Phish To Hit The Road For Fall Tour

Phish fans were treated to a welcome announcement Friday: the band is heading out on tour this fall, kicking-off November 18 at Detroit’s Cobo Hall. A tour highlight will no doubt be a three-night stand at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in December.

The band’s official announcement came via a video on Phish’s website.

Check below for tour dates.

The band will be on the road supporting their latest album, Joy, the first studio album since 2004′s Undermind.

The big tour follows Phish’s annual festival, Festival 8, held this year at Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA. The event will feature eight separate sets from the band over the course of Halloween weekend, October 30 to November 1.

As for which classic album Phish will cover during their Halloween set, Phish has revealed a gallery list of 99 potential candidates; knocking one off the list, one-by-one, on their website.

The last album left gets the Phish cover treatment. Past albums the band covered include Who’s Quadrophenia, the Velvet Underground’s Loaded, and in 1998, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon.

Just a few of the albums Phish has ruled out for covering include:

• Duran Duran’s Rio
• Elvis Costello’s This Year’s Model
• Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors
• the Beatles’ Rubber Soul
• Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs
• the Who’s Who’s Next
• Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man
• David Bowie’s Scary Monsters
• Peter Gabriel’s So

What remains is a pretty damn good mix of music; Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats, Miles Davis’ A Tribute To Jack Johnson, the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty, the Allman Brothers Band’s Eat a Peach), Hall & Oates’ Private Eyes, Van Halen’s Van Halen I, Prince’s Purple Rain and Elton John’s Goodbye Yellowbrick Road.

I didn’t even mention Led Zeppelin I and Led Zeppelin IV. It’ll be a great show regardless of what they choose, but I’m going to go with The Police’s Ghost In The Machine as my personal choice.

Oh, and there’s the whole Phish playing their first-ever, full-length acoustic set during Festival 8, which has everyone excited. The acoustic set gets underway at high noon on Sunday, November 1. The band has reported that coffee and donuts will be served.

Phish tickets for the fall tour go on sale to the public beginning October 24.

Phish

• Oct. 30 – Indio, CA @ Festival 8
• Oct. 31 – Indio, CA @ Festival 8
• Nov. 1 – Indio, CA @ Festival 8
• Nov. 18 – Detroit, MI @ Cobo Arena
• Nov. 20 – Cincinnati, OH @ U.S. Bank Arena
• Nov. 21 – Cincinnati, OH @ U.S. Bank Arena
• Nov. 22 – Syracuse, NY @ War Memorial
• Nov. 24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wachovia Center
• Nov. 25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wachovia Center
• Nov. 27 – Albany, NY @ Times Union Center
• Nov. 28 – Albany, NY @ Times Union Center
• Nov. 29 – Portland, ME @ Cumberland County Civic Center
• Dec. 2 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
• Dec. 3 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
• Dec. 4 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
• Dec. 5 – Charlottesville, VA @ John Paul Jones Arena

Surely the band will extend the trek, plus no (official) word yet on any extra-special New Year’s Eve concert. Stay tuned.

What album would you like to see Phish cover?