Read my review of 12/28 for Phish.net here!
For the second of four nights at Madison Square Garden to close out 2022, Phish delivered an absolute scorcher of a show featuring wild setlist calls, atypically-jammed songs, and more.
Beginning the night with “Fluffhead”, the capacity crowd overflowed with energy immediately, which was only heightened when Trey began to lead the jam away from the typical “Arrival” section. Only the fourth jammed-out version of the song ever (7/24/99, 10/23/21, 8/13/22), this extended jam hit some spacey themes and reached a pleasant major mode before Trey led the band through a smooth segue into “Your Pet Cat”. Appearing for the first time since Mexico in February, “YPC” is a song that Trey has seemingly been hinting at all year – it was excellent to see it return.
Wasting no time, Phish struck up “Bathtub Gin” next. Getting into its typical propulsive jam motif, “Gin” drove atop a bed of excellent synthesizer work from Page to a nice peak. The debut of “hey stranger” from Trey’s acoustic album mercy came next and offered a nice funky breather. After hearing this song with TAB in November, I was immediately excited for it to make the jump to Phish – it more than delivered on my expectations and I foresee some big jammed-out versions in the future.
A concise “Tube” that quickly departed the song proper for a screaming peak gave way to an energetic “Slave to the Traffic Light” and “Blaze On” pairing to close out the first set.
To open the second set, Trey set up some light spacey tones that almost hinted at the “Down with Disease” intro, instead giving way to “David Bowie”, which was featured as a set two opener for the first time since 11/14/98. While the composed section wasn’t the cleanest, the jam quickly transitioned into a nice major key, continuing the trend of well-jammed versions of “Bowie” in 2022. “Everything’s Right” was tapped next and saw Trey emphatically leading the band through multiple amazing sections of improv. More major-key play led to a grimy funk groove in which the guitarist employed his (I think) newest effect – something that sounds like a cross between the Leslie and some crazy reverb. Growing in intensity, the psychedelic vibe of the jam reminded me of the 12/30/18 version at times, albeit with more of a grounded feel than spacey thanks to Page’s use of clav and piano. Peaking massively and returning to song proper, “ER” established itself quickly as a top-tier jam deserving of much praise.
A rare mid-second-set call for “You Enjoy Myself” caused another MASSIVE crowd eruption in energy and the band responded in kind – Trey absolutely lit the place up with a series of white-light peaks during the ensuing jam. Eschewing the 2022 trend of a “second jam”, the band opted to slam right into “Ruby Waves” out of the vocal jam, firing up what may be the finest jam of the night.
Absolute MVP of this “Ruby Waves” was none other than Fish, who activated his octopus mode – absolutely demolishing his kit and pushing through a series of fast and hard-charging grooves. A motif around 8:45 seemed to call back to the “helicopter delay” of the 7/14/19 version as the band kept pushing into new idea after new idea. Slamming into a distorted tone, Trey let loose a brief “Heartbreaker” tease before smashing the ending of the song.
Pausing to catch our breaths with a mellow “Lonely Trip”, Phish then delivered a hot “Back on the Train” and “Character Zero” to close the set, the latter of which saw the capacity crowd going absolutely wild with energy once again.
Tapping “Guyute” in the encore slot for the first time since 2011, the band (especially Trey) seemed to struggle with some of the difficult composition and laughed off a whistling flub. Finally, they lit into “Possum” to end off the night. With numerous false endings and calls of “Tell us where the party is – we’re coming!”, Phish brought December 29th to a grand finish.
Two more nights remain, tons of songs are still on the table, and Trey’s 2019 gag platform is still suspended above the stage…
TWEEZER LOOMS!