Phish’s Festival 8 Murder Mystery

The Halloween show is part of Phish’s Festival 8, which takes place Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif. The event is Phish’s eighth festival overall and first festival since 2004’s Coventry in Vermont.

In addition to treating fans to shows full of jam sessions and lots of improv, another one of Phish’s traditions is to celebrate Halloween by playing another artist’s classic album in its entirety. The last time this took place was 1998 when Phish played The Velvet Underground’s Loaded in its entirety. The band has also played The Who’s Quadrophenia, the Beatles’ White Album and Talking Heads’ Remain in Light, according to Rolling Stone.

Fans usually spend the time leading up to the concert guessing, betting and crossing their fingers about which album will be played. This time around Phish is throwing out a few clues.

Once you enter Phish’s Web site, you’ll be greeted by howling, creepy music and see a folded note card, adorned with a skull and dripping with blood, alerting fans that the band will “play the last record left alive.”

Potential albums are shown in a framed lineup with albums that are no-gos stabbed with a knife or an ax. As the Oct. 31 show gets closer, more albums will be marked with a bloody weapon until only one is left.

The albums the band is still considering include: The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic, Radiohead’s Kid A, Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced, Beastie Boys’ Hello Nasty, Aerosmith’s Toys In The Attic, Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks, Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, AC/DC’s Back in Black, Nirvana’s Nevermind, U2’s The Joshua Tree, Pixies’ Come On Pilgrim and Eagles’ Hotel California.

There’s also The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs, MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular, Metallica’s Masters Of Puppets, Rage Against The Machine’s Evil Empire, The Clash’s London Calling, Devo’s Freedom of Choice, Neil Young’s Everyone Knows This is Nowhere, Prince’s Purple Rain, Hall & Oates’ Private Eyes and Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run.

Phish has killed off the following albums:Primus‘ Sailing the Seas of Cheese, Pavement‘s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, The Who‘s Who’s Next, The White Stripes’ Elephant, Beatles’ Rubber Soul, Talking Heads’ Fear of Music, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Damn the Torpedos, Manu Chao’s Clandestino, Leonard Cohen‘s I’m Your Man, Velvet Underground & Nico’s self titled album, Medeski Martin & Wood‘s Shack-man, Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumours, The Allman Brothers’ Eat A Peach, Huey Lewis And The News‘ Sports and Ween‘s White Pepper.

Which album do you think Phish should cover?

Festival 8 tickets are priced at $199 each plus $1 WaterWheel Donation and applicable service fees. Daily parking is free, but it will cost you $15 per car and $125 per RV if you want to camp onsite.

Click here for Phish’s Web site.