Phish Sets The Bar High To Kick Off New Year’s Eve Run 2023 At Madison Square Garden

Another year has come around, and once again Phish has taken over Madison Square Garden to end 2023. After a year that included a summer residency at this very venue, as well as Spring and Fall tours, it’s time to start turning the calendar over to what looks like to be a very exciting 2024 with Mexico, Sphere shows and a festival. Before we turn that calendar though, on the end of their 40th anniversary, we needed a kick off and the band did not disappoint.

As the lights went down the roar of the crowd was pretty loud and guitarist Trey Anastasio beamed, smiled and waved at both the front and the back of the stage. Wasting no time the band started up “No Men in No Man’s Land” and went almost directly into a Type I jam with the band locking in with one another quickly. A fairly big opening peak was driven by drummer Jon Fishman who was a madman on the drums all night, as he has been all year.

As the song ended, bassist Mike Gordon went straight into the opening of “Halley’s Comet.” Lighting Designer Chris Kuroda dazzled the venue with a beautiful white disco-ball-esque light throughout the beginning of the song. It took a second for the band to coalesce, but then keyboardist Page McConnell hit the Moog and the jam took off with all four members feeling that special IT that we all love to see them find.

A quick lively “Sample in a Jar” saw Page using the Hammond B3 hard, followed by “Runaway Jim” where Trey ran off a fantastic flurry of licks before the band brought it back into “Jim” to finish it off. A by the books beautifully calm “Bouncing Around the Room” was followed by the heavier “Axilla II.” It was wild to hear these back to back as the room’s energy did a complete 180 flip.

The yin and yang of the band showed itself early in this run with those two songs back to back. Page once again went for the Hammond, which is never a bad sign. The jam out of “Axilla II” saw the entire venue go completely dark after Anastasio said, “don’t shine that light in my face man.” Kuroda began to slowly bring the lighting back up as the band jammed a bit before it came to a natural end and went right into “Funky Bitch,” where Mike really dug into the vocals. It seemed as though it was going to be a fairly quick jam as it began to flatten out, but out of nowhere Fishman turned on the jets and Trey took notice as the two linked up to push for quite the peak that seemed like it wasn’t going to happen.

The set ended with a great 30 minutes of “Bathtub Gin” > “Ghost.” As soon as the “Gin” jam started, it felt pretty fluid with the band keeping a groove and I guess sensing the moment was coming, Kuroda gave the lights their first big moment as they began to make snake like movements over the band. The ease of movement these lights have now is so incredible and it cannot be stated enough how it has evolved in the past year.

The quartet was really locked in with one another and by about the 10-minute mark the jam was completely in outer space and Fishman’s fills continue to propel the band further out into the unknown. After another minute or so Trey began his slow climb for what would be the biggest peak of the first set. But he was patient in getting there as it was another almost five minutes until the full band got to the high point together that had the crowd going wild in The World’s Most Famous Arena. Trey then brought “Gin” back to its proper closure followed by quite a weird outro jam that seamlessly went into “Ghost.”

The band didn’t waste much time and once again Kuroda was perfectly in step with them as he turned the lights into pyramids with bright colors for the bliss jam that came out of “Ghost,” almost trapping the energy of the band and the jam between its confines. The peak for this “Ghost” jam was being kept at bay, just long enough to drive the whole building crazy until finally hitting it and almost getting back into a “No Men’s” jam, including Mike singing a couple of lines — to end the first frame of the 2023 New Year’s Run.

Read on after The Skinny for the rest of the recap and more.

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The second half of the night began with “The Howling” to kick off with some fun crowd howls as they made their way back to their seats. The band didn’t waste much time getting to the quick jam that followed, which eventually saw Page saturate the song with a ton of howling samples before they went into “A Wave of Hope.” This began to get eerily similar to last year when the song was in the two slot and it turned into the best jam of the night. Would 2023 be the same?

Well the band didn’t mess around and within five minutes Trey went into full attack mode as Fishman was just relentless on the kit with Mike answering everything the two of them were doing. The jam had legs early on but they soon settled into a quieter moment as they reset. Seizing a moment, Kuroda began to make the rig look like it was breathing.

It was such an amazing display of artistry to see that he sensed they were figuring out where to go, kind of like taking a breath before making a choice. Soon Page dug into both the Wurlitzer and Moog while the band simmered under him until yet another turn around the eleventh minute when the band went darker and dove head first into it, first at a breakneck pace before slowing down and showing complete patience with where the excursion could go. Soon Fishman saved the jam as it began to peter out and at that point it felt like they could have played this out for the rest of the night.

The quartet then moved together towards a pure bliss jam as Kuroda began to shower the crowd with the MSG house lights right as the jam passed twenty minutes. They were as locked in as they had been all night and finally some big power chords from Trey signaled for the band to slow down and go back into the darkness.

Trey, without missing a moment, went right into “Rift,” which was a straight ahead version that was followed by “Mike’s Song” with Page triggering a bunch of “The Howling” samples in the kick off. Mike really tore into the bass during the jam, which wound up meandering a bit with no one taking the lead but each member going absolutely ballistic on their respective instruments.

All of a sudden though they were all back on the same page, slowly heading back to the end of “Mike’s.” But before they got there the whole band almost did a full “Tweezer Reprise” jam that had the crowd going wild but then took a turn for “Simple,” which was a great landing.

Trey seemed to have some technical difficulties with his guitar or in-ear monitor early on, but the song didn’t suffer and the jam took on a spacey ease where it felt like everyone in the building was slowly drifting along until about seven minutes in when they turned a corner and the flight became more of a sinister journey with Fishman pounding away while Trey built to wail after wail searching for exactly what he wanted but never quite keying in on it. It made for a great soundscape. Eventually the jam came to a very quiet ending, out of which emerged “Blaze On.” It had a solid Type I jam that ended in a whirlwind of notes from Trey as the band soared to the peak and came back to the song’s end to wrap up the set.

The encore was definitely more than what anyone in the building expected. A very heartfelt “mercy” from Trey began it and you could hear a pin drop for almost the entire length of the song. This was followed by “The Squirming Coil,” which was as beautiful as always and ended on a Page solo as the rest of the band watched.

It seemed as if that was going to be it as it’s always special when Page gets to end a show like that, but surprisingly at 11:29 p.m. they launched into “Weekapaug Groove” and played at what felt like a quicker pace, but it could have just been the placement and time. As the song ended many began to head for the aisles, but they weren’t done yet as “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” was the true ender that had the entire venue able to end the night on a big sing-along.

With a thank you and see you tomorrow from Trey, the show finally ended. Like last year’s run, this first show has set the bar pretty high for the rest of the run. It should be a fantastic rest of the weekend as Phish returns to Madison Square Garden for night two. Livestreams for night two and the entire NYE run are available via LivePhish.com.

Check out Paul Citone’s photos from night one of Phish’s New Year’s Eve run 2023 below:

Phish From The Road Photos

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