On Monday night in NYC, Phish orchestrated yet another memorable New Year’s Eve performance to cap off 2018 and mark their 60th show at the fan-favorite Madison Square Garden. Mark Twain once wrote, “Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been,” and after decades of shocking the brains of their beloved fans, one might assume that Mike Gordon, Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, and Page McConnell would be a lot more wrinkly. This is not the case with our four favorite Jedi. The final performance of the four-night extravaganza merely indicated that Vermont’s finest is not only ready to continue the tradition, but to do so with invigoration, innovation and í rokk. 

When images of shiny silver balloons surfaced on social media earlier in the weekend, fans naturally began drawing conclusions about the annual New Year’s gag. The fast-moving element of mercury has crept its way into not one, but two different Phish songs with “Cool Amber and Mercury” as well as “Mercury”, which made fans accurately guess one of these two songs would be featured in the third set. With Anastasio and Gordon clad in silver jumpsuits, it was clear that The Garden was about to blast off, as Phish opened up their third set with “Mercury”.

As Fishman hopped from behind his kit to the Marimba Lumina, ten performers were lifted into the air wrapped in elongated silver streamers, and surrounded by gravity-defying smoke machines. The group of suspended aerial acrobats, in “unbreakable nets,” danced and swayed as Anastasio drew inspiration from their incredible talent. The arena was greeted by a NASA-sounding announcer that counted down from “T-minus 30 seconds”, prior to wishing everyone a “Happy New Year.”

For the 12th time at Madison Square Garden, Phish flipped to a new calendar year with the traditional “Auld Lang Syne”, as a deluge of silver balloons and enormous shiny streamers—like the ones attached to the acrobats—fell from the ceiling. The four-piece then charged forward with Kasvot Växt favorite “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.”, with Anastasio and Gordon rocking their white instruments that were first unveiled along with the Kasvot songs at Phish’s MGM Grand Arena Halloween run. With headset wireless microphones on their heads, Anastasio and Gordon were shot up into the air suspended by cables, literally dangling in midair. As if the silver-soaked chaos off stage wasn’t enough, dozens of dancers with various pool floats jumped on stage to join in the shenanigans. This was rock and roll at an entirely new level, and the four members of the world’s most theatrical rock band will always remember where they were on December 31st, 2018.

Phish has now shared pro-shot video of their spectacular NYE gag which you can enjoy below.

Phish – “Mercury” > “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S”

[Video: Phish]

We also wanted to share an incredible fan-shot time lapse of New Year’s spectacle that captures the magic of this year’s Mercury/S.A.N.T.O.S. gag. Check it out below:

Time Lapse of midnight! from r/phish

Setlist: Phish | Madison Square Garden | New York, NY | 12/31/2018

Set One: The Moma Dance, Stray Dog, 555, Sand, Lawn Boy, Steam > Chalk Dust Torture > What’s the Use? > Play by Play, Waste, Ass Handed, Run Like an Antelope

Set Two: Down with Disease > Farmhouse > Seven Below > Twist > Harry Hood > Passing Through, Harry Hood

Set Three: Mercury > Auld Lang Syne, Say it to Me S.A.N.T.O.S., Simple, Saw It Again > Limb By Limb > Rock and Roll > Suzy Greenberg

Encore: The Lizards, Character Zero