Insider Tips on Phish’s Festival 8 (From My Dream)

I had a dream last night that it was already next week and I was in Indio, California for the Phish Halloween festival, Festival 8. I got to see some of the show in the dream, so I thought I’d fill all of you in on what to expect next week. My dreams are 100% guaranteed to be prophetic and accurate.

One nice thing is that there is apparently a hotel that’s basically on the festival grounds. My room had a window that looked out towards the concert area, and I could actually hear the show from my room. How great is that?

The first night, 10/30/09, is actually in a big gymnasium-type room, not out on the Indio polo grounds like you’d expect. There are a bunch of folding chairs set up in the gym, and unfortunately it’s not very exciting-looking. Chris Kuroda was probably still setting up lights for the Halloween night, because the lights for the Friday night show in the gym were non-existent.

I mean, there were lights, but it was just basic white lights shining down on the stage. That’s it.

Friday night was just a weird show overall. The first set started out with Trey solo, which seemed like an unusually low-energy kick off to the first Phish festival since Coventry—especially combined with the lack of interesting lights—but there you go. I don’t remember what he played, but there were a few songs. Nothing really memorable.

Then Fishman and Page come out. Ok, now we’re talking, we’re really starting. No Mike, though. And Trey decides to hand off his guitar to some random guy from the audience, and he goes backstage again. They bring up another random guy from the audience to sit in on a second drumkit, and bring up a tall blonde woman from the audience to play bass.

The audience members that are up on stage weren’t expecting this, and don’t really know what to play. The guest drummer plays a little on his own, but it’s nothing anyone else can join in on, and it’s not really very good. Festival 8 is shaping up to be disappointing so far.

After a little while, Fishman decides to take control and starts playing Scents and Subtle Sounds. Everyone who’s up on stage slowly manages to join in, even though they don’t really know what they’re doing. The rest probably wasn’t anything interesting, because my dream just skipped over the rest of that night, and on to the 10/31/09 show.

I was in my hotel room when they started playing the Halloween album. Oops, I didn’t realize they were going to start so early; the sun is still out, it’s the middle of the afternoon. I can hear it from my hotel room, and it’s… (drum roll…) The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

Yeah, that’s surprising to me also. But my dream says it’s true, so it must be true.

I head out to go in to the actual show grounds, because here I am in my hotel room, only kind of hearing the Halloween album that Phish is playing. I get to the security gate, and realize that the actual concert grounds are really tiny compared to the size of the grounds that they have available at Indio, and the size that’s used for Coachella. They could fit maybe 1,000 people up there, and that’s about it.

Luckily, there are only about 50 people inside. I guess everyone else is showing up later. Odd, since the Halloween album is already underway, but that’s the way it goes. Seeing how few people are there and how close I can get to the stage, I decide to make a quick trip back to my hotel room for my camera.

Unfortunately, things start going downhill here. I had basically checked into my room, heard the album, and headed out. I was in such a rush to head out that I forgot all about my hotel room key card, which is probably still sitting on the desk. I don’t want to take too much time going back to the front desk to handle it, since that was a bit further away, meaning I’d miss a big chunk of the show. I figure I can just head back out without my camera, or figure out some other way in.

I hear two cleaning women talking around the corner, and figure that’s worth a shot. The weirdest part of the dream is that they weren’t speaking Spanish, they were speaking English. I find them and explain how I left my key card in my room and just need to get back in, but even though there’s no language barrier, they’re having a hard time understanding.

I think the whole festival ended right around there, because I don’t remember anything else. But you have my dream predictions: Scents and Subtle Sounds on Friday, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway on Saturday.

I’ll see you all out there, and we’ll see how smart I am! I predict that I’m very smart.