This past Saturday night, Pink Talking Fish played a hometown gig at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club with a confirmed “PTF Is Bowie” theme. With a packed house awaiting the set in anticipation after a rocking set from opener Indobox, who played a full set tribute to LCD Soundsystem, the band began their first set with a tease of Phish‘s “David Bowie”. Instead of heading full blast into the song, after the drum intro the band took a left turn into Prince‘s “1999”, a nod to the icon who had passed away just two days prior. 

As PTF went into their proper setlist with “Fame”, the energy level never dipped throughout the rest of the night. The “Slippery People > Run Like Hell > Let’s Dance > Slippery People” was a particular highlight of the first set, along with the set-closing “Burning Down the House” with special guest vocalist Hayley Jane, who put on quite the performance with the Magnaterrestrial Dancers, whom she brought on stage with her.

Second set was much of the same high energy that was on display during the first set, with a powerful “Heroes” with keyboardist Richard James taking the lead on vocals. PTF wasn’t done with the special guests, as they brought out Indobox’s Stephen Learson on both “Tweezer” and “Lazarus”. A mashup of “Wish You Were Here/Space Oddity” made things interesting as the band meandered back and forth between the Pink Floyd and Bowie tracks. “David Bowie” ended the second set, fittingly.

For the “All The Young Dudes” and “Tweezer Reprise” encore, Eric Gould and his Pink Talking Fish bandmates brought out some extended PTF family, as members of the Indobox, the Magnaterrestrial Dancers, and several other joined in on the chorus to bring the night to a proper close.

Check out full audio from the show below, as taped by Andy Murray:

Setlist: Pink Talking Fish at the Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA – 4/23/16

Set One:

01. crowd set 1
02. David Bowie intro * >
03. 1999 >
04. Fame >
05. Moma Dance
06. Slippery People >
07. Run Like Hell >
08. Let’s Dance >
09. Slippery People
10. Gotta Jibboo >
11. Golden Years >
12. Gotta Jibboo
13. Time >
14. Maze **
15. Under Pressure %
16. Burning Down The House **%^

Set Two:

01. crowd set 2
02. Another Brick In The Wall >
03. Runaway Jim >
04. Heroes >
05. Runaway Jim >
06. Psycho Killer >
07. Runaway Jim
08. Mother
09. Tweezer %%
10. Lazarus %% >
11. Another Brick In The Wall
12. Life On Mars %
13. Once In A Lifetime **
14. Wish You Were Here/Space Oddity Mashup >
15. David Bowie
16. encore break
17. All The Young Dudes %^^ >
18. Tweezer Reprise %^^

* space intro and lead in only. Fakeout to 1999
** w/ David Bowie intro tease
% w/ Hayley Jane on vocals
%%w/ Stephen Learson on vocals
^ w/ The Interstellar Dancers
^^w/ The Interstellar Dancers,Indobox members & many other PTFamily members onstage joining in with the audience chorus singalongÂ