The current four show Phish run is building towards a 20th Anniversary show at the Fleet Center in Boston on Tuesday. To this end, during the first two dates of the tour the group invited some of its longstanding collaborators to the stage. On Friday night at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY the Dude of Life, who performed with Trey Anastasio in their high school band Space Antelope and appears on the earliest widely-circulated Phish tape- 12/1/84, joined the group for a ‘Crimes of the Mind’ encore {This song is the title track from the Dude of Life/ Phish CD which the band last performed more than nine years ago {7/10/94)]. The next evening at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA longtime lyricist Tom Marshall took the stage and lent vocals to ‘Buffalo Bill.’
As for potential celebratory surprises in conjunction with the anniversary gig, Anastasio told the Boston Globe’s Steve Morse ‘ We’re planning one thing that will be really fun for everybody, but we’re not going to make a big deal out of it.’
Meanwhile, the non-profit Mockingbird Foundation has announced its plans to issue a second edition of its Phish Companion this spring.