Exactly one year ago Tuesday night, Phish strode onstage at Madison Square Garden and stepped “into yesterday” with a full performance of the Gamehendge saga, an early-days cache of songs with corresponding medieval fantasy narratives, characters, and mythology. That New Year’s Eve “gag,” as the customary “something extra” at 12/31 shows is known, marked the first live Gamehendge performance in 30 years—a chance to relive what was going through Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon, and Page McConnell‘s minds decades ago with help from game-changing production elements. That fresh spin seemed crucial to the Gamehendge revival: Phish’s commitment to constant evolution and experimentation has always gone hand in hand with its aversion to re-treading old tracks.
At last year’s New Year’s show, the band finally relented and gave fans something they’d been chasing for decades. One year later on the same stage, Phish reverted to its usual 12/31 objective: not “give the people what they want” but “give the people something they never thought to want”—or even, “Who cares what the people want? We dig this. It’s what’s going through our minds right now.”
Case in point: After counting down to 2025 with a relatively recent tune (“Pillow Jets”), the most famous jam band on the planet decided to take a break from jams and turn the even-newer “What’s Going Through Your Mind” into a Phish-ified brand of electronic dance music complete with rave dancers, a massive, glowing, gold goddess mask towering above the stage, and other lavish production elements that wouldn’t feel out of place at an all-night Miami warehouse party.
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Attendees were greeted upon entry by a stage adorned with a pair of billowing white sails and rows of white fabric coils, the cloth accents were hardly acknowledged until the night’s third and final set. As the clock ticked toward midnight during set three’s “Pillow Jets”, the coils and sails began to rise and fall over the crowd, providing new canvases for the lights behind them. Visualizer screens lit up behind the sails and around the arena (including on the jumbotron). Regal figures in flowing yellow robes and golden masks slowly strode onstage in time. After finishing their mysterious ritual, the golden deities became a choir, adding heft to the song’s “conjurors of thunder” refrain as a massive model of their golden masks lowered from the ceiling in segments and slowly came together as one imposing, mystical entity. Cue countdown. Cue confetti cannons. Happy new year.
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Phish – “Pillow Jets” – 12/31/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
You could refer to the “Pillow Jets” ensemble as “conjurors of thunder” from the song’s lyrics and you wouldn’t be wrong, but the significance here goes much deeper. As Trey Anastasio explained to SiriusXM Phish Radio‘s Ari Fink in a recent interview, the song was inspired by “The New Ones Will Free Us,” a series of four large, metal sculptures by Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu that were displayed on the street outside New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art during the pandemic. In the clip, Trey described the sculptures as a combination of “these stately-looking, beautiful women who almost look futuristic and outer space, and also they have sort of a Kenyan and African elegance. Beautiful, queen-like figures.”
He continued, “It was a big deal at the Met because in those facades, those entryways, to have a female, Kenyan artist placed in that position was [big]. Historically it’s been a lot of kind of older, white, male artists [in those spaces], so it’s kind of a cool, big deal. And then COVID hit and they couldn’t get them out, so they sat there through this really turbulent time. They’re gorgeous, gorgeous. … And my wife Sue and I would walk by them and there was so much going on politically and so much going on in our country [and] the world with the lockdown, whenever we’d walk by she’d say, ‘I wish they would come down and lead us.'”
He went on to explain that the “Pillow Jets” lyrics began as a depiction of how he visualized these celestial leaders, and that his view of the four figures took on a secondary meaning when he played the song with Phish and began to see each of the members as the “conjurors of thunder” themselves. Below, watch the clip of Trey explaining the inspiration behind “Pillow Jets”—and, in turn, the added performers and visuals for the “Pillow Jets” New Year’s gag.
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As the confetti cleared, Phish launched into “What’s Going Through Your Mind”, a song that has reliably produced brooding, memorable jams since making its Phish debut this past summer in Michigan with help from Billy Strings. While accented by the backing vocalists and floating props, this version started relatively straightforward. Then, things changed fast.
