Phish Announce Festival 8 In California, Bring Back Halloween Cover Band Tradition

Phish will celebrate Halloween this year with a three-day fest called Festival 8 in Indio, California, the band revealed on their official Website last night. The concerts will run from October 30th to November 1st, with the band's October 31st night show reviving a Halloween tradition for the first time since 1998: As in years past, Phish will perform another band's album in its entirety. Festival 8, named because it's the band's eighth festival since 1996, marks Phish's first festival since 2004's Coventry in Vermont, and the band's first-ever festival anchored on the West Coast.

Tickets for Festival 8 go on sale next Monday, July 27th, at 10 a.m. PST. Tickets will cost $199, plus a $1 donation fee and a $15 parking pass for each vehicle. As Phish reiterate in their comically written FAQ section of their Festival 8 website, there are no one-day tickets available for the event. "We are pleased to support this event," said Glenn Southard, Indio City Manager. "It will bring thousands of visitors to the City of Indio and to the Coachella Valley and will provide a much-needed boost to our local economy. We look forward to a great event!"

Phish will play eight sets over the course of the three days, including the Halloween costume set featuring another band's album. Past Phish trick-or-treat sessions have featured the Vermont foursome playing the Who's Quadrophenia, the Beatles' White Album, Talking Heads' Remain in Light and the Velvet Underground's Loaded, which the band covered at their last traditional Halloween in 1998.

As Rock Daily previously reported, before hitting the road for their reunion tour, Phish and producer Steve Lillywhite gathered in a New York City studio to record their new album, Joy. In an announcement on their official Website obscured by the Festival 8 news, Phish revealed Joy will be released on September 8th and unveiled the album's cover art.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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