On The Run

• Performances
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  • Phish
  • Fish
  • Mike
  • Page
  • Trey
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History

At Phish's 11/2/98 gig, “On the Run” was easily the most creatively interpreted song from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album. In fact, given the spontaneous nature of the show, the performance of this tune ranks up as perhaps the most improvisational and curious.

Phish, having decided to play Dark Side the evening of the ‘E’ Centre show, had to think fast of a way to translate a song that relied so heavily on studio effects, and they didn’t have the advantage of pre-planning or expensive, appropriate equipment. So they just winged it. Fishman maintained the all-important, driven beat while Page, Mike, and Trey played with delay loops, effects, and atmospheric sounds. Effective results were even generated with such simple techniques as Trey raking across his strings up and down the guitar neck. Fans were duly impressed and satisfied by the result, which just goes to show that it doesn’t take a dozen folks on stage with millions of dollars in custom-engineered electronics to kick a song’s ass.

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