In a break from the Phish tradition of Halloween’s past where they performed a musical costume and covered another band’s album in its entirety (Velvet Underground, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, The Who, Little Feat), this year Phish played an album from the future by debuting songs from Wingsuit which they will record immediately following their Atlantic City three night Boardwalk Hall run on Monday.
The songwriting process for Wingsuit began last October as the band gathered in Vermont as the band hung out together and let songs organically form. Using journal entries from Mike Gordon that noted his favorite jam moments over the years, the band used those as spring-boards to form the start of these new songs. Two weeks before this last fall tour began the band invited famed producer Bob Erzrin to hear a narrowed down list of 25 songs, which eventually went to the 12 that make up Wingsuit. Six of these songs came out of a process in which the band truly wrote music together for the first time in their 30 year history.
Said Page McConnell in that evening’s “Phishbill” that was handed out to fans on the way into Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall- “It’s out 30th year and we want to make a statement that we are a vital creative force still and, in a lot of ways, more so than ever.”
One of the favorites of the night and the most potential to be a future live jam vehicle was “Fuego” which started with some heavy riffing and featured some extended sections and “The Line” featured a big catchy friendly chorus and is one of the more pop friendly parts of the album. “Monica” was a hard hitting acoustic tune performed acoustic with Mike Gordon on upright bass and Page McConnell on Fender Rhodes while “Snow” featured Mike Gordon on falsetto vocals and acoustic guitar and Page McConnnell on vintage synths and John Fishman on cymbals which seemed party reminiscent of acoustic forays in the band’s past when they would set up on an acoustic mini-stage.
“Wombat” was a playful streak of rap-rock with an old school 70’s feel courtesy of generous clavinet and featured dancers and actor Abe Vigoda dresssed up as a wombat. One song “Winterqueen” was previously played on tour with Trey Anastasio’s band. “555” was one of the other premier highlights of the evening with Mike Gordon on lead vocals featuring a “Meat” funky shuffle and classic Little Feat sounding rhythmic forays. While it’s said many of these songs are still in the process of being completed and we’ve yet to see the final recorded result, it was a bold move to utilize this performance as a testing ground for themselves instead of honoring rock’s past.
In the “Phishbill” the band explained their reasons for performing their own yet-to-be-recorded album: “Music is a spiritual language,” they wrote in a statement. “Your energy is obviously embedded in everything we’ve ever done, but what’s happening tonight is more of a tangible thing. The songs always change so much as soon as we play them together with all of you. Playing these songs tonight is a way that we can get them dirty and mess them up a little before we record them. And the live energy of a Phish audience will be directly involved in the making of our new album, as we all celebrate 30 years together.”
Wingsuit tracklist:
1. Wingsuit
2. Fuego
3. The Line
4. Monica
5. Waiting All Night
6. Wombat
7. Snow
8. Devotion to a Dream
9. 555
10. Winterqueen
11. Amidst The Peals of Laughter
12. You Never Know
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