Fast ‘Llama’: Watch Phish Tear Through ‘Picture Of Nectar’ Classic At Madison Square Garden

While the saying goes “Never Miss A Sunday Show,” it doesn’t always wind up that concerts played on the final day of the weekend are any better than Friday or Saturday performances. However, the adage was certainly true this past Sunday for the third night of Phish's current Madison Square Garden residency. The band shared official video of the sublime and speedy “Llama” from an otherworldly and old school first set.

“Llama” came roaring out of one of the most unusual “Theme From The Bottom”s in the song’s history. “Theme,” debuted in 1995, was the newest tune the quartet played during Sunday’s opening stanza. It wasn’t just that the band only performed classic material but each song was oozing with extra mustard. The “Llama” was the antithesis to the funk/slow arrangement debuted at Walnut Creek in 2015 and trotted out six additional times since.

Originally released by Phish on 1992’s A Picture Of Nectar and first played live two years prior to that, “Llama” typically starts with an intro from drummer Jon Fishman. On Sunday it was guitarist Trey Anastasio who led the charge into the Gamehendge number. The four-piece, having just finished a particularly slow “Theme From The Bottom,” went full throttle on “Llama.” Anastasio showed off his machine gun stylings in ripping up his solo. The axeman utilized an effect that made it sound as if the notes were coming out of his Languedoc backwards.

It was a first set that as per JamBase contributor Aaron Stein's recap “finished with a head-of-steam proliferation of energy, ‘Llama’ cascading in an avalanche of boom-pow intensity, played at tempo maximus and prompting jokes from Trey about repeats that evolved into multiple ‘back in my day’ goofs before he started up ‘Tube.’” Phish even took a quick second run at “Llama” after Fish reminded Trey there are “no rules” for this residency.

View pro-shot video of Sunday’s “Llama” below in glorious 4K HDR: