Phish Executes Masterful 22-Minute ‘Chalk Dust Torture’ At Madison Square Garden

After playing a fantastic show for their 80th appearance at Madison Square Garden, Phish stepped on stage for night two of their four-night run with the usual high expectations of their fanbase on their shoulders. The annual New Year’s run has a storied history with the shows on December 29 and 30 especially known for being incredible and memorable.

The quartet from Vermont in their 40th year of playing together, kept their intentions to blow the roof off The Garden to themselves in a mostly standard first set, but let the music do the talking in a wild and exploratory second set.

Phish stepped on stage for the 81st time at Madison Square Garden and opened with the 1990s anthem, “Free.” This song has opened 13 Phish shows and is often paired with what came next. “The Moma Dance” gave us a hint of the rolling drums and big playing we would get throughout the show from drummer Jon Fishman.

A well-played “Maze” followed with guitarist Trey Anastasio demonstrating the band’s recent time in the studio has helped him continue to nail complicated compositions and stay on top of tempo. “Maze” was the first showcase for the keyboardist Page McConnell to take some big organ swells and remind us that Page is here to play. Trey built the song to its peak with fire and gusto, putting a nice cap on the first of two songs we would get off the 1993 album, Rift.

After an energized and fairly tight three opening songs, Trey checked in with the crowd, saying, “Welcome back. I hope everyone slept well.” An acknowledgment that a large majority of the crowd would be in attendance for all four nights at the Garden. A testament to the fanbase’s dedication to their favorite band.

Shifting the tempo, the band played “Evolve.” The 12th time played since its 2021 debut, I was thrilled to hear this beautiful song live for the first time. Written by Trey and his longtime collaborators, Tom Marshall and Scott Herman, the song contains some of the strongest lyrical ideas and concepts in the Phish catalog. It’s a song with a catchy chorus that provides a great sing-along moment for the crowd. Trey sang some of the song an octave up, which felt distracting, but his continued dedication to working on his vocals is something to be celebrated and has led to an increased vulnerability and earnestness when singing ballads.

As “Stash” began next, there was hope this song born from jazz influences and a study of tension and release musical communication would stretch out a bit and get wild as this first set had felt fairly tame so far. Bassist Mike Gordon and Fishman kept the low-end grooving as Trey and Page talked to each other with some delicate playing by Trey and some impassioned twinkling of the keys by Page. Some darker rock themes were touched on as the song wrapped up, a hint of what was to come later in the show.

A standard “Back On The Train” followed and as the band started “Theme From The Bottom” anticipation grew for something interesting as the last two versions of this song played at Madison Square Garden were memorable jams. This version was almost 11 minutes long and was one of the only times during the show where the band went toward the light and climbed some interesting, shimmering peaks. Trey played with delicacy and some pretty, soaring notes, which was a highlight from set one. The bliss jam melted away and led to the first ballad of the night, the gorgeous “Mountains In The Mist.”

A contemplative song with strong lyrics, the placement here did not help the flow of the set and as it works better after a monster jam in the second set. Instead of connecting over some rock improv during “46 Days,” Trey wailed and Fishman punctuated a nice strong ending as they brought the six-minute version to a quick close.

“Drift While You’re Sleeping,” a song off the Ghosts Of The Forest album, is long, heavily composed, and has the reputation for ending sets without much fanfare. The set came to a close with the crowd singing along with Trey as he reminded us that “love will carry us through.”

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

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Who knows what happened during setbreak backstage, but the band came on with a renewed sense of urgency and fight when they opened the second set with an incredible version of “Chalk Dust Torture.” At almost 23 minutes long, you could feel the energy and the intent of the show changing before your eyes at the 5:21 mark as the band launched into the jam. A stunning piece of improvisation, this “Chalk Dust” had multiple sections, at times stunning and soulful and at other times wild and unafraid. The first few minutes found Trey exploring while Fishman crashed cymbals and the entire band seemed to echo each other in unsettling riffs and tone. This was the moment the crowd checked their seatbelts as it was clear we were going on a trip and we might need to be prepared.

By nine minutes in, the band was coming ashore in washes of sound from percussion and synths. Trey’s delicacy and soft touch encouraged the band to find its way organically and the communication between the band members through this gorgeous section of music was masterful. This is one of those jams that flies by as you listen to it because it sounds so intentional, despite being composed on the spot. Mike and Trey linked up to provide some depth to the notes as the journey continued with Trey starting to play with looping. What stands out most about the meat of the jam is its feeling of being led not by one musician in particular but instead by a real effort to explore communally.

