You ever fly back to New York late on night zero from Christmas with the in-laws, make a vow to take it easy and go home right after night one at Madison Square Garden because tomorrow is Monday and it’s gonna be a long week, and then Phish really rips it and it feels good to see all your old friends and you wind up staying at Mustang Harry’s until past your bedtime? Yeah, no, um, me… neither [pours third cup of coffee].
Anyway… the Phish! Returning to the Madison Square Garden stage for another four-show New Year’s run, Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Jon Fishman, and Page McConnell did their best to thaw the unseasonably early snowfall in the city with an opening frame packed with standout selections from the “time-tested, first-set fire-starter” playbook: Unhinged “Buried Alive” > on-the-road, zero-to-60 “AC/DC Bag”? Check. Patiently cresting, tear-jerking, “Norwegian Wood”-lined “Roggae”? Check. Mid-set “Rift” with extra space added for audience howls after Page’s “silence contagious” line? Check. Moments like these, man. It’s good to be back…
Momentum continued to build as “Wolfman’s Brother” straddled the line between ethereal ambiance and heavy groove, then lifted off for some soaring Trey heroics. Out of the mist, “Punch You in the Eye” entered the ring and boxed a technician’s match at the World Most Famous Arena, a relentless Fishman backbeat allowing Anastasio to rely on fast fretwork over brute strength.
A straightforward “Sigma Oasis” and a sweet, cresting “Taste” set up the night’s biggest surprise (as evidenced by the temporary crashing of phish.net when it started): “Sleep”, the 1998 Trey Anastasio/Tom Marshall collaboration that appeared on Farmhouse but is perhaps best known for its appearance in Todd Philips’ Phish documentary, Bittersweet Motel (2000), in which Trey uses it as an example of his longtime lyricist’s ability to write about complicated, liminal concepts in clever, elegant ways. (Watch the scene in the player below.)
Sunday’s “Sleep”, which Trey tackled on acoustic guitar, marked Phish’s first take on the tune since 2019 and served beautifully in the late-set breather slot before a manic, stampeding “Run Like an Antelope” (complete with confetti cannons from the crowd) brought this excellent first set to a close.
Trey Anastasio On “Sleep” & Tom Marshall’s Songwriting – Bittersweet Motel (2000)
Phish – “Sleep” – 12/28/25
[Video: Gregory M]
Set two dove straight into “Oblivion”—the song, and the concept—and never looked back as a grizzled growl in Trey’s vocals added slick contrast to the swirling watercolors of its brief but pretty improv section.
Drill rumbles from Gordon’s rig signaled the start of an obligatory “Down With Disease” that soon dispensed with its composed structure and bled into a soothing, pulsing, pitch-shifted motif (and at least a couple nods to “Manteca”).
Out of the haze, Trey inserted the “Simple” riff, and the band quickly joined him. After the customary nod to the local architecture (grand, for sure), this “Simple” floated peacefully up toward the MSG rafters before choosing violence and raining distorted fire and rock and roll brimstone down on the crowd below. The good stuff.
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After a meditative “Gotta Jibboo” palate cleanser, “Theme From The Bottom” made the most of its first appearance in a second set in more than four years: Pre-jam flubs be damned, Phish turned this “Theme” into a gem—an organically shape-shifting, endlessly creative expedition that took on a life of its own and left a crumpled note reading “Now, comes the bridge” on the side of the road as it took an exit back into “Simple” more than 24 minutes later.
With an “Everything’s Right” exclamation mark on set two and the kind of serene, sentimental “Slave to the Traffic Light” that seems to swell in your chest as it swells through the P.A., night one of four was down.
Now, to sleep. (Just kidding, see you back at the Garden tonight).
Below, check out the full setlist and a selection of videos from night one of the 2025 Phish New Year’s run at New York, NY’s Madison Square Garden. Scroll down to view a gallery of photos from the show via Andrew Blackstein.
Very limited tickets remain for Phish’s Monday night show at MSG here. You can also tune in to tonight’s show and the rest of the run from home with 4K and HD pay-per-view livestreams via nugs and LivePhish. Order your Phish MSG livestreams here.
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Phish — “Buried Alive” > “AC/DC Bag” — 12/28/25
Phish — “Oblivion” — 12/28/25
Setlist [via phish.net]: Phish | Madison Square Garden | New York, NY | 12/28/25
Set One: Buried Alive > AC/DC Bag, Roggae, Rift, Wolfman’s Brother[1] > Punch You in the Eye > Sigma Oasis > Taste, Sleep[2], Run Like an Antelope
Set Two: Oblivion > Down with Disease[1] -> Simple -> Gotta Jibboo, Theme From the Bottom[1] -> Simple > Everything’s Right
Encore: Slave to the Traffic Light
Notes: [1] Unfinished. [2] Trey on acoustic guitar. Trey teased Norwegian Wood in Roggae. Wolfman’s Brother, Down with Disease, and Theme From the Bottom were unfinished. Sleep featured Trey on acoustic guitar and was performed for the first time since November 29, 2019 (231 shows).
