Phish will make their their first late-night television appearance since June 21, 2004 tonight, as part of Jimmy Fallon’s Tribute to Exile on Main Street Week. Fallon, who once starred with the band in a memorable SNL skit, is commemorating the current re-issue of the The Stones double-album on May 18, hosting different artists each night this week to cover a selection the iconic record. On Monday, Green Day played “Rip This Joint,” and on the same night, Fallon invited out special guest Taj Majal to join his house band, The Roots, in a sublime and soulful cover of “Shine a Light.” On Tuesday, Keith Urban covered “Tumbling Dice” with Stones’ keyboardist Chuck Leavell and last night, Sheryl Crow joined The Roots to cover “All Down the Line.” It shouldn’t come as a big surprise what song Phish will play, but we’ll let the events unfold.
Culminating the week tonight on Friday night, Fallon will air the premiere of “Stones In Exile,” a new documentary about the album’s recording sessions in the south of France amidst legendary drug use and debauchery. Having fled England to avoid paying income tax, the band drove to the French Riviera, setting up shop in Villa Nellcote, Keith Richards’ mansion by the sea. Despite the legendary decadence, the resulting work has been exalted as a trendsetting record of the gritty, drugged-out scene that blossomed in the Seventies. Exile came first, spawning a generation of bad-boy imitators, but no one did it quite like the Stones. The documentary will air in full on Friday night.
The last time Phish played on late-night TV came on Letterman in June ’04 between SPAC and Deer Creek. Following their Beatles-esque midday performance atop the marquee of New York’s Ed Sullivan Theatre, Phish played “Scents and Subtle Sounds” off the newly-released Undermind. But the story of the gorgeous summer day was the mini-set Phish dropped in midtown Manhattan. After several run-thoroughs of “Scents and Subtle Sounds,” Phish gave the few thousand fans who gathered on the city block something to remember. There’s nothing quite like raging “Tweezer” amidst skyscrapers in The Big Apple. Click here to read more about this epic afternoon.
=====
Jam of the Day:
“Reba” 8.15.98 II
A festi-sized version that sparked the set of the weekend at Lemonwheel.
=====
DOWNLOAD OF THE DAY:
5.13.94 Hayden Square, Tempe, AZ < Megaupload
Let’s hop in the DeLorean and travel back sixteen years to the day to sneak a peak at Phish in Arizona.
I: Runaway Jim, It’s Ice, Julius, Mound, Stash, If I Could, My Friend, My Friend, Slave to the Traffic Light, Suzy Greenberg
II: Chalk Dust Torture, Bouncing Around the Room, Split Open and Melt, McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters, Peaches en Regalia, Scent of a Mule, You Enjoy Myself, Purple Rain > Hold Your Head Up, Good Times Bad Times
E: Free Bird
Source: AKG 460
