The legacy is deep; so deep that for a third consecutive Friday, we revisit MSG highlights from Holiday Runs past! With anticipation growing for the end of the year bash and rumors already beginning to bubble for next year, take some time out of your Friday to aurally peruse some more of the years gone by. Back to writing next week…
This unique version features a looped-out, spacey exploration of the song’s reggae intro before ever dropping into the song’s opening lyrics. This “Hood” was the final improvisational escapade in the best New Year’s Eve show since ’95.
The creative centerpiece version from the band’s Garden debut.
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Book Cover (Masthay)
NYC BOOK SIGNING & AFTER-PARTY: Stay tuned for details on a pre-show book signing party and free, late-night after-party hosted by Phish Thoughts on 12/29! Both events will be held in the same locale within stumbling distance from The Garden, and there will be a “book check” for those who purchase books before the show! It should be a great night with music, friends and is open to all! More specifics to come…
The legacy is deep; so deep that for a third consecutive Friday, we revisit MSG highlights from Holiday Runs past! With anticipation growing for the end of the year bash and rumors already beginning to bubble for next year, take some time out of your Friday to aurally peruse some more of the years gone …
Last week we looked at some of the elite moments in Madison Square Garden Holiday Run history—and this week there is plenty more! With a December legacy like none other in the venue,Phish has more than enough to fill out another stellar Friday playlist. These tracks further illustrate the explosive music the band has cranked out at the end of the year in The Garden.
After a balloon-popping fiasco all but ruined the third set “Tweezer” on New Year’s Eve ’97, Phish annihilated this second set beast the following year.
Grade-A Phish crack through and through. The first domestic “Carini,” the birth of the “Moma Dance,” and a reprise of “Sneakin Sally”—the bustout from ’89 that opened the show. This sequence gets my vote for the best encore in the band’s career. Unquestionably.
When the band finished what many consider their finest New Year’s Run with a blowout version of “YEM” at The Garden, all was right in the universe of Phish.
Last week we looked at some of the elite moments in Madison Square Garden Holiday Run history—and this week there is plenty more! With a December legacy like none other in the venue,Phish has more than enough to fill out another stellar Friday playlist. These tracks further illustrate the explosive music the band has cranked …
Confirming what fans had been assuming for some time, yesterday, Phish officially announced a four-night New Year’s Run at Madison Square Garden to close out 2011 in style! All other rumors had died out in recent weeks and it became a foregone conclusion that the band would return to the Big Apple, upping their career tally to 23 shows—all but 5 on holiday runs—at “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”
Historically, Phish and MSG have made quite the combustible holiday combination. In 1994, the band first stopped at 33rd St and 8th Ave on December 30th, on their way to Boston for Tropical New Year’s Eve. The following year, 1995, Phish came back to The Garden for two nights to close the year, with 12.31.95 being the peak of an era and, arguably, the best show Phish has ever played in The Garden.
12.31.10 (G.Estreich)
Come 1996, Phish stopped at MSG for a two-night stand during the opening leg of Fall tour (10/21,10/22). Though the second show contained a well-crafted setlist and a couple legitimate highlights, the tour didn’t really pick up steam until after Halloween at The Omni. The band skipped The Garden on the Holiday Run in ’96, favoring two nights in both Philadelphia and Boston, before coming back for an unprecedented three nights to close out their stellar year of 1997.
Punctuating Phish’s transformational and creative year of ’97, these three shows—the first of which is one of the outstanding shows of the late ‘90s—made the bond between Phish and Madison Square Garden permanent and inseparable. But if three shows in one building set a new standard for a New Year’s Run, the following year the band returned to The Garden a four-night Holiday Run—a spectacular stand through and through, and the most accomplished Holiday Run since 1995. All four shows popped off in 1998, with the 30th lagging only a slight bit behind. For four straight nights, Phish ran shop at Madison Square Garden, finishing with 12.31.98—the band’s most impressive New Year’s Eve performance since ’95.
Madison Square Garden
Phish, however, wouldn’t return to the building in its last two years of pre-hiatus existence. But when they came back on New Year’s Eve in 2002, there was only one place to do it—The Garden. Though the show, musically, wasn’t all that special, the mere fact that Phish chose their New York home for their return added to the venue’s already storied legacy. But in their short second go-round, their comeback show would be the only 2.0 performance in the round room.
When the band returned for this era, they chose the only other venue that made any sense for the reunion—Hampton Coliseum. But it wouldn’t be long before Phish made it back to The Garden in 2009, for three high-quality shows in the Fall of ’09. Three more at the end of 2010 brings us to now.
It seems only fitting that Phish will return to MSG to celebrate the holidays at the end of their most accomplished year of this era. With no fall tour, these shows represent a standalone oasis amidst a lot of time off. The band has said that 2012 will be a light year of touring, thus nobody knows when the following shows will come. But with four nights in New York City to end the year, nothing could be finer in the world of Phish.
The ticket request period is now open until October 24th. Best of luck in the lottery!
