Phish Celebrate 30 Years at Madison Square Garden with Night 3 of New Year’s Eve Series

Photo Credit: Dean Budnick

Last night, Dec. 30, Phish and a sea of fans poured into New York’s Madison Square Garden for the third performance in the highly-anticipated four-night New Year’s Eve residency. After two masterful stagings, the jam figureheads’ 17th annual year-ending series had already proven to be a fitting finale for their year of musical achievement, and Monday brought more cause for celebration with the 30th anniversary of their first-ever show at the legendary arena. To mark the occasion, the quartet delivered a show loaded with twists and turns and amplified expectations for tonight’s series closer.

Phish set off their 86th performance at The Garden with the rollicking sing-along of “Possum,” taking every opportunity to elevate the longtime fan favorite with fevered peaks driven by Trey Anastasio’s guitar. The group followed this energy into another classic, turning to Hoist for the laid-back funk of “Wolfman’s Brother.” Drummer Jon Fishman mixed things up when he introduced “Lengthwise” for the first time since July 2019, then blended the bust-out into “Maze” with some tricky percussive allusions that primed the quartet for a jam that built steam from steadily locomotive to totally off the rails and back again.

After precise and quick treatments of “Theme From the Bottom” and “More,” Phish shot up into the open air of MSG with a soaring “Divided Sky,” bringing a blissful breather to the middle of a race-pace set. The band’s close familiarity with its New York audience and ease in the spotlight at The Garden rang out in the song’s classic pause, which carried on for a full minute as the crowd roared for more. Drawing this energy back to the stage, the group ripped into “No Men in No Man’s Land” with some fast and loose improvisation that saw each musician embrace their wild side.

Keyboardist Page McConnell booted up another stadium-size epic with the Vida Blue standout “Most Events Aren’t Planned,” then Anastasio thanked the audience and telegraphed the set break–before locking eyes with Fishman to launch “Fluffhead.” For the first frame closer, the band delivered a progressive, shapeshifting run of one of their signature songs that emptied the tank with another atmospheric peak and elicited shouts from The Garden well into the intermission.

Phish returned for the second set with the moody slink of the Evolve fan favorite “Hey Stranger,” bringing out the best of the recent jam vehicle with a compact but vivid breakdown. They plowed right ahead into “Down With Disease,” and followed the angular rock blasts of the structured section into a free-flowing jam that stretched on for more than 20 minutes as the bandmates traded the lead and listened deeply to each other.

After moving into “Winterqueen” to ease back down, the group launched another segued sprint with a raucous “Tweezer,” then dropped a few heady peaks and fake-out endings before playing through to “Seven Below,” “Piper” and the baroque fusion of “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” which offered a proper space-age dance party. Phish closed out the main portion of the performance on an exuberant high note with a beaming “Everything’s Right.” Before long, they returned to the stage with “A Life Beyond the Dream,” then brought on a big finish with “Harry Hood,” during which bassist Mike Gordon brought out an inflatable dreidel and worked in teases of “I Have a Little Dreidel.”

Altogether, night three of Phish’s 2024 New Year’s Eve celebration continued to honor an incredible year of performance and raise the stakes for tonight’s big finish. Tune in for the sold-out show through the official livestream on LivePhish.com.

Phish

Madison Square Garden – New York

12/30/24

Set I: Possum, Wolfman’s Brother, Lengthwise* -> Maze, Theme From the Bottom, More, Divided Sky, No Men In No Man’s Land, Most Events Aren’t Planned > Fluffhead

Set II: Hey Stranger > Down with Disease[1] > Winterqueen, Tweezer -> Seven Below > Piper > Also Sprach Zarathustra, Everything’s Right

Encore: A Life Beyond The Dream, Harry Hood

Notes:

* LTP July 9, 2019 (194 shows)