The Phish from Vermont returned to their longtime home away from home, New York’s Madison Square Garden, on New Year’s Eve for yet another in a long line of special, three-set 12/31 performances dating back multiple decades.
Through the night’s first full set and half of its second, this show was par for the 2025 MSG course: Strong playing across the board by Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Jon Fishman, and Mike Gordon, a varied selection of songs for energetic ebbs and flows, and a handful of standout moments (See: The “Stash” ft. a callback to night one‘s “Plasma”; the huge, shrieking “My Friend, My Friend”; the beautiful “Waste”; the cinematic “Monsters”; the multidimensional “Life Saving Gun” set one closer; dense; patient “Sand” > “Fuego” that kicked off set two; the callback to New Year’s 2024 via “What’s Going Through Your Mind”).
But that’s not why you’re here, so let’s go ahead and get to the gag…
When foundational Phish mission statement “You Enjoy Myself” arrived in an atypical slot midway through set two, it seemed to announce an early start to the 12/31 oddities. Those suspicions were confirmed during the “It’s Ice” that followed, when production haze filled the stage and a man wearing what looked a vintage, white milk man suit slowly strolled out to the extended lip of the stage with a cowbell.
As the song ramped up to its tension-and-release conclusion and the milk man wandered among the band members, his bell-ringing arrived in arhythmic spurts. But once “It’s Ice” came to its conclusion, his bell hits became a metronome and counted the quartet into something unexpected: Phish’s first-ever attempt at Prince classic “Cream”.
It may be worth noting that “Cream”, which isn’t shy about its use of bedroom innuendo, is actually a mantra about radical self-confidence: Prince would often say at his concerts that he wrote it while looking in the mirror. For a band about to present an objectively bizarre set at the World’s Most Famous Arena at midnight on New Year’s Eve, Prince’s affirmation was a pretty perfect choice: Trey, Fish, Mike, and Page have built their singular resume through 40+ years of unwavering commitment to turning their absurd brand of (good) humor into strangely beautiful and meaningful art.
Then again, that may not have even crossed their minds. This Prince cover mainly served a different purpose: “Cream” felt like a deleted scene from 2017’s Baker’s Dozen residency, when Phish regularly pulled surprising covers out of thin air to satisfy food-based nightly themes at the Garden. Back then, it was donuts, but now…
Fans were quick to catch on. Following that mid-set “You Enjoy Myself”, the “milk man” portion of the setlist now read: “It’s Ice” > “Cream”. It’s ice cream.
View this post on Instagram
While songs about “ice,” “cream,” and “ice cream” played through the P.A. during the setbreak that followed, emboldened theories echoed through the concourse. This was far more information than we usually had about the New Year’s gag before the final set. We knew what songs remained on the table after eight MSG sets. Everyone had a pretty good idea…
But I doubt anyone actually guessed exactly what was coming next: A full-blown ballet/interpretive dance suite about milk, its transition into ice cream, and its interactions with the leftovers from Phish’s New Year’s Eves past—all set to the sounds of one of the best all-around sets of Phish music in 2025.
“Harry Hood”, the longtime staple originally inspired by the a regional Hood milk bottling plant across the street from the band’s college apartment in Burlington, introduced a team of ballet-dancing milk cartons that eventually shed their exteriors and became one with a billowing, white sheet of “milk” poured down from an even bigger, floating carton labeled “Vermont’s Finest.” As the song approached its climax, an “It’s Ice Cream” freezer appeared at center stage, and into the freezer jumped the elegant, white-cloaked milk dancers, drop by drop—from outlandish concept to strangely beautiful art in the space of one “Harry Hood”.
Phish – “It’s Ice Cream” New Year’s Eve Gag (“Harry Hood” > “2001” > “Tweezer”) [Pro-Shot] – 12/31/25
The next movement arrived as the milk man shut the freezer door tightly for the start of “2001”. With each of the instrumental’s trademark peaks, a giant, stylized ice cream bar emerged from the freezer, its transformation from milk to ice cream now complete.
