Phish coming back to Vegas
In addition to the regular bounty of miniature Snickers bars, prepare for a bonanza of guitar solos and unabridged jamming this Halloween when Phish returns to Las Vegas for the first time in 10 years.
The veteran rockers will take over the MGM Grand Garden arena from Oct. 31-Nov. 2.
This means that Vegas will once again be the site of the band’s Halloween show, where they traditionally cover a classic album in its entirety.
On Halloween 1998, Phish played the Velvet Underground’s “Loaded” at the Thomas & Mack Center.
In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Mike Weatherford prior to that show, Phish bassist Mike Gordon explained the origin of the band’s celebrated Halloween performances.
“We had the idea to make a musical costume rather than a clothing costume,” Gordon said. “One of our fans was challenging us to play some album. We said, ‘We’ll play whatever album you want’ ” and it was eventually put to fans for a vote.
Nowadays, the band chooses the record in question.
The show involves “taking days off on the road to rent out a place and practice,” Gordon said. “We get in the head of the people who made the album. Each time we really learn a lot about different approaches to writing music.”
An online ticket request period for the Phish shows is currently underway at http://tickets.phish.com/. Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Aug. 7.
For details, visit http://phish.com.
Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow on Twitter @JasonBracelin.
