12/30/94 Purple Rain!!!!

Never meant to cause you any sorrow, never meant to cause you any pain. I only want to one time see you laughing, only want to see you laughing in the purple rain. Purple Rain might be my all time favorite Fishman song and unfortunately one that I never was able to see live. This classic Prince cover, complete with vacuum solo is from 12/30/94 at Madison Square Garden. And of course, there's some HYHU and minor Fish bowing at the end.

Sleep & Albuquerque 12/28/98 MSG ministage setup

Might as well keep the MSG theme going while the going's good. Here's a pair of quickies from 12/28/98. What's interesting about these is that Phish adopted a mini-stage setup to do a few acoustic songs. A really small stage was rolled out off to the right side of the main stage for a 3 song interlude. It reminded me of the acoustic sections they did during the summer of 1996. I'm pretty sure this is the only show of 1998 that the mini stage was used. Note Jon "Bob Weaver" Fishman in his Viking horns playing drums with brushes and Mike "Cactus" Gordon on acoustic guitar instead of his normal bass:

Here's Albuquerque, which is a Neil Young cover and extremely difficult to spell without using spellcheck... they followed this up with Driver (no video unfortunately):

First Wilson Chant 12/30/94

Since it looks like my last few posts have all been from Madison Square Garden, I might as well continue the trend. Here's Wilson from 12/30/94, which is the version included on "A Live One". This was Phish's first appearance at MSG and from the looks of it, both the band and the crowd were pumped up. The Wilson chant had appeared weakly throughout 1994 but it was at this show, with Trey egging on the crowd, that it really took off into it's own. And with it, was the demise of Jon Fishman's little woodblock solo thing. But I think we're all better off with 20,000 fans chanting the name of the evil ruler of Gamehenge. A Live One came out before the next tour began, and sealed the Wilson chant as a permanent fixture in Phishtory.

Vicious Mike's Song into Digital Delay Loop Jam 12/31/95

Oh yeah! The culmination of possibly Phish's best year ever, 1995 was the big show at Madison Square Garden on 12/31/95. New Years Eve had the band in fine form. The 2nd set ended with a HUGE Mike's Song. Just monstrous. Best ever? Maybe. Not really evil Phish but just intense and focused, moving smoothly from one theme to the next as if it were a pre-composed song. That little thing starting around 7:45 into the first video is just the absolute shit. Damn.
The jam went into a smooth mellow loop jam with Trey "we work in the Gamehenge Time Factory" Anastasio creating digital delay effect loops using his foot pedals to end the set in a chill psychedelic mood. Gotta love how he says "don't go away" as if someone was going to leave before the midnight set.

12/29/98 Divided Sky Encore

At the time the Divided Sky encore just seemed like a great encore and nothing more. But when the stathounds got their hands on the setlist, it was revealed that this was the first Divided Sky encore since 1990 which just made it all the more special in retrospect. This was the 2nd show of Phish's 4 day run at Madison Square Garden. The playing is just spot on and very enthused and intense. The build towards the end makes it the perfect encore. Here ya go- a 2 part video today:

MSG 2002: The Return- A Montage

Can you believe it's been 5 years since Phish's grand return from hiatus? This video is a montage of clips and images from that show on 12/31/02 at Madison Square Garden. It really captures the feel of the show; from the impossible tickets outside, to the deafening roar of the crowd as Phish came back onstage for the first time in over two years, to the Hood glowstick war, to the Seven Below dancers, to the madness as New Years approached. While it certainly wasn't the best show Phish played, it was a huge relief to all the fans that Phish was back. Hopefully we will feel that way again...anyone got any good Phish reunion rumors??!