Rather than feeling their way out of the song’s structure and into rock and roll improv as they’ve done throughout their career, the band treated a “What’s Going Through Your Mind” extension like a DJ remixing a track, building off of electronic drums, chopping in lyrical samples from other Phish favorites (including “Blaze On”, “Bouncing Around The Room”, “Martian Monster”, “Wolfman’s Brother”, “The Lizards”, and “Halley’s Comet”), and using them to craft drops (not peaks) that could move any nightclub from New York to Berlin. As the band cooked, the dancers shed their yellow robes to reveal neon rave gear underneath, joining the floating golden face, the swaths of trippy visuals on screens around the room, and the other surreal production elements in bringing the Phish rave to life.
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Many Phish fans will freely tell you that they don’t get down with EDM, and that’s understandable. On many levels, house beats and Phish jams couldn’t be more different. But plenty of Phish fans partake in that genre, too, myself included. I’ll admit that I’m a novice in the intricacies of electronic music and its many sub-segments (apologies in advance if I’m butchering the lingo), but when a good DJ is playing, the dance floor is moving, and the music is hitting right, it can be as thrilling as any other great live music experience.
Phish had to know that many of its famously opinionated fans might feel alienated by this sudden genre swing. Hell, they probably had a laugh or two about it. But they ran with a concept that was well beyond the already wide spectrum of ideas they’ve tried in 40 years, and while it barely lasted more than ten minutes, it immediately became the most exciting and interesting thing about the MSG run. Every body in that building was getting down for this one—just like Phish drew it up in the lyrics to “What’s Going Through Your Mind”: “Everyone started dancing to a song they couldn’t stand. It started just this slowly, but it soon got out of hand.”
If you’re looking for a simpler, more literal description, I’ll give you this one: techno Phish f—in’ rules. Sorry if you don’t.
Between the sheer amount of music played at a three-set Phish New Year’s Eve and the fact that these concerts always feature a headline-worthy, one-time-only focal point late in the night, the early sets of 12/31 shows often get lost in the sauce in retrospect. That will likely be the case for 12/31/24, too, though that’s not a knock on their quality.
For set one, an opening “Mike’s Song” > “Bouncing Around The Room” > “Weekapaug Groove” warmed things up admirably. The slow-burn, high-reward “Stash” that followed was superb. Wholesome recent tune “Evolve” and contrastingly frantic Gamehendge ripper “Llama” highlighted the breadth of Phish’s repertoire. The perpetual slither of the light rig cast shadows through the dissonance of a characteristically maddening “Split Open And Melt”. A New Year’s-appropriate “Backwards Down The Number Line” was a prime moment to reflect with close friends. The deranged “Carini” that followed sounded like it was on nearing the end of a four-day New York bender (in a good way). A regal “Squirming Coil” McConnell walk-off solo was a perfect fit for the auspicious date.
Set two featured some of the strongest stretches of the run. “My Friend, My Friend” added one more line to its resume as Phish’s breakout jam of 2024 via a howling, 20-minute tour de force (give this one another listen for sure), while the “Sand” in which it landed pulsed with big, bellowing bass from Gordon. A pairing of “Golden Age” > “What’s The Use?” fluidly displayed the band’s mastery of dynamics. A pretty “Taste” evoked reflections of the song’s appearance in April at Sphere, where it came complete with the run’s most talked-about visuals. A one-two closing punch of “Golgi Apparatus” and a particularly unhinged “First Tube” closed the penultimate set with a bang.
Phish – “My Friend, My Friend” (Partial) – 12/31/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Even the portion of the third not directly attached to the “gag” seemed to fall in the “really good, but who’s actually talking about that today?” category. A rare set-opening “Character Zero” gave the four band members a chance to show off their wardrobe change (matching blue flight suits and blue and white muumuu for Fish) and strike an assertive tone. The string of tunes that flowed out of the gag to close set three—”Chalk Dust Torture” > “Slave To The Traffic Light”, “Life Saving Gun” > “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S. segment was as energized, layered, and explosive as any throughout the run.
At the end of the thoroughly forward-thinking 2024 New Year’s Eve show, the members of Phish laughed like they had gotten away with a mischievous caper as they huddled under the still-glowing eyes of floating goddess to open the encore with “Grind”, the light-hearted a cappella in which the band members add up their ages in days. In the early hours of January 1st, 2025 Phish had collectively lived for 88,142 days, and on the most recent day—40-something years in—they had successfully pushed the boundaries of their sound yet again and challenged their devoted fans to expand their minds and follow along.
That, my friends, is quintessential Phish. Just like Gamehendge.
