Phish kicked off their final run of their fall tour in Vegas. Their Halloween cover show was the first of four shows at the MGM Grand before taking the better part of two months off ahead of their annual MSG run.

As Phish tradition goes, a handbill was given out at the show revealing who the cover act is going to be. The bill said Phish would be featuring the sold album of an obscure Scandinavian band, Kasvot Växt. According to the playbill, the album í rokk was released in 1981. The bill has a lengthy article about the band’s history.

Some fast and furious googlers discovered some more articles on the band, but very little info about the band exists. The reason that very little exists is because the band doesn’t exist. Phish’s musical costume for the night was an alter ego of Phish—you can call them Swedish Phish if Kasvot Växt is too difficult to pronounce.

As the beginning notes of the second set began to ring out in MGM, gigantic white sheets surrounding the stage were lifted to reveal the band, stage and instruments in all white. The songs from í rokk sounded like they could be on a Phish album. Little did anyone know at the time that the songs are indeed Phish originals and Kasvot Växt was a made up band. Phish pulled one of the largest hoaxes in their history and dropped a live album of original material on Vegas at the same time!

After listening to the second set a couple of times, it’s apparent that there are some future classics hidden among the collection of new material. “Say it to Me S.A.N.T.O.S,” “The Final Hurrah” and “Death Don’t Hurt Very Long” stick out as a few of the early favorites.

In addition to fooling 17,000+ fans, Phish dropped two sets of classic tunes by the Phish from Vermont.

Set One (74:13):
01. Buried Alive(1)->
02. Ghost
03. Crazy Sometimes
04. Free
05. More
06. Halley’s Comet
07. Ocelot
08. Theme from the Bottom
09. First Tube

Set Two (72:27):
10. Crowd/Intro
11. Turtle in the Clouds
12. Stray Dog
13. Everything is Hollow
14. We Are Come to Outlive Our Brains
15. Say it to Me S.A.N.T.O.S
16. The Final Hurrah
17. Play By Play
18. Death Don’t Hurt Very Long
19. Cool Amber and Mercury
20. Passing Through

Set Three (81:22):
21. Crowd
22. Set Your Soul Free
23. Tweezer
24. A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing
25. Backwards Down the Number Line
26. Meatstick
27. Bug
28. Run Like an Antelope
29. Encore Break
30. Loving Cup->
31. Tweezer Reprise

Thanks to Scott Schneider for the recording.

Photo credit: Phishfromtheroad