In 2014, I had attended nine shows in a row, swinging from Great Woods, to SPAC, to the Mann, and to Randall's Island.
Thanks to the convenience of the Baker's Dozen run at Madison Square Garden, a mere 30 miles from home, this show represented my first double-digit consecutive show in my two-plus decades of seeing Phish.
The only thing that could have made this show even more special would have been for Phish to play "In a Hole", a song they debuted and performed in throughout the fall of 1989, only to retire it by year's end, never to be heard from again, save for a tease 25 years later at Dick's. Despite the longshot odds of bringing it back, it seemed thoroughly feasible, considering the night's doughnut hole theme and the fact that the no-repeat policy means Phish has to reach back farther than their usual rotation of tunes.
Alas, it was not to be, but we did get the debut of "Way Down in the Hole", which I found out later was a Tom Waits song. The preceding lyric to the title is "You gotta help me keep the devil...", and with "Buried Alive" and an excellent "Kill Devil Falls" following, an unexpected interpretation of the "holes" theme cropped up. My friend, aLi, texted me, "Death set??"
"Could very well be!!!" I replied as "Guyute" ("...as I sleep the sleep of death...") and "I Didn't Know" ("...a picture of Otis Redding taken just before he died...") followed, the latter with a short, but very welcome vacuum cleaner solo by Fish.
The theme started to loosen up and fall away in the second half of the set, but by then, it hardly mattered anymore. Though there were some minor issues with "NICU" (shaky toward the end), "Meat" (the staccato part to had to be replayed because Fish messed up the timing, and the song did not have its usual final return to the theme), and "Heavy Things" (no "ooh ooh, wah ahh" vocals at the end, which made it seem abrupt), we were treated to a pleasant "Ginseng Sullivan" (though the better bluegrass choice would have been "Old Home Place", with its death reference), a "Maze" that hit all the right marks without straying too far out, a lovely "Waiting All Night" (haters are going to hate, but I love this song), and a boffo climax with "Run Like an Antelope".
Once again, the second set opening slot was the place for the 20-minute jam, this time with the most exploratory "Mike's Song" jam that I have witnessed since Big Cypress, and certainly the most impressive one since 2015's unexpected return to the "second jam". As things got thick and ambient (much like that Big Cypress version), a beautifully vocalized rendition of "O Holy Night" emerged. At first, it was as confounding as it was gorgeous (a Christmas song in August?), but then I got it - "O 'Hole'-y Night." See what they did there?
There was still one more jam surprise in store, this time in the unlikely form of a "Taste" jam that, thanks to an amazing rhythmic shift by Jon Fishman, became a jazzy jam that offered a whole new realm of possibilities as it went on longer than probably any other version of this song. Though it seemed clear to me that Fish eventually tried to bring it back to the original "Taste" rhythm, Trey did not seem to be on board with that, so it eventually disintegrated into the ether.
A decent, but unremarkable, "Wingsuit" followed, so "Sneaking Sally Through the Alley" was a welcome invitation to get our dancing shoes back on before the set-ending "Weekapaug Groove".
Bringing the doughnut hole theme back around one more time for the encore, "A Day in the Life", with its three mentions of holes in the final verse, ended the show in grand fashion and we left the arena satisfied after yet another incredible night of Phish to the sound of "There's a Hole in My Life" by the Police.
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