Phish – “Grind” – 12/31/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Of course, even with their eyes on the future, Phish still knows how to work a good callback. Before closing the encore with the “Tweezer Reprise” conspicuously omitted from Monday’s “Tweezer” show, Anastasio sauntered to the microphone with a sly grin. “Here’s a little ditty from last year—but wait a minute,” Trey fibbed as he strummed a few aimless chords that soon coalesced into “Icculus”, the decades-old pseudo-song that howls the praises of the great and knowledgeable Gamehendge prophet.
“It’s been an incredible calendar year. We started off with a New Year’s last year, right in this very spot, and we played every song from the Gamehendge saga on this stage. You may remember. Every single song,” he doubled down, his overt emphasis indicating that he was about to debunk his own statement.
“So much has happened since then. What a year. You right there,” he pointed to a random person in the crowd. “That thing happened to you, remember? That was incredible.”
“And you there,” he added to another audience member, “That thing you didn’t expect. I’m really sorry. Sorry… that happened…” he said, starting to laugh again. “Anyway… Some of you were probably wondering why we didn’t play this song at the end of last year. Well… it was a test! At the end of last year’s New Year’s, we dumped the shredded Helping Friendly Book at your feet. Every page was torn and scattered amongst all of you. You may have noticed a bird flying over your head holding the book. Well, that bird was gonna drop the book actually on you—this is actually true—but it died in midair and it never got to dump the book. But anyway, most of it, you guys have. So, we figure that you’ve all done your homework, and one year later, you have read… the book. Wait! You’re telling me that you still haven’t read it?! Well, read the f—in’ thing then!”
It feels like an event any time Phish plays “Icculus”, but this one—only the third this decade—felt like something even more significant to the Phish universe circa 2024. It wrapped the New Year’s Eve 2023 trip to Gamehendge, the 2024 NYE electronic dance party, and all the many accomplishments the band notched in the interim into a single, tidy conceptual package, and in doing so it expanded Phish’s vast purview yet again.
“Okay, there you go,” Trey laughed, breaking character after finishing the song’s eccentric final portion. The words he actually said next were, “Thank you for your patience. You’re incredibly patient,” but he may as well have said, “Alright, now we’re done with that other thing. Back to the matters at hand.” Here’s to whatever those matters might be in 2025.
Phish – “Icculus”, “Tweezer Reprise” – 12/31/24
[Video: Todd Norris]
Below, view a selection of photos and the full setlist from the 2024 Phish New Year’s Eve Revisit Live For Live Music‘s nightly coverage of the 2024 Phish New Year’s run at Madison Square Garden: Night 1 | Night 2 | Night 3.
Setlist: Phish | Madison Square Garden | New York, NY | 12/31/24
Set One: Mike’s Song > Bouncing Around the Room > Weekapaug Groove, Stash, Evolve, Llama, Split Open and Melt, Backwards Down the Number Line > Carini, The Squirming Coil
Set Two: Sigma Oasis > My Friend, My Friend > Sand, Golden Age > What’s the Use? > Taste, Golgi Apparatus, First Tube
Set Three: Character Zero, Pillow Jets > Auld Lang Syne > What’s Going Through Your Mind -> Chalk Dust Torture > Slave to the Traffic Light, Life Saving Gun > Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.
Encore: Grind, Icculus, Tweezer Reprise
Trey teased In Memory of Elizabeth Reed during Stash. Throughout the show, a series of white coils turned while suspened over the stage. Trey teased Sigma Oasis during My Friend, My Friend, which did not contain the “Myfe” ending. The band came out for the third set in three matching blue jumpsuits and a blue donut mumu. During Pillow Jets, the coils started to descend and screens lit up behind them and throughout MSG. A fractured face came down and dancers (conjurors of thunder) came out with yellow fabric. The face came together as the countdown to midnight ended, after which the dancers removed their robes and took up glowing accessories. The dancers sang during Pillow Jets and What’s Going Through Your Mind, which contained Blaze On, Bouncing Around The Room, Martian Monster, Wolfman’s Brother, The Lizards, and Halley’s Comet quotes. Life Saving Gun briefly featured Mike on a mini-keyboard. The narration in Icculus centered on Trey explaining that the omission of the song the previous year was a test. The dancers returned during Tweezer Reprise to throw beach balls into the crowd.
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