Phish Tickets - Some Firsts For Phish At Festival 8

Empire Polo Field in Indio, California-also the site of the indie music event of the year

, Coachella Valley Music Festival and one of country's biggest events, Stagecoach-hosted Phish's Festival 8 over Halloween weekend, and Phish phans flocked to the pristine So Cal outdoor venue for the jam band's multi-day music festival. Phish draws a crowd wherever the Vermont-bred band performs, which is why Phish tickets are such a hot commodity.

During the second day of the three-day event, Phish delivered the Rolling Stones' classic album Exile On Main Street from the beginning to the end as part of the band's tradition of "musical costuming" in celebration of Halloween. Coincidentally, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger performed across the country one day earlier, when he took the stage with Irish rock band U2 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in New York on Halloween night.

Phish has covered the Beatles and the Who on past Halloweens, and according to Rolling Stone, contenders for this year's Festival 8 were Genesis' Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Radiohead's Kid A, Prince's Purple Rain, MGMT's Oracular Spectacular, Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, King Crimson's Lark Tongues in Aspic and David Bowie's Hunky Dory. Phish frontman Trey Anastasio revealed to the audience of 40,000 that he first heard the Stones' Exile on Main Street in the late 1970s while in a friend's dorm room.

On the final morning of Festival 8 (Nov. 1), Phish phans, still chattering about the band's impressive performance of Exile, were treated to the band's first-ever full-length unplugged set, served with a side of free coffee and donuts (shaped like the number 8, no less!). The set started with "Water in the Sky," which was followed by "Back on the Train," during which Anastasio urged fans to sit down and enjoy the music because "we're gonna play a lot of mellow tunes." The audience obliged, but when Phish played "The Curtain (With)" five songs later, everyone was back on their feet again.

On the heels of Phish's sold-out reunion tour and the release of Joy, the band's first studio set since 2004's Undermind, the band announced plans for a fall trek to begin on Nov. 18 at Detroit's Cabo Arena. Among the dates is a three-night run at New York's Madison Square Garden from Dec. 2-4, and additional dates are expected to be announced in the next few weeks. Check online for Phish tickets.

Phish worked with veteran producer Steve Lillywhite, perhaps best known for his work with U2, to record its reunion album, Joy. Self-released after the band's 25th anniversary, Joy features the opening track, "Backwards Down the Number Line," which sees Anastasio singing, "Happy happy, oh my friend/ Blow out candles once again." But despite the celebratory and nostalgic vibe of the album, Joy has also been hailed one of the band's deeper efforts by Rolling Stone, which rewarded the album with four of its coveted five stars.

by: Brent Warnken

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