PHISH COVER EXILE ON MAIN STREET

This past weekend was Phish 's Festival 8. Since it was also Halloween, it allowed the band to combine their festival with their Halloween tradition: covering another band's album. They never announce what the album is in advance. This year, they did The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street. I'm not a big Phish fan - I'm a bigger fan of Trey Anastasio 's other band Oysterhead - but I've always respected the way they treat their fans. In the interview above (which I shot for SIRIUSXM'S Jam_ON channel) Trey talks about the history of their festivals.

PHISH HAVE THE RIGHT IDEA

Phish recently played their first few reunion shows. I think it's great that they've gotten back together, and as usual, they've done right by the fans: they are offering free high quality downloads of the shows at their LivePhish website. So, at least if you weren't there, you can hear what it was like. Of course, with any band (notably Phish, I guess) being at the show is different than just hearing it, but still it's a cool move by the band.

I'm not a huge fan, although I've had some cool experiences interviewing Trey Anastasio (and I'm a big fan of his other band, Oysterhead, featuring Les Claypool of Primus and Stewart Copeland of The Police). But it's great to see a band that always wrote their own rules make such a triumphant comeback, and do it without any help from the traditional music industry.

BONNAROO: SPRINGSTEEN, PHISH, BEASTIES AND NINE INCH NAILS

I did a search for "Bruce Springsteen" on a well known mainstream web site and the latest headline I found was "Springsteen, Phish, Beasties, NIN Set For Bonnaroo" and the first few lines included mentinons of Wilco, Al Green, Snoop Dogg and Elvis Costello. But when I clicked to see the story, it was "no article found." But the Bonnaroo site says the announcement will be tomorrow. Seeing how Bruce and Phish have been heavily rumored to be playing the festival, and it definitely fits into Bruce's tour schedule, this makes sense.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ

Two weeks ago on OutQ, I planned on talking about some reunions to look forward to in 2009, but I didn't get to it. So, I'm making up for that this week. I'll be talking about as many reunions as I can get to, including The Kinks, The Faces, Mott The Hoople, The Specials, Faith No More, blur, Pavement, Phish and No Doubt (who never broke up, but lots of people probably thought Gwen Stefani wouldn't return to the band after her solo success). I don't know if I'll get to all of those bands though.

PHISH TO REUNITE?

Rolling Stone reports that Trey Anastasio is considering reuniting Phish. I was never a big fan of the band, but I respect what they accomplished: they became a cultural phenomenon, and they did it on their own terms. It's sad that Trey has struggled with drugs in the past few years - and I'm not talking friendly ones either - I hope he's defeated his demons.  He's a talented guy. And even though I'd rather see an Oysterhead reunion (the band he did with Les Claypool of Primus and Stewart Copeland of The Police), a Phish reunion would make an awful lot of people happy.