For those unfamiliar, Pink Talking Fish is a hybrid tribute act that melds the music of Phish, Talking Heads, and Pink Floyd. With these three bands as inspiration, PTF fuses and intertwines songs from each bands’ catalogs to create a musical cocktail unlike any other. With an emphasis on storytelling, Pink Talking Fish offers the funky grooves of Talking Heads, the epic emotion of Pink Floyd, and the high-energy jamming and unique compositional structures of Phish—making for fun, high-energy, fan-focused shows.
Over Halloween weekend, Pink Talking Fish performed two late-night afterparties on November 1st and 2nd, following Phish’s highly anticipated and beloved Halloween run shows. The PTF shows were hosted by Vinyl at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, located in the heart of Las Vegas, less than a mile away from Phish’s venue at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
For the first night of their run on November 1st, Pink Talking Fish performed their “PTF Is Bowie” concept, which combines the music of Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, Phish, and David Bowie. The show specifically celebrated Phish’s own tribute to David Bowie during their 2016 Halloween show, where they performed The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in its entirety for their traditional “costume set.” Pink Talking Fish worked through David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”, “Space Oddity”, “Golden Years”, “Heroes”, and “Moonage Daydream”, while also throwing in choice covers of Little Feat’s “Skin It Back”, Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime”, “Cities”, “Once In A Lifetime”, Phish’s “Alumni Blues > Letter To Jimmy Page”, “Gotta Jibboo”, “Simple”, and Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall”, “Fame”, and “Comfortably Numb”, to name a few.
On November 2nd, Pink Talking Fish commemorated the 20-year anniversary of Phish’s impromptu performance of Dark Side Of The Moon. After a Las Vegas Halloween Run in 1998, Phish played West Valley City, Utah, on November 2nd, 1998, to a half-full “E” Center arena. Many fans on tour chose to skip the out-of-the-way show, so the band treated the lean audience that did make it to a full rendition of Pink Floyd’s 1973 album, Dark Side Of The Moon, sandwiched in the middle of “Harpua”. To this day, fans still regret high-tailing it to Denver and skipping the infamous Utah ’98 show.
Pink Talking Fish’s bassist Eric Gould was one of the fans in the “snooze you lose” category, missing Phish’s mind-bending “E” Center show, so PTF interestingly decided to incorporate their “Harpua” narrative with Jimmy meeting a Las Vegas genie at Excalibur, while being granted only three wishes. Jimmy’s third wish was being able to see Phish’s November 2nd, 1998 show, played 20 years ago to the date, and Pink Talking Fish sailed on from there, offering favorite Pink Floyd cuts for the remainder of the show. Guitarist Marcus Rezak joined PTF for a remarkable solo on “Great Gig In The Sky”, with saxophonist Seth Eisenstein later joining in on “Money > Girlfriend Is Better > Us And Them”.
You can listen to full-show audio of both of Pink Talking Fish’s Las Vegas shows below:
Pink Talking Fish – Las Vegas – 11/1/2018
[Audio: Keith Litzenberger]
Pink Talking Fish – Las Vegas – 11/2/2018
[Audio: Keith Litzenberger]
Setlist: Pink Talking Fish | Vinyl at The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, NV | 11/1/2018
Set: Skin It Back, Let’s Dance > Life During Wartime, Happiest Days Of Our Lives > Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 > Alumni Blues > Letter To Jimmy Page > Slippery People > Fame> Slippery People, Letter To Jimmy Page > Alumni Blues, Wish You Were Here/Space Oddity Mashup* > Cities, Golden Years > Gotta Jibboo Jam**, Pigs (3 Different Ones)*** > Once In A Lifetime > Heroes > What’s The Use? > Another Brick In The Wall Part 3 > Burning Down The House% > Simple%%> Burning Down The House
Encore: Moonage Daydream > Comfortably Numb Jam** > Frankenstein
* w/ Slave To The Traffic Light tease
** solo and ending
** w/ Bathtub Gin tease
% w/ Another Brick In The Wall tease
%% 1st Verse
Setlist: Pink Talking Fish | Vinyl at The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, NV | 11/2/2018
Set: Nothing But Flowers, Harpua* > Speak To Me > Breathe > Psycho Killer > On The Run > Maze, Time > Moon Rocks > Great Gig In The Sky** > Timber**, Money% > Girlfriend Is Better% > Us And Them%, The Curtain > Any Colour You Like > With > What A Day That Was > Brain Damage > Eclipse > Harpua
Encore: Smells Like Teen Spirit
*Story about Jimmy meeting a LAS Vegas Genie In Excalibur and being granted three wishes. The 3rd wish was being able to see the 11/2/98 phish show 20 years ago
**w/ Marcus Rezak on guitar
%w/ Seth Eisenstein on saxophone