The Old Home Place: Phish Opens Madison Square Garden 7-Show Residency With Authority

There is nothing like a Phish concert at Madison Square Garden.

The old adage proved true last night as the Vermont quartet kicked off the nameless and theme-less seven-night run in the World’s Most Famous Arena. Whatever your opinion may be on Summer Tour so far, Phish did NOT come to play around and put their feet on the gas for the entirety of last night’s show, perfectly crafting a setlist with song selection, jams, and flow.

The first “Evening Song” in just over a year kicked off the night – one of the most underplayed Sigma Oasis tracks in my opinion. It has opened a set in four of its five appearances to date and acts as a mellow way to ease into the night – approach it with caution, indeed.

No sooner had they brought “Evening Song” to a gentle close when guitarist Trey Anastasio ripped into the rocking opening riff of “A Wave of Hope.” Much like in Wilmington last week, this song was placed as in the second slot in set one and stretched past the 20-minute mark with some focused and multifaceted improvisation.

The tempo already felt faster than normal thanks to drummer Jon Fishman and the song began to escape its boundaries when keyboardist Page McConnell moved over to his Fender Rhodes electric piano. While the groove remained firmly anchored by the rhythm section, McConnell quickly augmented the Rhodes with vast swells of Yamaha CS60 synthesizer as he locked in on some awesome back-and-forth interplay with Anastasio.

A smooth modulation into major key set the tone for the majority of the night as the band uncorked some seriously high-quality bliss jamming. Anastasio stayed away from his vast synth effects arsenal for the most part and focused on deftly-played clean melodies, showing off his mid-tour form. Another modulation led to a patient and absolutely gorgeous peak as the jam crossed 20 minutes and found its way back home to the ending of “A Wave of Hope.”

Outside of a few big jams like the Wilmington “A Wave Of Hope” or the Syracuse “Kill Devil Falls,” first sets this summer have largely been focused on well-played and succinct versions of songs, not as much on deep improvisation – so it was an incredibly pleasant surprise when they began their signature cover of “Cities” by Talking Heads after the conclusion of the sprawling second-song jam.

It was clear from the first notes of the jam that this would not be your average five-minute “Cities,” Phish quickly opening up into a spacey groove led by McConnell’s excellent Wurlitzer electric piano. Anastasio flipped the major-key switch once again and the quartet locked in together on one of the finest peaks of the night. The packed arena responded in kind as the energy level went through the roof thanks to the incredible music and blazing white lights from Chris Kuroda’s expanded MSG rig.

A romp through “The Old Home Place,” a nice nod to Phish’s comfort level within and love for MSG led to a blistering “Free.” Another example of a song taken at a much faster tempo than normal, the band’s continuing excitement was palpable as they ripped through the composed section with gusto. Bassist Mike Gordon laid into his solo to begin the jam while Anastasio contributed with swampy synth effects, leading to a great duel between the two musicians at centre stage.

The deep funk of “Free” gave way to a tender “Brian And Robert” – a song not played at MSG since the Baker’s Dozen. Phish followed up the tender ballad with an incendiary “Stash” – not venturing into Type II territory but tight, focused, and explosive. “My Soul” gave the set a dash of blues and closed out the first frame on a high note.

Read on after The Skinny for the rest of the recap and more.

“More” opened the second set for just the third time and had every person in the crowd throwing up their hands and singing along – I guess none of the people who dislike the song came to the show last night. “Ruby Waves” was tapped as the first expansive jam of the well-flowing set, seeing Anastasio and McConnell dance around each other while Gordon whipped up some atmospheric synth haze underneath.

Briefly hinting at a “Mind Left Body”-like descending theme, the jam mellowed out under the thick bed of Rhodes and Anastasio seemed to blend into the background for a short segment, letting the textures take centre stage. This was not to continue for long, however, as the guitarist took the reins and blasted off into an excellent Allman Brothers-inspired peak thanks to Fish’s insistent playing. A brief bout with some synth-drenched funk gave way to a perfect segue into “Plasma.”

Opening up on the longest rendition played in quite some time, Gordon led the jam early underneath staccato playing from both Anastasio and McConnell. Across just short of 14 minutes, the band weaved another gorgeous major-key peak together, this time a more psychedelic take with the Rhodes at the forefront. There was not a breath to be caught yet as the conclusion of “Plasma” led directly into the opening of “Simple.” Usually, Simple will jam out of its native key of F, but Anastasio had other ideas last night, playing off of the B-flat instead, giving the initial moments of improv an unresolved and off-kilter feel in a cool and unusual way.

The improv swirled around the venue, eschewing the explosive peak builds of the previous songs in favor of exploration, each member prodding at the musical beast as it expanded and grew. Reaching a percussive space, “Simple” gently melted away into a perfect breather – “Mountains In The Mist.” A criminally underplayed ballad that has only had 34 performances since its debut in 1999, “Mountains” was an excellent choice for this slot in the second set and let the audience collect themselves before a set-closing “Split Open And Melt.”

When Fish starts that signature drumbeat this late into the show, you know that things are about to get heavy, and fast. Anastasio quickly began layering skronky delay loops on top of the jam as McConnell kept things on Earth with blocky Wurlitzer chords. Things quickly fell apart at the seven-minute mark as McConnell moved to his Moog One synthesizer and Fish danced across his kit in an impossible-to-follow beat – if you can even call it that.

We ventured further and further into a black hole with each passing second, various synthesizers and delay effects coming to a boil as CK5 used the inside of the arena as his canvas, swinging deep red lights into every corner of the round room as people stood in awe of a massive dose of evil Phish. Dial-tone sounds, rubbery synths – it all happened. This is a jam that has to be heard to truly be believed and I encourage every reader to spin this “Melt” today.

The encore was an on-the-nose pick of Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times,” a nod to that band playing at MSG exactly 50 years ago to the day. As Phish finished the song in a blaze of energy and rock ‘n’ roll, Anastasio gleefully shouted into the mic: “We got six more nights!”

Six more nights, indeed. While the rumours of a “Seven Deadly Sins” theme evidently did not come to pass, Phish demonstrated on Friday night that themes be damned – they can just come out every night and play their asses off for us. I, for one, can’t wait for the rest of the run.

There is nothing like a Phish show at Madison Square Garden.

Phish’s Madison Square Garden residency continues tonight, Saturday, July 29. Watch livestreams of the MSG shows and the rest of Phish Summer Tour 2023 via LivePhish.com.

Phish From The Road Photos

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvQZtk3OBVr/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvQxBQZO934/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvQ51oau6em/

Posters

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvPzpPvLJ80/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvP2f7DLIiC/

.article-summary-wrap {
margin-top:25px;
}

.panel-article .list-posts > li {
border-style: dotted;
}
.panel-article .list-posts > li:last-of-type {
border-bottom-width:0;
}
.panel-article .list-posts .excerpt {
margin: 3px 0 0;
}
.panel-article .list-posts .btn-sm {
margin-top: 10px;
padding: 3px 10px;
}

Source: JamBase.com