I: 1999* > Mike’s Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Ghost -> Ha Ha Ha > Cavern
12.31.98
II: NICU, Character Zero > Tweezer -> Cities > Wading in the Velvet Sea, Run Like an Antelope > Frankenstein
III: Runaway Jim -> Auld Lang Syne -> Simple, Harry Hood > Tweezer Reprise, Llama
E: While My Guitar Gently Weeps
*debut, Prince
Source: Schoeps mk41v’s(DIN)>kc5>m222>nt222>744t
Confirming what fans had been assuming for some time, yesterday, Phish officially announced a four-night New Year’s Run at Madison Square Garden to close out 2011 in style! All other rumors had died out in recent weeks and it became a foregone conclusion that the band would return to the Big Apple, upping their career …
Over the weekend, Phish kicked off the back end of summer with a ferocious one-two punch. Pairing a psychedelic monstrosity on night one with a set of super-sized candy grooves on night two, the band delivered on every level, littering the Gorge with jams of all shapes and sizes. In each show, Phish set the improvisational tone with first set selections and then magnified that focus in the second set with some of their most impressive on-stage conversations of the summer. Adopting the classic exploratory-then-celebratory contour of so many legendary two-night stands, Phish fans couldn’t ask for anything more from their favorite band in the Pacific Northwest.
8.6.11 (J.Iudice)
In the tour opener, “Roggae” not only sparked the first set in earnest, the loose and free-form improvisation laid the groundwork for the monumental music that would take place in the following frame. On the second night, the band laid down a foundation of groove with “Moma Dance,” “On Your Way Down,” and “Wolfman’s,” and then laid down a dance clinic come set two. Stylistically diverse and musically focused, each night at the Gorge formed one half of a phenomenal whole.
And how about the music within? With only two shows down, the band is already stacking leg two highlights like chips at a poker table. Instead of plucking single jams as the standouts of the show, we can simply point to both second sets as the highlights of the Gorge (not to mention some first set gems). Playing all their cards just right, Phish dropped a spectrum of highlights that, collectively, spoke to all factions of their fan base. Inspired—as always—by the beauty and seclusion of the Columbia River Gorge, the band’s playing was defined by patient interplay and a willingness to take jams wherever they naturally flowed. As a result, each show and, specifically, each second set flowed from beginning to end.
8.5.11 – (G. Lucas)
The first show likened a nuclear explosion with “Rock and Roll’s” era-defining excursion. The jams’ massive wake carried the guys right through another half-hour of top-notch jamming in “Meatstick” and “Boogie On.” The rest of the show felt like the natural fallout from such a paradigm-shifting explosion. Seamlessly integrating Storage-style psychedelia into “Rock and Roll,” Phish gave us an intimate and jaw-dropping glimpse into the their next evolutionary step. The second night resembled a heat-seeking missile, as the band honed in on a specific style and tore a thematic—and ballistic—show to smithereens. The groove fiesta came to a mid-set peak in a silky-turned-apocalyptic “Sand” that was a culminating version (to date) of the many standouts renditions of summer. In short, Phish succeeded in taking their weekend crowd, first, through an alternate reality and then through an all-night dance party—executing their weekend plan to perfection.
And the buzz of Phish 2011 continues to grow. IT started at Bethel. IT increased during June’s Midwestern swing. IT got a boosted during the last three shows of Leg One—Charlotte, Raleigh, and Portsmouth. IT ballooned considerably at Super Ball. And, once again, at the Gorge, Phish’s summer momentum continued snowballing. A weekend whose music was centered around an ground-breaking, improvisational beast of the likes we haven’t seen—well, ever— in “Rock and Roll,” showcased a band whose diligent focus and continual improvement evokes memories of a young, goofy-looking quartet from Burlington that toured in the ‘90s. But it’s 2011 now, and matured like a fine wine, Phish is moving forward in ways many had never imagined would happen again, and nothing could possibly be sweeter.
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In other Phish Thoughts-related news…
The Philler: I mentioned last week that I was being interviewed for a cloudcast—The Philler—run by Robert Champion. After talking with Robert and his partner, Sammy Saltzman, at length, we decided that I would join them for a yet-to-be-named, weekly segment of Phish analysis during their broadcasts. Look for more news on this in the future, but you can now listen to our initial conversation embedded in the audio player below, and spiced up by Robert and the guys at The Sloping Companion with audio tracks from June and enhancements ranging from the musical to the comic to the bizarre. Check it out…
Over the weekend, Phish kicked off the back end of summer with a ferocious one-two punch. Pairing a psychedelic monstrosity on night one with a set of super-sized candy grooves on night two, the band delivered on every level, littering the Gorge with jams of all shapes and sizes. In each show, Phish set the …
With the Gorge exactly one week away, let’s take the final Friday before tour to review a few seminal jams that have gone down at both the Gorge and leg two’s closing locale, UIC Pavilion. Though some of these tracks have been posted before, they have the type of timeless staying power to warrant hearing again. A five-five split between the Gorge and UIC brings the last week before tour to an end. Enjoy the music…leg two awaits!
With the Gorge exactly one week away, let’s take the final Friday before tour to review a few seminal jams that have gone down at both the Gorge and leg two’s closing locale, UIC Pavilion. Though some of these tracks have been posted before, they have the type of timeless staying power to warrant hearing …
