It Begins: Phish Sets Thematic Tone On Opening Night Of 2025 MSG NYE Run

Phish kicked off their 2025 New Year’s Eve run last night with the first of four shows at Madison Square Garden, returning to the World’s Most Famous Arena for their 88th performance at the venue.

Anticipation was high as fans descended on New York City for the annual pilgrimage, and lots of chatter around the first night being a Sunday took place – because, of course, you should never miss a Sunday show. Phish stepped up and delivered a solid opening night, setting the table for what’s to come with two impressive sets, highlighted by the longest-ever “Theme From the Bottom” and lots of adventurous jamming.

“Buried Alive” got things going with raucous energy, its fifth performance of the year in the opening slot marking the first time it’s been played that many times since 1995. “AC/DC Bag” was an excellent choice for the band to stretch their legs improvisationally next, a concise 10-minute version that never ventured too far off the Type I path but showcased that the band was ready to explore.

Guitarist Trey Anastasio’s glistening Dumble tone led the quartet through an upbeat peak as keyboardist Page McConnell laid down great piano underneath, some delayed chords peppering in as the jam progressed.

With a huge cheer from the crowd at the apex of the “Bag” jam, Phish tapped “Roggae” next for a more contemplative turn and introspective bit of music before ramping the energy right back up with a clean run through “Rift.”

Things really got going as the opening notes of “Wolfman’s Brother” echoed through the room, the first deep jam covering a tremendous amount of ground in its 13 minutes.

Beginning in a snappy funk groove, bassist Mike Gordon stuck out with sharp slap work as McConnell took to his Clavinet, the deep pocket getting color courtesy of Anastasio’s whale-call loops.

Deepening the groove from there, drummer Jon Fishman continued to drive as Anastasio took to laid-back rhythm, pivoting from there into a slightly menacing tone that Gordon immediately picked up on. Now with the bassist and guitarist both emphasizing that tense modulation, McConnell began to follow them on more drawn-out clav melodies as Fish continued his rock-steady beat.

Gordon’s subtle droning textures did an incredible job of adding depth to the jam and continuing to build that darker tone as the rest of the band finally committed, McConnell taking to his Yamaha CS60 synthesizer to begin unleashing elastic waves of psychedelia on the crowd. Fish upped the ante on his groove, keeping it firmly anchored, as growly guitar leads took centre stage.

McConnell continued to lean into thick textures as Gordon went even further in that direction too, the two musicians working the low end as Anastasio flipped on cool, echoing delay to his lead. It seemed for a brief moment that they were heading for a peak, but that quickly faded in favor of more exploration as the band stumbled upon a triple-hit motif that would inform the rest of the jam.

Whirlwind fills from Fish bolstered the energy further as Phish burst into a major-key peak out of the murk, capping this outstanding first-set highlight by descending back into a laid-back funk groove that resolved into the opening of “Punch You In The Eye,” much to the joy of the packed Garden.

As the band has done in 2025, the intro of this song was extended into some deep, dark jamming – five minutes of pure chaos and madness thanks to McConnell’s razor-sharp Clavinet and Anastasio’s synth envelope filter. While “The Landlady” segment is played at a deliberately slower pace these days, “PYITE” remains fresh and exciting because of this intro jam and continues to be an absolute treat whenever it shows up.

A quick run through “Sigma Oasis” segued somewhat abruptly into “Taste,” though the latter got treated with noticeably more patience than other recent versions, Anastasio nimbly working through his solo section.

The first appearance of Anastasio’s acoustic guitar on a Phish stage since December 30, 2018 set up a tender rendition of “Sleep,” which made its MSG debut last night after sitting on the bench since November 29, 2019 in Providence (a gap of 231 shows). The bust out treat led into an edge-of-your-seat and wild rendition of “Run Like An Antelope” to close out the first frame as it does so well.

Continuing the trend of short set breaks that has taken fans by surprise for most of this year, the band returned to the stage after a scant 25 minutes and grooved into the second set with “Oblivion.” While it never ventured too far into uncharted territory, this table-setter jam featured fantastic conversational interplay between the band members, riding the effortless wave of Fish’s drumbeat through a bright major key space.

