What day is it, anyway? It was hard to remember as Phish kicked off its 2024 year-end stint at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The week between Christmas and New Year’s always blurs together (time is a flat circle), and that phenomenon was all the more apparent to the fans who packed the World’s Most Famous Arena last night. Allegedly it was Saturday, the heart of the weekend, but at MSG it was only “night one”—the first act in a story set to play out over the course of four nights and nine sets of music.
The setlist on the opening night of this unusually positioned Saturday–Tuesday run was curiously appropriate for this strange time of year. At certain points, it felt like a classic, song-heavy “Saturday Night Special,” a chance for the band to trot out a bunch of old reliables without delving too deeply into the unknown. At others, it firmly checked the “this is MSG, make it a thing” box with rare song selections and atypical placements. You could point to a handful of token night-one “feeling stuff out” moments just as easily as you could single out glimpses of top-form greatness. More than a few songs featured flashes of inspired playing and high-level improvisation, but none made much of a bid for deep-dive glory. There was lots to love on this Saturday night night one, even if the prevailing feeling as fans filed out just after 11:40 p.m. was that the best was certainly yet to come.
The longest of the 23 songs played on night one came in the opening slot as typical second-set staple “Simple” provided a suitably grand introduction to the annual Phish MSG tradition. A satisfying “Free” buoyed by a punchy Mike Gordon on bass maintained the early momentum, and the ecstatic crowd responded in kind. An early “Farmhouse” gave late-arrivers their first chance to catch their breath and stash their coats as Trey Anastasio rendered a lovely sonic scene.
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The first 2024 rendition of A Picture of Nectar ditty “Poor Heart” was a welcome surprise from the trusty first-set bluegrass playbook, and the “Tube” that followed was spry and energetic, if relatively uneventful. “Kill Devil Falls” has had a big year as a jam vehicle for Phish, and while the rendition that followed may not have reached the heights of recent takes, it nonetheless showcased a band communicating and creating at an impressive level as Page McConnell‘s keys and Jon Fishman‘s driving drums laid the framework for a climactic peak.
After a quick ride through folky favorite “Driver”, set one stalwart “Reba”—and, in particular, its fluid and textured jam section—gave Chris Kuroda and the lighting team a chance to test some new peach-colored zig-zag looks above the band. Rather than rounding out “Reba” with its typical whistling coda, the band made a quick splash landing in Evolve standout “Oblivion”. To cap the first frame, Phish set the gear shift to “high” for a fantastic “Run Like An Antelope” that slipped masterfully between contrasting spurts of ominous mayhem and soaring strokes of patented Anastasio sustain.
First-set mainstay “Back On The Train” got the call to open set two for the first time in more than a decade and quickly built to an anthemic peak before giving way to another potent rocker, “Axilla (Part II)”. The ensuing “A Wave of Hope” broke in a jazz-inspired direction, Fishman deftly pushing the group to explore some brooding space before McConnell redirected them yet again via a regal grand piano melody.
The biggest bust-out of the night, “Round Room”, showed signs of rust in its first showing since 2016 (and just its seventh performance ever), but its lyrics resonated as the lights affixed to the arena’s scoreboard cast a circle of color around the Madison Square Garden crowd: “Take my arm and I’ll fly you by the outskirts of town, to a garden that’s round.”
“I Always Wanted It This Way”, the electronic-leaning, Page McConnell-penned Big Boat cut, proved to be the improvisational highlight of the night. While relatively compact at just over ten minutes in length, the robotic cacophony of glitches, synth washes, and rainbow lights made it wholly unique in the context of Saturday’s performance. “Twist” followed with some sonic contrast, veering into a light, pretty motif not unlike set one’s “Farmhouse” that nixed the heavy effects of the prior number in favor of subtle playing and organic tones.
Phish – “I Always Wanted It This Way” [Pro-Shot] – 12/28/24
The first rendition of “The Mango Song” since February’s Riviera Maya weekend co-opted the late-set slot often reserved for “breather” ballads with an upbeat sing-along before a run of three “this could be the closer” rippers—”Blaze On”, “Cavern”, and “David Bowie”—accented the end of set two with explosive emphasis.
The three-song encore provided a well-balanced final course for a Saturday/night one crowd in the round room at this “square” Garden. After a lovely “Mountains In The Mist”, Gordon led the band through the classic slab of rock and roll absurdity that is “Fuck Your Face” (the first of the year). With a few minutes still on the clock, Phish delivered some of its most hair-raising playing of the night on “46 Days”—a finale that left no doubt in fans’ minds that tonight (and the next two nights) will only keep getting better. Just don’t ask us what day of the week it is.
Below, check out the full setlist, view a selection of videos, and check out a gallery of photos via photographer Andrew Blackstein from the opening night of the 2024 Phish New Year’s run at Madison Square Garden.
The 2024 Phish New Year’s run continues at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, December 29th. Fans can watch the remaining shows from home with nightly webcasts via LivePhish. Order your Phish MSG webcast here. [Editor’s Note: Live For Live Music is a LivePhish affiliate. Ordering your webcast or purchasing an audio download via the links on this page helps support our coverage of Phish and the world of live music as a whole. Thank you for reading!]
Phish – “Reba” – 12/28/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Phish – “Run Like An Antelope” – 12/28/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Phish – “Round Room” – 12/28/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Phish – “I Always Wanted It This Way” – 12/28/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Phish – “The Mango Song” – 12/28/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Phish – “David Bowie” – 12/28/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
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Phish – “46 Days” – 12/28/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Setlist [via phish.net]: Phish | Madison Square Garden | New York, NY | 12/28/24
Set One: Simple, Free, Farmhouse, Poor Heart, Tube, Kill Devil Falls, Driver, Reba[1], Oblivion > Run Like an Antelope
Set Two: Back on the Train, Axilla (Part II) > A Wave of Hope > Round Room, I Always Wanted It This Way > Twist > The Mango Song > Blaze On > Cavern > David Bowie
Encore: Mountains in the Mist, Fuck Your Face > 46 Days
[1] No whistling.
Reba did not contain the whistling ending. Round Room was played for the first time since June 22, 2016 (322 shows).
