Phish Plays 90th Show At Madison Square Garden

Well another year has passed and that means it’s the night before the big night, which in Phish's history has produced some of the best shows and jams of their career. With the march toward 100 shows in the World’s Most Famous Arena, Tuesday was number 90, the performance was teed up to go in the books.

While that may not be the case, there were a number of memorable jams that led the sold-out crowd to roar with joy.

That first roar came when guitarist Trey Anastasio hit the riff for “Chalk Dust Torture.” The band wasted no time getting into the jam and immediately took off while staying in the song’s confines. As they toyed with the idea of Type II for a couple of minutes, it felt like they were going to go for the proverbial “IT,” but instead “The Moma Dance” came out of nowhere in the second spot.

The jam felt like it as going to be the plate setter for the evening to come with drummer Jon Fishman doing his best to appear like he has more than two arms while doing some wild fills. With the energy of the jam cranking up to full-speed, the band went back into “Chalk Dust” to finish the song and the opening bang to the show.

“Back on the Train” followed with Page McConnell staying on the grand piano for the first jam, really putting some impressive work in while the others stayed stayed perfectly in the pocket of the song. Once Trey began his solo, Mike Gordon took his bass for a little walk, filling in the spaces while not doing anything too fancy. The band hit a peak around the eight-minute mark that felt like it was pushed a bit by Chris Kuroda’s captivating lighting.

A wonderfully short, dark swampy jam came out of “Axilla (Part II)” after the “don’t shine that light in my face man” line. “Divided Sky” was next, and the band nailed every part of it. “Blaze On” followed and the jam stayed in Type I territory that almost hit the peak of the jam before pulling back and regrouping to let it breathe for a bit more with Fishman once again completely locked in and driving the jam.

“Tube” hit a full band groove early on and it looked promising that this might be the version that gets taken out for a bit. Some plinko reared its head as Page turned to his synths, with Trey answering. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to go long, and didn’t break 10 minutes. “Reba” followed and while the first half had a few miscues, the band righted the ship and brought the soaring jam home for a sweet landing, without completely finishing the song, as they went right into “Split Open and Melt” to close out the set.

This “Melt” is definitely worth a relisten, as it went Type II early. It was a dark and heavy jam that Kuroda hopped on with greens and purples filling the arena. There was a lot of space being given by each band member, before a complete breakdown of the jam occurred. All four seemed to be attacking their instruments individually, but also working together to try and wrangle the jam together.

The disjointed monster that was being created was augmented by Kuroda summoning the lighting rig into a beast over the heads of the band with red and purple lights flashing all around. Just as it seemed as if the jam was going to somehow overtake the band, Mike popped the drill up and they wrestled it back into the song’s end to close out the set. It was a wild end to the first half that had conversations about it flowing in the halls for the 25-minute set break.

There was a lot of potential in set two for songs to be taken for the long run, but tonight was not meant for it. Instead they delivered some exquisite jamming that saw some abrupt segues and endings. That’s just the way it works sometimes.

Something that stood out the entire set were the textures that Page added to almost every jam. While he did lead a bit here and there, he really was the glue that held it together, dotting the jams whether it was the organ, grand piano, or some of his synths. It was really wonderful work from the Chairman of the Boards.

“Ghost” kicked us off with what wound up being the longest song of the show at 16 minutes and change. The spacey jam out of the gate was delicately played, almost like the band was whispering notes to one another, which has been a trend this run. Mike was completely in the zone early one, playing very few notes, which is often a key to him feeling good in a jam.

The energy picked up about nine minutes in with a lick from Trey that the band latched on to while entering full bliss jamming. A couple of minutes later the tempo shifted and things picked up quite a bit as Page jumped onto the Hammond B3 organ. The jam rushed towards the peak as the band locked into a progression and just as the building was about to hit the top Trey began the “Ghost” riff, which eventually led into the switchover directly into “Ruby Waves.”

Page’s synth work took the lead in initial moments of the jam with Fishman being a human metronome. Trey soon locked right in step with Page and soon the whole band took a hard turn and brought the energy completely down for a few moments. Once again Fishman’s fills around what Trey and Mike were playing around the 11 minutes mark was masterful. A slow build toward the peak began around the 13 minute mark with Trey soon doing pedal work to keep climbing upward, but before hitting the peak, it was a turn into “Light.”

Venturing out of the song’s frame quickly, Trey went on attack before the band found common ground and brought the jam to a calm groove. About eight minutes in there was some brilliant interplay between Page and Trey responding to one another as they steered the band towards a bliss jam. At the same time, Mike was dancing around Fishman’s drumming with solid bass playing. Fishman began pushing the tempo around 13 minutes in and the entire band went with him.

While the structure of “Light” came back for a moment, the tempo push led directly into “Crosseyed and Painless” and Fishman having a lot of fun with the lyrics while the band embraced arena rock attack mode from the start. After the early burst, the jam got eerie with Fishman singing “still waiting” over it. There was plenty of looping happening from Trey and the band was just cooking here.

Kuroda began to blast the band and then the whole arena in rainbow colors, making it quite the psychedelic experience. Page began playing some wild synth parts and it felt like once again we were about to blast off into space, but the “Twist” riff came out of nowhere.

“Twist” had a dutiful short jam in it and was soon followed by “Cavern” that felt like it was going to close out the show, but Trey had one more riff he wanted to play on the night and launched into “First Tube,” which elicited a loud roar from the crowd. Trey went full rock star as he stalked the stage, jumped around, and did some windmills before the obligatory raising of the guitar.

The single-song encore of “Drift While You’re Sleeping” brought the show to a close. The band has two more sets on the year before they bring us into 2026 with set number three tonight at The Garden.

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Phish celebrates New Year’s Eve tonight with the final show of this year’s MSG sun. Watch a livestream via LivePhish.

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