the few songs written by Jon Fishman.  They went on to play some oldies but goodies, but focused mostly on songs off their new CD, Joy.  As usual, Phish covered an album on Halloween.  Fans anxiously waited as the list of 99 possible albums slowly whittled down to 8 finalists.  On the day of the show they went with Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street, which was a crowd pleaser.  A surprise performance by Sharon Jones added some serious soul to the set.  Sunday afternoon they played an acoustic that was filled with songs that are rarely heard live. Check out the set list below:

Set List For October 30^th:

• Set 1: Party Time, Chalk Dust Torture, The Moma Dance, NICU, Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan, Stash, I Didn’t Know, Poor Heart, Cavern, Beauty Of A Broken Heart, Ocelot, Time Turns Elastic
• Set 2: Punch You In The Eye, Down With Disease -> Prince Caspian > Wolfman’s Brother -> Piper -> Joy, David Bowie, Harry Hood, Golgi Apparatus
• Encore: Character Zero

Set List For October 31^st:

• Set 1: Sample In A Jar, The Divided Sky, Lawn Boy, Kill Devil Falls, Bathtub Gin, The Squirming Coil, Runaway Jim, Possum, Run Like An Antelope
• Set 2: Rocks Off, Rip This Joint, Shake Your Hips, Casino Boogie, Tumbling Dice, Sweet Virginia, Torn & Frayed, Sweet Black Angel, Loving Cup, Happy, Turd On The Run, Ventilator Blues, I Just Want To See His Face, Let It Loose, All Down The Line, Stop Breaking Down, Shine A Light, Soul Survivor
• Set 3: Backwards Down The Number Line, Fluffhead, Story of the Ghost, When The Circus Comes, You Enjoy Myself
• Encore: Suzie Greenberg
• Notes: Phish played Exile On Main Street in its entirety for the second set featuring Sharon Jones, David Guy, Tony Jarvis, David Smith & Saundra Williams. Those musicians also joined the band for the encore.

Set List For November 1st: 

• Set 1 (Acoustic): Water In The Sky, Back On The Train, Brian and Robert, Invisible, Strange Design, Mountains In The Mist, The Curtain With, Army of One, Sleep Again, My Sweet One, Let Me Lie, Bouncing Around The Room, Train Song, Wilson, McGrupp
• Encore: Driver, Talk, Secret Smile
• Set 2 (Electric): AC/DC Bag, Rift, Gotta Jibboo, Heavy Things, Reba, The Wedge, Guelah Papyrus, Undermind, Sparkle, Split Open and Melt
• Set 3: Tweezer -> Maze, Free, Sugar Shack, Limb By Limb, Theme From The Bottom, Mike’s Song > 2001 > Light > Slave to the Traffic Light
• Encore: Grind, Esther, Tweezer Reprise

Overall the festival was a big hit. The production was amazing and everyone involved created an unbelievable environment for Phish fans and festival goers.