As the band found its way into repetitive riffs, the audience had its chance to participate with a “woo!” or two, but the band quickly let distortion take over as they entered a layered and dark space. The textures set down by Page’s washes of synths against the space lasers and relentless driving by Fishman created an unsettling and scary undertone to the jam.

This is the point in the show when jaws were on the floor as the band toyed with monster sounds and quickly changing tempos. At 19 minutes in, Trey found some long sustained notes, giving the audience something to hold on to but only briefly as the end of the song was weird and wonderful. A noisy exploration of “evil Phish” with giant drums and sounds of a menacing robot walking over the land crushing everything in its path. The last few seconds of the jam were a churning, crawling struggle to escape from the robot and one that doesn’t end well. It ends in “Oblivion.”

Out of the rolling drums emerged one of the newest jam vehicles in the band’s repertoire “Oblivion,” which debuted this summer as one of a group of new songs that have inspired the band and led to some great improvisational moments this year. This performance, the band’s eighth of the song, was no exception. At just under 17 minutes, the version capped off almost 40 minutes of deep exploration and connected playing from the band. The “Oblivion” jam was more rhythmic than the song before and had an effortless, bubbly feel to it. The jam had a nice crescendo and Trey found some long sustained notes again. He soared through the last few minutes of the excursion with a bright and hopeful tone and carefully landed back in the song’s refrain.

I could not think of a better setlist choice than “What’s The Use?” to play after those 40 minutes of jamming. The song was released on The Siket Disc, an album made up of instrumental sections of jams, and it is a spacey journey to quiet and back again. The song faded into almost complete silence and as lighting wizard Chris Kuroda took the lights down, I was reminded of how magical it is when this band can bring Madison Square Garden down to complete silence. The juxtaposition of the noise and intensity of the “Chalk Dust” jam to the soft, delicate, quiet playing in this song is something Phish does so well. Trey soared over the crowd with his heartfelt, piercing solo and many found themselves lost deep in thought. One of my favorite pieces in the band’s catalog, the emotion and depth they can access through this song are undeniable.

As the last notes of “What’s The Use?” ended, Trey made another incredible setlist choice for flow and the possibility for exploration with the second song off Rift, “My Friend, My Friend.” Although not rare, the song can have some considerable show gaps and I hadn’t heard this masterpiece since 2019. “My Friend, My Friend” also had some big versions this summer and you could hear Trey’s excitement as he yelled “He’s got a knife!” as the song took off. This version was over 11 minutes long and started dark and discordant. Then somehow they found their way back to rhythm and landed in a funky, super-layered jam with Mike delivering the goods on bass. It was juicy and confident and had a nice segue in the sultry “Sand.”

The band easily found its way to a bluesy jam with Page on piano and Mike playing some groovy bass lines. Trey effortlessly danced above them and the song had a satisfying, impassioned conclusion. A strong, but short version of the second Ghosts Of The Forest song of the night, “About To Run” kept the energy high and the flow on point. The rock song lets Trey shred, and he took the opportunity last night.

There was only one way to end a set like last night’s and that was with “Harry Hood.” When they find that quiet, gorgeous place, Phish gives us a moment in a rock show to reflect on what makes us feel good in a way only they can. Fishman played shimmering drums and multiple rhythms under Trey’s majestic, crystal-clear guitar playing. A heart-swelling, tremendously played version of the song capped off this energized and creative set. One of the best sets of Phish I saw all year. And I saw quite a few.

Both sets were longer than most this year, so we weren’t expecting a four-song encore like the night before. But we did get two songs! First, we were treated to “Lonely Trip,” another stunning collaboration from Anastasio, Marshall and Herman. This beautiful, quiet ballad includes a lovely piano solo from Page and incredibly heartfelt lyrics that capture the moment and feeling of the pandemic. This was the fifth song of the night that debuted since 2019. New music is the fuel to the fire we love from this band, and this show is a great example of Trey’s ability to find where these new songs fit perfectly in a setlist and contribute to a sense of flow, particularly in the second set.

After “Lonely Trip,” no one expected them to drop into “Carini,” the dark horse of rock, but they did! The crowd roared and screamed along with the band as they brought the show to a thrashing, heavy metal ending. This kind of cathartic release is what we come for and hearing Fishman smash his drums one last time reminded us why the band is named after him.

This show felt like two very different sides of a coin, with the first set feeling safe and contained and the second set feeling risky and experimental. I will take a safe first set if it means we get a second set like last night’s. Regardless, the energy this band brings to the stage at their “home court” is always monumental, and no doubt we have something big in store for 12/30, the most hallowed night of Phish.

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Livestreams for tonight’s show and Phish’s entire NYE run are available via LivePhish.com.

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