Wrapping up and heading into “Down with Disease,” things felt poised for serious liftoff as one of Phish’s longest-standing jam vehicles took the big song two-set two slot. Gordon dug in early, shaping his tone to lock in with Fish as Anastasio probed on some octave-up Whammy chirping. Things mellowed out from the initial burst of energy “Disease” carries and began to drift into Type II territory with subtle low-end Wurlitzer and Moog One from McConnell as Gordon took a soupy textural role for a brief spell.

Continuing the laid-back keyboard approach, McConnell left a wide-open sonic space for Anastasio to start upping the intensity, the guitarist locking in with Gordon on a gritty riff as Fish felt the change in vibe and began to push forward more. Modulating up into a major-key space from there, McConnell continued to lay into the elastic Moog pad as Anastasio began to solo in earnest, avoiding a straight-up drive to a peak in favor of more exploration thanks to the continued efforts of the keyboardist.

Anastasio hammered chords and began to take things in a darker direction, Gordon dialing up a deep synth effect on the low end as McConnell pushed into the lead role on Moog. Things felt as though they were just getting started in this new vein before Anastasio somewhat abruptly pulled the jam into the opening of “Simple,” an unfortunate ripcord.

Another short-yet-dense jam, this big placement resulted in a thick, grimy mode and an explosive guitar-led peak. Whereas “Disease” was full of synthesizers and spacey textures, “Simple” stayed mostly grounded with McConnell on piano and Anastasio unleashing volcanic riffs over the crowd in full guitar-god mode.

Smashing through the peak, the jam landed in a driving, percussive mode with McConnell leaning into his Hammond B3 organ, a bit of inspiration that was ripcorded once again as Anastasio made a hard left into “Gotta Jibboo.”

Usually a fantastic pick for this spot in the show, “Jibboo” felt a little bit shoehorned last night due to the abrupt transitions – but featured a cool moment at the beginning of the jam where Anastasio sat back without playing anything for a while and just let the airy groove breathe.

With the opening notes of “Theme From the Bottom,” I was reasonably sure from there that we’d be heading into jukebox fourth-quarter mode – while this song has had a handful of jammed-out versions in its 30-year history, those are few and far between. Luckily for all of us, the band had other plans and proceeded to unleash the longest version of this song to date and the first to ever cross the coveted 20-minute mark, the easy highlight of the set and night.

The first sign of what was to come happened after Anastasio worked the beautiful major-key guitar solo, eschewing the typical peak build and dropping things down into a bouncy funk groove. A gritty and dark guitar tone continued to bring things down into a more minimalist and driving zone, Fish beginning to build the energy that would carry through the remainder of the jam as McConnell took to dark-tinged Clavinet. Anastasio set droning loops on the low end as Gordon flipped on a thick, almost synth-like effect.

A hypnotic groove completely took over from there as Anastasio continued to toy with his Boomerang looper, an impressively restrained space taking shape thanks to all four musicians. With dense loops still swirling, Anastasio cleaned up his tone and introduced a new, repeating idea – which he then added to the swirling loops in a really cool, off-time way.

Minimalist no more, McConnell took over the space with his Prophet Rev2 and Yamaha CS60 synth, Anastasio following his lead and upping the energy of his play. Emerging from the murk but keeping every bit of the rolling momentum, McConnell pivoted into thick Rhodes chords as Anastasio toyed with a major-key shift.

Skipping that and continuing in the deep, flowing groove that continued to get more and more locked in, McConnell went over to his B3 for percussive hits, Anastasio continuing his fluid, clean soloing overtop Fish’s drive. Keyboards and drums linked up on cool hits, the brief moment of connection from opposite ends of the stage taking place while Anastasio continued to weave his melodic tapestry unabated.

Toying with the idea of a peak once again, the band opted to uncover another layer of exploration and began to delve back into a layered, soupy space where McConnell and Anastasio linked up on a bright melody before continuing to venture off on their own paths. Smoothly modulating into a major key at last, a beautiful resolution to the jam poured forth as Anastasio’s beautiful soloing exploded smoothly into “Simple,” finishing the track from earlier in the set and capping the monumental “Theme” jam on a high note.

A quick “Everything’s Right” brought the second set to a close, before a beautiful “Slave To The Traffic Light” encore wrapped night one of YEMSG on a high note – as it always does so well.

Phish returns to MSG tonight for their second of four shows to close out 2025 – and will no doubt build on the incredible volume and depth of improvisational ideas on full display last night. Watch livestreams via LivePhish.

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