Phish Continues 2018 New Year’s Run – Night 2: Setlist & Recap

On the second of four nights of Phish‘s New Year’s Run at Madison Square Garden, the band played a heater Satuday, pulling out all their tricks over the course of two excellent sets. The New York City crowd was treated to multiple segue sandwiches, numerous enormous guitar peaks, two Kasvot Växt songs, six covers, and some simply stunning improvisation.

The “Buried Alive” opener gave Trey Anastasio a chance to send the crowd into an early frenzy. The guitar clinic continued in a “Blaze On” that flat-out rocked before a short, improvised groove ended the song. The evening’s first Kasvot Växt song, “Turtle in the Clouds,” followed, differing slightly from its Halloween debut in that Trey spent the entire tune on guitar, instead of the keyboard he played in Las Vegas. On the other hand, those who worried that they’d never get to see Mike Gordon and Trey’s interpretation of the song’s traditional Scandinavian choreography should be relieved, as the duo danced around each other flawlessly during the song’s breakdown. The quartet then made a short visit to Gamehendge via a lively romp through a relatively cleanly presented “The Sloth.”

“46 Days” eschewed its customary guitar assault in favor of a spacy exploration that took the band first from a dark passage, with Jon Fishman playing a syncopated beat on woodblocks under Page McConnell‘s clavinet, to a bright, ethereal section that eventually transitioned into “Cities.” A brief staccato jam out of the Talking Heads song preceded another cover, Taj Mahal’s “Corinna,” which had been MIA for exactly two years and one day. A night after playing only original material, the band launched into their third straight cover, Cyril Ferguson’s “Ya Mar,” before “Wolfman’s Brother” went into a minimalistic funky jam. From there, things took an abrupt turn, as the band veered into the “Party Time” lyrics, but sang them over the “Wolfman’s” groove, mashing up the two songs to bring the set to an ebullient, rocking close.

The second set-opening “Carini” briefly went into a major key jam, but before it could go much of anywhere, it became “Tweezer.” Any disappointment over the ripcord was almost immediately erased by the “Tweezer” jam, which went straight for the funk, with some start-stop fills from Fish and some inevitable “woos” from the crowd. From there, the band shifted to what Dave Goldstein of the Beyond the Pond podcast accurately described as a “China -> Rider”-esque groove. This would’ve been an exceptional version of the Grateful Dead jam, as Trey led the way to an explosive, blissful peak.

“Tweezer” had a bit more gas in its tank, as Mike led his bandmates through a closing funk groove before they busted out another Kasvot Växt tune. “Death Don’t Hurt Very Long” included chants of “funk for the people, Bob Weaver!” from Trey, a face-to-face Mike/Trey duel, and, eventually, a perfect segue back into “Tweezer.” The song got a few more solid minutes of riffing around the main lick before settling into Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter,” which enjoyed some wailing guitar work from Trey. Yet another cover, “2001,” featured some excellent full band interplay before and between each of the verses. It was followed by “First Tube,” which closed the set in a typically raucous fashion.

For the encore, the night’s sixth cover, The Rolling Stones’ “Shine A Light” was followed by “Tweezer Reprise,” which was adorned with a few “Death Don’t Hurt Very Long” quotes to close the circle on the “Tweezer”/”Death” medley from earlier in the night.

Phish’s New Year’s Run continues Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. A webcast is available via LivePhish.com.

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