Phish releases “Melt the Guns” by XTC, unreleased since 1987

2,051 concerts without playing it: at Fenway Park, Phish dug up their cover of XTC’s anti-gun classic, never played again since April 1987, and stretched it into a fifteen-minute jam.

Coming out of a residency at Madison Square Garden where the group had already replayed a handful of songs for the first time since the mid-1990s, Phish signed the biggest bust out of his long history — the fan term for a song re-emerged after years of absence from the setlist — by performing his cover of XTC’s “Melt the Guns” for the first time since 1987.

Midway through the band’s second set at Fenway Park, Trey Anastasio belted out the opening notes of this anti-gun classic from XTC’s English Settlement album, which Phish transformed into a fifteen-minute improvised odyssey:

According to Phish.net, this performance of “Melt the Guns” was the first since April 29, 1987, a span of 2,051 concerts. The previous record for the biggest bust out of the group — the amount of time elapsed between two performances of the same song — was established in early July, when Phish released Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice” for the first time since May 1992, after 1,468 concerts. Before that, the long-time record holder was their own “Fuck Your Face”, which went 1,426 concerts without being performed since 1987, until its reappearance in 2010.

More than forty years after its formation, Phish has spent the summer delving into its repertoire in depth, as last week’s series of five concerts at Madison Square Garden demonstrated — its 92^e at 96^e dates in this room — which the group dedicated to the years 1992 to 1996. This residency saw the resurgence of titles absent for more than 1,000 concerts, such as “Big Ball Jam” and their cover of “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis Presley, as well as long-neglected pieces: “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC, “Purple Rain” by Prince or “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry.

Phish’s summer tour continues Saturday night, again at Fenway, before the band heads to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Denver for three closing shows on Labor Day weekend.