Running Like an Antelope: Phish at Madison Square Garden, Dec. 28, 2016 (with my best phriend aLi!)

Way back in 1996, the Phish presence on that newfangled internet thingy was relatively strong for such a nascent medium. On the newsgroup (remember those?) called rec.music.phish, phans found each other to discuss the band's music and trade shows on cassette (remember those?). After I mentioned that I had heard neither "Free" nor "Strange Design", a user named Ali (who adorably wrote her name as aLi, with a flower as the dot on the "i") offered to send me a copy of 11/22/95 (Landover, MD), which included both songs, the former being an epic 35-minute jamfest.

In the weeks and months after that, Ali and I became good friends, trading more tapes, chatting online, talking on the phone, and finally, on 10/21/96, meeting up at a show. During the next few years, we saw several more shows and even played in our own band together, until we had a falling out in 2002, just before the end of the Phish hiatus.

Happily, we finally reconnected in 2014 and I learned that while I spent the intervening years going even deeper into Phish (seeing 60 shows in the 12 years), Ali had seen two - one in 2003 and one in 2009. She had dropped off.

It took two years of nagging to finally get Ali back to a show, and when she finally did on 12/28/16, it ended up being a fantastic night that seemed almost tailor-made for her.

Starting the show with an a capella "Star Spangled Banner" was momentous - it was the same opener as 10/21/96 - our first show together, at that very same venue. And though I am sure Ali could have done without "Halfway to the Moon", I knew that the rocking "Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan" was a 3.0 tune that she could get behind. But other than those two, it may as well have been 1998 during the first set, with tunes like "Train Song", "Prince Caspian", "Roggae", "Funky Bitch", "Stash" and "Cavern".

The big surprises in Set I were the bust-outs of "Lonesome Cowboy Bill", played only for the eighth time ever (one of which I saw in 2011), and "Corinna", played for the 27th time ever (and I have been lucky enough to see it five of the nine times since its 12/31/99 bust out, which, as it happens, I also attended with Ali). Neither song had been played since 2012, and both made us very happy.

Set II was more indicative of a 2016 night of Phish, but there was still enough onto which an old fan like Ali could grab on, like a huge "Wolfman's Brother" opener and some great rockin' in "Simple" and "Chalk Dust Torture". The MVP jam, though, was "Golden Age". The composed section was a little rough, but the almost 20-minute jam was quite the vehicle. Not up to Super Ball standards, but great nonetheless. The weirdest moment was the "Tweezer Reprise" jam in "Martian Monster" that had me cracking up and left Ali scratching her head.

"Wingsuit" effectively brought its Pink Floyd-esque coda and "Possum" was "Possum"; but since Ali does not like Pink Floyd and she was sick of "Possum" even in 2000, the set ended rather anti-climatically for her. So when she said, "I hope the encore isn't just 'Good Times Bad Times' and good night," I assured her that we would probably get something a little less predictable.

Amazingly, she was spot on, but it was at least a kick-ass "Good Times Bad Times" before the good night.

Nice to have you back, aLi, for our first show together in 16 years. It was, indeed, a good night.