In perhaps their most ambitious of all their revered Halloween shows, Phish paid tribute to the recently departed David Bowie with a cover of 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Phish previously paid tribute to Bowie this past summer with an acapella cover of “Space Oddity,” so covering this Bowie album classic, was perhaps their most predictable Halloween album costume following 2014’s surprising Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House.
Backing up the quartet on the second set Monday evening was Jennifer Hartswick, Jo Lampert (tUnE-yArDs) and Celisse Henderson on background vocals along with a string section composted of Sylvia D’Avanzo, Alisa Horn, Todd Low, Antoine Silverman, Alissa Smith and Hiroko Taguchi with all arrangements by Carmel Dean.
While past Halloween tributes have consisted of double albums, this one was a relatively short 11 songs and featured little to no improvisation and guitar solo,s while Trey Anastasio, in an unprecedented move, took two songs away from his guitar as he worked the stage with just a microphone during “It Aint Easy” and “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide.”
As with most prior Halloween classics Phish has conquered, Page McConnell looking spiffy in a “star” shirt of his own, was the vocal MVP as he took on “Lady Stardust” with gentle grace and then belted out “Ziggy Stardust” with enthusiastic gusto next to Anastasio’s propelling riff. Other highlights included the opener “Five Years” which featured trade off vocals between all four members ala “Roggae” and the big band bliss of “Moonage Daydream.”
Later in the evening, the four returned a little past 12:30 A.M. PST for the nighcap encore take on “Space Oddity.” For those out there who want to forget about the Lady Gaga/Bowie tribute at the Grammy’s try this full album tribute on for size.
