Tour is right around the corner, meaning that Phish had a little over a year to plan pranks and hijinks for the fans. We decided to ponder what five jokes they could play during the 2021 tours.
The band could open 4.0 with the exact same setlist that they played to open 3.0.
There are three ways the band could do this. They could play it straight through, identical to how the previous show played out. Fans would catch on fairly quickly I would think. They could play the songs backwards or out of order to hide what they are doing a little bit.
The band only plays debuts of new songs.
I am not talking about playing only 3.0 songs, I am talking about songs Phish has never played before. They come out to Arkansas, a new state they have never played, for the first 4.0 show and play an entire album worth of new Phish songs. For set 2 they play covers and songs from Trey and Page’s solo albums.
Holograms through the eras
The house lights go down, the stage lights go up, and the band plays some new 4.0 song. As the band finishes the song, the stage lights go dim, the band begins to play Fuego, and holograms of the 3.0 version of the band appear next to them and they are playing Fuego as well. The band begins jamming with the hologram versions of themselves. Everyone in attendance is in awe. While they are distracted talking amongst themselves, the band launches in Scents and Subtle Sounds with two sets of holograms now; a 2.0 version has joined the 3.0 version. With hologram technology, we are seeing the band play with two hologram versions of themselves. The band moves onto Tweezer and is joined by a holographic version of Phish from 1.0 to close the set with Quadrophonic Toppling.
The Band plays Goose’s Shenanigans Nite Club as its Halloween Cover.
Imagine walking into the Halloween show, grabbing the playbill for the evening, and seeing the Shenanigan’s Nite Club sign on it. Opening the playbill you see your worst fears come true, Mike Gordon playing Terry Alfredo. The band you love so very dearly is covering an album from that annoying jamband the n00bs like. It’s a conundrum that weighs on your mind all first set. The band is only playing songs from the 80s or 90s (aka last century). You want to rage out and enjoy but all you can see is the Goose cover on the playbill. You won’t let yourself enjoy set 1 because you are dreading set two. The band is playing an amazing Reba but somehow you find yourself on Twitter complaining about the Playbill. A raucous set 1 ends but your online argument with phans rages on. Phish hasn’t played a note of Goose yet and this joke is already succeeding.
Finally, the moment of truth arrives. The house lights go down. Decked out in 70s clothes the band takes the stage. Phish begins playing the opening notes of Slow Ready and the crowd is divided. How could your band do this? On stage, Trey is laughing as he plays with his new autotune.
The Band opens the tour with Mike’s Groove and Closes the tour with Weekapuag.
This is another pretty straightforward joke that could easily get overlooked. The band opens the Summer 2021 tour with Mike’s song. Everyone is waiting for a Weekpaug Groove set closer that never comes. Maybe they’ll play it for the show closer, how cool. Set 2 comes and goes with no Groove. The band encores without Groove and phans accept this as a show with a Mike’s and no Groove. The band continues to tour not playing Weekapaug or Mike’s and nothing is really made of this. Then on September 5th as they encore for Dick’s they play the opening notes of Weekapaug Groove and finish up their summer tour.
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