Phish at Madison Square Garden, NYC, Dec. 28

As a 20-year phan, I have done my share of mini-tours, seeing well more than four *shows* in a row, but never four *nights* in a row. The only time they have done that in the past couple of decades is New Year's Run. This year, I finally landed tickets to the whole magilla. Let me tell you, for a 39-year-old with a job and a running schedule, it is quite a challenge to the stamina. Like a Phish marathon.

Saturday's show was excellent. We would not know it yet, but the theme of the four-night stand was Phish itself.  This sounds silly, but was actually quite poignant. It was their 30th anniversary and, building on the precedent set on Halloween by playing their own as-yet-unreleased album, they approached the milestone by celebrating their own music, history and fans.

This was not clear yet on Night One, so when they played no covers and bashed out heavy hitters like "Tweezer", "Seven Below", "Sand", "Piper", "Run Like an Antelope", "Free" and "Steam", we already started specualting what they would be saving for New Year's Eve.

I was in Section 119 of the newly renovated Garden and the sound was fantastic - loud and clear - though the dancing room was a bit lacking. My shins are still sore from the constant whacking against the seat in front of me. But it was impossible for me not to move with such a showing of quality and consistency in the jams and the precision in the playing. The band was off and running, firing on all cylinders. 

The celebration of Phistory began subtly - the return of the "secret language" signals from 1992 and the guitar duel reminiscent of Sept. 30, 2000 - but it was the tight, focused playing that was most memorable. "Steam" was the MVP jam of a night full of top-notch chops and the re-introduction of the brand new "Monica" (a decent pop song) and "Waiting All Night" (intoxicating in its repetition and dreamy vibe) kept things fresh.

This was only the first night. When I got home at 2 a.m., I wondered what would be in store over the next few days, but I also wondered how the heck I was going to run 17 miles before the next day's show.