Phish Covers Dark Side Of The Moon In Utah In 1998
By Scott Bernstein Nov 2, 2017 • 8:58 am PDT
Before broadband internet and the advent of video and audio streaming allowed fans to listen in to every Phish show as it happens, the band played a series of “you snooze, you lose” performances in which they filled the setlist with gems for out-of-the-way shows with low attendance. The most famous instance of “you snooze, you lose” came on this date in 1998, when the band covered Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety as part of an epic show at the E Center in West Valley, Utah.
In Parke Puterbaugh’s 2009 authorized biography of the band, the author explains the genesis of the Dark Side performance. Considering most fans skipped the Utah show and instead went straight from the band’s two-night Halloween run in Las Vegas to Denver, it wasn’t a huge surprise many tickets were available for the visit to West Valley. Road manager Brad Sands and crew member Eric Larson realized just how undersold the show was and hatched a plan to make those who “snoozed” “lose.”
Larson told Puterbaugh, “Brad and I immediately ran to Trey and said, ‘There’s only 3,200 people here! You’ve gotta hurt ’em! You’ve gotta get ’em good! And he said, ‘Well, what can I do?’ And Brad and I looked at each other and said, “I think it’s time for Dark Side Of The Moon!’ And Trey said, ‘Okay, we’ll do Dark Side. Get the band.” With that a copy of the album was fetched and with just 90 minutes to showtime the quartet went about running through Dark Side backstage. After the first set, Phish went over a few songs and when they came out fit the entire album within “Harpua.”
Phish videotaped the Dark Side show, but the footage has remained in the vault with one exception. Archivist Kevin Shapiro hosted a From The Archives video edition at Festival 8 in 2009 and showed off “Breathe,” “On The Run” and “Time.” A fan named Raj pointed his camera at the screen displaying the footage at F8 and what’s below is the only video of the Dark Side set that circulates, at least for now:
Here’s an audience audio recording of the entire show:
Setlist
Set 1: Tube -> Drowned -> Jesus Just Left Chicago, Driver [1], Bittersweet Motel [2], Limb By Limb, Wading in the Velvet Sea > Sample in a Jar
Set 2: Down with Disease, The Mango Song > The Moma Dance, You Enjoy Myself, Harpua [3] > Speak to Me [4] -> Breathe [5] > On The Run [6], Time [7] > The Great Gig in the Sky > Money [8] > Us and Them [9] -> Any Colour You Like [10] -> Brain Damage [11] -> Eclipse [12] > Harpua
Encore: Smells Like Teen Spirit [13]
Trey teased San-Ho-Zay in Drowned. Driver was dedicated to âWendy and Lisa,â and Bittersweet Motel was dedicated to the folks at The Dead Goat Saloon (the site of an open mic night appearance by Trey and Mike one night earlier). Driver and Bittersweet Motel featured Trey on acoustic guitar. Bittersweet Motel also contained a Free Bird-style ending. Moma Dance included Monkey Man (Rolling Stones) teases. The Harpua narration picked up where the December 6, 1996 Harpua ended; Jimmy hitched a ride from Vegas to Salt Lake City and the driver was playing Dark Side of the Moon. Dark Side was reportedly chosen the day of the show, partially based on sluggish ticket sales for this one venue compared to the rest of the tour. All the Dark Side songs were Phish debuts except for Great Gig (last played July 5, 1994, or 333 shows), although the original album version of Speak to Me was piped through the P.A. on Halloween, 1994 and Breathe was jammed on October 25, 1995. Smells Like Teen Spirit was also a Phish debut.
[Originally Published: November 2, 2016]
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