When the final ice cream bar to appear was a red, white, and blue Bomb Pop, the brave and honorable Jon Fishman knew what needed to be done. Ceding his seat at the kit to Anastasio without missing a beat, the frocked drummer/frequent New Year’s flyer approached the milk man launch team, gave a salute, donned a donut-print astronaut helmet, descended into the freezer with the rocket, and launched into the air in a mushroom cloud of sparks and confetti at the stroke of midnight. Cue “Auld Lang Syne”. Happy 2026.
[Note to the sticklers: Sure, I know it was a mannequin Fishman on the rocket, not the actual Fishman, but the mannequin had already traded his donut helmet for a donut Stetson like a true space cowboy (or Dr. Strangelove cosplayer) by the time he blasted off, and that’s weird and fun, so I’m going to go ahead and suspend disbelief. Long live fake flying Fishman.]
When real-life Fishman finally returned to the stage in a real-life version of fake Fishman’s fake cowboy hat, Trey led the band into the “Tweezer” that everyone saw coming (there was literally a freezer on the stage, after all). Still, the song was packed with years’ worth of surprises.
As the song progressed, the multi-cultural, multi-lingual singers from the 2010 New Year’s gag popped out of the freezer in groups, applying their respective languages to the “Tweezer” lyrics like they did with “Meatstick” on the same stage exactly 15 years prior. They even gave us a round of the “Meatstick” dance for good measure.
[Note to the “Most Shows Spell Something” crowd: While having various international singers pop out of detention in an ice cream freezer in 2025 must have brought up some measure of political connection in the minds of the creative team behind the gag, I get the feeling that it wasn’t their driving force here. In fact, at its core, the theme almost dares you to keep it light: It’s fun. It’s referential. It’s… well, it’s ice cream. Don’t stop raging against the machine, but don’t forget to enjoy the simple stuff, either.]
Per the “Tweezer” lyrics, Uncle Ebenezer should have been the next person to pop out of the freezer, but instead came an ice cream cone-wielding Forrest Gump—red Bubba Gump Shrimp hat and all—and you could certainly list fake Tom Hanks as a 12/31 Phish veteran (see: 2002, 2022).
A parade of past Phish New Year’s characters continued the exodus from the “Tweezer” freezer: a 2023 Gamehendge Lizard, a 2022 Naked Dude, a 2016 “Petrichor” umbrella dancer, the 2023 Gamehendge Sloth. Even more—the Bivouac Jaun “Little Squirrel” from 2022, the Famous Mockingbird from 2023, a Trey Clone from 2019, a Soul Planet pirate from 2017, a Garden Party golfer from 2012, etc.—danced in from the wings.
You could even look at the “It’s Ice Cream” theme in itself as a nod to the band’s history: Beyond the obvious Vermont/cow stuff, a Phish-inspired Ben & Jerry’s flavor of the same name has existed since 2018.
Following an appropriate “Meatstick” tease from Trey, the mob of dancing guests grabbed inflatable ice cream cones and used them to bust a few final moves before exiting toward the back of the arena.
View this post on Instagram
Then, came the best part of the 2025 Phish New Year’s gag set: With the cast’s numbers now whittled back down to four, Anastasio, Gordon, Fishman, and Gordon dug into the ongoing cow funk jam for 25(ish) more minutes of gold-standard, hair-raising “Tweezer” improv, then doubled down with 20 minutes of full-blast hose on an equally impressive “Piper”, then closed the frame with a shot of “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” rock and roll rocket fuel.
Phish — “Piper” [Pro-Shot] — 12/31/25
However you felt about the dancers and dangling milk carton—the two most significant stage production elements here beyond Phish’s typical plot—this New Year’s gag was great for all the right reasons: It excited us, it made us laugh, it made us ask what the hell is going on, it put a nostalgic spotlight on the long, weird, over-the-top history of Phish on New Year’s Eve and, most importantly, it gave the band optimal space to do what it does best rather than prioritizing the bells and whistles.
View this post on Instagram
Anastasio, Gordon, McConnell, and Fishman returned for their encore after 1:00 a.m. dressed in milk man (ice cream man?) suits and hats of their own.
