Phish Halloween Tradition Continues

The terse “very special Halloween concert” that was part of the Phish Fall Tour announcement left room for speculation as to whether the quartet would continue their tradition of covering another artist’s album on October 31st in Atlantic City. Today, that speculation has been put to rest by a revealing interview with Trey Anastasio by Randy Lewis of the LA Times.

Anastasio not only confirms the group will cover an album at Boardwalk Hall but discusses past Halloween performances and gives a hint as to what to expect…

“This year,” he said, “this one’s for me. The one we picked, I’m going to get more out of this as a musician than I ever have before. Three songs into it, I called everybody and told them, ‘None of the other ones — I wouldn’t think, hopefully — will have nearly the effect on my playing this one’s going to.’ ”

While Big Red may have gotten some of the facts wrong in the interview, his rare talk with the press gives plenty of insight into past performances…

As for “Quadrophenia,” the Who’s 1973 rock opera suggested by keyboardist Page McConnell, “I had never really listened to it that much,” Anastasio said. “That was in ’96, and we had just started playing arenas. When we played it in the big room, I got it. All their songs just resonate in these big arenas. They kind of invented that: that huge rolling wall of sound, played through huge arena sound systems. And once you’ve played something like that live, it starts to affect how you write songs.”

Phish returns to the stage on Friday in N. Charleston, SC.