Shuffle play can reveal some interesting things sometimes. This Party Time track just came up at work and I thought it was Akron/Family or something. Between the production, the weird drums, the bizarre keys, the chanting style of singing, and the complete lack of anything sounding like Trey’s guitar anywhere on the track, this is a unique song for Phish.

If you’ve never looked at the credits, this is a Page track. Maybe it was Vida Blue or the Spam All Stars or his solo band that inspired such a song, but this does show what the side projects are accomplishing. I wouldn’t want every song to sound like this, but as a change of pace, it’s fascinating.

This is why it’s kind of sad that Party Time was just released as a bonus disc on the box set. Between this, “Gone,” “In a Misty Glade,” and “Splinters of Hail,” Phish accomplish some things that they haven’t on any other album. Unfortunately, it will always be considered a novelty disc, and not the intriguing album that it is. Even “Let Me Lie” has an interesting arrangement. Maybe it was the freedom of just being a goofy release that let Phish put out these bizarre tracks, in the same way that the soundcheck jams are sometimes more interesting than anything that the show produces, but more of this please!

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