Phish New Year 1995

This past year, I was fortunate enough to attend all four shows of Phish's New Year's Run at Madison Square Garden in New York. Twenty years ago, I missed the first three, but attended the ultimate one (at that very venue) regarded for quite some time as the greatest show ever. It was my first New Year's Eve show.

Little had I known on Dec. 31, 1995, Phish had already been tearing it up for three nights. On Dec. 28, they rocked the Centrum in Worcester, Mass., playing with nonstop energy as they ripped through the classics of their early days ("The Curtain", "Possum") and kicked out the big jams in "Tweezer" and "Slave to the Traffic Light". A 1995 show that starts with "Split Open and Melt"? I am all ears.

Newer fare like the still-evolving "Taste That Surrounds" and the still-stretching "Down With Disease", not to mention "Stash" and "Fluffhead", gave the first set of Dec. 29 a lot of meat, but the star of that show was the surprise epic "Bathtub Gin -> The Real Me -> Bathtub Gin" in Set II.

When they brought the party to Madison Square Garden on Dec. 30, the mondo jams and fiery playing kept coming. Even with "David Bowie", "It's Ice -> Kung -> It's Ice", an excellent "Mule Duel" and a raucous "Run Like an Antelope", there was still plenty of gas left in the tank for the amazing night to come.

My brother and I had amazing seats on the floor of MSG on 12/31/95, and danced up a storm to our first encounter with "Punch You in the Eye" and got a big kick out of our first "Colonel Forbin" story (with Tom Marshall singing "Shine"). It was only our fourth show and we were up close on the biggest night of Phish's year.

You have probably heard the official release (and if you have not, then do so!)
, so I do not need to tell you how much Set II rocked out like gangbusters right from the huge "Drowned" opener that segued beautifully into "The Lizards". "Runaway Jim" was pretty hot, too, but even that was no match for the way-out "Mike's Song" that led into the strangest set ending yet - a digital delay loop from Trey that grew out of the jam and faded away without the usual "Weekapaug Groove" sandwich. I remember wondering just what the heck to make of it.

During set break, I witnessed what most of the audience probably never noticed - Jon Fishman came onstage and had someone shave his beard. Could this night get any more odd, I wondered?

Yes.

Giant Van de Graff generators sparked to life, sending bolts of light all around the stage, three mad scientists (Trey, Page and Mike) turned knobs as crazy sounds emanated, and a platform containing Fish as Old Man 1995 was raised above.

Lights flashed! The countdown commenced!! And at the stroke of midnight, the platform broke apart revealing Fish reborn as Baby 1996!!!

Huge balloons descended from the rafters while the rest of the band played a beautiful "Auld Lang Syne". With Fish back at the drums, we finally got our "Weekapaug" and the first jam of the new year had everyone dancing, dancing, dancing. The gorgeous segue into one more 'Quadrophenia' song, "Sea and Sand" provided only a few minutes of quietude before the ridiculous knockout punches of "You Enjoy Myself", "Sanity" and "Frankenstein", not to mention the rip-roaring encore of "Johnny B. Goode".

It was 1 a.m. and we had been through a wild ride. We left Madison Square Garden sweaty and spent as we headed downstairs to catch the next train to Ronkonkoma, but not before I picked up a piece of one of those balloons which I still have to this day.

It would be almost 10 months until I saw Phish again, but having the memory of that show made the wait a little better.