Show Review - Phish 12/31/24 New York, NY
EDMSG
Phish closed out their banner year of 2024 last night with an absolutely incredible three-set affair – continuing the momentum from Sunday and Monday’s shows through numerous standout jams alongside a monumentally creative gag to ring in the new year.
With three sets on tap, the band took the stage a bit earlier than the first three shows and got things going with a classic “Mike’s Groove” with “Bouncing Around the Room” as the meat. Things were feeling great from the jump both on stage and in the packed arena – guitarist Trey Anastasio spent a lot of time last night playing toward the people in behind-stage seats, each time being met by raucous cheers.
“Stash” opened things up improvisationally, Anastasio working with keyboardist Page McConnell and bassist Mike Gordon to move things into a klezmer-like zone. Drummer Jon Fishman’s initial use of only cymbals made his infusion of aggressive snare hits even more impactful when that happened, moving alongside Anastasio as the jam headed toward major-key territory.
Building into a sparkling peak, all four band members locked in together, riding the wave of Anastasio’s perfect melodic soloing through the apex and back into the conclusion of “Stash,” much to the delight of the crowd.
“Evolve” was a great choice next to continue the flow of the set ahead of a blistering “Llama,” McConnell especially shining on a whirlwind longer-than-average organ solo.
When the band kicked into “Split Open and Melt” next, I looked at my watch to make sure I hadn’t missed some time passing – and was immediately excited about the fact that we were getting an atpical mid-first-set outer-space jam.
The standout version began with Fish abandoning the “Melt” hits relatively quickly in favour of a smooth shuffling beat, Anastasio beginning to get weird and dissonant overtop. McConnell stuck to piano initially, letting Gordon handle the wild synth textures as the bright chordal ivory work gave the tension-filled space a unique feel.
Everyone moving into deep weirdness soon after, Anastasio’s wild Whammy bends coloured around McConnell’s thick bed of Rhodes and the rhythm section’s busy playing to create a controlled-chaos motif present in the best modern “Melt” jams. The key here is that it’s not complete abstract sound – each member of the band was still playing very much with one another amidst the murk.
A hot pairing of “Backwards Down the Number Line” and “Carini” led into a set-closing “The Squirming Coil” – and McConnell’s breathtakingly beautiful piano outro was one of my favourite moments of the night. Holding 20,000 people in the palm of his hand, there was a solid ten seconds of pure silence inside the arena, the gorgeous piano solo sending us into the first break happy.
I don’t normally talk about setbreak happenings in these write-ups, but the first break last night was a highlight of my NYE – it being the seventh night of Hanukkah, a huge group gathered outside section 112 to light the candles and sing the blessings, giving me such an incredible feeling of pride to be Jewish alongside so many other Phish fans.
Returning for the second set, the band got right to work with an upbeat “Sigma Oasis” opener, giving way to an absolutely massive “My Friend, My Friend” that quickly cemented itself as the longest version in Phish history as well as the musical highlight of the night.
Anastasio began the jam with some rocking wah-infused leads as McConnell’s piano riffs seemed to hint at “Sunshine of Your Love” briefly before he and the guitarist linked up on the repeated lick for a bit.
Forming up into a two-chord peak jam, the band continued at the highest energy, now augmented by Gordon’s envelope filter and subtle swirling textures. McConnell began to infuse Wurlitzer electric piano into the space while continuing to hammer piano before the peak finally cooled off and Fish drove forth into a Type II space.
Smoothly transitioning into a groove motif thanks to Anastasio’s expert rhythm work, McConnell acted as the lead instrument with amazing electric piano melodies.
As was hinted at during Monday’s “Down with Disease,” the layered groove that emerged next felt almost like a late 1.0 jam at times, but with modern-era maturity and sound palettes, beginning with McConnell’s Moog One and Gordon’s deep synth effects.
Fish pushed forward into a staccato groove as Gordon activated what he called his “EDM effect” in the recently-released rig tour video, a very solid electronic “thunk” sound that drove perfectly alongside Fish. With the rest of the band just bopping along in the groove, Gordon cranked up the space-haze textures, swallowing all the empty sonic space with a warm blanket of synthesizer.
Bringing things back down to earth, McConnell bopped on some subtle synth of his own before going down to some sparse Wurli as Gordon used yet another crazy bendy effect from his toolkit, almost a vocal Whammy.
Fish was absolutely unrelenting, refusing to let go of a drop of momentum as Gordon locked into his beat with hypnotic delay lines, Anastasio emerging from his rhythmic work for some wah leads. McConnell’s work in the next section was absolutely amazing – the minimalist and subtle work on Moog really stands out to me in a busy jam.
Anastasio changed from straight funk vamping to some heavier distorted chords before dipping into his delay and reprising the “he’s got a knife!” lyrics to bring the jam to a close just short of the 20-minute mark.
This “MFMF” is must-hear Phish, and I can’t wait to hear where this new development of groove jams heads when the band plays next month in Mexico.
