Tonight, Phish kicks off a four-night stand at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas with a Halloween show. Fans entering the venue were given Playbills announcing which album the band will perform as their second set in Sin City. If the Playbill is to be believed Phish will cover í rokk by Kasvot Växt, which translates into English as Face Plant’s into rock, as this year’s musical costume.
Rumor had it Phish would perform an obscure album from 1981 and it doesn’t get more obscure than Kasvot Växt’s í rokk. The Scandinavian prog rock band purportedly consists of Jules Haugen of Norway, Cleif Jårvinen of Finland, and Horst and Georg Guomundurson of Iceland as per a biography of Kasvot Växt written by Stephen Thomas Erlewine for All Music. The album’s label, Elektrisk Tung, supposedly went out of business shortly after the LP’s release and little information about the record appears on the internet. Bassist Mike Gordon made a tape copy of í rokk in the mid-’80s and Phish would play it “over and over in the tour van in the early ’90s.” In the Playbill, guitarist Trey Anastasio insisted, “Every time the Halloween discussion comes up, we talk about Kasvot Växt. We honestly were worried we wouldn’t have the chops to pull it off or do justice to the sound, but when it came down to it, we just couldn’t resist any longer.”
The decision to go with an obscure album few have heard or even heard of appealed to the members of Phish. “We’ve paid tribute to so many legendary bands over the years, it felt right this time to do something that’s iconic to us but that most people won’t have heard of,” Gordon said as per the Phishbill. “And with these translations we’re really performing songs that have never been sung in English before.” Keyboardist Page McConnell added, “I love the mystery surrounding this whole thing. If those guys ever hear we did this I hope they’re excited because we absolutely intend it as a loving tribute.” As for what Phish fans can expect? “A weird, funky Norweigan dance album! Get out there and put your down on it!” exclaimed drummer Jon Fishman.
While the listings for the 10 tracks on the original í rokk were in a Scandinavian language, the titles appear in English in the Playbill. Phish called upon a Nordic linguist to translate the lyrics to English for tonight’s performance. Ticket time for this evening’s concert is 7:30 p.m. PT. A webcast is available via LivePhish.com. Head here to check out the complete Playbill.
Phish started the trend of covering another artist’s album as their second set on Halloween at Glens Falls Civic Center in Glens Falls, New York on October 31, 1994. The band covered The Beatles’ White Album that night, which won out in fan voting. Fans also helped choose The Who’s Quadrophenia as the musical costume on Halloween 1995 at Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois. The band first issued a Playbill in 1996 to fans entering The Omni in Atlanta on a night when they performed Remain In Light by Talking Heads. Phish’s next Halloween show featured a musical costume of The Velvet Underground’s Loaded at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on October 31, 1998. The tradition continued post-breakup at the band’s Festival 8 event in Indio, California, where they covered The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street on October 31, 2009. On October 31, 2010 Phish went with a live album for the first time in tackling Waiting For Columbus by Little Feat at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. A change came on October 31, 2013, when Phish debuted a batch of originals for a set dubbed Wingsuit. Then, the quartet added their own inventive twist to the sound effects found on Disney’s Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on October 31, 2014. The MGM Grand Garden Arena also hosted the group’s performance of David Bowie’s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars on October 31, 2016.
í rokk Tracklist
- Turtle In The Clouds
- Stray Dog
- Everything Is Hollow
- We Are Come To Outlive Our Brains
- Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.
- The Final Hurrah
- Play By Play
- Death Don’t Hurt Very Long
- Cool Amber & Mercury
- Passing Through
Past Phish Musical Costumes
- 1994 – The Beatles – White Album
- 1995 – The Who – Quadrophenia
- 1996 – Talking Heads – Remain In Light
- 1998 – Velvet Underground – Loaded
- 2009 – The Rolling Stones – Exile On Main Street
- 2010 – Little Feat – Waiting For Columbus
- 2013 – Phish – Wingsuit
- 2014 – Phish/Disney – Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House
- 2016 – David Bowie – The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