[Note to the phashion crowd: For Trey, Mike, and Page, this marked the only costume change of the night, though it was one of many changes for Fish, the band member famous for wearing essentially the same thing at every Phish show for decades. During set one, the drummer wore his Lisa Simpson-designed “Doppler Donuts” dress featuring a hand-painted meteorological map. When he returned for set two, he was wearing his “Flaming Donuts” dress. For the third set, he emerged in his traditional blue and red donuts, then added the matching astronaut helmet and space cowboy hat. But his most shocking quick-change was this last one—a rare moment when Jon Fishman has actually worn pants onstage.]
They began the “It’s Ice Cream” encore huddled at center stage for yet another obscure cover debut: the barbershop quartet ditty “Sincere” from The Music Man. (“How can there be any sin in sincere?”)
Phish – “Sincere” (The Music Man) – 12/31/25
[Video: Chris Connelly]
Then, they finally addressed a detail that had loomed over the midnight ice cream party: As milk cartons are known to do, the flying carton during the gag had displayed a “missing person” notice for “Spock’s Brain”, the fan-favorite Phish rarity “last seen 2363 days ago on 7/14/19.” After resuming their posts, these four magnificent nerds from Vermont finally revived the long-lost song named after an episode of Star Trek as the flying milk carton reappeared overhead.
There was only one logical destination from there: an explosive “Tweezer Reprise” to round out an eventful New Year’s Eve.
View this post on Instagram
On New Year’s Eve 2025 at Madison Square Garden, Phish used some of its best, most beloved songs as the basis for a strangely specific ode to milk and ice cream that managed to be characteristically off-kilter, unexpectedly sentimental, and musically rewarding all at once. That, my fellow ice cream fans, is Phish in a nutshell freezer.
Hope you enjoyed your free Ben & Jerry’s and souvenir wooden spoon on your way out into the freezing 2026 Manhattan air. Here’s to a great year.
View this post on Instagram
Below, check out the full setlist and gag notes from the 2025 Phish “It’s Ice Cream” New Year’s Eve show at Madison Square Garden in addition to a selection of videos and a gallery of photos via Andrew Blackstein. Stream or download a full audio recording of the 2025 Phish New Year’s Eve show and the rest of the MSG run via LivePhish here.
Revisit Live For Live Music’s coverage of the full 2025 Phish New Year’s Run: Night 1 (12/28/25) | Night 2 (12/29/25) | Night 3 (12/30/25).
Setlist [via phish.net]: Phish | Madison Square Garden | New York, NY | 12/31/25
Set One: Free, Birds of a Feather, Bouncing Around the Room, Stash, Waste, My Friend, My Friend, A Life Beyond The Dream, Kill Devil Falls, More, Monsters, Life Saving Gun
Set Two: Sand > Fuego > No Men In No Man’s Land, What’s Going Through Your Mind, You Enjoy Myself, It’s Ice > Cream[1]
Set Three: Harry Hood, Also Sprach Zarathustra [2] > Auld Lang Syne > Tweezer > Piper > Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.
Encore: Sincere[1], Spock’s Brain > Tweezer Reprise
[1] Phish debut.
[2] Trey on drums as Fishman prepares for flight.
Notes: YEM contained Fuego teases in the jam after the vocal jam. During It’s Ice, an ice cream man walked around the stage with a cowbell. This show featured the Phish debuts of Cream (Prince and the New Power Generation) and Sincere. The second setbreak featured songs focused on “ice,” “cream,” and “ice cream.” The ice cream man returned during Harry Hood while dancing milk cartons appeared on stage with the cartons eventually being discarded. The dancers ended up exiting through a giant “it’s ice cream” freezer. During 2001, ice cream men brought out giant ice cream props from the freezer, Trey took over on drums, and Fish descended into the freezer. A fake Fish then rose with a giant popsicle (a bomb pop/firecracker pop). During Tweezer, dancers from past New Year’s Eve gags exited the freezer and at times performed the Meatstick dance. Trey teased Meatstick in Tweezer. The encore featured the band in ice cream man outfits. Spock’s Brain was performed for the first time since July 14, 2019 (238 shows). A giant milk carton with a “Missing: Spock’s Brain” notice reappeared (from earlier in the evening) above the band for Spock’s Brain and Tweezer Reprise.
