Phish rang in the new year at Madison Square Garden with four shows that aptly celebrated their time together as a band for the past 30 years. While each night had peaks and valleys of energy and “ripcords”, what came out of it was a unique New Year’s Eve run where no covers were played over the course of nine sets of music (save for “Auld Lang Syne” at the countdown for midnight) and fans were left satisfied with what they witnessed.
The band has officially released the 30th anniversary montage that ran prior to the encore:
The “gag” at this show wasn’t set to coincide with the NYE countdown but rather before the second set, where the band paid homage to their origins by setting up a stage in the middle of the floor that was on top of a replica of their old gear truck. Prior to that set they ran a montage of Fishman preparing the truck for travel back on the farm in Vermont, all the while pushing aside old relics of the band’s past New Year’s Eve gags.
The second set was performed on top of the truck with minimal gear, minimal lighting, and hockey sticks for mic stands that harken back to the days the band got started.
Truck top last night pic.twitter.com/EtIz88Z1Ft
— Phish: From The Road (@Phish_FTR) January 1, 2014
— Phish: From The Road (@Phish_FTR) January 1, 2014
From the sidelines, it appeared to be a fitting nostalgic view of how they got to where they are and how they continue to be a band that does things that they want to do. Good stuff.
For setlists and more insights from the run, head over to Phish.net. We’ll have some more in-depth thoughts from the shows next week…