Kicking into “Sand” next, the 25th anniversary of Big Cypress was on many people’s minds – including the band’s, clearly, as they proceeded to unleash twelve minutes of layered, ambient music featuring the hallmarks of a December 1999 version – siren loops from Anastasio and psychedelic waves of Yamaha CS60 from McConnell – but again, the throwback vibe was augmented by the modern maturity in jamming and expanded sonic palettes.
Whereas 25 years ago, Gordon would lay in the pocket through the jam, he now has the capability to add his own layers of effects into the fray, joining Anastasio’s ring modulator effect with wild sounds of his own.
Once again, a must-hear jam. This was just a build upon the version from Dick’s at the end of the summer – and I hope we continue to see intense psychedelia take over “Sand” in 2025.
“Golden Age” got a huge response from the crowd for its upbeat and joyous lyrics, and the band continued the string of strong jams with another synth-centric mode – this time Anastasio, McConnell, and Gordon circling each other in a major-key soundscape that just felt like a dream. If you couldn’t tell, I am HERE for all the layered ambience!
“What’s the Use?” got the cooldown call – more psychedelic sounds – and got an extended quiet section with some nice accents from Gordon, the band letting things get down to absolute silence before building up the soaring ending to the song.
A blistering trio of “Taste,” “Golgi Apparatus,” and “First Tube” brought the second set to a close, the final song featuring Anastasio running laps around the stage with glee and anticipation for the gag to come.
Returning to the stage in matching blue space suits, the band opened the third set with a rocking “Character Zero,” acting as a nice prelude to the gag as the band then started up “Pillow Jets.”
The giant white sheets that had been suspended above the crowd – along with twirls of fabric – moved up and down as the song progressed and a few actors emerged onto the stage in flowing yellow robes, adding some vocals to the mix.
As the psychedelic jam progressed, a massive face descended from the ceiling alongside huge thunderclaps, once again reminding us that we are, in fact, in a cult – the conjurers of thunder making themselves known as midnight drew closer. Visuals projected on the MSG Jumbotron displayed swirling textures through the countdown before the band exploded into “Auld Lang Syne” to ring in 2025.
My favourite part of last night’s gag is that the thing everyone was talking about all year was how Phish could possibly attempt to top Gamehendge, the absolute apex of what every fan had been hoping for. The answer, of course, is that Phish wasn’t going to try to top it – instead going in a completely unique direction and playing an EDM version of “What’s Going Through Your Mind.” MSG was transformed into a dance club as Phish’s newest song went for a ride through insane techno movements, McConnell strapping on a pair of headphones and working Moog One and Nord Stage simultaneously, letting loose samples and waves of electronic sounds.
Fish took to some e-drum sounds and Anastasio fit his guitar playing into the mix perfectly alongside repeated shouts of lines from Phish songs like “Blaze On,” “Wolfman’s Brother,” “Bouncing Around the Room,” “Martian Monster,” “The Lizards,” and an overarching theme of the hypnotic “mind mind mind mind.”
With drop after drop just getting the audience more amped, one final build saw the band explode out of the EDM section into “Chalk Dust Torture” eliciting a massive roar from everyone in the crowd.
Tearing through a blistering solo, we got a couple short minutes of ambient exploration ahead of “Slave to the Traffic Light.” While most NYE third sets end up being around an hour long so as not to go too late, Phish was on fire last night and had no intention of letting up, ripping into “Life Saving Gun” for one last dose of jamming.
With Fish at the helm of the percussion rinse, the consistent pace left a wide-open canvas for the other three band members to unleash their textural arsenals, moving from anthemic peaks to crazed tension-filled space and back again, Gordon even using his little EDM bass synthesizer for some wild tones toward the end of the song.
Once again, I was certain the set would end there, but we got a “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” with peak after peak to blow the roof off the Garden once more, complete with some emphatic singalong.
Returning for the encore with the barbershop quartet mics, some pitch pipe issues caused Anastasio to crack up at the beginning of “Grind,” always a treat – but the real shit started when the band returned to their instruments and began to strum mellow chords underneath Anastasio’s narration.
“This is a little ditty from last year’s show,” he said, signalling the beginning of the lone Gamehendge song to miss the cut at 12/31/23 – and cheers erupted across the venue once people realized what was happening. Crafting a tale of the shredded Helping Friendly Book and how hopefully we’ve all had a chance to “read the fucking book!” over the past year, the crescendo and final shout of “ICCULUS” gave me a similar feeling that I got during the first notes of “The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday” last year – just sheer gratitude and joy (and I also cried a little bit).
“Tweezer Reprise” put the cap on 2024 Phish, getting jammed out again like at Dick’s, and the prevailing feeling walking out of MSG was that Phish had once again proved that they are the greatest band in the world.
Now in their 42nd year as a band, Phish shows no sign of slowing down or running out of inspiration as 2024 goes into the rear view mirror – a year where the band played the Sphere, put on their first festival in nine years, crammed in the most 30+ minute jams in any year since 1995, and clearly had a blast for every single second.
I, for one, cannot WAIT to see what happens in 2025 because our favourite band is the best and I am so grateful to have been at MSG these past four nights – the best NYE tradition on the planet.